Prime Minister laments public’s dim view of international events

Maltese people often take things for granted and don’t realize the effects that international events can have on their everyday lives, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today at Labour’s general conference.

“The lack of local discussion on recent events, such as the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing decision and the drop in the euro’s exchange rate worries me,” Muscat said in response to questions aired by delegates at the Labour Party’s annual general conference.

“It’s as though we live in a vacuum, when in reality, we’re become part of the global world and we don’t yet know how the results of tonight’s Greek elections will affect us.”

Hedging ‘an insurance’ against fuel price spikes

Muscat defended his government’s fuel hedging policy, describing it as an insurance against sudden spikes in fuel prices.

“It’s so hard to predict the future, so we’ve decided to work with policies of stability,” Muscat said. “For example, this week, King Abdullah died and the price of oil instantly increased by 2%.  Petrol prices have been reduced six times over the past two years, and we started reducing fuel prices before the global oil prices started plummeting.

“Our average fuel price is still lower than the average EU price. When our current hedging agreements end in the coming months, the prices will continue decreasing.”

Responding to the Opposition’s criticism that the government had not published enough information on the recent agreement between Enemalta and Chinese state-owned Shanghai Electric Power, Muscat said that he has already published far more than previous governments have.

“In an interview today, Busuttil refused to publish his party’s accounts, whereas the Labour Party publishes all of its accounts,” Muscat said. “However, he wants us to publish the agreements between the government and Shanghai Electric Power. We already published far more that any previous government had published before on contracts such as Maltco and Air Malta.”

‘School absenteeism has dropped dramatically’

Muscat said that school absenteeism had dropped ‘dramatically’ since the government introduced a scheme where families living in poverty receive €400 on condition that their children attend school.

“The trend is for children from poorer families to have a higher rate of school absenteeism,” Muscat said. “The culture of taking sick days off without a doctors certificates starts at a very young age. However, since we introduced that scheme, the absenteeism rate of government schools renowned for their high absenteeism rate is now at the same rate of private schools.”

He also said that the first group of teachers will be able to obtain sabbatical leave this year, taking a whole year off their career to sit for a Master’s degree.

‘Exploring possibility of Gozo tunnel and air strip’

Muscat said that he would explore the possibility of constructing a tunnel between Malta and Gozo.

“We’ve already analysed the possibility of constructing a bridge between the two islands,” Muscat said. “Connectivity is important for Gozo but such decisions cannot be taken haphazardly.”

He added that he is also analysing the potential construction of an air strip in Gozo.

“Eventually, we will also need to spend millions on new Gozo ferries and on introducing a fast ferry service between Mgarr and Sa Maison, Floriana,” Muscat said.

‘New bus ticket system will ease traffic flows’

The Prime Minister made reference to the upcoming bus ticket system under new public transport operators Alesa whereby tickets will cost 75c if bought via an ‘Oyster Card’ and €1.50 if bought directly on the bus.

“Buses stopping in the middle of the road to allow customers to buy tickets directly from the driver disrupts the flow of traffic,” Muscat said. “This new system will encourage people to buy tickets before boarding the bus. It sounds like a small change but I believe it will really ease traffic flows.”