Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/823173
maltatoday, FRIDAY, 12 MAY 2017 6 News PN pledges to increase pensions to minimum wage 'no matter the cost' Busuttil: 'We don't live in a normal country, but I will be your voice' TIM DIACONO A future Nationalist govern- ment would raise the nation- al minimum pension to the equivalent of the minimum wage, no matter how much it will cost the public purse, shadow social policy Paula Mifsud Bonnici said. The PN estimates that this proposal will cost some €8.5 million, but the Labour Party has warned that it will cost closer to €20.5 million. Addressing a press confer- ence, Mifsud Bonnici stood by the PN's costings but bullishly said that a PN government will introduce this measure even if Labour had got the sum right. "Even if, for argument's sake, this scheme will cost €20.5 million, we will still introduce it because it will mean €20.5 million more filtering into pensioners pockets to improve their quality of life. We are committed to implementing this proposal, no matter how it costs." "It is surreal and ironic that the Labour Party, which is sup- posed to be the party for work- ers and pensioners alike, has come out against this proposal and this proves that the PN is the people's party." She said that Labour's resist- ance proves that Joseph Muscat is "against the people, against our families, and in favour of stagnant pensions." When asked by MaltaToday how it can ensure the raise can be sustainable, Mifsud Bonnici responded that the PN had got its costings spot on and that a PN government won't waste millions of euro of public funds as Labour has. "We won't pay €4.2 million to buy back Café Premier or €3.5 million to Gaffarena for half a house, Simon Busuttil won't rent his private car to the state for €70,000, and a PN Cabinet won't cost an extra €100 mil- lion [over five years] as the La- bour government's has." TIM DIACONO Opposition leader Simon Busuttil lambasted the police commissioner and the At- torney General for not tak- ing criminal steps against the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri for corruption allegations, arguing that their inaction proves that "we are not living in a normal country". Busuttil will this morning appear in front of magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras, who is leading a magisterial inquiry into reports that Schembri had accepted kickbacks from Nexia BT managing partner Brian Tonna from the sale of citizen- ship scheme. "If we lived in a normal coun- try, I wouldn't have to appear in front of the magistrate myself," he said yesterday in a speech at a political activity in Qormi. "If we lived in a normal country, the police commissioner and the Attorney General would have already ordered a crimi- nal investigaton. "If we lived in a normal coun- try, Schembri would have al- ready been arrested and pro- sectued and Joseph Muscat would have already resigned and left poltiics for good." He also had rare words of con- solation to the Labour Party, which he said doesn't deserve to be led by corrupt people. "I don't agree with Labour on a lot of things, but it did imple- ment good measures in the past and it is part of this country's history. It doesn't deserve to be led by such corrupt people." To cheers from the crowd of "Simon, Simon", Busuttil pledged to represent the people who have grown sick of govern- ment corruption: "I am here to defend you, I am here to give you a voice." In his speech, Busuttil outlined the PN's re- cent proposals to aid strug- gling pensioners, which he said prove he leads a "party for the people". He suggested that Muscat is jealous that he didn't come out with the proposals and, in an attempt to use the Labour leader's rhetoric against him, accused Muscat of being "nega- tive". "Don't be negative, Joseph. We are here coming up with so many positive proposals." The PN has pledged to in- crease the national minimum pension to the equivalent of the minimum wage – a pro- posal which will see the weekly income of some 18,000 pen- sioners increase from €147 to €169. Moreover, all pensions will be exempted from income tax, the retirement pension for people who haven't paid their full national contributions will increase to €155 a week, and the yearly allowance for pen- sioners who live in their own homes will increase to €500, The pensions of former members of the Police Force, the Armed Forces of Malta, and Civil Department Offi- cials and prison wardens will increase in line with the cost of living increase given each year. A PN government will also start gradually addressing the injustices in the services pen- sions according to the pension- ers' age – a proposal costed at €22 million. Pensioners over 80 years of age will instantly receive the full service pension and the full non-contributory pension. He insisted that the PN's pro- posals are fully costed, and expressed his disbelief that La- bour has come out so strongly against them. "Why is Joseph Muscat against increasing pensions, when he found so much money to give to the owner of Café Premier, to Gaffarena and to Sadeen?" 'Minimum wage rise was peanuts' The speech was preceded by breech interventions by the PN's candidates for the sixth district. PN MP Clyde Puli delivered a rousing speech, in which he accused Labour of blatant hy- pocrisy on its pre-electoral promises of zero tolerance to corruption. He recounted how Labour had kicked up a storm over a clock gifted to former PN min- ister Tonio Fenech. "Yet, it found nothing wrong with the Panama Papers scan- dal, with giving Cyrus Engerer a well-paid job in Brussels after he was found guilty of revenge porn, with the Broadcasting Authority's chairperson bully- ing her staff instead of taking action on PBS' lies, and with the police commissioner eat- ing rabbit while evidence was smuggled out of Pilatus Bank." It was also addressed by the Partit Demokratiku's can- didate Monique Agius, who focused on the recently an- nounced increase in the mini- mum wage which she lambast- ed as "peanuts". "The Labour Party can no longer call itself a workers' party, and indeed people are still working in precarious conditions," she said. "Labour said that they're going to give us back our public holidays [that fall on the weekend], but what the people really want is a decent minimum wage."