Opposition lawmakers blasted for blocking livelihood funding

Banking-sector legislator Chan Chun-ying lamented that the Legislative Council has "lost" its legislative function because its House Committee has been "hijacked" and is unable to operate without a chairman.

Since October, the committee has failed to elect a chairman to lead the committee to scrutinize bills, many concerning people's livelihoods. So far, 14 bills, including the National Anthem Bill, and more than 80 pieces of subsidiary legislation have been delayed.

Opposition lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang from the Civic Party has been widely condemned in Hong Kong as the person most responsible.

Assigned only the task of overseeing the election of a committee chairman for the new legislative session, Kwok has colluded with other opposition lawmakers to filibuster committee proceedings, and has not started the chairman nomination and election process during the committee's 16 meetings over six months.

Kwok admitted he has deliberately delayed the election of the House Committee chairman to hinder the legislative process of the National Anthem Law and National Security Law under Article 23 of the Basic Law.

Speaking to China Daily on Wednesday, Chan, who is the deputy chairman of the Legislative Council Finance Committee, also said opposition lawmakers never stopped filibustering vital funding items. Recently, this included the Anti-epidemic Fund and civil service pay raises.

"The opposition knew very well how much the Hong Kong people would need the Anti-epidemic Fund and there was no reason for them to oppose it. Yet they filibustered and criticized the fund as having flaws just to waste time. Eventually, all of them voted against it.

"As long as the Anti-epidemic Fund can help many people, it should be passed as quickly as possible," Chan said. "It should not be like what the opposition camp said, that it should not be passed because it cannot help everybody or because some people are not covered."

Chan also said the opposition particularly persisted in singling out pay raises for police officers from the annual civil service pay increase and also the HK$10,000 (US$1,290) payouts in the 2020-21 budget. This was done maliciously to veto or delay the funding items, he explained.

"As for pay raises for police, opposition camp lawmakers may be manipulated by their supporters or radical, violent protesters who hate the police and want the pay increases vetoed,'' Chan noted.

"They may not know the civil service pay raise also covers staff in public bodies. Regardless of the date of approval, civil servants get higher pay retroactively from April 1 of the previous year. But staff working for these bodies receive pay raises only from the approval date," he said.