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Following is a question by the Hon Frederick Fung and a written reply by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, in the Legislative Council today (February 25):
Question:
At the Question and Answer Session of this Council on January 15 this year, the Chief Executive stated that, in order to address the impact of the financial tsunami, every responsible government would re-examine the priority for policies currently in sight and defer dealing with those policies which were neither urgent nor related to countering the financial tsunami. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the Legislative Programme submitted to this Council by the Government last October indicated that the Government intended to introduce 27 bills into this Council in the current legislative session, and four of the bills have been introduced so far, whether the Government will introduce the remaining bills into this Council within the current legislative session as scheduled; if not, whether it is due to the above reason; and
(b) of the "policies in sight" originally scheduled for implementation this and next year, and the original implementation timetable; apart from the public consultation on constitutional development, of the other policy proposals the implementation of which will be deferred after re-examination, and the justifications for the deferral?
Reply:
President,
(a) In October 2008, the Administration provided the Legislative Council (LegCo) with the 2008-09 Legislative Programme, setting out the 27 bills that the Administration intended to introduce into LegCo in the current legislative session. Among them, five were intended for introduction in the first half of the legislative session (i.e. between October 2008 and February 2009) and the remainder were intended for introduction in the second half of the legislative session (i.e. between March and July 2009).
In the first half of the current legislative session, the Administration has submitted four bills, three of which are on schedule (i.e. the Public Health and Municipal Services (Amendment) Bill 2008, the Road Traffic (Driving-offence Points) (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the Disciplined Services Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2009) while one (i.e. the Adaptation of Laws Bill 2009) was submitted earlier than scheduled. The number is reasonably proximate to that provided in the Legislative Programme submitted to LegCo in October 2008. The two bills which have not been introduced into LegCo as scheduled are the Building Management (Amendment) Bill and the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill. For the Building Management (Amendment) Bill, when the Administration consulted the Panel on Home Affairs on the statutory declaration requirement, panel Members noted that the public had different views on retaining the existing statutory requirement and requested the Administration to explore administrative measures to assist members of management committee to observe the existing requirement. In the light of Members' views, the Administration will first study the relevant administrative measures. As for the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill, when the Government consulted the Panel on Welfare Services on the proposed amendments as scheduled last December, panel Members held different views on the proposals. The Panel subsequently conducted two public hearings in January this year during which various deputations and members of the public were invited to express their views on the proposed amendments. The Administration is carefully considering the views expressed by various parties in drafting the bill. It remains the target of the Administration to introduce the relevant amendments into LegCo within the 2008-09 legislative session.
As in the past, we will review the Legislative Programme in the middle of the legislative session. Upon completion of the mid-session review, the Administration will follow the usual practice of providing LegCo with an updated Legislative Programme, setting out the bills that the Administration intends to introduce into LegCo in the second half of the legislative session (i.e. between March and July 2009).
(b) The Chief Executive announced on January 15, 2009 the decision to slightly postpone the public consultation on the two electoral methods for 2012 to the fourth quarter of this year so that the community could focus its efforts on dealing with economic issues arising from the financial tsunami. Bureaux will continue to make preparation on policy proposals under their respective purview and review from time to time according to prevailing circumstances. In case of major changes in the timing of policy proposals, the Administration will brief LegCo in accordance with the existing mechanism.
Ends/Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:20
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