Opposition MP Eve Borg Bonello - who serves as the PN's Shadow Minister for Youth - has stated that the Minister for Youth, Omar Farrugia, will be announcing the Budget 2027 measures relevant to his Ministry after she is meant to give her feedback on them, leaving her "left in the dark" like the rest of the general public.
As a result, the Shadow Minister has been told to provide her analysis, criticism, and scrutiny over the Budget 2027 measures relevant to Farrugia's Ministry before knowing what they even are.
"Now, how can I, as the Shadow Minister for Youth, analyse, criticise, or scrutinise youth proposals that haven't yet been announced?" asked Borg Bonello.
In a video uploaded on social media, Borg Bonello criticised that the Labour government is "playing a dirty game and hindering the Opposition from doing its work, and leaving enormous uncertainty in the country" through how the Minister for Finance's official Budget 2027 speech did not serve as an exhaustive list of how government expenditure will be organised throughout the following year, as has been standard for many years.
She also spoke against how student stipend increases were left out of Finance Minister Caruana's budget announcement and were later revealed by the Labour Party's youth wing through a Facebook post. She deplored that this information was not even divulged through an official ministerial statement.
For the Parliament of Malta, it is standard practice that after the Minister for Finance delivers that year's budget speech and the Opposition Leader and Prime Minister give their official reactions, dedicated sessions for each Ministry are organised where the Opposition's relevant spokesperson gives their official remarks for how that budget will serve the ministerial portfolio and for the Minister to rebut accordingly.
She said that after realising that Finance Minister Clyde Caruana's Budget 2027 announcement left many measures out for others to announce at a later date, she went over Budget 2027's financial estimates, line by line, and requested Minister Farrugia, through a parliamentary question, to disclose what his Ministry's financial allocations in Budget 2027 represent.
Farrugia responded to this PQ that "the financial estimates related to the Ministry for Youth, Welfare and the Implementation of the Electoral Programme will be discussed on 10 November 2026, as stipulated in Motion no. 70, Motion of Procedure regulating the sittings related to the General Estimates."
Borg Bonello told her online followers that in essence, Minister Farrugia will be using his speech in the parliament session dedicated to the Youth Ministry's financial estimates post Budget 2027 on announcing the proposed budget measures relevant to his portfolio.
"He told me that he would announce them and explain them during the session dedicated for the Youth Ministry, i.e., after I speak, after I am meant to provide my analysis and criticism," she said.
Borg Bonello criticised that this practice shows "bad faith, bad politics, and zero plan."
She concluded that all youths and sectors across society continue to be left in the dark and in uncertainty on what's fully in the pipeline through Budget 2027 until the country's Ministers "decide to provide the details around this budget." She said this is being done "so every Minister has their 15 minutes in the limelight during Budget season," at the expense of withholding information that the Maltese people are due to know.
Parliament sessions covering Budget 2027's financial estimates and ministerial discussions start this week, on Wednesday, 3 November, with the Ministry for Accommodation and Lands. They will run all the way till 2 December.