Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/652704
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 MARCH 2016 15 thing. We made a mistake to just let them say whatever they want- ed, especially when we did not challenge the Opposition on what it says. We did not hold them ac- countable. We haven't even spo- ken enough on good governance when it comes to the Whistle- blower's Act, party financing and the removal of proscription on the crime of political corruption. What will we do now? We'll en- act the law on political standards in parliament, which we pledged in our manifesto, we'll start screening and carrying out hear- ings of chairmen of regulatory au- thorities. We want to do more. When you have a situation where the people of a country are experiencing a good economy and a social revolution, their exi- gencies start morphing and their aspirations grow. If the people were jobless and companies sack- ing workers, we would be talking about bringing investment to the country. Without these problems, people speak about governance. Not because it is secondary but because aspirations are growing. We will be working to improve the economy and reduce poverty, but governance is a core issue for us. You have a minister [Mizzi] who has taken decisions on multi-million euro deals, in re- lations with Azerbaijan and SOCAR, who gave a ministerial direction to Enemalta to hedge for fuel with SOCAR, which nat- urally gives rise to suspicions of a lack of governance on such deci- sions when the Opposition is also talking about a 'crisis of corrup- tion'… I am persuaded his ministe- rial direction to hedge fuel with SOCAR was to save the country money. Secondly I'd say that [on that reasoning] the whole of the EU is corrupt, because one of the big debates we're having right now is how to have a relationship with Azerbaijan and to provide an in- frastructure so that Europe will no longer be dependent on Russia [on gas]. So if Europe wants a relation- ship with SOCAR, which equals Azerbaijan, on that same reason- ing Europe is corrupt. You are going into an election with Konrad Mizzi as deputy leader, whose association with Panama is now sealed. Are you going to be using the govern- ment's power of incumbency to curry favour with the elector- ate, when Labour has been such a critic of previous PN govern- ments' largesse? I will use the power of delivery, delivering what we promised. There's much more to be done, more to show that Konrad and the rest of the team can deliver. I am positive that this was not the worst period of government. I re- member the weeks of discussions I had three years ago, when I was told to raise energy prices because Enemalta will fail, that a company was ready to sack 300 people, that we had to go to an EU summit where they told us we had to raise tax revenue by €60 million to pre- vent an excessive deficit proce- dure… these were truly worrying events. The failure of Enemalta would have meant the failure of one bank, as well as pensioners' savings… Today as a government we've been under constant attack, but the fact that I see us keeping our heads above the water, gives me courage for the next two years to not only deliver, but over-per- form. And three years down the line, your trust rating has been decimated by six points while Simon Busuttil's has climbed seven points, four in the last two weeks alone with Panamagate. Haven't you squandered the people's trust? I would have squandered it had it been reduced, but if I were Si- mon Busuttil I would worry that after these two weeks of attacks I would still not have surpassed Muscat… Interview Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is fending off the most serious accusation yet made against his government but claims his administration is keeping its head above the water