Opposition MP warns of surging cost of living, particularly food

Jason Azzopardi sounded alarm bells about the rising cost of living, warning that even the most essential food items have become significantly more expensive.

“The Labour Party is no longer a workers’ party, and only cares about satisfying the people within its inner circle,” he said during a parliamentary debate about this year’s Budget.

He cited a recent Eurostat survey that indicated that the cost of living in Malta is increasing at the second highest rate in the EU.

“Food prices increased by 2.63% last year when compared to 2014, around three times higher than the average increase in prices of all goods,” he said.

“This hits low-income earners and people on precarious employment earners working in precarious conditions, as they proportionally spend a higher chunk of their earnings on food than any other income group.”

He recounted how he had met a school cleaner, on a €4.20 hourly wage on a contract with the Department of Education that is renewed every three months.

“The government clearly doesn’t care about her, as it cares about people close to its inner circle to whom it hands out positions of trust,” he said. “The cleaner earns €4.20 an hour while the Café Premier owner received €4.2 million.”

Azzopardi criticised finance minister Edward Scicluna for fearing deflation, challenging him to tell low-income earners to their faces that a reduction in the cost of living would be a bad thing. 

He also argued that the real wage, the mean wage adjusted for inflation, decreased by 0.8% in 2013 to €346.80 a week and remained at the same level in 2014.

“The government’s own economic survey indicates that the average real wage has continued to plunge to a lower level than it was at in 2011.”

He cited a recent MaltaToday survey in which public concerns about corruption and public transport are at the highest rate since 2013. Worries about corruption increased by seven points since August, and corruption has become the most pressing concern amongst PN voters and the second most serious concern of university graduates.

He noted that immigration remains a major concern, made so by people immigrating to Malta to take up low-paying jobs.

“There are thousands of Serbs in Malta. Serbia is not an EU country and yet you can now see Serbs wherever you go – why is this so?”

‘Azzopardi crying crocodile tears’ – Bartolo

Employment minister Evarist Bartolo dismissed Azzopardi’s arguments on the rising cost of living as political hypocrisy.

“I hope he has a handkerchief large enough to wipe away his crocodile tears,” he said. “Under the previous administration, Jason Azzopardi was one of the Cabinet ministers who had accepted to increase their honoraria by €500 a week at a time when the cost of living had surged.

He also hit out at the Opposition MP for his "chauvinistic attack" against the immigration of Eastern Europeans seeking work in Malta. 

“The truth is that we have enough jobs available in Malta to cater for both the Maltese and the foreigners who want to work here,” he said. “It is easy to criticise immigrants, but it doesn’t make sense, neither from a moral Christian Democrat perspective nor from an economic standpoint.”

“We must prepare Maltese society to the realities of globalization in the 21st century. Some schools on the island have students from up to 72 different islands, and the students themselves enjoy mixing with people from different cultures.”
He added that workplace diversity also poses an advantage to businesses, “who negotiate with foreign businesses and not the grocer down the street”.

“A mixture of different cultures is crucial in the workplace, as it helps employees better understand the realities of the outside world.”