News | Sunday, 24 May 2009

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Public will pay dearly for Delimara tender – Muscat

Labour leader Joseph Muscat yesterday said Lawrence Gonzi had lost the people’s trust after failing to keep the promises he made before the 2008 election.
Addressing supporters in Floriana yesterday, ahead of a mass meeting today in Ta’ Qali, Muscat said Gonzi was losing control of his MPs, the PN and the country’s governance.
“He fooled various sectors of society before the elections, amongst them bus owners, Go employees, teachers, dockyard workers, nurses and doctors. After taking their vote, he is saying he wants to do his own thing and not keep his promises,” Muscat said.
Referring to the prime minister’s address to hunters in a meeting organised by MEP candidate Alex Perici Calascione, Muscat said neither hunters nor conservationists BirdLife now trusted Gonzi.
In a recording uploaded on both party’s websites, Gonzi can be heard telling hunters that he cannot be accused of not keeping up the fight to retain spring hunting in the European Court of Justice. Perici Calascione himself is a lawyer on the Maltese team at the ECJ.
Muscat also alleged that Maltese workers at the Freeport were being sidelined by the management who instead were favouring foreign workers who were being paid less.
“Gonzi cannot brag of job creation but he is pleased that pensioners are going out to look for jobs, when they are doing it because they are not keeping up with the cost of living,” Muscat said.
The PL leader said young couples were also taking longer to have children due to the cost of living, utility bills, and said unemployment had increased by 31% in the past six months. “Gonzi must reduce taxes and give people a breather,” Muscat said.
He reiterated his criticism of the tender award of the Delimara power station extension to a firm whose bid was more expensive and less environmentally friendly than other options. The matter has been brought to the Prime Minister’s attention by Israeli firm Bateman, which is protesting the contract award. “Even the former Nationalist minister Michael Falzon has criticised Gonzi’s government for the way this tender was awarded, and likewise environmental NGOs and physicist Edward Mallia and other experts warned the tender award had dire consequences for the country.”
Muscat also made a rallying call to ‘Nationalists who feel hurt’ at the government. “I know that people who voted for Gonzi and who were fooled by him are considering not voting. I tell them to vote Labour, because Labour is the natural home for all Maltese and Gozitans,” he said.

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