Hong Kong lawmakers in race against time to push through bills after Typhoon Kompasu shuts Legislative Council
- Starry Lee, who heads a powerful Legco panel, calls on legislators to work overtime to clear backlog of six government bills
- Draft pieces of legislation include proposals to lower cap on rent rises, relax admission rules for doctors and ban e-cigarettes
Hong Kong lawmakers should hold extra meetings next week to clear the backlog of government bills before the legislative term ended this month, a pro-establishment heavyweight said on Thursday.
A total of six government bills are still awaiting legislative approval with Legco’s extended five-year term scheduled to draw to a close on October 30.
They include the Landlord and Tenant (Consolidation) (Amendment) Bill 2021, which proposes lowering a cap on rent rises for subdivided flats to 10 per cent, and a Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2021 to relax admission rules for non-locally trained doctors. The latter, designed to tackle the city’s doctor shortages, has sparked an outcry among medical professionals who warn it could compromise quality.
Also outstanding is long-delayed legislation banning electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products, the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Bill 2019.
As chairwoman of the house committee, a key panel deciding when bills are put to a final vote, Lee proposed that meetings be held on Friday next week, as well as the usual sittings on Wednesday and Thursday.
“With the extra session, as well as the meetings in the final week of October, I believe all the accumulated bills can be scrutinised before the term ends,” said Lee, also chairwoman of the city’s biggest Beijing-friendly party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress for Hong Kong.
