By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-04 06:06:26 | Updated at 2025-01-06 07:58:50
2 days ago
A reduction in lawmakers’ salaries will not benefit Hong Kong, the head of the city’s legislature has said as he denied the body was a “hand-raising machine” or “rubber stamp” for its support of government bills and funding requests.
Legislative Council president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen on Saturday also defended a recent trip made by him and other lawmakers to Japan, which drew criticism of unnecessary spending from the public.
Asked if there was a need to cut lawmakers’ and civil servants’ pay as the government deficit for the financial year ballooned to about HK$100 billion (US$12.86 billion), Leung warned such a move could be counterproductive.
“A lot of people are watching the salaries of civil servants as a benchmark. When civil servants reduce their salaries and the business sector reduce their salaries as well, everyone would have even less confidence in spending money,” he said.
“Everyone needs to be aware, it is easy to say, but the problems that would appear as a result would be much more serious.”
He argued that the best way to counter the effects of the deficit would be to boost public confidence by growing Hong Kong’s economic pie, so residents would be encouraged to invest, purchase homes and spend money.
