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13.
Governor: I'm grateful for the direct and demotic way in which the honourable lady has asked the question.
Can I just first of all clarify one thing. The way in which we have dealt with this issue in the legislative programme document, the highlights document, is exactly in line with the way we have in the past dealt with laws that were being discussed by the Joint Liaison Group but hadn't yet been agreed through the Joint Liaison Group. So there is absolutely no difference, there is no attempt at artifice in the way that we've covered the question of Section 23 of matters in this legislative programme.
It's not just, of course, a question of Basic Law 23, there's also the question of the Official Secrets Act which the honourable lady could've mentioned as well. We have passed both those pieces of legislation, difficult pieces of legislation to Chinese officials. They've had them for some time. I hope that they will give us their views speedily so we can proceed to legislate and add those Bills to those which the honourable gentleman to my right thinks will be burdening the Council in the coming months.
I know how important the Council think those matters are. I know that the Council is aware of the fact that I've committed myself again and again to bring Hong Kong's Statutes into line with the Bill of Rights. The honourable lady is right to say that we've dealt with the bulk of those issues, about 80 per cent of the provisions have been dealt with but there are some that still need to be done and I haven't changed my intentions.
Ms Emily Lau: Mr President, the Governor knows time is running out. I don't know how much longer you are going to leave these issues with the JLG. Can you not give us a more categoric answer this afternoon? Because the Secretary for Security told us a few months ago that if they cannot reach an agreement with the Chinese, they will unilaterally review the proposals to the whole world, but I don't think that is enough. We need to legislate. Are you going to legislate unilaterally or are you saying that if there is no agreement with China, you will leave all these things to the post-1997 Administration?
Governor: Well, I'm going to say what I've said about every previous piece of legislation which has fallen into this category. I'm going to say that I very much hope that we can proceed on the basis of an agreement through the JLG with the Chinese side. The honourable lady will know what my record and the Administration's record is on these matters and she'll have to decide for herself whether to believe in our good faith or not.