Lawmakers yesterday urged Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and his top ministers to attend the Legislative Council more often, saying it would help to relieve tense relations between the executive and legislative branches. In a year-end roundup session of the Legco House Committee, chairwoman Miriam Lau Kin-yee of the Liberal Party said legislators were disappointed that Mr Tung rarely visited the legislature. 'We hope the chief executive will come to Legco more often, because Mr Tung has to set an example for his ministers,' she said. Mr Tung usually attends four question-and-answer sessions in Legco each year in addition to delivering his annual policy address. The next and last such session for this legislative year will be on July 13. Ms Lau also said it was a cross-party consensus that Mr Tung should report to the legislature every time he paid a duty visit to Beijing as this would give the public a clearer view of discussions between the Hong Kong and central governments. 'We hope he will improve in these matters,' Ms Lau said. The committee also expressed disappointment that some of Mr Tung's top aides rarely appear at Legco's policy panel meetings. Ms Lau said many ministers frequently asked their deputies to attend meetings instead of coming themselves. The committee urged the government to give ample time for legislators in the next legislative term to scrutinise bills, and said relations would improve if the government did not try to rush certain bills. In the past four years, 135 government and 13 members' bills had been scrutinised, of which 111 and 11 passed, respectively. In the same period, 74 resolutions and 908 other items of subsidiary legislation were presented to Legco.
