PN leader Alex Borg issued 50 proposals in his Budget reaction speech last night.

While the national child trust fund was his main focus, he issued some other interesting ideas – such as an endorsement of Adrian Delia’s afforestation proposal, a four-day work week pilot project, and a transition towards a paperless court system.

Other proposals, such as “eliminating cheap labour” and “reducing bureaucracy” were left extremely generic and vague.

These are the 50 proposals he issued yesterday.

1. Removing tax from COLA increases

2. Fiscal incentives for employers to encourage investment

3. Tax cuts for everyone

4. Zero tax on the first €10,000 you earn from part-time or overtime work

5. A pilot project on a four-day week, following consultation with social partners

6. Incentivise businesses to encourage remote work, as well as the option of reduced and flexible hours

7. Widen the concept of teleworking, reduced hours and flexible hours in the civil service

8. Incentivise businesses to provide child care centres on their own premises

9. Eliminate the “cheap labour that this government created”.

10. Diversify the economy to ensure workers’ salaries increase

11. Build new economic niches, such as MedTech, cybersecurity and cryptography, that are based on value-added, not population growth.

12. Serious investment in the maritime and aviation sectors

13. Financial assistance to Maltese NGOs and artists

14. Equal pay for equal work for contractor staff who provide services to the government

15. Incentivise civil servants to invest in a second pillar pension

16. Raise pensions to ensure elderly people can live comfortably

17. Significant investment in the police force

18. Attract high-spending tourists

19. A Labour Market Study to ensure sustainable population dynamics

20. A mass transport system to ease traffic

21. An AI system to coordinate traffic flows

22. Invest in roads that serve multiple modes of transport

23. A comprehensive study aimed at eliminating traffic bottlenecks

24. Incentivise car pooling

25. Ensure there are enough LSEs for students who need them

26. Build new schools

27. Modernise school science labs

28. A serious strategy to incentivise more students to take up STEM subjects

29. Reopen vocational and trade schools

30. Build a new mental health hospital

31. Regenerate Mount Carmel, St Luke’s and Karin Grech Hospital.

32. Build a new hospital in Gozo

33. Further invest in palliative care

34. Build a modern centre for neurodivergent children

35. Update the heath procurement system to add more medicines to the formulary, eliminate out-of-stock medicines and reduce operation waiting lists

36. Reduce bureaucracy for businesses

37. Attract quality foreign direct investment

38. A national afforestation and ecological restoration project

39. A ‘New Water’ storage project for farmers

40. Maintain energy subsidies while strongly investing in renewables

41. Increase waste collection frequency

42. New Gozo ferries

43. Transform the Mġarr Port

44. A new permanent route between Mġarr (Gozo) and the Freeport for the transport of goods

45. A new Gozitan court

46. Drastic reduction in court delays

47. Transition towards a paperless court

48. Identify new social housing projects

49. Significant assistance to first-time buyers

50. A national child trust fund.