3
- 2
The Bill before Members would not have been easy to
frame even if the law draftsmen concerned, Messrs O'Grady and
Griffey, had not been working under time constraints and it is
gratifying, therefore, as Mr Peter C. Wong has mentioned, that
the discussions on the clauses of the Bill by the ad hoc group
have resulted, at the end of the day, in only seven
alterations being sought. These have been discussed at length
with the Law Draftsmen and the Councils and Administration
Branch of the Government Secretariat and I am happy to say
that the Government will support them when Mr Wong moves
appropriate amendments at the Committee Stage.
moves the
4
In this connection it is also gratifying that we have
succeeded to an extent in restoring Mr Brown's faith in the
Attorney General's colleagues in the Drafting Division of the
Legal Department. The position is, indeed, as Mr Brown has
been advised namely, that an individual acting on behalf of a
corporate body in a functional constituency is not an
individual within the meaning of clause 13(2) of the Bill, but
simply an ordinary human being, not all that dissimilar from
the rest of us.
I
5
From their speeches, I detect Members have a degree
of concern over the definition of "substantial connexion".
should therefore emphasise
emphasise that the definition contained in
clause 2(4) of the Bill is not exhaustive, nor is it intended
to be. The object of introducing this concept is
this concept is to ensure,
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