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Governor: It's a serious issue. I can assure the honourable gentleman that we will give it serious attention. I understand why he raises it in that imaginative, if tangential way and I think that many parents will have been particularly concerned because of the effect on school children in the area and we will try to give the honourable gentleman, who represents the interests of people in the community, in this case so successfully, we'll try to give him a full and early answer. I doubt whether it needs the establishment of a special committee. What it does require is an urgent and comprehensive answer to his question.
Mr Lawrence Yum Sin-ling (in Chinese): Thank you Mr President, a question for the Governor. I was one of those who submitted the letter to the Governor about the CSSA. Ten minutes before your arrival, Mr Governor, I also asked the Financial Secretary to take the letter down there but he refused. The Financial Secretary would give us the Budget and the Budget Debate would cover March and April, and many people are predicting that the provisional legislature will become a rubber-stamp. Would we be taking a pre-emptive step to become a rubber-stamp now, here?
Governor: I am not quite sure that I wholly follow the honourable gentleman's question but let me seek to respond to each of the parts that I did understand.
First of all, I was grateful for the honourable gentleman's attendance in the welcoming party down below. I think he will understand that the Financial Secretary, while the most obliging of men, wouldn't wish, even for the honourable gentleman, to play the role of Postman Pat. My honourable friend the Financial Secretary had the great benefit of substantial consultations with members of the Legislative Council earlier in the year about his Budget and spending priorities. I think he is well aware of the concerns of honourable members, just as he is well aware of the concerns in the financial markets and the concerns in the broader community that we should continue to enjoy a reputation for care in our public spending.
Can I add two points. First of all, the Budget this year, as the whole Council knows, as the whole community knows, is a curious one. It is, if you like, a one-off. The Budget takes place in a year in which sovereignty changes after three months just over three months. Now that has inevitably made that our procedures have been different this year, though Chinese officials have said on a number of occasions and I hope on this occasion that they mean what they say, that this is a one-off. That they wouldn't seek to be involved in Hong Kong's budgetary procedures in this way again. But it does cause some problems. The honourable gentleman will know that Mr Qian Qichen, among others, has made it clear that there is only one Legislative Council before July 1, and I'm sitting in it and the Legislative Council has the authority to vote the budget and I hope will do so with enthusiasm.