7
File No.
CONFIDENTIAL
3
Page
Functional
resolve it.
Constituencies
On the
and would do
of Bill
something to Rights, she asked the Governor to instruct the Attorney General to obtain an instruction from a higher court to conduct a review to the Functional Constituencies
determine
whether
contradicted the Bill of Rights. Citizens could not afford to take legal action against the Government. would take a look at the see how they linked in
The Governor
Functional
said that he
and Constituencies
with other issues, for example, the LegCo elections in 1995. He undertook to read the material and noted that other groups had also expressed reservations as the Functional Constituencies were elected.
of
10.
years, 40%
the their income. receiving public
25% dropped by
100,000
value
Dr Law said that over the last two or three 700,000 manufacturing workers who represented
had labour force
seen a real decline in were Kong people in Hong
the assistance,
of which had because of inflation. This meant that 40-50% of Hong Kong people had had to cope with a drop in their income. The present Public Assistance Scheme He urged gave no
to people in need. the Governor to review the Public Assistance Scheme and The increase to
of level
real protection
the
monthly payments.
Governor asked whether this proposal had been passed to the Financial
Fung confirmed that it
Mr
Secretary.
had.
11.
had
that
the implementing important
could be Governor
and social
when taken
Dr Law said that at the same time as this
value in
occurred,
of income decline residential flats
He hoped "more careful" in economic policies. This was
the against
background of 8.5%
the
had increased enormously.
due
inflation this year, likely increases over the next few years
to the airport, and real negative interest rates of about 5-6%. He suggested that a review should The be conducted of the territory's housing policy.
the between
Housing present Authority and the Government were not satisfactory. Neither was the supervision by the Government of the Housing
The Government should
financial
Authority's
arrangements
activities.
shoulder the responsibility for housing by :
(a)
(b)
setting up a policy branch;
reorganising the Housing Authority to make it more representative;
CONFIDENTIAL