Labour ‘bulk-buying’ economic migrants, Grech charges on population control

Opposition leader Bernard Grech says it will be the PN to give Malta the direction the island requires on a new economic model that does not depend on a large influx of labour migrants.

The PN leader said on a Net TV interview that the Labour administration was not offering a way forward, or solutions, for Malta. “In my two-hour Budget speech, I made it clear that Labour is today a spent force... so many social partners are today complaining about this government’s shortcomings.”

Grech said that it was also clear that unions and social partners were complaining more frequently about the government’s shortcomings. “Unions are now saying this government has forgotten about education, which is why teachers will be going on strike. “This government has lost direction, it is tired, everything it touches turns to lead.”

But he said that it was Malta’s population growth, bolstered by labour migration from non-EU countries filling in an exponential job growth, that had put into the light a “negative trend presided by Labour”.

Grech said the PN’s plan to filter labour migration was a response to people’s concerns. “We are offering hope with our vision,” he said, adding that population problems were stretching national resources, such as public healthcare, meant less people could have access to basic healthcare services in an efficient manner. “The choice on population control is clear: Robert Abela wants to keep bringing in 40,000 non-EU nationals every year... while the PN wants to change this economic model into one that seeks out quality workers, not Labour’s ‘bulk-buying’.”

Grech said Malta cannot afford a larger population than its 500,000 people, of which almost 20% are foreign workers. “Of course you do need foreign worker, but the PN does not want economic foundations that depends on such a population influx.”

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Robert Abela lambasted plans by the PN to tackle labour migration, saying that “putting the clock back to 2013” – the year Labour was elected to power – would punish EU nationals by seeking to reduce economic migrants.