The next legislature's salary freeze, Hu Zhiwei questioned the limitation of resources, and involved assistance

Political situation

Written by: Lin Jian

2020-07-13 12:41

The Government said last week that the Chief Executive in Council has decided that the salary arrangements for the seventh Legislative Council will be the same as the current arrangement, that is, the monthly salary of each member of the council will be maintained at $101,000. The Legislative Council today (13th) convened a meeting of the Subcommittee on Members' Remuneration and Work Expenses Reimbursement. The Government explained that the failure to comply with the recommendations of the Independent Committee was mainly based on the general environment of economic downturn and labor market difficulties.

However, inter-party parliamentarians questioned the government’s veto of the committee’s recommendation and would also reject other reform proposals, such as changing the benchmark for salary adjustment from the CPI to the weighted index for calculating the actual expenditure of Members. Hu Zhiwei, chairman of the Democratic Party, further questioned that the population of the Legislative Council constituency is increasing, and that the resources for the members of the public to serve the public have gradually become insufficient. He criticized the government for freezing the salary and wages.

Liang Yuexian explained the government's decision. (Screenshot of the Legislative Council Live)

The Director of Administration, Mr Leung Yue-hyun, explained that the Chief Executive in conjunction with the Executive Council considered the overall factors and generally agreed with the work of the Independent Commission. However, in the face of economic downturn and difficulties in the labor market, civil servants faced salary freezes. The Chief Executive and the accountability team also took the lead in donating salaries With a salary reduction, Hong Kong has also recorded a deficit for the first time in 15 years. The deficit this year is more than 200 billion yuan, so it is not suitable for the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations, but it will be used for future reference.

However, cross-party parliamentarians including Ye Jianyuan from the education sector, Lu Weiguo from the Pakatan Harapan Democratic Association, as well as the chairman of the committee and Ding Huang Huang from the DAB have questioned that the original independent committee also proposed to change the benchmark for adjusting the remuneration of parliamentarians from the CPI to the calculation Weighted index of staff expenses (accounting for 70%), office expenses (accounting for 10%), and other work expenses (accounting for 20%). The government rejected the proposal together this time, disguised to stall a long-term reform. Among them, Ye Jianyuan pointed out that the salary of parliamentary assistants has been suppressed for a long time and should be improved through the mechanism.

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Hu Zhiwei pointed out that the government's statement assumes that the economic situation of Hong Kong will be down across the board in the next four years, but he believes that the current support for manpower by Members is insufficient. The cost of renting business unit offices is very large, and the constituency population is increasing. With more than one million people or even two million people, the coverage of parliamentarian services has also increased, and manpower is very insufficient. He pointed out that it is understandable not to adjust the salary of Members, but he does not understand why assistants are involved.

He also questioned that the government hopes to limit the resources of legislators and make their working space narrower. They can only act as a response to the government. It is a "fighting into a society", but threatens that the government's actions will not succeed.

Legislative Council