I would like to take issue with Mr Tam Yiu-chung on some of the points he made at the beginning of his address yesterday night. He challenged me on the points which he made on the debate concerning the MPF as to why such points were not answered and whether my letter addressed to Members of this Council were in fact not giving enough reasons for today going ahead with this Bill. Let me take these points one by one.
First he said this Bill is only a shell, a framework; there is nothing to vote on. I totally disagree. The Bill is certainly a framework but it is far from empty. It reflects the necessary provisions for setting up the MPF system. The community agrees with our approach of dealing with primary legislation first. As I said earlier on the Bill establishes the MPF Schemes Authority, provides for Compensation Fund, and setting up the Residual Provident Fund Scheme system. These are important and basic points to vote on. It is definitely not an empty shell with nothing to hold on.
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On the second point, Mr Tam advocated that we should first study both legislation, primary and subsidiary, before voting. But, as I said earlier on, the history of this subject has gone on for over 30 years. The community is aging. community cannot wait any longer. The community agrees with our approach of dealing with the primary legislation first, as this is the most effective way of starting the MPF, as endorsed by this Council on 8 March, as soon as possible. Time is not on our side or on the community's side if we delay this debate any longer. As I said the elderly in Hong Kong are growing in numbers and are living longer and we must not forget this important fact.
Mr Tam made a third point about there are far too many technical problems. These are difficult to change unless the primary legislation, the subsidiary legislation were voted on later on and looked at together.
This is not the case. We have always made it very clear that subsidiary legislation will be made in wide consultation, especially with Members of this Council. Members will be able to approve all subsidiary legislation up to the date of coming into force of Section 6 of this primary Bill in its entirety. If we discover problems later and of course we do not deny there could be technical problems of details of one kind or another, then there will be no reason why we cannot change them later on. And there's no reason whatsoever for this particular problem later on to defer a debate on this motion, on this Bill today.