Government house revamp gives new chief a choice Government House is undergoing a facelift so that the next chief executive can use it as his official residence if he wants to, the Chief Executive's Office says. The chief executive's private secretary, Robin Ip Man-fai, would not say how much was being spent on the work nor whether the government had a policy requiring the new leader to live in the house. Independent legislator Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee told a Legco panel that the next chief executive should not be allowed to choose his or her residence. Former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa refused to move into the colonial mansion in Upper Albert Road, reportedly because of bad fung shui. Material on security law placed under review The government was reviewing 'relevant materials' concerning the enactment of the anti-subversion law under Article 23 of the Basic Law, officials said. In a written reply to lawmakers on the budget, the Security Bureau said the internal review had no deadline for its enactment. 'At present, the work mainly concerns a review of the relevant material. There is no predetermined timetable for restarting the legislative process,' the bureau said. The police said there were no plans to revive the special branch - which monitored political dissidents before the handover - despite calls from some pro-Beijing politicians for its revival. Year-long consultation on sales tax costs $10m About $10 million is being spent by the government on a one-year consultation on its proposed goods and services tax, Alan Lai Nin, permanent secretary for financial services and the treasury, told a meeting of Legco's Finance Committee. Deflecting concerns by lawmaker Wong Ting-kwong that the fee was exorbitant, he said the consultants had been selected through open tender and a GST would add hundreds of billions of dollars to public coffers.
