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Dr David Li: Sir, has there been any improvement since, since that action that you have taken?
FIF
Governor: I think that we're all aware of the scale of the problem. To have made over 900 arrests in a period of three months is, in one sense, an indication of success but perhaps should give us all concern about the scale and dimensions of the overall problem which argues for continuing efforts on our part and we will have to look at the penalties that are imposed in due course to see whether we think they're discouraging people from what is an entirely damaging activity.
Mr Albert Chan: Mr President, I haven't pressed my button or raised my hand.
President: Either Mr Szeto Wah or Mr Albert Chan raised his hand. Mrs Miriam Lau.
Governor: Perhaps I could make-up a question!
Mrs Miriam Lau (in Chinese): Thank you Mr President. Mr Governor, with regard to your Policy Address, you say that you want to improve upon the quality of air on our roads, and last month you published some measures to encourage mini-buses and buses to switch from diesel to petrol and you said that you have consulted the public. Now I have a question for the Governor. Will you be consulting those in the affected trades? And also, concerning those measures, will they be implemented only if you can get widespread support from the trades concerned and from the public? And now you are still at the consultation stage, why is it that for diesel vehicles under four tons, why is it that this measure has been included in the 1995/96 Legislative timetable; is it that the Government will press ahead with this measure regardless of public opinion? Is this a document to inform the public instead of to consult the public?
Governor: Well, we do want to proceed with as broad a measure of support as we possibly can and I think we would be acting curiously were that not so. But it does seem to me that we start from a position in which the overall view of the community isn't that we're doing too much to improve air quality but that perhaps we should have acted even more vigorously even sooner. That's certainly the pressure of my correspondence and it's the sort of pressure that I get when I'm questioned going. around the community. We must improve air quality in Hong Kong. I don't think that anybody really believes that we'll have a chance of doing that unless we reduce diesel numbers in urban areas. As the Honourable lady knows, we want, within five years, to halve the total diesel numbers and switch most intensive road users to unleaded petrol. If we do that - when we do that - we'll be moving in the same sort of direction as other developed communities, and there is clearly a cost to us in terms of health care, as well as overall environmental quality, if we don't manage that.