As a major and popular political movement, we live the anxieties and aspirations of all Maltese.

It is natural that we concern ourselves with the bread and butter issues that have an impact on our quality of life.

We cannot ignore a slow economy, deteriorating working conditions, rising inflation as lived through high energy bills, environmental issues of all kinds, public health issues, challenges to our elderly population, a deteriorating business environment, weakening opportunities for our young people − the list is endless.

It will, however, be pointless if we were to employ all our energies to react to these issues without harbouring our dreams for tomorrow’s Malta.

This year’s General Conference was in fact an opportunity to continue to develop our vision for a successful Malta.

We must stop the inexorable march of a society that is producing more and more lonely individuals having to face life’s risks alone. We must provide principled answers to deteriorating working conditions by checking corruption, by the promotion of creative thought, by the capitalisation of our opportunities through honest and intelligent application, to create wealth that will sustain our individual and collective aspirations in the face of a turbulent world economy.

Our vision of modernisation does not only consist of economic strategies.

Our evolving vision adopts a broad perspective of how our society should progress through the freedom of the individual within the context of social solidarity based on sustainable progressive models that have eliminated poverty and where civil society and public responsibility merge comfortably.

In this process we shall adopt effective ways to cope with ecological issues away from the current culture of tokenism if not outright abandonment in the apparent interest of not so anonymous beneficiaries.

That our concept is one that our detractors fail to understand is, to a certain point, understandable.

Immersed beneath the fatigue of years of laborious government, our detractors are paying a high cost to survive. Yet this cost is unsustainable to the taxpayer.

It is therefore no wonder that they can only see our proposals as an attempt to please everyone.

For them to understand our concept, they need to do away with their old habits and instead embrace an enthusiasm for the welfare of our nation that is honest, creative and energetic.

We are not seeking instant short-term solutions that will have short-term goals. We have indeed embarked on a long-term project that will see our nation evolve into a modern and effective state that will make us all proud.

This year’s successful General Conference continued to build on what we have achieved so far as a party. This continues to be an all-inclusive process, as the contribution of members from within the party will be enhanced with that of other individuals and organisations.

Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi is the President of the Labour Party