The Nationalist Party has proposed the introduction of a minimum living income in Malta which seeks to combat the reality of material good deprivation. 

A proposal was put forth by PN MP Ivan Bartolo at a press conference titled ‘Living or Existing?’, during which Opposition leader Bernard Grech said that society had an obligation and a moral duty to observe the reality of those deprived of material goods. 

The PN made public four proposals that would form part of its electoral manifest in areas tied to poverty and social justice. ‘We don’t want people working 40 hours a week stretching themselves thin over and above that just to put food on the table’ said Bartolo. 

He said the Opposition was looking at several financial models which would see an adjustment in wages without straining taxpayers or employers but also giving low wage earners the possibility to attain a decent standard of living. 

Saying that the party wants to have employers seeing raising wages as an exercise in getting more value from their employers, Bartolo said that investing in individuals and the work they are doing will result in them doing the work more efficiently and wasting less time. 

The mechanism would seek to expand families’ disposable income, with more details expected to be announced in the run-up to a general election. The party also proposed setting up poverty watch coalitions between NGOs and government entities to have ‘realistic information on poverty and take timely preventive action.’ 

The party would also be committed to tackling the waiting list of homeless people currently waiting for a place in a shelter. With around 300 such people, he said temporary housing solutions would be found to prevent them from sleeping rough in the interim. Finally, the concept of corporate social responsibility in all sectors of business would be introduced. 

Bernard Grech said that ‘we can boast about statistics that indicate that poverty is going down, but statistics do not feed those who are literally going hungry. There are thousands of people in this country who are simply existing and not living.’ 

Noting that the economy had substantially grown during the years preceding the pandemic, he also noted how the need for food banks and soup kitchens to cater for those unable to keep with rising costs also did. 

“Some have told me that inflation is not just a Malta problem, but a global problem and this is why the PN has previously proposed setting up a fund that tackles issues like importation prices,” he said.

#MaltaDaily