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Owen Fung

Scrutiny of three government bills and five funding proposals was left unfinished as lawmakers left the Legislative Council chamber at the stroke of midnight on Friday, drawing a close to the 2015-16 legislative year.
Apart from the medical registration amendment bill, which lawmakers failed to vote on after repeated delays, the private columbaria bill and fire services bill were left untouched.
Legislative work on these three bills will need to start from scratch after the September Legco elections, delaying their implementation further. This is because Legco’s four-year term is over.
‘Tyranny of minority’: Hong Kong medical reform bill fails as filibuster blocks Legislative Council vote on final day
Introduced to Legco in 2014, the private columbaria bill seeks to set up a licensing system to regulate the fast-growing burial niche business.
Eddie Tse Sai-kit, convenor of the Alliance for Concern over Columbarium Policy, said he was disappointed that the bill was unable to be passed by Legco.
Tse stressed that if the proposal was passed, it could immediately control the operations of illegal columbariums in the city.
“All sales of [niches] would have to stop until the licensing board was set up if the bill was passed,” he said. “But since it could take another year for the bill to pass through Legco, many private columbaria operators will try to sell as many niches as possible during this period, even if they may not be able to obtain the licence later on.”
Tse said consumers could lose out if the operators failed to be licensed.
The fire services amendment bill sought to put in place a scheme to allow qualified engineers to provide fire safety risk assessment and certification services for places such as restaurants, cinemas and hotels to shorten the time it takes to complete the process.
Since only the Fire Services Department provides such services at present, the process can take more than a month.
The chairman of Legco’s security panel, Ip Kwok-him, said the bill would greatly improve the fire safety regulation of buildings in the city and could help to prevent a repeat of the fire at a mini-storage facility in Ngau Tau Kok that killed two firemen.
“The Fire Services Department does not have enough manpower, so many buildings are still waiting to be checked and certified,” he said.
Filibustering not only became a familiar sight in main council meetings over the past legislative year, but a number of government funding proposals also met fierce opposition in the Finance Committee.
Even though the committee met for a record 214 hours over the 2015-16 legislative year, five government proposals lapsed by the end of its final meeting on Tuesday.
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The five proposals included funds to build signature projects in Kwun Tong, Wan Chai and Tai Po.
The projects, among them a HK$48.6 million proposal to build musical fountains along Kwun Tong promenade, were proposed by the district councils of the three areas, though some lawmakers questioned whether they were necessary.
In an open letter to Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, the chairmen of the 18 district councils accused lawmakers who engaged in filibustering of disregarding the public’s well-being for their own political gain.


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Back to square one: the unfinished business as Hong Kong legislature’s term ends amid delays and recriminations

Work on a licensing system to regulate the fast-growing burial niche business will be delayed for months after lawmakers ran out of time to debate a bill. Photo: AP

Lawmaker Ip Kwok-Him, poses for a photograph at Legco in Tamar. 07JUL16 SCMP/ K. Y. Cheng

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Hong Kong

Politics

Stalling by lawmakers put paid to not just reform of medical watchdog but proposals to control columbariums and speed up fire safety regulation
