The cause of death of garbage levy｜Public opinion rebounds in areas worried about the establishment

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Written by: Golden Chess

2020-08-25 07:31

Municipal solid waste charging has been discussed for more than 15 years, and it was finally submitted to the Legislative Council for deliberation in 2018. However, because of concerns about a rebound in public opinion in the region, the motion was not supported by the establishment at the beginning. The Environment Bureau has repeatedly lobbied to expedite the review, but all have been rejected. In the end, the deliberation was terminated this year under the joint hands of the establishment. If the government wants to continue to legislate, it must go through the procedures again.

A reporter from "Hong Kong 01" checked the Legislative Council's discussions on garbage charging and the records of the Bills Committee over the past four years and found that Yuren Zhang spoke the most in the catering industry, followed by Ge Peifan from the DAB. However, many DAB members spoke very similarly. For example, Ge Peifan asked about surveillance cameras in at least three meetings, and his party members Ke Chongsheng and Ho Chunxian also asked similar questions. In addition, several establishment members were also found to raise questions. The opinions of the government were adopted.

Environmental groups have criticized that the DAB is the largest party in the Legislative Council, but it is also the party that obstructs the most in the garbage charging bill. Huan Tuan also pointed out that it is pessimistic about whether the garbage collection will be passed in the next year, and that "the government cannot convince the establishment to support it."

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Garbage charging has also been implemented in many countries and regions in Asia. In Hong Kong until 2005, the then Environmental, Transport and Works Bureau Liao Xiudong proposed the "Municipal Solid Waste Management Policy Outline (2005-2014)". For the first time, it was said that waste charging was a change The direct tool of the behavioral model, the direct collection of municipal solid waste fees can encourage local households to separate recyclable waste. The document also proposes to legislate to implement waste charging in 2007 to create direct economic incentives to avoid and reduce waste.

However, it was not until 2018 that the current Secretary of the Environment, Huang Jinxing, submitted the "Waste Disposal (Municipal Solid Waste Charges) (Amendment) Bill 2018" to the Legislative Council. It is recommended that the charge for designated garbage bags be set at $0.11 per liter; The "gate fee" is levied based on the weight of waste. The final draft was passed at the Bills Committee meeting on June 22 this year to terminate deliberation. The seven members who agreed to discontinue the deliberation were all from the establishment, while three of the four members who opposed were Panmin.

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The Legislative Council's Bills Committee on Garbage Charging Bill held its first meeting on December 5, 2018. After reviewing the information, after excluding the chairman and deputy chairman's speeches, Zhang Yuren from the catering industry has spoken the most, with at least 23 speeches. Most of them entered the review stage in May of this year regarding the terms of the regulations.

Ge Peifan from the DAB was the next speaker with at least 22 speeches. Ge has asked questions about surveillance cameras in at least three meetings, including the number of camera systems, and at least twice about the scope of cooperation between the Environmental Protection Department and the FEHD in surveillance cameras; Ge Peifan even asked the FEHD at meetings Questions about innovative rodent control methods.

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He Junxian and Zheng Yongshun, both members of the DAB, also asked questions about monitoring cameras at meetings of the Drafting Committee on different dates. For example, Zheng Yongshun once asked about the application of new camera technology; Ho Chunxian asked about the number of monitoring camera systems.

He Junxian also criticized the government for not absorbing opinions at the meeting that passed the deliberation. However, after reviewing the meetings of the Environmental Committee during the four years to discuss garbage charging, the DAB Chen Keqin suggested in 2017 that the fees collected by the plan should be set aside for recycling. The government's document submitted to the Legislative Council in 2018 also indicated that "Special funds for exclusive use." Chan Keqin’s Facebook page and the DAB’s webpage also stated that "the government accepts the proposal." Chen also said at the meeting that he appreciated the government’s promise. There are also other establishment members who have praised the government for listening to opinions. For example, Kwok Wai-keung of the Federation of Trade Unions welcomed the government's abandonment of per-barrel fees, saying that the public are also happy to comment on the changes.

Ge Peifan responded that he did not object to garbage charging, but asked the government to do a good job in the details of law enforcement. She criticized the government for improper handling of the issue of construction waste disposal, and the government said that it would monitor video cameras for disposal, so she asked relevant questions many times, "I can't answer the question several times, so I must continue to ask!" She said bluntly. If the authorities continue to adopt the current attitude, the draft will also be "unable to pass" in the coming year.

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The democrats’ speeches during the deliberation stage have been greatly reduced. There have been meetings and no democrats have spoken.

As for the democrats, Xu Zhifeng, the Democratic Party, has spoken the most times in the Drafting Committee, who has spoken at least 18 times. However, his many speeches were due to procedural issues and were dissatisfied with the slow progress of the meeting. Since November last year, the number of speeches made by democratic members on the committee has been greatly reduced, with only three to four members speaking in each meeting; since the meeting entered the article-by-article review stage in May this year, democratic members have spoken even less. In the meeting on June 10, even though eight members of the democratic camp were present, they did not speak at all.

In addition, Zhong Guobin from the textile and clothing industry and Liu Yeqiang from the Heung Yee Kuk have never spoken at the Bills Committee. Among the democrats, Chen Shuzhuang of the Civic Party and Ye Jianyuan from the education sector have the least spoken times and only spoke once.

Zhu Hanqiang, director of the Green Earth Environmental Initiative, believes that the establishment may be worried that the fees will not please voters and affect the votes. Therefore, "there is no special helper to stay, and all questions are "three quilts"." Government lobbying is also very difficult. The current Legislative Council was renewed to the birth of the new Legislative Council. Zhu admitted frankly that he was pessimistic about the Legislative Council’s approval of garbage collection fees in the short term. He pointed out that the original establishment criticized the recycling facilities and other issues if there were no major changes. After the fall, the government has no persuasive power to support the establishment."

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