This year’s reply to the Budget speech by the Leader of the Opposition during the Parliamentary sitting of Monday November 11 was, to put it mildly, very poor for different reasons.  His performance was weak in both content and style. His speech was full of contradictions and left me confused.  I am sure that even tele-viewers and listeners who were following Dr. Busuttil’s reply, could not make heads or tails of whether the Leader of the Opposition was in favour or against this year’s budget. 

It was obvious from the very beginning that Dr Busuttil was at pains in finding fault with the positive budgetary measures announced by the Minister of Finance to the extent that he had to admit  that it was a good budget. If he had stated otherwise he would have been going against the grain because it was a very good budget as confirmed in public opinion surveys.  But in the same breadth he labelled it as dishonest.  Throughout his address he adopted a stance of wanting to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds leaving his listeners bewildered.  

What made life difficult for the Leader of the Opposition in criticizing the budget was the fact that he has a heavy baggage from the time when he was Deputy Leader of the Nationalist Party in particular statements which he made during the electoral campaign and for which he has now become famous. These pronouncements are coming back to haunt him.  For example, how could Dr. Busuttil criticize Government for out of stock medicines when it was the Leader of the Opposition himself who, when the Nationalist administration used to face the same criticism before the elections, used to defend the Nationalist Government by saying that even if you go to a grocery store you are bound to find certain items of groceries not available.  As if you can equate medicines with groceries. Such puerile arguments are very hard to come by.

Also it was very rich coming from Dr. Busuttil to criticize the Labour Government on the reduction in water and electricity rates saying that they will not be reduced by 25% when before the elections, Dr. Simon Busuttil, together with the then Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, used to say that it was not possible for the rates to be reduced.  This very popular measure has not yet been fathomed by the Nationalist Opposition.  But is definitely appreciated by Maltese families.

No one can deny that the Budget was very well received even from unexpected quarters.   Some even called it an election budget alluding to the national elections which are more than four years away and not to the European Parliament elections as Dr. Busuttil seems to have understood and made so much fuss about during his intervention. 

The budget created a feel good feeling among the different categories of Maltese society be they single parents, old age people, women who aspire to seek employment, self-employed especially those running SMEs and last but not least among university students who will experience an increase in their stipend for a number of years in succession.  In fact Dr. Simon Busuttil did not make any reference to the stipends issue during his two hour address even though, before the last elections,  the Nationalist Party embarked on a scaremongering campaign telling students that a Labour Government would decrease stipends.   

It is true that Dr. Simon Busuttil is a lawyer by profession but as a politician he should have a basic knowledge of economics.  But on Monday he showed that he does not.  Otherwise he would not have made such a howler when he said that the budget would yield €170 million more in tax revenue meaning increasing taxes at an average of €400 per capita.  The following day the Prime Minister shot down this unfounded statement by the Leader of the Opposition  when he pointed out that a big chunk of the projected revenue from tax will be paid by institutions like the banks and therefore could not be burdened on the people. Here again, Dr. Busuttil should be the last person to talk about tax increases because the Nationalist Administration had in mind to start taxing minimum wage earners, a very unpopular measure which was announced in their last budget before they were thrown out of office. 

In my view, the only people who were happy with Dr. Busuttil’s performance on November 11 are those Nationalist MPs who are waiting in the wings to take his place.

Dr. Ian Borg is the Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds