'We will not let power get to our heads' - Deputy Prime Minister

The government will keep its feet on the ground and not let power get to its head, Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech said. 

"We realize the strength of power, but also the responsibility it brings about," Grech said in his closing speech during the second plenary session of the Labour Party's annual general conference. "We will keep our feet on the ground and not let it get to our heads. Contrary to the PN, we do not think that we have a divine right to govern, but realize that governance is a result of the people's faith.

"The faith of the people must be constantly guaranteed, such as by creating work. We have proven that our pre-electoral message was relevant, as we've already fulfilled 50% of our electoral programme promises."

"The PN’s strategy is based on negativity and fear, while the PL’s is based on optimism and courage."

He said that the government accepts criticism for its mistakes and warned that they face challenges in reducing poverty levels and in tackling racism and xenophobia. 

However, he hit out at 'unfair' criticism that the government had 'lost its social soul'.

"We reduced electricity bills, improved civil rights, gave bonuses to pensioners, increased stipends, and provided in-work benefits," Grech pointed out.

Labour whip Godfrey Farrugia pointed out that good governance has become crucial in a world that has become more multicultural and materialistic and in which political antipathy has grown and public opinion has spread to cover a larger branch of sectors.

He also hit out at the previous administration.

"The PN didnt only lose the electorate's trust because they had come up against a strong Labour Party but because they were arrogant and careless and led on a basis of 'us and them', one that eventually cut themselves off from reality," Farrugia said. "Now that we're facing a weak Opposition, it's easy to become overly confident. However, we mustn't let being in government get to our heads and we must continuously evaluate the current reality."

Nisa Labouristi member Nikita Alamango pointed out that 70 years have passed since the Holocaust but that another serious human rights tragedy is ongoing in Palestine- a comment that drew claps from the audience and from the Prime Minister. 

EU funds parliamentary secretary Ian Borg criticised Opposition leader Simon Busuttil for claiming that the government is robbing people whenever they fill up their cars with fuel.

"I remind him that Muscat had thrashed his party in the previous election, and that Muscat's election as Prime Minister was the best thing that could have happened to Malta," he said to a room of cheers. 

"Disgustingly, the Opposition recently tried to use an elderly person's death to score political points in parliament, while seemingly forgetting the mistakes it had committed within the health sector when they were in government," Borg said.

Family Minister Michael Farrugia highlighted the social benefit schemes that the government has introduced to tackle school absenteeism.

"Education can counter poverty," Farrugia said. "A substantial amount of people are still living in or at risk of poverty, but we definitely don't consider poverty to be a perception as the previous administration had done."

He also announced the opening of a new four-bedroom house to accommodate people with a disability, the third such house to be set up in Malta in recent months. 

He added that the government has introduced private pension schemes that will allow pensioners to live decent lives, and that it has planning to build more social houses. 

Health parliamentary secretary Chris Fearne said that the bed shortage problem in Mater Dei that the Opposition has recently criticised is the fruit of the previous administration building a hospital that wasn't big enough to cater to the nation's health needs. 

"3000 people were treated on stretchers in Mater Dei in the final seven months of 2012, whereas only 400 patients were treated as such in the final seven months of 2014," Fearne said. "We greatly reduced waiting lists, out-of-stock medicines, and the average waiting time in A&E has been reduced from 8 hours to 4 hours. We will also add 300 new beds to Mater Dei."

Referring to the oil scandal, Environment Minister Leo Brincat said that the time will come when people involved in it will have to shoulder responsibility. 

"Muscat still enjoys the same level of popularity over Busuttil as he had at the start of his term as Prime Minister," Brincat. "This is because we have stuck to our electoral plan and strengthened the middle class, the decisive factor in every election."