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The fifth day of the general elections campaign
By MaltaMedia News
Feb 9, 2008 - 11:11:49 AM
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Government has been striving to keep food prices stable, said Prime Minister Gonzi on Friday – the fifth day of the electoral campaign – during a visit to Valle del Miele poultry farm.
 Dr Gonzi also said that substantial subsidies have been given to farmers to avoid “explosions in food prices as is happening abroad. Abroad, the prices of products similar to what Valle del Miele is producing have gone up by 20% or 30%.”
The Leader of the Opposition and the Malta Labour Party Dr Alfred Sant, started his fifth day of campaigning with a press conference in Cirkewwa. Speaking of the ferries harbour project, he said that this is a prime example of bad governance that leads to loss of public funds despite the Nationalist Party’s claims of a strong pair of hands at the helm. He said that Labour will reverse the bad governance of the Nationalist Government and replace it by more efficiency in managing public affairs.
 Dr Sant went on to pledge that a Labour Administration would finish the pending works within six months and investigate why this project fell behind schedule by over five years and is costing us much more than originally projected.
During the “Mieghek fil-Misrah” event at Freedom Square in Valletta, Dr Alfred Sant said that PM Gonzi himself had back in 2004 wanted that the first hundred hours of overtime be paid at the normal hourly rate. Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Dr Charles Mangion, insisted that under a Labour administration overtime would continue to be paid at the current rate of time-and-a-half.
Meanwhile, all 70 candidates fielded by the Labour Party were approved by MLP delegates during the second session of the extraordinary general conference on Friday evening. Approval was by secret vote.
On Friday evening, Prime Minister Gonzi had a meeting with young people. PM Gonzi said that a Labour government had reduced students' stipends, whereas the present government had not only retained them but also increased stipneds in particular areas. A Nationalist government has also invested a lot in education and has attracted foriegn investment that would ensure work for young people, Dr Gonzi said.
In a press conference, Chairperson of Alternattiva Demokratika, the green party, Dr. Harry Vassallo stated that " Labour's proposal to slash the surcharge by half is just a cheap electoral gimmick, and is environmentally a sacrilege, because it will effectively give more subsidy to those families who are least energy efficient. On the other hand we do not believe that a uniform rate of surcharge as imposed by Minister Austin Gatt is sufficiently effective both environmentally and socially. Therefore in our proposals for a coalition we have presented the electorate with a specific proposal on how the surcharge can be revised.”
Party spokesperson on Finance and the Economy Edward Fenech stated that "we are proposing that rather than just one flat rate of surcharge, a number of different rates are introduced that would apply according to usage on a per capita household basis. In this way those families which are energy efficient would incur a lower rate of surcharge than the current 50%, whilst families that are not energy efficient would pay more that the current rate.. In this way the heavy users would be contributing towards slashing the surcharge for the efficient users. This proposal would be cost neutral to government. Our proposal would enable the next coalition government to lower the surcharge for those deserving so whilst reaping the same amount of money from the surcharge.
© Copyright 2008 by MaltaMedia.com
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Latest update:
Feb 10, 2008 - 12:54:54 AM CET
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