FC head proposes rule changes to ax filibusters
Legislative Council Finance Committee (FC) Chairman Chan Kin-por proposed amending committee procedures to contain filibusters staged by opposition lawmakers.
In an exclusive interview with China Daily, he said the amendments would enhance the efficiency of meetings; lawmakers can use the time saved to raise questions with government officials at the meetings.
Chan said his proposed amendments cover four aspects. Firstly, a lawmaker who is expelled from the meeting by the committee chairman should not return for the rest of the day. Secondly, a lawmaker can no longer move any motion without prior notice in accordance with Rule 37A of the Finance Committee Procedure. Alternatively, a lawmaker shall only move one motion at the meeting without prior notice. Thirdly, a lawmaker can no longer move to adjourn the committee meeting. Fourthly, the proposal to shorten the voting time from five minutes to one minute should be executed immediately without debate.
Chan lamented that at present, lawmakers expelled for misconduct at a committee session can return to the next session two hours later. “This is insufficient deterrent to the expelled member and should be amended,” he said.
As to the one-minute rule, the purpose of such a rule is to shorten voting time and expedite the meeting. “This should be carried out immediately without debate. It violates the original intent if the proposal is debated because this wastes time as many people abuse this chance to criticize the government and the FC chairman,” he noted.
He is asking the LegCo Secretariat to collect relevant data and prepare a report for discussion. Chan will first discuss the proposals with the pro-establishment camp, and believes he will have enough support from pro-establishment colleagues. He will then approach the opposition camp and hopes they will cooperate.
At the last committee meeting before the summer recess, on July 19, the opposition filibustered seven of the eight hours of meeting time, so just two items — the HK$3.6 billion in new education funding and redevelopment funds for three public hospitals — were approved. The other items: Tung Chung New Town planning including construction of more than 10,000 public and 25,000 private housing units, construction of 200,000 columbaria and the civil service pay rise, were delayed.
Chan is aware that in the past, the average time for discussion of a funding proposal was two hours, yet it doubled to four hours in the previous session. As a result fewer items and less funding were examined and passed.
He said: “In 2016-17, a total of 123 hours of meeting time were used to examine government spending, yet 30 percent of the time was wasted by various types of filibuster.
“I will allow more time for asking questions if time is saved. This means lawmakers must ask more meaningful questions, while government officials have to make better preparations and give satisfactory answers to the questions.”