Labour publishes leaked PN pre-Budget document which was never made public

The Labour Party has published a leaked pre-Budget document by the Nationalist Party which was never published.

“When you see the mistakes and shortcomings in this document, you realise the Nationalist Party (PN) cannot be taken seriously when they present themselves as an alternative government,” Justice Minister Jonathan Attard told journalists at the Labour Party (PL) headquarters on Monday afternoon.

Titled ‘A Citizen Centric Economic Vision’, the document leaked to the PL was never made public, with government ministers Jonathan Attard and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri saying its showcases the PN’s lack of preparedness on how to manage Malta’s economy.

They also drew attention to the fact that last year the PN had not published a pre-Budget document, and the year before that the PN had published one which was riddled with grammatical errors.

“At the beginning of last summer, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech started writing this document with the help of six other senior party members, including the Deputy Leader, the Secretary General and four other spokespersons. The first version of the report was completed on 23 July, with a so-called evolved version being completed on 4 September,” the PL said. “But after consulting various experts, the Nationalist Party ended up choosing not to publish its economic proposals.”

They claimed the document was not received well by Opposition MPs and stakeholders, and so the document was never published.

The ministers also pointed out that in the Energy and Infrastructure section of the document, a note stating that spokespersons Ryan Callus and Joe Giglio should assist the author “with more beef.”

According to Attard, the biggest shortcoming within the document was in the ‘Medium to Long Term Proposals’ section, which he said was short. A note in the leaked document states that the section would be completed once insights are gathered from stakeholders and respective MPs.

He said this show the lack of long-term strategy by the party.

Camilleri on his part said that a couple of weeks ago he was in a televised debate with Opposition MP Jerome Caruana Cilia, who when asked whether the PN had wrote up a pre-Budget document, had not answered his questions.

They also said that despite criticising government over the importation of foreign workers, the PN’s document shows the “explicit” strategy to grow the country’s workforce by 32,000 jobs.

“Given that every year more Maltese are retiring than there are new young people who can enter employment, this would mean 40,000 more foreign workers,” he said.

The PL said it was publishing the document to show the Opposition’s economic vision “or lack of it.”

The leaked document can be found below.