‘Don’t risk now, that you have it all’ – Simon Busuttil
PN deputy leader insists that electorate would be risking ‘all the country has achieved’ over the years, should Labour be elected to government.
Speaking on Radio 101 this morning, PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil stressed that all which was achieved over the past years in the country, risks being lost just for the sake of Labour's political battle-cry, which calls for change.
Highlighting once more PL leader Joseph Muscat's call for government to follow the example of Cyprus, Busuttil said that people today have a taste of what Labour is all about.
"We can see that Labour has no idea how to run the economy and steer it through the myriad of risks, from PL leader Joseph Muscat's 'suggestion' for government to follow the Cypriot example," Busuttil said, adding that while everybody today recognises how wrong Labour was to suggest such a move, Cyprus today is facing economic disaster, with unemployment rates which are more than double Malta, and the former Cypriot President Vassiliou saying that it would have been wiser for Nicosia to have followed Malta.
About education, Busuttil asked the electorate to look around and understand all that has been achieved in this sector. "We have invested hundreds of millions for your children's future, so why would we have to risk it all, when Labour's track record in education was to convert stipends into loans and Prof. Edward Scicluna believes that stipends are an 'unaffordable luxury'.
He said that the greatest success and pride for a PN-led government were the statistics which showed that from all the thousands of graduates from university every year, unemployment among them was down to zero rate.
"We are in an enviable situation," Busuttil said, adding that it was something for a nation to be proud of that all graduates get a job, while others are already given a job before they actually graduate.
Busuttil said that a new PN-led government is pledging to increase stipends on a pro-rata basis and adjust them according to the increase in the cost of living.
There is also the proposal where the PN in government will pay National Insurance contributions from when a student would be earning his stipend, granting the opportunity to start his pension savings from his student years.
Those students who come from lower-income families, already benefit from higher stipends, and this is set to continue to increase.