XN000022-1995-01-25 — Page 36

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26.

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Reply:

b)

Mr President,

how the right to privacy and the personal safety of Legislative Councillors' assistants will be protected in view of the disclosure of their identities and salaries for public inspection?

I do not consider that the analogy that the Hon Member has made is a fair one. Members of the Executive Council make very similar public declarations to those made by members of this Council. They have agreed that, as advisers to the Governor, they should make further disclosures to him personally of their assets and financial activities. That is something that we should applaud. The proposal that Legislative Councillors should now disclose the identities and salaries of the staff they employ with public funds seems to me an entirely different issue.

To address the specific questions that the Honourable Member has asked, the consideration of a possible erosion of privacy in disclosing the names and salaries of Members' assistants must be weighed against the legitimate right of the public to know how LegCo Members are using the allowances provided to them out of public funds. An independent Commission, which was appointed by the Governor at the request of members of this Council to review the remuneration package for LegCo Members, concluded that in this consideration the public interest should be paramount, and that LegCo Members should include the names and salaries of their individual assistants in their reimbursement claims, which should be made available for public inspection.

The Administration agrees entirely with the Commission's view that the public has a right to know how LegCo Members use their allowances and that the approach taken in this area should be one of accountability, credibility and transparency. There

is no reason why a major item of expenditure, in this case staff costs, should be exempted from this public scrutiny.

I frankly cannot see how the personal safety of LegCo Members' assistants will be threatened simply because their names and salaries are made available for public inspection. Indeed, some LegCo Members have been disclosing the names and salaries of their assistants from the beginning, even when this disclosure was not a requirement. I am not aware that these Members or their staff have experienced any such difficulties as a result.

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End/Wednesday, January 25, 1995