Bernard Grech takes aim at Clyde Caruana's foreign labour policy

Opposition leader Bernard Grech took aim at Malta's foreign labour policy, initially spearheaded by Clyde Caruana, for making a political U-turn on the strategy.

Addressing a political activity in Valletta, Grech referred to a speech made this week by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, where he acknowledged that the influx of foreign employees over the years may have put a downward pressure on local wages.

Bernard Grech said that the Nationalist Party has repeatedly spoken of the need for the country to diversify the economy away from foreign labour. He explained that this has hindered locals, particularly younger people, from enjoying higher wages. 

"Now he [Clyde Caruana] is taking a U-turn. He's back-tracking and realising that the Nationalist Party was right," Grech said.

Grech further announced that the party will put forward an energy policy for Malta within the coming days, with the aim of offering cheaper utility bills while producing cleaner energy.

The policy will stand on several pillars that will guide the party's policy over the coming year. According to Grech, such pillars include a large-scale clean energy generation plan, and the infrastructure needed to move towards electric transportation and energy efficiency. 

"Energy needs a long-term plan. If you don't look ahead we will suffer the same issue faced by Labour, who lost €400 million in funding for a gas pipeline because they failed to consider new technologies, such as hydrogen," Grech said.

Earlier this month MaltaToday revealed that government will not be getting any EU cash to finance its gas pipeline to Sicily, after the European Commission ignored the island’s final bid in the last round of Connecting Europe Facility funds. 

Malta’s natural gas pipeline between Italy and Malta was expected to be operational by 2024. It had been a high priority in the ongoing effort to link Malta to Europe’s energy network, and would put an end to Malta’s “gas isolation”. 

It would have also helped Malta cut emissions from shipping, as the aim is to slash emissions by at least 50% by 2050.

Vaccination strategy

Bernard Grech pointed out that the Nationalist Party has put forward a proposal that would allow vaccines against COVID-19 to be administered in pharmacies or by private doctors within the community.

However Grech mentioned that government is yet to react to this proposal. 

"After a few days or weeks, when they think that the population would have forgetten about the proposal, they will introduce it quietly," he said.