AD welcome ‘ambitious’ poverty green paper

In a fresh call for the government to increase the minimum wage, Alternattiva Demokratika has welcomed the recently launched "ambitious" green paper but criticised the government for not committing itself to the revision of minimum wage.

"AD has reiterated its call for minimum wage increases as this is leading to increases in poverty and material deprivation, but its calls have fallen on deaf ears as the government has not committed itself to revising it," Social Policy spokesperson Robert Callus said.

Launched by Social Solidarity Minsiter Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, the green paper is set to serve as a policy framework in the country's fight against poverty and social exclusion.

Nevertheless, AD said that despite a thorough analysis of the poverty situation in Malta, the green paper presents "nothing really new in terms of pragmatic initiatives."

"There is nothing really new since a substantial number of measures presented as policy options have already been launched under previous strategies such as the National Reform Programme and the previous budget," Callus argued.

The Green Paper will see the Labour government commit itself to reduce Malta's poverty rate by 22,000 persons by next year.

The ambitious challenge comes as a total of 22,801 children live at risk of poverty or social exclusion. 13,000 of these kids live in households with an annual income of €6,500. 3,000 others live in households with an annual income of €8,800.

"For any strategy to be successful, targets need not only be ambitious but also realistic," AD Chairperson Arnold Cassola argued.

"It is therefore questionable whether Malta will reach its Europe 2020 target set by the previous government of lifting 6,500 by the government, let alone lifting 22,000 people by 2015."