Opinion | In his policy address, Leung must act in the public interest

Now that irrelevant gestures such as impeachment motions are out of the way, it is time to focus on what comes out of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's policy address. It should be analysed by legislators for its adherence to the principle that government exists to further the common benefit, not sectional interests.

There are plenty of ongoing instances of the common interest and the economy at large being sacrificed to various vested interests, and public money being wasted on a grand scale.

We can start with the issue causing most concern: land. The intention of the government to make more land available for housing is sincere, evidenced daily by arguments about a few hectares here or there, the relative priority of housing over schools and sports stadiums, and especially for land already served by infrastructure and capable of rapid development.

However, underlying all of the land issues is the gross misuse and underuse of large tracts of the New Territories, thanks in large part to the small-house policy, but also the illegal use of supposedly agricultural land and the grip that a small number of companies and individuals have on large tracts of this. Radical improvement in land availability requires grasping this nettle.

So far, the government has shown scant willingness to take on the Heung Yee Kuk and other interests holding the public to ransom, despite the justice of the case and the public plaudits it would win. Legislators would do well to focus on this rather than arguing over individual-plot use.

Some government misdeeds cannot be undone. But legislators should not forget how much they will cost the people for years to come, and stay alert to the danger of repetition. One is the expected huge hike in CLP Power prices, thanks to a government demand that the company buy piped gas from state-owned PetroChina, rather than have an LNG facility which would enable it to bargain with suppliers. This was a political decision which saddled CLP with an appalling deal, which probably ensures not only a high base price for gas but opaque and possibly arbitrary charges for the costs of transporting it from Central Asia. The one indirect beneficiary will be Li Ka-shing's Hongkong Electric, as CLP's prices will come closer to the much higher levels it charges.

Meanwhile, another of the Li family's near-monopoly companies, PCCW, is turning capitalism upside down. In the normal world, capitalists invest in the means to produce goods and services and then charge the consumers of their products according to what the market will bear. But in the case of PCCW and its high-speed broadband network, the consumers are being asked to put up the capital as well as face yet-to-be-determined usage charges.