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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at a media stand-up after attending a radio phone-in programme this morning (June 6):
Reporter: You mentioned a lot of indicators about the relationship and you said the court will have to use common sense along similar line, do you expect your proposal, I mean the law, is watertight and there would be no controversies in future?
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare: We have definitely done our best to address the concerns of every quarter in fact. Our position is quite clear in terms of legal status, in terms of the Government's policy. We do not recognize same sex marriages. We do not recognize civil partnership and same sex relationships. The position is quite clear. On that basis, we are looking for a so called "common ground". And the common ground is, no body disagrees that same sex co-habitation relationship should be protected. They all agree that we should extend the civil remedy to this group of people. So on that basis, we have now devised a formula which, as I said, very clearly cut out all references in the bill to marriages, matrimonial relationship and so on. In other words, there is no relationship at all between what we are doing now in the bill vis-ˆj-vis in normal marriage relationship. I think it is pretty watertight and pretty safe on that basis.
Reporter: Can you explain what actually triggered the consideration of changing the current legislation of domestic violence?
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare: The background is, if you go back to history, in fact last year in the Legislative Council, last summer, the Government actually proposed extending the scope of the Domestic Violence Ordinance, which is enacted way back in 1986, to cover those people, of course, other than just couples, also former spouses as well, and also cohabitants as well, of course, we talked about heterosexual relationship, and also the extended family as well, the relationship like grandchildren, grannies and so on. We recognize there was a need for it and we went for it. In the process of amending it, there was a very strong voice of opinion in LegCo - all political parties, LegCo members - said that the same protection should be extended to same sex cohabitants as well. We have examined the grounds for it. The Government's position is quite clear. As I said, we do not recognize, in terms of legal status, in terms of Government policy, same sex relationship in Hong Kong, same sex marriage and civil partnership. This is our basic premises. But having said that, we recognize that we are talking about people's safety at stake, violence, and all these life-threatening situations can be very dangerous. So on that basis, purely in the context, in a unique and distinct context of domestic violence, we agreed that we are prepared to amend the law. When we took the proposal to the new term of LegCo this year, we met with very strong reaction from the religious bodies and the educational sector as well for fear this will impact on the institution of marriage, and also impact on particularly morality of society. The debate therefore started. And I went to LegCo, they had deputations for two weekends. Over 100 bodies turned up airing their views and I promised to take back all the views and analyse them and come up with a viable option acceptable to everybody. Now we come up with a win-win formula which caters for everybody's needs and concerns as well. So I think this is the best viable option. The way forward is to take the bill forward as quickly as possible.
Reporter: What do you think of the latest jobless rate in the United States? How would you expect in Hong Kong. Would you give a brief summary of how many jobs are losing so far this year?
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare: If you look at the Hong Kong employment situation, the pace of increase in unemployment has slowed down tangibly. This is something that we feel rather encouraged but we must not be complacent because the external environment is still fluid. The general economic situation is still challenging. So we have to brace ourselves for a continued increase in the unemployment in Hong Kong, particularly in the summer, a lot of graduates coming up joining the labour market, school leavers and so on. So we expect there would be pressure on employment. If you look at the number of jobs lost in January and February this year, we are talking about 15,600 on the average. But then the figure started to taper off rather notably to 5,500 in March and April. That explains to a certain extent why unemployment rate increase has slowed down. What actually led to the deceleration in the pace of unemployment rate, I think largely because the series of initiatives, of measures launched by the Government are starting to filter through, particularly, if you look at the construction side as well. We are getting more jobs now and also the general atmosphere, particularly the Government-guaranteed deposit scheme, a loan scheme, enabling at least over 8,000 SMEs to retain over 140,000 jobs over the last few months. This is very important. Coupled with the fact that the Financial Secretary recently announced another package of measures. All these would have a helpful effect, particularly will be creating a number of jobs for a cleansing purpose in the institutions. All these will help particularly those with low skills, middle-aged people looking for jobs. And also Operation Building Bright will be stepping up its effort, increasing another 1,000 block as well, creating 10,000 jobs over the next two years on top of the original 10,000 jobs. All of these add up to a very very important sort of so called "impact" on the labour market.
Reporter: And the case in America?
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare: It is difficult for me to comment but of course, if you look at the rate it's also very high, highest in the last 24 years. But the number of job lost is coming down. It is very difficult to analyse the situation in America but of course we hope the American situation will improve because this will in the end benefit Hong Kong. After all, it will help consumer spending. As far as Hong Kong is concerned, we have continued our effort to create jobs and to maintain the general economic development here.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, June 6, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:47
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