[Watch] Nationalist budget to be adopted ‘lock, stock and barrel’

Labour leader Joseph Muscat was welcomed to a standing ovation by workers inside the canteen of the Actavis pharmaceutical company, who hosted a Q&A session with Muscat.

Some read out their questions from pieces of paper - even lofty questions on tax harmonisation were pitched at the Opposition leader.

Muscat assured workers there that the budget proposed in November by the Nationalist government would be adopted "lock, stock and barrel" except for the €60 tax on minimum wage earners.

"If we are elected, it would not make sense to spend five months preparing a new budget... we have significant proposals for working mothers, but none of our proposals will replace existent initiatives. What we will propose is over and above what already exists."

Muscat also said Labour was a believed in manufacture and the importance of factories: Actavis alone, established back in 1976, employs 600, 130 of workers there are graduates.

"We want to facilitate bureaucracy for these companies, and introduce patent laws and consolidate existing laws."

In a Q&A he held with workers, Muscat said the reduction of energy tariffs would give people more cash in hand and help the economic wheel start turning. "It's not just about money, but also about safeguarding the environment and health," Muscat said of his party's proposal to go build a new LNG power station.

Muscat also reiterated proposals to have an energy audit of homes, where an engineer would visit households to analyse what can be done to save energy. "This service will be paid for by the government and will come with a scrapping scheme for old appliances."