Labour leader Joseph Muscat made his reply to the budget speech on Monday night and largely focused on the problems which grip – along with others that are perceived to grip – Malta.

Let us be frank in our assessment. Dr Muscat was right on a good deal of things. He pointed out that money is still being wasted through mismanagement and corruption. We agree. We also agree with Dr Muscat’s quip that the Prime Minister seems to be the only person around who does not want to admit that living in Malta is becoming harder and harder.

We also agree that the levels of service which Maltese taxpayers are subjected to by government departments, especially Arms, are far below any normal given standard. We agree that the burden on the taxpayer has grown exponentially and we also agree that water and electricity tariffs are too high and that their introduction was done ham-handedly. Dr Muscat’s list was not a short one, and he was right in a good deal of the things he criticised. He was also right when he spoke of the millions of euros which were spent in the build up to the last general election.

However, that is where he stopped short. Dr Muscat’s speech, while correct, seemed to disregard the fact that Malta’s economy is in the process of being restructured. He failed to say how he would restructure the country’s economy in the context of reaching a balanced deficit. Dr Muscat seemed to ignore the fact that Malta, along with all other countries in Europe, must move to curb and reverse its deficit and in turn start to address structural debt.

The Opposition leader told us of his principles, and those which would motivate a Labour government, but while the jargon was catchy – more substance was needed. This newspaper went out on a limb in the run up to Dr Muscat’s speech, saying that the government needed to listen if there were any proposals which could be taken onboard.

Unfortunately, this is not to be the case. While the government has plenty of food for thought in terms of where it went wrong, there is not much that can be added to the measures as set out by the Finance Minister.

The party will say that it cannot make such proposals because it is not privy to book-keeping information, but Dr Muscat needed to explain how he would go about improving matters, while still aiming for fiscal consolidation.

Last night, the Prime Minister gave his speech and succumbed to the temptation of a tit-for-tat exchange. This is just what the country needed to avoid. This budget was a chance for the whole country to get on board with the national restructuring process and this would have been done by criticising the budget speech – the PL constructively ripping it to shreds if need be – and the PM telling the PL what could be taken into consideration. Instead, it descended into a slanging match.

In short, Labour is right in a fair amount of its criticism, but to criticise without offering an alternative is lacking in substance.