Question time limit 'protects officials'
The legislature's performance would be undermined if members did not have enough time to question officials, independent Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee said.
Ms Ng was speaking in response to a decision by President Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai to cut short the number of follow-up questions members can ask during question time.
'This way of asking questions is useless. As long as officials can last for 15 minutes, they won't be grilled,' she said, referring to the time-limit Mrs Fan imposed when she was provisional legislature president.
Ms Ng said it was important that members were able to hold the Government accountable.
Mrs Fan cut short a question on home return permits raised by The Frontier's Emily Lau Wai-hing and another on securities frauds raised by Democrat Sin Chung-kai after they had been discussed for 19 and 22 minutes respectively.
Andrew Cheng Kar-foo, of the Democratic Party, said the president should give time for more important issues and should allow time for all those who had raised their hands to speak.
'The time-limit is just a bad habit left from the provisional legislature,' he said. 'Why should there be a limit on question time? I wonder whether questions are being cut short because they're sensitive.' Mr Cheng said he would raise the problem at the House Committee meeting.
The Liberal Party's Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee said the move made meetings efficient.
'It is fairer if a unified time slot is allocated to all questions. If the president can allow discretion on certain questions, that might involve value judgments from the president and more arguments,' Mrs Chow said.
Gary Cheng Kai-nam, of the Democratic Alliance of Betterment of Hong Kong, said it would be unfair to other issues if questions were allowed to take too much time.
