"Quality" is the new buzzword on Labour's lips.

The budget for 2025, in the Finance Minister's words, was centred on the concept of taking Malta to the next level, moving from quantity to quality.

Needless to say, since 28 October, "quality" was the highlight of all public appearances by ministers and parliamentary secretaries who individually addressed the media to speak about their own portfolio.

Prime Minister Robert Abela used the term many times when he replied to Opposition Leader Bernard Grech in Parliament last week. It is most likely that, when the budgets of the different ministries continue to be debated in the House of Representatives in the coming days, Labour speakers will mention it hundreds of times.

The Labour Party has become famous for slogans that are aimed to drill home an idea. "Malta taghna lkoll" (Malta belongs to everyone) and "L-aqwa zmien" (The best times) were for months on end catchphrases that were widely and constantly used. Former Leader Joseph Muscat also commonly used the word "roadmap" in his speeches, especially before and soon after the 2013 election. We all now know where that roadmap has taken him.

And now it's the turn of the word "quality".

"The time has come to turn the page for the country to look for quality rather than quantity." This sentence closed Finance Minister Clyde Caruana's introduction to his budget speech before he went on to enlist the measures the government plans to implement in 2025.

But there's a huge difference between saying something and doing it.

Labour has been in power for nearly 12 years now and it does not have any credibility when it comes to quality. So it is hard to believe that, at the push of a button, we can move in this direction.

For one thing, the mentality that "anything goes" in this country - instigated and fomented since Labour took over the reins of the country - is now too ingrained to believe that this could change anytime soon. This kind of attitude is not conducive to a society that, according to its government, is seeking to move towards better quality. If anything, it "prevents", rather than helps, reaching a higher level.

Then there are other less or more serious observations to make.

Because if the potholes we fix become potholes again after the first rainfall, we cannot really talk about quality. If a traffic light at the Paceville junction gets knocked down and is still not functioning two months later, we're not a quality country. Or if we cannot swim in our beaches because of sewage overflow or slime emanating from fish farms, we cannot really talk about quality either. Or if the air we breathe is polluted, public places are litter grounds and the energy system cannot keep up with the demand, we cannot speak about quality.

If every little green space is taken up by development, and the government does its utmost to please developers rather than listen to the pleas of society, then it is not quality at all. If every view is spoilt by the sight of cranes and Malta as a whole remains a permanent construction site then we cannot say that we are moving towards quality.

If traffic issues continue to get worse every day, if health services continue to deteriorate because of lack of manpower and the government's wrong decisions such as the three hospitals' deal, and if the education system continues to fail to offer a comprehensive upbringing - one that is not solely based on academic qualifications - then we cannot say we are on the way to quality.

If the government persists with a policy and events that attract tourists with limited spending power and, conversely, keeps more affluent visitors away then there is no chance that we will be able to upgrade the tourism industry to one of quality.

If the government continues to believe that problems can be resolved by sending a cheque and seeks short-term populist measures without looking at the bigger picture then quality will not replace quantity.

If more and more families keep on finding it harder and harder to make ends meet, if more are dropping closer to or beyond the poverty line, and if more need to seek secondary jobs with the result that they spend less time with their loved ones, it does not mean that they have a better quality of life.

If rules are bent to accommodate the few at the expense of the many, if people with little competence are given lucrative roles simply because they wave red flags or are close to a minister, and if the public sector continues to be bloated with unproductive jobs, then quality is not the word we would use.

If ministers and parliamentary secretaries continue to breach ethics without any repercussions, if more scandals rock our foundations and no-one is punished, and if corruption and fraud cases continue to surface then we cannot say that we are a country of quality.

If the rule of law is set aside, if inquiry reports are shelved and their recommendations ignored, and if the media's freedom is curtailed and attempts to silence it abound, then we cannot say that we are moving towards quality.

We need more than a miracle to move from quantity to quality.