Last week, Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen started a new round of budget consultation with the Legislative Council, soliciting members' views over next year's financial blueprint.
What a waste of time, many people may say; in fewer than two months, the incumbent legislature will be dissolved and 27 of the present members are going to go.
If the Financial Secretary had nothing to do, he could have considered briefing the provisional legislature on this year's budget, instead of having a non-budget expert, Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun of the Chief Executive-designate's office, going to Shenzhen to answer provisional legislators' queries.
Pragmatists may say that it is a political reality. But as a government, the administration cannot just focus on practicality.
No matter how much Beijing disregards the present Legco, it will not change the fact that it enjoys constitutional status in Hong Kong at least until June 30.
So it is shocking to hear some of the incumbent legislators, who at the same time serve the provisional legislature, query why the present legislature should still consider and debate bills which they think only affect post-1997 Hong Kong.
Let us not forget all of the incumbent legislators were elected by more than a million voters in Hong Kong in 1995. The present Legco's mandate comes from the people and that is why it has the duty to serve this community until its very last day.