Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/742473
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 OCTOBER 2016 7 News Muscat pledges minimum wage discussion CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Making his pitch on the minimum wage, Muscat said the country now had a year until next year's budget to discuss the minimum wage. Arguing that he was in favour of raising it, he said that such a de- cision could not be taken without consensus. "A decision was taken for the government to shoulder this bur- den by increasing benefits for low-income earners; but now, a true discussion needs to kick- start," he said. Muscat said that families should judge the government by whether they feel that the coun- try is moving in the right direc- tion, whether they are better off now and whether they believed they would continue to improve under Labour. "The difference we're doing in people's lives can be measured by the change in concerns: before it was energy bills, a stagnated economy and employment; now it's good quality of life and the en- vironment. This means that peo- ple are taking the cheaper energy bills for granted whilst focusing on new concerns," he said. Speaking about the country's finances, Muscat said that the government has had a plan from the very start. He said that the government's plan was always to stabilise the economy in the first year, to incentivise people to work in the second and to help businesses and to grow the econ- omy in the third year. He said that the government was now, in its fourth budget, redistributing wealth to those that had previously not benefit- ted from the country's economic growth. "We are implementing one of the biggest exercises in wealth distribution in living memory. More importantly, this budget did not take from anyone and gave to everyone," said Muscat. By growing the economy, Mus- cat said the government is able to introduce budgetary meas- ures, like those presented in this budget, that would improve the quality of people's lives. He said that the country's deficit was pro- jected to fall to 0.5%, the lowest deficit figure since Malta gained independence. "We have put forward a budget with a social package that costs €21 million, money that is being directed towards those who are most in need, and this is hardly cosmetic," said Muscat in reply to the opposition leader's remarks the previous day. He pointed out that the govern- ment had succeeded in making work pay and was slowly wean- ing people off benefits and into work. He added that the number of people living in poverty as well as in conditions of severe mate- rial deprivation had been steadily decreasing. On second pillar pensions, Muscat said that this would only increase the social security con- tribution that people are required to pay and said that those strug- gling to make ends meet did not need more expenses. Instead he said that the government pre- ferred to introduce incentives for people to work and save more. Muscat also said that the gov- ernment will be publishing every major contract by the end of the legislature and added that he could not understand how the opposition was associating blank pages in published contracts with corruption since a number of contracts signed under the pre- vious Nationalist administration had similar clauses which prevent government from publishing cer- tain specific details. Responding to claims by the opposition that the government had created no new sectors for the country, Muscat said that the American University of Malta and Barts medical school, new hospitals, the IIP scheme and the logistics centre that is being set up were all examples of new sec- tors that were being created. In another dig at Busuttil, Mus- cat said that in order for the country to achieve results, the prime minister had to act like a salesman. He went on to praise special envoy Sai Mizzi – wife of OPM minister Konrad Mizzi – for having been pivotal in the signing of two memorandums of understanding. The government has signed two memorandums of understanding with the Bank of China and Bei- jing Caissa International Travel Services – the result of which will see 10,000 Chinese tourists com- ing to Malta by 2018, going up to 50,000 by 2020. Turning to energy, the Prime Minister rubbished claims by the opposition that electricity pur- chased through the interconnec- tor was a lot cheaper. Muscat said that the Opposition's estimates had failed to factor in important factors such as operational and maintenance costs, excise duties and depreciations, among others. "It is the same as when one buys a f light for only €50 with a low- cost airline and then realises that there are another €200 in charges that need to be paid." But his comments did not go down well with independent MP Marlene Farrugia who could be heard telling the Prime Minister that he was taking citizens for a ride. Farrugia has repeatedly called for further reductions in energy bills. GourmetToday every Saturday 16.05pm on TVM Simon Busuttil: Joseph Muscat's budget speech lacked substance PRIME Minister Joseph Mus- cat's speech contained no sub- stance and it only gets listeners to try and find out "where the catch was", Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this even- ing. In a press conference called after Muscat's budget address, Busuttil said Muscat failed to mention anything about why the government did not reduce electricity tariffs, especially after this was requested by a number of social partners. "Muscat also failed to justify the government's insistance on buying electricity from Electro- gas, when it was clear that the interconnector was the cheaper option," he said. "The opposition is not against the use of natural gas but against the dangerous tanker in the middle of Marsaxlokk bay." Busuttil also said that the Muscat did explain why pov- erty was increasing especially among the elderly. On people's quality of life, he said that the Prime Minister tried to ridicule the opposition and their proposals: "Muscat tried to ridicule the opposition's suggestion for the introduction of a tram when the suggestion was also included in the govern- ment's own transport plan." He questioned the Prime Minister's credentials on good governance and said that it was unacceptable for OPM Minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri to keep their respective roles following the Panama Papers revelations. Simon Busuttil "We have put forward a budget with a social package that costs €21 million, money that is being directed towards those who are most in need"