Itching to filibuster: radical Hong Kong lawmakers submit nearly 2,000 amendments to halt city’s 2016-17 budget
Three pan-democrats argue annual blueprint neglects city’s disadvantaged
Radical lawmakers have submitted around 2,000 amendments to filibuster the 2016-17 budget which they claim neglects the needs of the city’s disadvantaged while favouring the wealthy.
The move came as lawmakers began debating the government blueprint on Wednesday.
So far, the Legco secretariat has received 2,169 amendments to this year’s budget.
Cut it out: Hong Kong construction workers rally outside Legislative Council to denounce filibustering
The majority came from three radical lawmakers: People Power’s Albert Chan Wai-yip and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen and League of Social Democrats’ “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.
The People Power duo put forward 460 amendments, while Leung submitted 1,500.
Albert Chan described the budget this year as “even more unfair than past years”, particularly for low-income earners, and continuing to “favour the wealthy and powerful”. He cited the absence of a public housing rent waiver in the financial blueprint as an example of its imbalance.
