Updated | Muscat: Government stability and credibility key to country’s success

There has never been any doubt about how strong and united the government is, and this was a key element in the success being registered by the country said Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning.

“Today we take it for granted, but if the government isn’t united and strong in the decisions it takes, with one clear leader, the country cannot have stability,” he said. “The first requirement of a government that delivers, is stability.”

Muscat was speaking at a political activity in Marsaxlokk where he warned that a situation where there is no unity and where it is not clear who is taking decisions in a government leads to economic stagnation leading to widespread negative effects in all sectors.

Earlier this week, Partit Demokratiku (PD) leader and former Labour Party MP Marlene Farrugia announced that an agreement had been reached with the Nationalist Party, that will see PD candidates contesting the next general election on a Nationalist Party ticket.

Besides being stable, continued Muscat, a government must also be credible.

He stressed that it was very easy for parties to put big projects down on paper, but the crux of the matter was whether these promises are actually enacted after they have been promised.

“It’s easy for one to put big twenty or thirty year projects down on paper,” he said, clearly referring to media reports that the PN would soon be announcing plans for a metro system that will take roughly 20 years to complete. He said that while the government was also working on similar long-term projects, people will judge these projects based on the respective parties’ track-record.

He said that people could clearly see changes in the way roads were being built, with clear completion dates that were being met. He pointed to changes at Gozo Channel and the closing of the Marsa power station as proof that the current administration is credible when it comes to following through on its promises.

“In only four years, we got rid of heavy fuel oil and we will shortly be signing the agreement for us to have a gas pipeline with Italy, allowing the tanker to leaver our shores once and for all,” said Muscat of the government’s main electoral pledge to reform the energy sector.

He said the current administration was one of the first to systematically ensure that electoral promises where kept, while acknowledging that there were still some promises to be kept.

“I have a list of projects that still need to be started,” he said, adding that many of these promises related to doing good on injustices created by past administrations. “The difference however is that the problems that were created by others and which they did nothing about, will be solved by us.”

The Prime Minister also acknowledged that "the government had made mistakes, some very big mistakes in some cases", but had always used them to learn and improve, he said.

Despite this, he said that the government’s results were there for all to see and “feel in the level of their quality of life”, adding that he was convinced that when the nation compares its situation today, with that during the previous legislature, it could easily conclude that the country was better off.

This was clearly visible from Eurostat data published this week showing that 81% of the population felt that country’s economy was moving in the right direction, he said.

“Irrespective of how people vote, they believe the country is doing well,” added Muscat.

He said this was evidenced by a number of the week’s developments such as the fact the over 6,000 people would be receiving a cheque for a refund on their vehicle registration tax, money which he said had been “stolen” from them by previous administrations.

He also pointed the announcement this week that Mater Dei Hospital has seen a 99% decrease in the number of patients treated in corridors over the last 12 months, when compared to the last year of a Nationalist administration.  

Also of relevance he said, was an agreement reached this week between the government and quarry operators, that will see unused quarries being used for dumping construction and demolition waste.

Finally, Muscat hailed the new cohabitation law which was approved by parliament on Monday, adding that the law had been promised since the 90s and would improve the lives of “thousands” of unmarried people living together, in many cases with children.

Turning to opposition leader Simon Busuttil, Muscat said that it was clear that he had broken party financing laws by ordering PN companies to issue fake invoices for advertising that never took place in order to receive money from a company.

He said that despite calls for the Opposition to publish these invoices, it was refusing to do so, despite it hounding the government for months about the publishing of contract it signed with third parties.

“This is the first government that published all contracts. We published all these contracts, and Simon Busuttil is refusing to publish invoices,” stressed Muscat. 

Joseph Muscat only guarantees stability in corruption, traffic and crime - PN

Taking the prime minister to task, the Nationalist Party said a Labour government led by Muscat would guarantee stability in corruption, traffic, injustice and crime.

“Under Joseph Muscat, this government has become the most corrupt in the country’s history, traffic congestion has increased, and the level of crime has soared to an unprecedented rate,” it said.