Juan Ameen
Opposition Leader Alfred Sant yesterday said that the Nationalist government was distracted with the euro changeover and is blind to the two main problems that affect the country: the cost of living and the economic growth.
Dr Sant, was speaking in parliament, said that Budget 2008 is “too little, too late” as there is no focus on the needs of the people in the budget measures.
The cost of living and economic growth are two main issues that are on people’s minds and are caused by a government that has no strategy, said Dr Sant.
“The government has been so distracted with the euro changeover on 1 January that it has forgotten the essential things that people need,” he said.
The Malta Labour Party (MLP) is worried because the country is moving towards the euro changeover without any structures that will protect the consumer from any unjustified price change, he said.
While other countries have structures that protect the consumer and ensure that any price change is justified, these do not exist in Malta and this should have been the government’s starting point, said Dr Sant.
He pointed out that there has been a price explosion in sectors that affect families directly – food, health, education – in the past months
“However, we have not heard anything from the government except that these are affected internationally and that nothing can be done,” he said.
Dr Sant admitted that prices are rising internationally but foreign governments are not sitting back doing nothing or introducing measures to further increase prices.
He said that if one compared the price increase in certain countries to Malta then one remains “astonished.”
The government cannot wash its hands over this increase in prices and nothing was done to tackle this problem in this year’s budget, said Dr Sant.
“The government is not doing anything effective – we cannot keep on fooling people,” he said.
He mentioned the “secret” price freezing agreement.
“This will holds until March after which businesses are expecting a an enormous explosion of prices. However, the government conveniently washed its hands of it through this convenient electoral gimmick, said Dr Sant.
“These structures have to be set into place as soon as possible – this will be our priority.
The second problem is to create jobs through careful investment – we cannot accept this stagnant economic growth,” he said.
Earlier on, Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino started off his speech by replying to several comments made by Labour MP Noel Farrugia in Parliament on Tuesday.
He explained that, contrary to what Mr Farrugia claimed, clinical waste will be taken to the incinerator in sealed containers following EU directives for hazardous waste which will be opened only once these arrive in the incinerator.
WasteServ will soon issue a tender for the transportation of clinical waste and the contractor will have to adhere to these regulations.
This will be done conforming to EU regulations and at no health risk to anyone, he said.
It will make Malta more competitive as pharmaceutical companies will no longer have to pay thousands of liri to export certain types of waste, said Mr Pullicino.
He invited all those who want to see the process when the new incinerator is functioning and the one at St Luke’s is closed down.
Mr Farrugia did not mention the investment in the agricultural and fishing sector but instead of saying what the MLP’s vision for this sector is, he simply engaged in a mud-slinging contest, said Mr Pullicino.
“We gave this sector Lm40 million in investment over five years and yet Opposition Leader Alfred Sant actually said in his budget speech that this sector was abandoned,” he said.
Labour MPs Joe Abela, Silvio Parnis, Chris Cardona and Nationalist MP Joe Cassar also spoke during yesterday’s parliamentary session.