Pl Report For Exco On 17.10

PL report for exco on 17.10.06 Policy address: The legislators have issued a press release on the policy address. This is a summary of the Press Con we gave immediately after the policy address. WE will be voting on the motion of thanks in about two weeks time on or about Friday 27th. The reporters are asking how we will vote. So far we understand Lee Chuek Yan will amend to regret the lack of legislation for minimum wage and Albert Chan will amend to regret on lack of progress on universal suffrage. It is very likely that the 6 legislators will vote in favour of these amendments and against the motion of thanks. If there are different views, please let us know Motion Debates: (1) GST we will vote in favour of Yeung Sum’s motion against GST. David Li has put in amendment to say that the consultation should continue and if there is other suggestions to widen the tax base which receives public support, THEN we oppose GST. It is proposed that we vote in favour of original motion and against the amendment. (2) There is a problem relating to the other motion debate put forward by the Liberal Party on the Gillian Chung incident and privacy. It talks about using the Law Reform Commission recommendation as a basis to criminalize invasion of privacy. We originally thought that we should vote in favour of this to be consistent with our previous stance on the covert surveillance bill where we sought criminal sanctions if the law enforcement agencies break the law on privacy. However some of our democratic allies worry that this may be understood. They fear that if we support the original motion it may be passed and it will give the government an excuse to harass the press.. There are amendments put forward by Albert Ho (which seeks to set up a self regulating body which looks like a revival of the press council) and amendments to be put forward by Albert Chan which seeks to delete the reference to the self regulating body but neither amendment is likely to go through and we need to vote on the original motion.. I will ask my secretary to e mail you a copy of the wording of the motion. Your views are sought. Planning Meeting: DP suggests that we plan ahead our joint actions, for example there is the coming budget, minimum wage, public housing rental, pollution, relief of poverty, revitalization of poorer districts etc. The first meeting will be held next Friday and thereafter on a fortnightly basis. Common staff: Despite the plan above, DP is unwilling to join in to hire a common staff for the 25 pan democrats. It is suggested that the rest of the pan democrats except DP contribute to the cost and we either hire someone for $10,000 (this is the total with $600 each since DP is not contributing) or pay this to Taipan’s staff who will act as the liaison staff for the 25 pan democrats. His staff is thinking about the offer.

Universal suffrage: the monthly meetings will be going ahead however in the light of what happened at the last meeting, the participating organizations are limited to those associated with the legislators and each organization is supposed to send one or two representatives. I understand Ronny will be representing us. The first meeting will be on CE election, the second one on Legco election, the third one on DC election and the final one on relationship between the exco and legco. At the end of this, the results will go for public consultation. EC Election Some of the legislators have their pictures taken in support of candidates for the accountancy subsector as recommended by Mandy. I am also trying to put up a team in the travel industry sub-sector with members of the party. The party should issue the notice to our members IMMEDIATELY as per our agreement urging them to run in the coming EC election. CE election The working group has been holding weekly meetings. Verbal report will be given by Ronny or Margaret.

Audrey