Hong Kong Legco president Jasper Tsang slashes number of budget amendments from 2,168 to 407
Most of proposed changes came from pan-democrat trio who vowed to filibuster Appropriation Bill, claiming it neglects low-income earners
The Legislative Council president has slashed a large portion of lawmakers’ amendments to this year’s budget, reducing the number from 2,168 to just 407.
Jasper Tsang Yok-sing said he anticipated the debate on the Appropriation Bill to require around 60 hours, adding that he expected members to start voting on the government blueprint on May 11.
The majority of the amendments put forward for debate came from three pan-democrats – People Power’s Albert Chan Wai-yip and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, and League of Social Democrats’ “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.
The trio earlier vowed to filibuster the Appropriation Bill, which members began debating last Wednesday, in protest against what they perceived to be a budget which neglected the poor.
Of the 1,503 amendments put forward by Leung, Tsang approved 160. Of the 459 moved by the People Power duo, 143 were accepted. Tsang also approved 35 amendments from independent lawmaker Raymond Wong Yuk-man. As for the amendments moved by 12 other lawmakers, Tsang approved all but two, which were rejected for technical errors.
Tsang approved 618 out of 3,904 proposed amendments for last year’s debate, and 960 in 2014.
Yesterday he said that while the number of amendments approved for debate this year was around a third fewer than last year, the time he had allocated for the debate was the same.
He said he understood some lawmakers were “disappointed and dissatisfied” with his decision. “But to ensure the smooth running of the legislature, there’s a need for me [to reduce the number of amendments],” he said.
In considering how many amendments to admit for lawmakers to debate, the Legco president said he relied on a Legco procedural rule stipulating that amendments deemed frivolous or meaningless cannot proceed.
Tsang added that another factor he took into account was the number of government bills that Legco needed to process – 22 in total – within what he call “a limited number of sittings” left before the end of the legislative year.
The People Power duo said the ruling was “unreasonable”.
Raymond Chan said in previous years Tsang had approved some amendments that sought to cut top officials’ salaries, but similar amendments were rejected this year.
“I am not sure whether he was pressured to do so, or whether he is setting a precedent for his successor to adopt an even stricter approach next year,” he said.
Last week, the Democratic Party sent a strong political message by offering its rare support to the latest budget by Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, whom they said knew better than Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying how to mend Hong Kong’s deep-rooted conflicts. The Labour Party and Civic Party said they would still vote against the budget.
