Muscat takes Sunday address to the internet

The Labour Party this morning held its first Google Hangout, during which leader Joseph Muscat sat down with ten participants from all walks of life to take questions and even at times debating the finer points of a number of far-reaching issues, which included job security, MEPA reforms, the financial services sector, employment, and the IVF draft bill.

Thoroughly enjoyed #GoogleHangout -JM — Joseph Muscat(@JosephMuscat_JM) August 5, 2012

The Google Hangout event represents the first attempt by the Labour Party to shift its traditional Sunday morning address to an online platform. In this regard, the Labour Party was following in the footsteps of breakthroughs by the Nationalist Party, which had similarly replaced its Sunday sermon style address with an online chat.

 During the web-broadcast debate, Muscat reiterated that one of the PL's top-most priorities is the "unacceptably high" degree of early school leavers (35%), which Muscat said often find themselves depending on social services for years because they lacked the schooling and skills to join the workforce. If they did, he added, they often ended up exploited as workers, and would be unable to contribute to the national skill pool.

Muscat insisted that these early school leavers need attention. "We need to see why they left school. We need to see how to bring out their school and potential. We can do this by either encouraging them to go back to school, or nurturing their skills by bringing them into the workforce," Muscat said.

He insisted that the upcoming Labour manifesto "won't be a wish list, but will have concrete measures towards this end."

He also insisted on the value of social mobility, and said that this was especially relevant to both working class and middle class families trying to improve their quality of life. "Our road map for the country's economic growth will focus on them - the middle class will be the main mover upon which the country will advance and prosper," Muscat said.

Muscat insisted that it was "not acceptable" that people in their mid-to-late teens cannot read or write, and maintained that "the issue of literacy is crucial."

He added that the country needs to ensure that certain skills within its workforce are maximised, and said the Labour Party would "need to find ways so that in those areas where the educational system does not provide guarantees, the state will be able to intervene with employment measures."

Answering a question about Labour's approach to the Maltese financial services sector, and how EU efforts to harmonise tax bands or introduce corporate taxation, Muscat said that Labour would ensure the "continuity".

He said that Labour opposed the introduction of the Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, as it would "undermine Malta's competitiveness in this regard." He insisted also that Malta needs to be clear and vociferous within the EU towards this end, and praised the manner in which the PN Government has stood firm and "defended the issue properly."

He added that Labour "would keep this up, and also ensure that there are new skills - especially in the financial services industry - that will attract financial services operators into the country."

At the same time, Muscat said that there is a need to protect investors within the financial services industry, "especially in the manner of how advertising and sales are done." He said that those buying financial investment services "should know what they are getting into."

On IVF, Muscat said that the State should not interfere in family life unless it is a wide-scope policy, and maintained that "those who speak dogmatically on IVF and similar sciences, likening them to something unnatural, are doing a disservice to the human nature."

He noted that the first report on IVF, tabled by a parliamentary committee, received consensus from both sides of the House. "The proposed bill does not reflect the previous consensus which was reached in parliament."

Muscat reiterated the PL's cautious approach: "We are not shooting from the hip. We do not want to base ourselves on instinctive reactions or emotional responses. We're studying the proposed draft and the feasibility of such a framework, so that we'll be in a position to present our arguments in the upcoming parliamentary debate."

Asked about how the Smart City project was not able to fulfil its 7,000 job creation target, Muscat said the Labour Party, as opposed to the Nationalist Party, "won't promise what it cannot achieve, or what is unrealistic."

He said that while the Labour Party believed, and still believes, in the Smart City project, the government has chosen to disassociate itself from the project completely. He added that while in the past year, it was basing every initiative on the 'smart' theme, that same word has become "the most rubbished word in the Maltese political dictionary."

Muscat insisted that the main aim of the Smart City project can yet be accomplished, and reiterated that the Labour Party's visit to Dubai served to bring investors and the PL closer together and "started building a relationship of reciprocal trust."

He also said that it was unacceptable that the government's justification for Smart City not living up to its employment targets was that 'someone did not dismantle a (sewage) pumping station."

On MEPA, Muscat said that the recent reform did not have any tangible effect, and reiterated that Labour's proposals on the subject advocate a shift to a model adopted by other EU countries. Such a model, he said, would see MEPA's environmental protection and development planning functions split into separate entities.

Discussing a suggestion that internships should be more central to job-creation efforts, Muscat expressed a broad agreement, while cautioning that such efforts require an effective regulatory framework. This was essential, he said, to avoid instances of exploitation and internships replacing actual jobs.