Report By Pl For Exco Meeting On 4th April

Report by PL for exco meeting on 4th April Budget vote – all 6 legislators voted in favour. FC says that he is getting a lot of negative feedback from his supporters and it will take time to heal. He feels this may affect his domestic violence work group. (FYI, Henry Tang made a special mention of our economic policy in his address – I believe he inserted it there to show goodwill but there are obvious degrees of affinity in the way he referred to different parties or groups, anyway let us have our eyes on the real issues) Tamar – Finance Committee on 7th April – the govt is seeking a new post for the Tamar project. DP is likely to agree. DAB will decide next week but is expected to do a U turn. CP so far has said that on present info, we are unlikely to agree. However the situation is fluid and the govt has just given some extra material today which we have not yet seen. We are liaising with Vincent, Albert and Paul Z on this. Electricity – we held the PC on 30th. As it clashed with legco meeting on the same topic, it was poorly attended. There was fairly wide coverage of the PC in the papers but the main points we made (which were complicated points) were not understood and the report was fairly superficial. There will be another meeting on this topic in the finance panel meeting on 29th May. Policy branch 3 will discuss how to proceed with this further The pan – democrats have 3 such reports, one from DP, one from the 7 legislators, one from us and I have been given the task of co-ordinating all 3 reports for a joint view. CE Bill – the bill’s main function is to add a “confidence vote” even if there is only one CE candidate. The amendment is a good one and is what we ask for but it is very small in the context of our demand for universal suffrage. So the question is whether we should support, oppose or abstain. Since it is a welcomed amendment, we cant really oppose it, but any yes vote will be used against us as supporting the bill which is a zillion miles off from universal suffrage. My own inclination is to abstain. Your views are welcome. Covert surveillance bill – started to hear submissions on Sat. Anti-smoking bill – moving along very slowly and hopes to be passed by the end of this session Financing Reporting Bill

SFC Bill = both bills involve a similar point on CE’s power of direction Housing – pl note the govt’s consultation on public housing rental. It is likely to be controversial and CP is expected to have a view. Pl consider if the relevant policy branch will discuss this – policy branch 3 to take note Appointment to Town Planning Board – DP raised the point that there are 3 recent appointments of DAB members to the TPB. DP feels this is a matter of concern. They feel it is wrong to concentrate the appointments in one party and would like all pan-d legislators to join together in expressing concern. Personally I have some reservations as to whether we should do so but would like further views and considerations. Pan – d conference – we take turns to organize these forums. 2nd April conference is on the UN hearing on HK, it is scheduled for 3pm in Boys and Girls Club. They need more people to turn up. Pl liaise with me if you want further details. Rthk forum – I attended the Sat political party forum on rthk. I suggest that in future when CP receives this kind of invitation, CAO or I will find the appropriate person to attend on behalf of the party 1st July march – we have to start planning for this – exco should discuss this at some stage/ Audrey Eu 1st April 06