Carmel Cacopardo
Yesterday ADPD – The Green Party approved its electoral manifesto. It is not a supermarket list of what is on offer for your vote. It is an alternative vision, a proposal for the development of an alternative future which respects you. A future which is not built on proposed tax cuts or government handouts but on the full respect of your rights.
It is a vision based on solidarity, not one based on a free for all. Solidarity means that we care for one another. One way through which we care is by paying taxes due. This essentially signifies that we still consider taxation as an instrument of social justice. Do we?
Unfortunately, the message communicated through the daily publication of an ever-increasing list of electoral gimmicks: reduced taxation, handouts and subsidies is sharply in contrast. It signifies that caring is no longer fashionable. Tax cuts should be handled with care as there is a risk of communicating the wrong message.
In this context the super-bonus is meant to be another electoral carrot, deviating attention from the proposed tax cuts.
Having a proper living wage, is more appropriate than supplementing the current miserable minimum wage with a €1,000 super-bonus dished out as an electoral ploy. Developing the minimum wage into a living wage is definitely an exercise of practical social justice. Instead, we are faced with another gimmick intended to trick you into the mechanics of transactional politics. You exchange your vote for favours dished out by Labour.
From what is known so far, this briefly illustrates what is on offer. Reduced taxation, glamorous handouts and subsidies.
It is said that these proposals are costed. We have heard this many a time over the years. Yet we are still lumped with a national debt close to the €12 billion mark. Debt servicing costs are currently estimated to approximately cost €814,000 daily.
Going by the current gimmicks on display, the future is one of transactional politics, that is you exchange your vote for highly visible cash benefits, handouts, tax reductions and subsidies.
In contrast the green manifesto champions social and environmental justice, reinforced with transparency and accountability.
On a regular basis Caritas studies have documented the fact that the minimum wage is far below what is necessary as a living wage. The minimum wage is approximately 40 per cent less than an appropriate living wage. Would it be more appropriate to address this basic and fundamental discrepancy as a priority instead of dishing out all sorts of electoral gimmicks?
It is indeed unfortunate that instead of social solidarity we are lumped with a template of transactional politics, which continuously dishes out handouts in exchange for votes. This goes beyond the epilepsy pension fraud, carried out on the eve of the 2022 general elections behind closed doors.
We have been repeated told that making work pay is the way forward. Yet we are lumped with an indecent minimum wage. We need a living wage: it should be sufficient for the basic needs of a family. Unfortunately, the current minimum wage is not a living wage. It needs to be substantially increased.
On the eve of general elections, we do not need electoral gimmicks promising a super bonus or extravagant tax cuts. We need an economy which cares and provides a living wage.
The Caritas studies repeatedly indicated the way forward many moons ago. Yet Parliament keeps ignoring it! Only Green Members of Parliament can ensure that Parliament addresses this decency gap thereby ensuring that the minimum wage is also a living wage.
First published in The Malta Independent on Sunday: 10 May 2026
