Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1498713
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 MAY 2023 9 INTERVIEW are the sectors we should be incentivising'? This is why I was pleased to see that the gov- ernment is placing so much emphasis on areas such as 'digitalisation'; 'environmental projects'; 'the 'blue economy', and so on... But there is another question I would ask. 'What sort of peo- ple should we be attracting'? You described them as 'cheap labour', for instance... but many of those foreigners are not being employed only in the lowest-paid segments of the job market. They include pro- fessionals, such as architects; engineers, technicians, and so on... OK, but the problems associ- ated with 'cheap labour' con- cern the low-paid workers; not the high-salaried profes- sionals. Isn't there some truth, for instance, to the argument that many foreign workers are willing to accept lower salaries, than their Maltese counterparts? And that this has ripple effects, across the country's entire wage-struc- ture? Not really, no. Let me put it this way: wherever there is 'abuse', or 'exploitation'... that is something we obviously have to address. And I am one of those people [within the PL] who has always spoken out about this issue. Because this, to me, is what 'having Social- ist principles' is all about: as a Socialist, I can never accept a situation where a worker – any worker – is treated any differ- ently from others: simply be- cause he or she is 'a foreigner'. This is, in fact, how the La- bour Party's statute defines those principles: that we are a 'progressive party, that works for social justice'; that we must strive to ensure that there is work for everybody; and above all, that our 'measure of societal progress', as a nation, should be based on the quality of life of those at the very bottom of the economy ladder... Well, that was the whole point of my question. By that yard- stick, the Labour Party doesn't measure up very well at all, does it? Come on, you're exaggerat- ing. Have we reached the aims of our party statute, yet? No, clearly we haven't... But there can be no denying the progress that has been achieved; and that we've made great advanc- es, on both on the social and front, since 2013. This is a why, a few weeks ago, I was pleased to note that a report, issued by the National Statistics Office, actually found that the rate of 'material poverty', in Malta, has gone down... Really? So how do you explain the sudden appearance of so many people - mostly Maltese, from my own personal experi- ence - now openly begging in the streets? Look: I'm not saying that there aren't people who are still 'slipping through the so- cial safety net', right now. Of course, there are... But that NSO report I men- tioned earlier, actually found that – despite the fact that the population has grown so much, over the same time period – the number of people defined as 'materially poor', today (i.e., who can't afford a car, for in- stance; or to go on holiday every so often) has gone down. And drastically, too... Now: I am satisfied with that? No, of course I'm not.... espe- cially when the same report al- so indicates that there is a per- centage of the population who can't materially afford a E700 shopping bill, for instance... SO yes, we certainly need to work a lot harder. But it's sig- nificant, wouldn't you say, that the population has increased so much... and yet, at the same time, the rate of poverty has al- so gone down? Well: there are different ways to interpret statistics (and also, different ways to define 'poverty'.) But let's move onto the inflation issue. The government constantly claims that it has succeeded in 'controlling inflation', by subsidising energy bills. But while those subsidies have cushioned us from energy price-hikes: they do nothing to control the spiralling costs of basic, everyday necessi- ties (like food, for instance). So what is the Labour gov- ernment doing, from a policy point of view, to address the sky-rocketing prices in super- markets? First of all: I can assure you that we buy exactly the same products, as everyone else... so we have a pretty clear idea of what sort of prices people out there are paying. All the more so, recently: be- cause now that Cyrus is abroad from Monday to Thursday... it falls to me actually to go out and do the shopping, myself! So where, before, I used to just rely on Cyrus' judgment – tell- ing him 'get this, or get that' – now, I'm the one who has to actually check the prices, and go through the shopping bill... But I disagree with you com- pletely, that the energy subsi- dies only 'cushion the popula- tion from energy price-hikes'. Earlier, for example, you men- tioned that there are 'beggars in the street'... but can you im- agine how many MORE there would be – and what the eco- nomic situation would be like, in general - if the government were to stop assisting families, and businesses, by subsiding their energy-bills? As – until just last week – the Opposition leader seems to keep suggest- ing that we do? Always asking us: 'But how long are these sub- sidies going to last? When are you going to remove them...?' What I say to that, however, is: the price we would have to pay for stopping those subsi- dies, would be far, FAR greater, than the cost of the actual sub- sidies themselves.... But that's only one small part, of how this government is try- ing to limit the impact of infla- tion. It has also introduced a number of other measures, and policies, that have to be looked at comprehensively. It is true, for instance, that we are experiencing a wave of inflation – as a result of both the Covid pandemic; and sub- sequently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine – but it is also true that a Maltese pensioner, to- day, has a lot more support, in the form of benefits and assis- tance, compared with any time previously (including, when there was no 'inflation wave', at all...) Not to mention all those workers who now enjoy 'in- work' benefits: which, thanks to a reform piloted recently by Social Policy Minister Michael Farrugia, are now conferred automatically (where before, they had to be individually ap- plied for; with the result that most workers probably didn't even know they were eligible...) All these measures – includ- ing the tax refunds, by the way; and I could mention many oth- ers – have increased the num- ber of people being 'caught', as it were, by the social safety-net (by around 26,000 families, in the case of in-work benefits alone)... so while there may be a lot more we could be doing, to soften the impact of infla- tion; you can't really say the Labour government is doing 'nothing at all', can you? One last question: recently, a number of PL officials (includ- ing Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manche) have, in one way or another, 'accused Labour of betraying its Socialist princi- ples'. How do you respond to that, as party CEO? Everyone who militates in the Labour Party, is bound by the same principles that are enshrined in the party statute (which I quoted, above). Those are the principles that guide us. So when people like Con- rad Borg Manche – who was elected mayor of Gzira on the Labour Party ticket, at the end of the day - fights for the best interests of the residents of his locality... they will be conduct- ing that fight, 'in the name of the Labour Party'. Sorry to interrupt, but: as I recall, Borg Manche actually fought his battle AGAINST the Labour Party (whose Pres- ident, Ramona Attard, was representing the Lands Au- thority in court)... Look: I won't go into the issue of 'who lawyers represent', in their professional careers... for the same reason that I don't bother questioning the fact that [PN deputy leader] Joe Giglio also happens to be a law- yer, who 'represents criminals in court'. But as far as I am concerned: as a Gzira mayor representing the Labour Party, it was actu- ally Conrad Borg Manche's DUTY, according to our party statute, to speak out on behalf of the residents of his local- ity, in the way he did. And if I were a mayor myself, in the same sort of position – I would have done exactly the same thing. Because that, ultimately, is what 'Socialist principles' are all about: being a voice for the weak, and the downtrodden. God forbid, then, that anyone within the party should 'hold his actions against him'; and I can extend that to other La- bour mayors, and officials, who are also fighting on behalf of the residents in their own lo- calities, and elsewhere. Now: are there differenc- es of opinion, regarding how we should be enacting those principles, in practice? Yes, of course there are; and this is why our door always has to remain open to further discus- sion.