The week before last, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced an interim package of welfare measures. Perhaps inevitably, some critics claimed it was just an attempt to divert attention from the allegations flying around the new administration.
But I think many other people - after being uncertain during the administration's rocky start - were glad to see Leung following through on his election pledges to have a more people-first government.
I believe people should see this package for what it is: proof that the new government means business.
It is essential to remember that these are interim measures. If they give the administration a boost in the opinion polls, that's fine - but that is not their purpose. The intention is to find a reasonably quick way to alleviate some specific problems. The most serious of these problems, and the main focus of the package, is the hardship faced by a needy group of some 400,000 elderly people.
That measure doubles the amount these people receive in an old-age allowance, to HK$2,200 a month. This is not a 'sweetener' in the sense of a one-off handout. It requires a permanent increase in recurrent expenditure to pay for it.
Hong Kong can afford that, and the recipients deserve it from a community that is grateful to them for their past work in creating our modern city. To underline the need for better provision for these citizens, the benefit has been renamed the old-age living allowance.