Singapore election: Workers’ Party manifesto targets high cost of living
- The country’s biggest opposition party also highlighted the ruling People’s Action Party’s supermajority, and called for a new pandemic preparedness plan
- Singapore will go to the polls on July 10, with the PAP, which has ruled since independence in 1965, expected to remain in power
The Workers’ Party main proposals include opposing the government’s plan to increase the goods-and-services tax, and reiterating calls for a national minimum wage and unemployment insurance, it said on Sunday. It sought a minimum monthly take-home wage of S$1,300 (US$934) for full-time workers.
“A large number of Singaporean families have difficulty making ends meet, even though their breadwinners are working hard to provide for them,” according to the manifesto.
It also called for “abolishing the retirement age and allowing Singaporeans to work for as long as they are able and willing to” and an insurance programme to “ease financial pressure on workers who have been made redundant”.
Singapore unveiled four stimulus packages in about three months worth a total of S$92.9 billion, laden with cash handouts, tax waivers and wage subsidies to help residents and businesses during the pandemic. The government still plans to raise the goods-and-services tax by 2025, but will not increase it next year, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said in February.
The opposition’s manifesto contrasts with one released by the ruling party on Saturday.