XN000022-1996-10-12+13 — Page 6

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The subject? Housing, of course. It's no disrespect to all those who work so hard for the Housing Authority to say that housing is always the subject which comes up most frequently. Waiting lists. Interim housing. Rents. The cost of home ownership.

This may not be very surprising. For every family, decent accommodation is the Number 1 goal on the list.

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But what is perhaps surprising is that we are plainly not satisfying the community's needs even though we funnel so many resources into this area. Real subsidies. Hidden subsidies. Billions of dollars but waiting lists are still too long; there are people with greater need paying higher rents from lower incomes in bad private flats, while their better-off neighbours are sometimes paying less for more in public housing; there are families who see their incomes rise as they work harder but who still find ownership out of reach despite all the schemes we've designed to help them.

I'm not pretending there are any easy answers. But I'm sure the whole community is going to want to debate very thoroughly the outcome of the Long Term Housing Strategy Review when it comes out in a few weeks' time. In housing, it may well be time to strike out in new directions, to do a bit of lateral thinking. That's not code for wanting to do less for those who need help. We need to do more that is effective for them. We've achieved much in this area of public policy. In Eastern District on Wednesday, I looked up at the hillsides which not long ago were covered in squatter settlements but which are now covered by new high-rise flats. We advance, sure enough, but it's time I suspect to ask ourselves exactly where we're going.

Second, the question of attitude. I'm, struck again and again by how courteous and moderate is most public debate in Hong Kong. We handle our disagreements, we put forward our opinions, pretty courteously on the whole. That's why I've always thought it is so misguided that some people are anxious about the pace of democratisation. Have elections to the Legislative Council and the Municipal Councils and District Boards made Hong Kong ungovernable? Well, look around you. See for yourself. What has caused us rather more problems has been the need in the last few years to check so much that straddles 1997 with mainland officials. Sometimes there's no problem, sometimes alas there is. We had for instance another clumsy intervention last week in the question of our port development intervention based on a complete lack of understanding of our planning procedures. But the good news is that issues like that will be entirely matters for Hong Kong after next June, entirely matters for the SAR Government. There was a worrying suggestion to the contrary, which is why I raise the issue at all. But it's not true. Naturally, like a good neighbour the SAR Government will want to tell others what it's planning to do. But what it does in economic and social matters, how it builds our infrastructure, what its spending priorities are - those are entirely matters for Hong Kong.

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