Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1460760
9 NEWS ANALYSIS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 16 MARCH 2022 manifestos converge and diverge which would make work pay for a neglected category of workers. But the PN is also committed to pay a full "minimum wage" to all those who lose their jobs for the period of a year. The PN also aims to use ESG criteria to dis- courage precarious employment conditions. Both parties are now committed to outlaw zero-hour contracts. 5. Both parties seem to recognise the environmental emergency but refrain from a commitment to change local plans, while Labour is danger- ously keen on land reclamation Although studies promised more than three years ago have yet to be published, Labour is making a clear commitment for land reclamation by saying that this is "necessary in a small country with a limited amount of available land." And while the manifesto refers to "projects" which are of benefit to the country like renewable en- ergy, it fails to exclude real estate on reclaimed land. Such a vague and generic commitment made in the absence of published stud- ies identifying the areas which can be reclaimed, may well give a future Labour government a blank cheque to extend the de- velopment zone to coastal areas. Still, after a decade of building mad, Labour is showing greater sensitivity to land use problems. It is now committing itself to give greater protection to urban conservation areas by introduc- ing transitional buffer zones to prevent village cores from being enveloped in five-storey devel- opment. It is also committed to enact a skyline policy to regulate high-rise developments. But Labour falls short of any commitment to revise the local plans to stop the proliferation of apartments in every nook and cranny, which came as a direct result of both the 2006 local plans and a raft of policies concocted after 2013. Moreover the focus on aesthet- ics suggests that Labour is more keen on putting lipstick on the pig's face than on democratising the planning process. And while the PN is commit- ted to increase ODZ areas by 50,000sq.m a year, this is limited to public land which presently can only be developed if the gov- ernment decides so. Neither is the PN committed to changing policies devised by Labour after 2013, including development guidelines which converted floor heights in local plans to metric heights. On this issue ADPD remains the only party with a clear com- mitment to revise local plans and to reverse the infamous extension of boundaries carried out in 2006. 6. Foreign workers are here to stay and both parties are now committed to inclusion without promising them a path to citi- zenship and political rights Gone is the PN's obsession with the increase in foreign workers which characterised its MEP campaign in 2019 when it was led by Adrian Delia. Both parties rec- ognise the contribution of foreign workers to the economy and are committed to their inclusion in the Maltese social fabric. The PN's manifesto goes as far as suggesting that immigration compensates for the decline of the workforce in an ageing pop- ulation while seeking to combat exploitation of any worker irre- spective of nationality. On the other hand, Labour is keener on emphasising a dis- tinction between legal foreign workers and immigrants worthy of protection, and those who do not qualify for any protection and should be sent back. But while paying lip-service to inclusion, both parties shy away from a re- form of citizenship and residence laws to give more political and social rights to this segment of the population. 7. The PN is keener on addressing corruption but major reforms like that of party financing are left out by both parties Despite the heavy price it paid in terms of reputational damage as a result of a free-fall in govern- ance, Labour's manifesto includes no commitment for legislative changes to criminalise mafia-like organisations and to make it easi- er for the State to confiscate their monies. In contrast the PN is presenting a raft of proposals which would not only make it easier to prose- cute people who abuse their posi- tion of public trust but also go a long way in curtailing the power of incumbency by introducing fixed term parliaments. And while the PN's manifesto does propose a law to regulate lobbying and favours, the crea- tion of a register where meetings involving lobbyists and MPs are logged, this topic is completely overlooked by Labour. In a sign that the PN has a more continental mind-set on political reform, it is now advocating a 5% threshold for parliamentary rep- resentation. Labour also suggests that it wants to discuss electoral reform to ensure greater propor- tionality but it fails to indicate how. This suggest little willing- ness on the part of Labour to show leadership on good govern- ance and constitutional reform, leaving space for the PN to take ownership of an issue which it had overlooked when last in gov- ernment. But while the PN seems keener on addressing shortcomings in governance, both parties fail to make any reference to the need to revamp party financing laws (and introduce state financing) to en- sure that parties and candidates are not subsidised by powerful lobbies. This in itself raises the question: are the manifestos themselves conditioned by the power of lob- bies to exclude measures which do not suit them?