LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ─ 4 March 2011 6741 OFFICIAL RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Friday, 4 March 2011 The Council continued to meet at Nine o'clock MEMBERS PRESENT: THE PRESIDENT THE HONOURABLE JASPER TSANG YOK-SING, G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE ALBERT HO CHUN-YAN IR DR THE HONOURABLE RAYMOND HO CHUNG-TAI, S.B.S., S.B.ST.J., J.P. THE HONOURABLE LEE CHEUK-YAN DR THE HONOURABLE DAVID LI KWOK-PO, G.B.M., G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE FRED LI WAH-MING, S.B.S., J.P. DR THE HONOURABLE MARGARET NG THE HONOURABLE JAMES TO KUN-SUN THE HONOURABLE CHEUNG MAN-KWONG THE HONOURABLE CHAN KAM-LAM, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE MRS SOPHIE LEUNG LAU YAU-FUN, G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE LEUNG YIU-CHUNG DR THE HONOURABLE PHILIP WONG YU-HONG, G.B.S. 6742 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ─ 4 March 2011 THE HONOURABLE WONG YUNG-KAN, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE LAU KONG-WAH, J.P. THE HONOURABLE LAU WONG-FAT, G.B.M., G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE MIRIAM LAU KIN-YEE, G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE EMILY LAU WAI-HING, J.P. THE HONOURABLE ANDREW CHENG KAR-FOO THE HONOURABLE TIMOTHY FOK TSUN-TING, G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE TAM YIU-CHUNG, G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE ABRAHAM SHEK LAI-HIM, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE LI FUNG-YING, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE TOMMY CHEUNG YU-YAN, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE FREDERICK FUNG KIN-KEE, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE AUDREY EU YUET-MEE, S.C., J.P. THE HONOURABLE VINCENT FANG KANG, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE WONG KWOK-HING, M.H. THE HONOURABLE LEE WING-TAT DR THE HONOURABLE JOSEPH LEE KOK-LONG, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE JEFFREY LAM KIN-FUNG, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE ANDREW LEUNG KWAN-YUEN, G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE CHEUNG HOK-MING, G.B.S., J.P. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ─ 4 March 2011 6743 THE HONOURABLE WONG TING-KWONG, B.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE RONNY TONG KA-WAH, S.C. THE HONOURABLE CHIM PUI-CHUNG PROF THE HONOURABLE PATRICK LAU SAU-SHING, S.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE KAM NAI-WAI, M.H. THE HONOURABLE CYD HO SAU-LAN THE HONOURABLE STARRY LEE WAI-KING, J.P. DR THE HONOURABLE LAM TAI-FAI, B.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE CHAN HAK-KAN THE HONOURABLE PAUL CHAN MO-PO, M.H., J.P. THE HONOURABLE CHAN KIN-POR, J.P. DR THE HONOURABLE PRISCILLA LEUNG MEI-FUN DR THE HONOURABLE LEUNG KA-LAU THE HONOURABLE CHEUNG KWOK-CHE THE HONOURABLE WONG SING-CHI THE HONOURABLE WONG KWOK-KIN, B.B.S. THE HONOURABLE IP WAI-MING, M.H. THE HONOURABLE IP KWOK-HIM, G.B.S., J.P. THE HONOURABLE MRS REGINA IP LAU SUK-YEE, G.B.S., J.P. DR THE HONOURABLE PAN PEY-CHYOU 6744 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ─ 4 March 2011 THE HONOURABLE PAUL TSE WAI-CHUN DR THE HONOURABLE SAMSON TAM WAI-HO, J.P. THE HONOURABLE ALAN LEONG KAH-KIT, S.C. THE HONOURABLE LEUNG KWOK-HUNG THE HONOURABLE TANYA CHAN THE HONOURABLE ALBERT CHAN WAI-YIP THE HONOURABLE WONG YUK-MAN PUBLIC OFFICERS ATTENDING: THE HONOURABLE STEPHEN LAM SUI-LUNG, G.B.S., J.P. SECRETARY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AND MAINLAND AFFAIRS THE HONOURABLE EDWARD YAU TANG-WAH, J.P. SECRETARY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT MISS ADELINE WONG CHING-MAN, J.P. UNDER SECRETARY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AND MAINLAND AFFAIRS CLERKS IN ATTENDANCE: MRS CONSTANCE LI TSOI YEUK-LIN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL MRS VIVIAN KAM NG LAI-MAN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL MRS JUSTINA LAM CHENG BO-LING, ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL MRS PERCY MA, ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ─ 4 March 2011 6745 BILLS Committee Stage CHAIRMAN (in Cantonese): Good morning, everyone. Committee now resumes. We are now at page six of the script. Does any Member wish to speak? LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL (AMENDMENT) BILL 2010 MS MIRIAM LAU (in Cantonese): Chairman, we are now debating the amendments proposed by Dr Margaret NG, which seek to introduce changes to the electorates of certain functional constituencies (FCs) by substituting the existing eligible electors with practitioners of these industries. More than 10 FCs, including the Transport FC, are involved. Before I talk about the FC to which I belong, let me explain the reasons for setting up FCs. The primary reason