It was announced last week by Family Minister Dr Michael Farrugia that a further 19,000 needy households in Malta will be receiving food aid packages from the government. By my calculations, given Minister's own breakdown of the household sizes, over 32,000 people will receive this aid.

This is over and above the food aid given to thousands of other families by the EU, and who are not included in this scheme. The total number of households receiving food aid from both sources is 24,000. In total, this would amount to over 40,000 people, roughly one tenth of our population.

Whilst helping families on the poverty line is laudable, the very fact that 10% of our fellow citizens are in need of food aid at all is, to put it mildly, worrying. In times of recession and national hardship this could possibly be understandable. In times of plenty, when our Gross National Product last year grew by over 6%; when only this week it was announced that unemployment has reached an all-time low of 2.5%, effectively full employment; when the government has just announced that we have finally reached a budgetary surplus, it is unacceptable.

By all recognized indicators our economy is booming, and yet, it seems, a significant chunk of the people living on these islands are struggling. What was once one of the most egalitarian societies in the world is becoming a land of the haves and the have-nots. And those in between, the middle class, are not exactly fairing too well either. Why has this happened?

Firstly, let's look at employment. It is a sad fact that this current government, through various pre-election recruitment drives and a certain notorious scheme involving the General Workers Union has artificially driven down employment for low skilled workers. This employment, however, in itself is offering a marginal income and no real future prospects for the workers concerned.

The vast majority of high income jobs created in this country have gone to foreigners, not to locals. There is a latent skills gap in this country which governments, past and present, have failed to address. In this matter our education system has primarily been reactive, not proactive.  To add to the problem, due to the scrapping of our trade schools, there is now a dearth of people with the manual skills to do non-academic and blue collar jobs. Go to any construction site and I challenge you to find one with a majority of Maltese workers, quite simply because there are not enough to go around. And yet we employ the same people on the public purse rather than train them.

Secondly, it's a matter of rental prices. By nature people with low family incomes are less likely to own their home, and need to rent. The basic wage for most people has gone up by the minimum permissible miserable €1.75 per week given in the budget. I think we can all agree that rental prices have shot up at a much higher rate. Every time a tenant's rental costs go up, it is eating into the disposable income of that household. It is safe to say that simply due to this, thousands of people are actually a lot poorer today than they were 3 years ago.

Thirdly, let's look at the budget surplus. To balance the books is good, but any business will tell you, to invest in the future is more important. We have a budget surplus despite the government short selling state owned land, companies and property to big business. That budget surplus could be tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions more. Over the last few years nearly every major investment into public infrastructure was started either by the previous administration or funded by the EU from monies negotiated by that administration.

Nothing has been done to encourage the set-up of small and medium sized businesses. Only this week it was announced that the World Bank has classified Malta as the worst place in the EU to do business due to our tax regime, national insurance costs to the employer and red tape.

Would it not be better, if the government, rather than lining the pockets of the few mega businessmen and corporations out there that have shown absolutely no social conscience, helped the bakery round the corner, the small carpentry work shop, the local service station, the struggling village store, the average shop owner? Would it not be in our interest to offer tax breaks to local start-ups rather than the mega incentives given to foreign companies who would not bat an eyelid to move elsewhere if offered better terms?

Our country's economy had become unbalanced and lop-sided. It is geared to make the rich richer; with the unfortunate result the poor are getting poorer. Like all things unbalanced, it is more likely to come a cropper and crash down. We need to re-adjust our centre of gravity, make sure our wealth is more evenly distributed, prepare the younger generation for a fast changing world and make it a national promise and goal that within ten years poverty will be eradicated from this land. Food for thought indeed.

Anthony Buttigieg

Deputy Leader, Partit Demokratiku