'It doesn't matter; it's not a sin': Lawmaker with lowest Legco attendance unrepentant

Rural power broker Lau Wong-fat has topped the no-show charts across all three major bodies of the Legislative Council - after being identified as the least active member of the Legislative Council last year.

The city's oldest lawmaker - aged 77 - rarely figured at meetings of the Finance Committee, which has the final say on funding applications from the government. He attended just three out of 38 meetings - an 8 per cent attendance rate.

Lau also scored the lowest attendance rate on the House Committee, just 30 per cent. And his 83 per cent attendance at the regular full council meetings on Wednesdays saw him share first place on the no-show list with "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung - although the League of Social Democrats lawmaker was imprisoned for four weeks from June 9 for criminal damage and disorderly behaviour at a public forum in 2011.

Other lawmakers with poor attendance records said they had been deterred by filibustering campaigns - often spearheaded by Leung and designed to thwart the passage of government bills by dragging on sessions into the night.

However, Lau, a key figure in the Business and Professionals Alliance who represents the Heung Yee Kuk in Legco, did not offer an explanation when responding to a South China Morning Post inquiry. "It's not a sin, is it?" he said. "It doesn't matter. You just report it."

Last year, Lau attributed his absences from the Wednesday meetings over the 2012-13 session to ill health. His attendance record was again 83 per cent.

Lau, who has served as a lawmaker since 1985, raised eyebrows in December when he proposed his first ever amendment to a government bill. As chief of the kuk, the powerful body that looks after the interests of indigenous New Territories residents, Lau objected to the private land of villagers in Sai Wan, Sai Kung, being rezoned as country park, with all the development constraints that entailed.