for setting up FCs is to allow people with the relevant expertise in the FCs or those who know the FCs very well to assist members of the FCs and speak on their behalf to reflect their views on the government policies for the relevant industries, thereby helping the industries resolve their problems as a whole and enabling these industries to develop continuously in the economy of Hong Kong. The concept of the proposal put forth by Dr Margaret NG today actually came from the "nine new FCs" package proposed by Mr Chris PATTEN, the former Governor of Hong Kong, in relation to the 1995 Legislative Council election. First of all, I declare that I ran for and won the election of the Transport and Communication FC under this "PATTEN reform package" in 1995. Before I talk about the FC to which I belonged, I would like to tell Members that in running for the election of this FC back then, I just wanted to give it a try and I did not expect to win the election at all. Actually, there were some reasons why I won the election, and I will explain them later. Adopting the "nine new FCs" mode of FC elections suggested that all practitioners of the FCs, from the top to the bottom level, might apply to run for the elections and also become electors of the relevant FCs as long as they were members of the relevant FCs at that very moment, disregarding whether or not they would stay in the relevant FCs in the long run and whether they would 6746 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ─ 4 March 2011 belong to one FC on a particular day and switch to another FC the following day. What was the outcome? Generally speaking, people who were elected back then were tilted towards the labour sector. Mr LEUNG Yiu-chung's speech yesterday reminded me of something, as I only had a very faint memory of what happened over a decade ago. He reminded me that even he found it a bit strange that he actually won the election of the Textiles and Garment FC, though he was engaged in education back then. He did not mention how much contribution he had made to the Textiles and Garment FC during those two years, that is, 1995 to 1997, and I have no idea about it. However, Mr LEUNG Yiu-chung certainly knows why he won the election of the Textiles and Garment FC back then. It was because Mr LEUNG Yiu-chung had the strong support of the Neighbourhood and Workers Service Centre, and, as all of us know, the Neighbourhood and Workers Service Centre is a labour organization. So, this is a good example to show that under the "nine new FCs" put forth by Chris PATTEN, there was a tendency that representatives from the labour sector would be elected. Another FC which gave me a very deep impression was the Hotels and Catering FC. This FC also elected a member of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) back then. I am not very sure, but it seems that Mr LEE Cheuk-yan was elected under similar circumstances. All these examples show that if all practitioners of the relevant FCs are made eligible for registration as electors, it is highly probable that representatives from the labour sector will be elected. Back to the Transport and Communication FC election I ran for back then, I was a bit lucky or some may say unlucky that I won the election at the time. Why? Because the competition was actually pretty fierce and I had to face the competition from four representatives from the labour sector, including two major labour organizations, one was the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions and the other was the FTU. Facing the competition from the representatives from these strong labour organizations, I was actually prepared to lose. However, the situation at that time was that votes of the labour sector were spread out between the two labour organizations, and so candidates from the various labour organizations obtained fewer votes than I did. However, my conclusion was that if these two ― there were actually four labour organizations, but two of them LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ─ 4 March 2011 6747 were of an extremely small scale ― if these two labour organizations were able to nominate, through negotiation, only one representative from the labour sector to run for this election, I would not have been able to be here in this Council today, and I would definitely not have been able to win the election in 1995 because the total number of votes obtained by the two representatives from the labour sector was far greater than that obtained by me. Certainly, by referring to this historical account, I wish to point out that under this electoral system, it would be difficult for people who are not from the labour sector to win the election. Then, Members may ask why members of the labour sector should not be allowed to represent FCs. I did not say they should not be allowed to do so at all.