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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
The Legislative Council will hold a meeting this Wednesday (November 18) at 11am in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building. During the meeting, Members will debate a motion on providing support for family carers.
The motion, to be moved by Mr Wong Sing-chi, states: "That, out of care and love rooted in family ethics, family carers (i.e. people taking care of their chronically ill, disabled or elderly family members without remuneration) work tirelessly and give up their job to look after their ill or elderly family members day and night while facing social, psychological, physical and financial pressures and agony, hence substantially reducing the Government's expenditure in areas such as social services, medical care and education; in order to affirm their contributions to Hong Kong, this Council urges the Government to adopt the following measures to provide support for family carers:
(a) to set up a 'subsidy system for carers of persons with disabilities' to alleviate their financial burden;
(b) to recognise that family carers have contributed to the community and they are partners of the Government, and include the services of family carers into the scope of social welfare planning;
(c) to enhance relief support services for carers so as to enable them to take a respite, which include:
(i) adopting a family case approach to manage different categories of persons with disabilities and illness, so as to reduce the chance of family carers developing carer syndrome;
(ii) increasing the provision of day care bed service;
(iii) increasing the provision of respite care bed service; and
(iv) having to introduce emergency respite care bed service;
(d) to provide long-term and stable support for self-help family carers organisations; and
(e) to set up an inter-departmental group to review afresh the effectiveness of community care support services."
Mr Cheung Kwok-che and Mr Wong Yuk-man will move amendments to Mr Wong Sing-chi's motion respectively.
Members will also debate another motion on strengthening and continuously supporting the teaching and learning of Chinese for non-Chinese speaking students. The motion, to be moved by Dr Margaret Ng, says: "That, as the Race Discrimination Ordinance passed by this Council in 2008 still has many deficiencies, the Government must introduce policies to achieve racial equality in a more comprehensive manner; this Council urges the Government to strengthen and continuously support the teaching and learning of Chinese for non-Chinese speaking ('NCS') students, to develop, having regard to the Chinese proficiency and the needs of NCS students, learning objectives and relevant diagnostic and assessment tools for different stages, including external assessment standards, and to provide appropriate teaching materials and effective pedagogies so as to facilitate effective learning, with the ultimate objective of upgrading NCS students' Chinese proficiency, including listening, speaking, reading and writing, so that they can compete in the local employment market and gain entry to various professional sectors."
Mr Cheung Man-kwong and Ms Starry Lee will move amendments to Dr Margaret Ng's motion respectively.
On bills, Second Reading debate on the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2009 will resume. If the Bill is supported by Members and receives its Second Reading, it will then go through the Committee Stage and proceed to Third Reading. Moreover, the Import and Export (Amendment) Bill 2009 will be introduced into the Council for First and Second Readings. Debate on the Bill will be adjourned.
During the meeting, Members will also ask the Administration 20 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies.
The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the Legislative Council InfoFax Service (Tel: 2869 9568) or the Legislative Council web site (http://www.legco.gov.hk).
Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Legislative Council Chamber. They may reserve seats by calling 2869 9399 during office hours. Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Members of the public can also listen to the meeting via the audio webcast system on the Legislative Council homepage.
Ends/Monday, November 16, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:57
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