In the last few days, the PN has come up with its first political billboard of the summer: “Labour won’t work”. Indeed, Labour won’t work! If one looks at Labour’s track record, one will find a common factor: high unemployment rates in the 1970s and 1980s and their 22-month period in office between 1996 and 1998. Their policies left the Maltese people unemployed and burdened with taxes.

Concrete and measurable results

During this legislature, the PN in government has left the taxpayer with more disposable income in hand. In addition, the PN government has given tax breaks to parents who send their children to child care centres, private schools or sports schools, women who returned to the working world after five years, old people living in private nursing homes or residing with relatives, students and workers reading a course at a foreign university and host families. The PN government has not burdened the Maltese with taxes, instead taxation has been reduced. In fact, Maltese workers pay the lowest amount of tax in the EU.

Other taxes that have been removed include a €35 tax on television licences, €16.31 tax on credit card bills and a €46 departure tax. During the 1996-1998 Labour Government, 33 new taxes were introduced. Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat’s promises of work and lowering taxes are void; his ambition is to be Prime Minister. He cares less about the international financial situation, let alone that of Maltese families. Promising sperm banks in Malta is definitely not the way to create jobs.

When it comes to VAT, in 1996 the Labour Party inflicted a 29 per cent excise tax on the Maltese. According to Joseph Muscat, it was a blessing to our economy. On the other hand, with the PN in government, the VAT rate was not only one of the lowest among EU states, but it maintained the same level for three consecutive years (2000 to 2009).

When it comes to the economy, Dr Muscat fails to get it right. Way back in 2009, he proposed to the Prime Minister that he should bulk-buy products and services and sell them for a profit. This was Labour’s economic policy in the 1980s, when the government decided on the citizens’ behalf what to buy, which products would be manufactured and so on. In simpler terms, the government would provide a basic supply, not meet the demands of the people. Dr Muscat does not want competition from the private sector; rather he wants to oust it. In 2011, Dr Muscat lambasted Dr Gonzi for not imitating Cypriot policies. Were it not for the Prime Minister and the Nationalist government, Malta would be in the same economic disarray as that in which Cyprus is today.

Having a healthy economy does not only equate to a reduction in taxation, it also includes the generation of work. During the last four years, the Nationalist government has generated work: 20,000 jobs! Part-time work has increased two-fold, compared with 1998. The rate of people in employment in Malta is higher than the EU and eurozone average employment rates.

Thanks to the ETC, 15,300 individuals have found work. Whilst doom and gloom were prominent on the international economic scenario, with factories closing and employees being dismissed, the Nationalist government in Malta was financially endowing factories hit by the economic crisis. These, in return, invested in their companies and reinforced their workforce. In May this year the International Labour Organisation (ILO) published a report entitled Eurozone job crisis: trends and policy implications, in which it praised Malta for the increase in its workforce registered since 2008. Contrariwise, Labour won’t work! In its heyday, way back in the 1970s and 1980s, the only “employment” created was the Korpi tax-xogħol: the Pioneer’s Corps, Iżra u rabbi, Tad-Dejma (reference to Malta’s mediaeval police force?), DM (Dirgħajn il-Maltin) and Baħħar u Sewwi, just to mention a few. Unemployment rocketed during Labour’s rule, with employment increasing by the generation of one working place per month during 1996 to 1998!

A choice between policies

Then, lest we forget, there was Labour’s anti Europe campaign. Dr Muscat opposed ardently Malta’s joining the European Union. He supported the concept of “Switzerland in the Mediterranean” (a slogan that dates from Mintoff’s heyday) and “partnership” campaigns, claiming that joining the EU would be a burden for Malta. Muscat, like Alfred Sant, had claimed that Malta would only benefit by Lm1.5 million in cash. He made efforts to prevent Malta from joining the EU. Yet, he was wrong.

Lest we forget, the Nationalist Party in government has changed Malta. It has created jobs, lowered taxation and investment has thrived. With the PN in government, Malta is secure. The same cannot be applied to the Labour Party. Malta was at a standstill, idle, with Labour in government. The 2012 Labour Party is very much the same party that it was in the 1970s, the 1980s and from 1996 to 1998. No matter how much they try to change their name, tie and flag colour, Labour has never worked and it never will.

David Agius is a Nationalist Member of Parliament and is the government Parliamentary Whip

[email protected]