There is nothing wrong in the concept of a pre-budget document but the way things have worked out in practice in Malta over the years, has often meant that the Budget proper could easily find the basic tenets on which the said document has been built ending up completely derailed and off target.

I remember this happening when we were promised a budget built on sustainable development a few years back, only to find out that there were hardly any references at all to sustainable development in the budget itself.

Not to mention how the whole concept of sustainable development has been tossed around like a yo-yo since then, with the latest mantra consisting of the Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Tourism and Culture reminding one and all that sustainable development forms part of his official title and brief too, while a sustainable development Bill is also meant to be in the pipeline. Or at least so much we were told.

Meanwhile we are meant to make do with the dormant chapters regarding the said subject as laid down in the former Environment Protection Act until this new draft Bill – which still has to be sighted – ends up discussed in the House and gets finally approved as a new piece of legislation.

Many people I know in the environmental sector very much fear that even the new environmental policy that Dr de Marco seems committed to introduce within the next 18 months or so – conveniently close to the run-up to the general elections – could easily end up going the same way as the sustainable development chapters I mentioned earlier on.

Many found it strange that the National Environment Policy consultation process and the pre-budget consultation document were both launched on the same day and virtually at the same time.

Whether this was pre-planned or part of the internal turf wars within the PN can only be guessed and/or speculated upon at this stage.

But what I found interesting is that both carried an element of kite flying, particularly when it came to the concept of green taxes.

While Dr de Marco’s consultation document flirted with the idea of green taxes too, the pre- budget consultation document spoke of tax shifting – an attractive buzz word in its own right – whereby we were told that in order to incentivise the creation of work by making labour less costly, ‘we’ are proposing the lowering of government-induced employee costs as well as corporate and income taxation.

Forget for a moment that the Minister of Finance had only just announced the day before that we must forget any tax cuts for the time being, and inter alia suggested that the PN’s electoral promise is likeliest to surface only much closer to the general election date.

What needs to be seen is whether government will go for a carbon tax or not.

One would have expected that before even considering such an option the workings promised in the climate change document approved by parliament would have been sorted out as far as the carbon market is concerned.

Our experience of green taxes so far has not been very enlightening since they can hardly be called green at all.

It is true that our spend on the environment has gone up in proportionate terms in recent years, but most of it has gone to service WasteServ which seems to depend almost entirely on government hand-outs and subventions.

Yes, I am referring to the same organisation that recently reassured us that the stench in Marsa close to the incinerator area, was not caused by the incinerator itself but by the waste accumulating while the incinerator is being maintained.

Almost as if to console Marsa residents that there are stenches and stenches, WasteServ had said that though temporary, it understood that the stench could be inconvenient to people but it assured them that the stinking air which residents were breathing in was not detrimental to their health.

Ironically in the very same pages where the pre-budget consultation document spoke of green taxes and carbon taxes we were also told how committed government is to ameliorating air quality. We were reassured that this is not being done only to comply with EU air quality regulations but also because Government genuinely believes that the quality of the air that we breathe can make a difference in the quality of life of Maltese citizens.

While both the pre-budget consultation document and a recent media conference by the Environment Directorate Head laid great emphasis on an understandably big problem – the emissions and poor air quality resulting from our traffic congestion – little do many people know that in Malta hybrid cars get a worse deal than in many other EU countries and jurisdictions when it comes to putting them on the market, while according to a recent statement by the Association of Car Importers Malta (ACIM), it still seems to be locked in discussions with government in a bid to reduce or abolish registration tax on new vehicles purchased from Malta.

While the island continues to be flooded with second-hand cars – most of them of a luxury category – imported mainly from UK dealers and distributors, government so far has adamantly refused to amend tax on new environmentally friendly vehicles.

While one must admit that following the last change in the vehicle registration system in 2009 the price of used imported vehicles became drastically cheaper, government has so far refused to cede to requests made by the said association to reduce taxation on new vehicles to encourage the uptake of more environmentally friendly cars.

I will not pass judgment on the transport reform before it actually happens, but the biggest challenge ahead is whether anybody can succeed in instilling a sense of culture change in Maltese society, after years of being conditioned to using one’s car even to pop over to the newsagent, grocery or butcher’s shop nearby as well as to hop over to the closest village or town because of the irregularity and shoddy service of public transport.

Last week my heart bled when I read about a Maltese living abroad holidaying in Malta who suddenly found the destination of the bus he took switched mid-trip due to insufficient clients, only to be told to report the incident to two different spots, at the expense of great inconvenience and time wasting for both his wife and himself – when they were meant to be on the island holidaying. The fact that he had to sort everything out by having to take a taxi at his own expense to find his way back home to l-Ibrag added further salt to the wound.

I always tend to argue that law enforcement and implementation will determine whether any measure good or bad introduced on the island works as expected.

Going back to green taxes, the eco tax experience did not do much to encourage us so far to head in this direction. For various reasons.

• Conventional taxes were not eased;

• The eco tax was hardly put to any good use in the service of the environment; and

• The taxpayer and the consumer hardly derived any benefit at all from this exercise.

This has nothing to do with just taking the people for a ride, but seems more concerned with taking the Mickey out of ourselves. Like all this talk of a belated green jobs strategy which seems predestined to remain nebulous while other EU countries are even setting targets in advance as to how many specific green jobs they intend to create in various sectors in the coming years. We had long argued that nothing short of a comprehensive all-inclusive overall strategy involving all stakeholders will manage to do the trick.

With this in mind all the talk of geo engineering that we read about in the pre-budget document is tantamount to hot air, the same as can be said for energy efficiency regulations linked to buildings when these regulations have still not taken off the ground inspite of having meant to be in place months ago.

Meanwhile all those who feel concerned about the stench in Marsa must feel reassured that the animal waste originates from the nearby abattoir even though not caused by it, and that it is being stored in temporary cold stores that the company is very kindly providing.

Welcome to Malta – an island that is increasingly looking more and more like an environmentally failed state!

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www.leobrincat.com

Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change.