GozoNews.Com

The Labour Party has said that the government programme, announced at the State Opening of Parliament today, had a reconciliatory tone at times but it had to be viewed in the context of what actually happened in the past few weeks.

The Government has entered Malta into the Partnership for Peace without any notice or consultation with the Opposition. Appointments to government boards were also being made on the basis of political allegiances and transfers in the public services were also being made on a politically partisan basis.

MLP acting leader Charles Mangion said in a statement that the opposition would judge the government on what it did and not on nice words such as those in the President’s address. Although the address did include a number of interesting proposals they were far too vague and the fear was that they would not implemented, as had happened in the past.

In the economic sector, productivity and competitiveness have gone backwards. The Government’s programme has no new ideas for these sectors and sounded pessimistic about the future. There was also no mention on price containment.

The promise to give priority to primary healthcare sounded hollow, given that this government had dismantled this sector. In education, Malta was still bottom of the Lisbon Agenda scoreboard.

In the environment sector, the government had no credibility, especially in view of the abusive decisions taken in the run-up to the elections. The same applied to the promises of good governance, given well known conflicts of interest and abuse of power, the MLP said.

The MLP would be constructive in its criticism, backing what was good and criticizing what was wrong in the national interest, Dr Mangion concluded.