Prime Minister Robert Abela teased unprecedented Budget measures for families as he addressed the party faithful on Sunday, on the eve of Finance Minister Clyde Caruana’s awaited address in Parliament.

Abela was speaking on Sunday morning at the Labour Party’s headquarters in Hamrun, at the conclusion of its General Conference.

Abela said that years ago, the eve of a Budget always held a “sentiment of fear”, but today “everyone is optimistic for how their quality of life will improve.”

He pledged another Budget with no new taxes, no tax increases, a “very strong” increase in pensions, and full stability in electricity, water, gas, and fuel prices.

When it comes to measures for the family – with the family being a central theme to the Budget – Abela described the measures planned as “massive, the scale of which we have never seen before” and as being “one of the most important measures of our generation.”

Abela didn’t delve into what these measures are, but said that when Finance Minister Clyde Caruana had come to him with the idea, he had hesitated to reflect on them first – mainly because while they are a “gamechanger”, they also require the correct economic climate and investment in the country in order to be sustained.

“But because I understood the necessity of the measures and have courage in our ability to attract investment, I said yes, and tomorrow we will have the strongest Budget ever with families, the future, and work at its centre,” Abela said.

Abela said that the Budget will also include the country’s biggest investment ever in the digital sector: an investment which he said will give direction for the labour market and economy for tomorrow.

The Prime Minister said that he wanted to see better productivity and less dependence on low-skilled labour, with this being made up for by technology.

Indeed, he spoke of three tools in this regard: Artificial Intelligence, robotics and automation. “We want to increase efficiency and reduce dependency on workers,” Abela said.

The importance of a strong economy is that it can then be invested in the people, Abela said.  He said that the government’s revenue had “exploded” despite the fact that it had instituted €140 million in tax cuts last year.

This allowed the government to act in cases such as that of two parents – Stanley and Charmaine, who’s 6-week old child needed care for an incredibly rare disease which cost some €2 million. Abela said that they followed their conscience and assisted the parents with the treatment, which was successful meaning that the now four-month-old child can now live a normal life.

Abela did not spare the Nationalist Party from criticism throughout his speech either.

He said that after the Budget, people had to ponder on the “real question” in the peace of their homes: “When there is a very ambitious budget which is not easy to implement – who, from the two teams before you are you going to choose from, as being capable of fulfilling it?”

He said that the PN hadn’t even written a pre-Budget document to outline their ideas.  “They don’t even have anyone to put together a pre-Budget document – let alone how well they can lead the best economy in Europe.  Who is going to this?  Jerome [Caruana Cilia]? Graham Bencini? [Adrian] Delia?,” Abela said.

He said that the PN hadn’t costed the measures it had announced, saying that Finance Minister Clyde Caruana had costed them out for them and worked out that they will set the country back €600 million.

“Have you heard anything on how they will finance it?  Nothing,” Abela said, adding that his government will present a clear plan for how to give more than ever before and keep sustaining it for the future.

He warned that the new PN Leader Alex Borg had been among those to oppose an IVF reform which would allow more couples to become parents, and also lambasted the PN’s media house for reporting that the government was set to steamroll over opponents by tabling the controversial planning reform bills with no changes.

“This is an obscene lie – we didn’t even discuss [the planning reform bills] yesterday,” Abela said.  He has already said that he will be taking legal action against the media house.

“My only regret is that I cannot file for a sequestration order for every lie they tell, because they’ve only got debt and I might end up saddled with it myself,” Abela told party followers.

He said that the Labour Party is “the only guarantee” for the country’s future and promised a Budget that will push forward the aspirations of all of society.