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The Legislative Council (LegCo) will hold a meeting tomorrow (June 5) at 11am in the Chamber of the LegCo Complex. During the meeting, Members will debate a motion on safeguarding freedom of information, of the press and of the Internet.
The motion, to be moved by Mr Charles Peter Mok, states: "That, as the free flow of information is an important cornerstone of Hong Kong's economic and social development, this Council urges the Government to safeguard freedom of information, freedom of the press and freedom of the Internet, so as to uphold the core values cherished by the public and Hong Kong's economic development advantages."
Ms Claudia Mo, Mr Gary Fan, Ms Emily Lau and Dr Elizabeth Quat will move separate amendments to Mr Charles Peter Mok's motion; while Dr Fernando Cheung and Ms Cyd Ho will move amendments to Dr Elizabeth Quat's amendment respectively.
Members will also debate a motion on actively promoting family-friendly policies. The motion, to be moved by Ms Starry Lee, states: "That, given the occurrence of a number of family tragedies in Hong Kong in recent years, which have greatly shocked the society and reflected the existence of many unhealthy trends in today's society gradually breaking up, damaging and distorting the social and family relationships, this Council urges that the Government should make stronger efforts in promoting family-friendly policies, enhancing family cohesion and individual resilience against adversities, restoring mutual love among family members and building up positive family values, so as to create a harmonious society; the proposed measures include:
(1) the relevant departments should assess the gravity of domestic violence in Hong Kong at present, enhance the relevant social welfare services, review the modes of professional services for handling and supporting families in crisis and the corresponding effectiveness of inter-departmental support services, and strengthen outreach services, so as to provide families in crisis with highly efficient, timely and targeted services;
(2) to expeditiously implement an impact assessment system in respect of public policies on families to assess the impact of existing social policies, legislation and measures on families, so as to make the relevant improvements;
(3) to enhance the functions of the Family Council, and set up a 'social fund for families' to subsidise social welfare organisations to organise programmes and activities related to family education;
(4) to actively step up publicity on positive family education on parenting, child duties and ethics, and promote family education through community service organisations, schools and the media, etc.;
(5) to provide more child care support services to dual-income parents (including expanding community child-minding services, increasing the child-minding places in various districts, providing flexible-hour child-minding services, etc.); develop after-school remedial centres to enable children of dual-income parents to receive appropriate care after school;
(6) to encourage public and private organisations to implement family-friendly employment policies more proactively for creating a family-friendly working environment, including encouraging organisations to provide staff with child care services and implementing a flexible working hour system with 'flexible hours and flexible places', and implementing a flexible leave policy, etc.;
(7) to include all public holidays other than Sundays as paid statutory holidays through employer-employee negotiations and a progressive approach; and promote 'International Day of Families' to call on the community to cherish the value of family;
(8) to raise the Child Allowance, subsidise the pre-primary education across the board, and conduct studies on extending the applicability of existing paid maternity leave to employees engaged under non-employment contracts, etc. so as to alleviate the financial burden on families in Hong Kong; and
(9) to promote a housing policy which fosters inter-generational harmony, encourage the inclusion of residential complementary facilities suitable for both the elderly and the young in the designs of private and public housing, and improve community facilities to provide families with more room for parent-child activities."
Mr Kwok Wai-keung, Mr Wong Kwok-hing, Dr Helena Wong, Mr Cheung Kwok-che and Ms Claudia Mo will move separate amendments to Ms Starry Lee's motion.
Mr Lee Cheuk-yan will also move a motion on enacting legislation on the right to collective bargaining. The motion states: "That the International Labour Organization (ILO) ruled in 1998 that the repeal of the Employee's Rights to Representation, Consultation and Collective Bargaining Ordinance by the relevant authority in Hong Kong was in breach of the International Labour Convention, and recommended that the Government formulate legal provisions to put in place objective procedures for determining the representative status of trade unions for collective bargaining purposes, but the Administration has yet to implement ILO's recommendation; this Council expresses deep regret in this regard, and urges the Government to expeditiously legislate to affirm workers' right to collective bargaining; the relevant legislation must include:
(1) to lay down objective criteria and procedures for determining bargaining units and the bargaining status of trade unions;
(2) to require employees and employers to negotiate in good faith the employment terms and conditions as well as other issues involving labour relations;
(3) to clarify the legal effect of collective agreements reached between employees and employers; and
(4) to formulate remedial measures for contravention of collective bargaining requirements and collective agreement terms."
Mr Tang Ka-piu and Mr Christopher Chung will move separate amendments to Mr Lee Cheuk-yan's motion.
During the meeting, Members will also ask the Administration 21 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies.
In addition, two Members' motions will be dealt with at the Council meeting of June 19, 2013. The first motion is about maintaining and enhancing Hong Kong's position as an international financial centre. The motion, to be moved by Mr Ng Leung-sing, states: "That this Council urges the Government to make further efforts to maintain and enhance the Hong Kong SAR's position as an international financial centre, including:
(1) to introduce more proactive financial policies and measures;
(2) to appropriately refine the existing regulatory system and financial infrastructure; and
(3) to open up financial business co-operation with relevant regions."
Mr Christopher Cheung and Mr James To will move separate amendments to Mr Ng Leung-sing's motion; while Mr Albert Ho will move an amendment to Mr James To's amendment.
The second motion is about building a safe city. The motion, to be moved by Mr Chan Kin-por, states: "That on the surface Hong Kong is a safe city, but due to the ageing of some urban facilities, people's slack safety awareness, certain government departments' lax enforcement of law, etc., recent years have witnessed the occurrence of various kinds of accidents one after another and worse still, serious blaze and marine disasters, some of which even incurred heavy casualties; in fact, the China Institute of City Competitiveness has already excluded Hong Kong from its ranking list on China's safest cities in its research reports over the past two years; in this connection, this Council urges the Government to set up an inter-departmental committee to comprehensively review the various existing ordinances relating to city safety, urge the various departments to improve the implementation of such ordinances, and formulate a safe city development policy, so as to comprehensively enhance city safety; in addition, this Council urges the Government to draw reference from the concept of the World Health Organization's 'Safe Community' project to promote a city safety culture and comprehensively prevent the occurrence of accidents."
Mr Tang Ka-piu, Mr Charles Peter Mok, Ms Claudia Mo and Dr Helena Wong will move separate amendments to Mr Chan Kin-por's motion.
The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the LegCo website (www.legco.gov.hk). Please note that the agenda is subject to change, and the latest information about the agenda could be found in the LegCo website.
Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Chamber of the LegCo Complex. They may reserve seats by calling 3919 3399 during office hours. Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Members of the public can also watch or listen the meeting via the web broadcast system on the LegCo website.
Ends/Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:24
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