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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
Hon Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, President of the Legislative Council (LegCo), said today (July 16) that he considered the 2009-2010 legislative session an eventful year as quite a number of unusual and significant events had taken place during the session. Although publicity about LegCo had often been on Members・ arguments over controversial issues, LegCo as an entity had completed another remarkable year by passing quite a number of very important bills and putting forward questions to the Government and conducting debates on a wide range of issues of public concern.
Speaking at the President・s end-of-session briefing, Mr Tsang highlighted, in particular, the constitutional reform package which was passed by LegCo with the endorsement of a two-thirds majority of all the Members as one of the important and ground-breaking events in this session. It was the first time since the Reunification in July 1997 that Hong Kong had succeeded in making a step forward on its path to greater democracy. To him personally, whatever package the Council passed was a blessing to the Hong Kong community as it was a step forward.
Other incidents which made the past session an eventful year included the resignation of five Members and the return of all five Members to LegCo after by-elections; the 25-hour long meeting to consider the funding for the Express Rail Link by the Finance Committee; the long debate over the Minimum Wage Bill at the last Council meeting; and the two duty visits of LegCo Members to Mainland China.
Mr Tsang said that while the attention of the general public was often drawn to the arguments within the Council, Members had in fact put a lot of effort into their daily work, especially in the areas of scrutinising Government bills, discussing public policies and examining funding proposals. As of today, a total of 21 Government bills were passed by LegCo during the session, 15 of which were passed with amendments. In addition, Members have completed the scrutiny of 156 items of subsidiary legislation through the negative vetting procedure and nine of the items were amended by resolution of the Council.
Moreover, the Council passed a total of 14 motions either to make or amend subsidiary legislation through the positive vetting procedure. A motion seeking the Council・s endorsement of the appointment of the Chief Justice to the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal was also passed. A total of 55 motions not intended to have legislative effect were debated by Members, and among these, 34 were passed with amendments, six were passed without amendments, and the remaining 15 were negatived.
Mr Tsang said all these figures demonstrated that LegCo Members were indeed very busy and industrious. He hoped the public would appreciate Members・ hard work and have greater confidence in the Legislature.
On the Administration-LegCo relationship, Mr Tsang said, ：It can be neither too good nor too bad.；
He explained that the duty of LegCo was to monitor the performance of the Government, so Members would approach the Government・s policy proposals with a critical attitude, and therefore the relationship between two branches could never be perfectly co-operative. On the other hand, Members also needed to consider the public・s wishes. They could not simply oppose all the proposals from the Government and neglect the voice of the public. As such, the relationship could never be so bad as to be counter-productive.
Mr Tsang said he understood the expectations of the public on LegCo and hoped that members of the public could understand more about the work of Members that may not have attracted the attention of the media.
Ends/Friday, July 16, 2010
Issued at HKT 23:00
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