Archives of Parliamentary Excerpts, Press Releases, and Speeches
4 October 2008
JBJ in Memorial
21 January 2008
Speech in Parliament by Chiam See Tong on HDB upgrading
22 October 2007
Amendment of the Panel Code
5 October 2007
Press release on Myanmar's Military Junta
22 May 2007
Parliamentary Debates
9 April 2007
Speech in Parliament by Chiam See Tong on Ministers' salary hikes
4 February 2007
Speech during MP's dialogue session by Lim Bak Chuan on GST increase
09 February 09
This year’s Budget statement is a fair one. Both business people as well as the workers get benefits from this Budget.
In past years, when the economy was bad, the knee jerk reaction of the Government was to cut cost which meant that the CPF contribution rates were cut and there were widespread layoffs. This time round, no such thing happened. Instead, the Government’s priorities were in preserving jobs and building for the future. The budget speech sounded like the first manifesto of the PAP in 1954 whereby it stated that the workers’ wages shall not be cut as a solution to solve the recession of the day. I would urge the Government to encourage companies to train their workers to be more productive and competitive since there was no cut in CPF.
Under the WIS programme, the incentive programme given to low-paid workers is a reasonable one, provided the workers are in good health. I wish the Minister to would amend this programme to the effect that should the worker fall sick, he is given some financial help until he recovers from his sickness so that he can go back to work.
I agree with Mr Inderjit Singh that the number of foreign workers should be reduced. In times of economic slowdown, jobs are difficult to come by. The interests of local workers must come first. The Government must be seen to protect the interests of the local workers.
As regards the scheme to help households, help should be given to support education for the lower middle income group. There is a sharp difference paid by Junior College and Polytechnic students to purchase the same concession passes which have the same terms of use. I urge the Government to establish a fair system of charging concession passes for all students. By adjusting the prices for concession passes, we will be able to relieve the heavy financial burden for families of lower middle income with at least one child in a Polytechnic institution.
Every little concession goes a long way into meeting expenses for households already strapped with high financial burden.
Sir, I have a cut on CNG cars. However, I note that Mr. Edwin Khew has spoken on most of the points that I shall be bringing up. In order to contribute my little help in preventing global warming, I purchased a CNG hybrid car. But I found that there was only one CNG station sited in Jurong Island. This makes it a hassle to have my car refueled with CNG. The drive to Jurong Island is quite a far way off and it was a hassle to apply for a pass to enter Jurong Island. If the Government wants to encourage clean cars, they have to get the gas companies to site more CNG stations in Singapore.
Last year, the gas company did open a gas station in Mandai, which makes the filling up of CNG slightly easier. I hope the Government will encourage companies to open up more CNG stations in Singapore so that there is more incentive to buy a Green car.
As regards the distribution of 4.5 billion dollars, there must be complete transparency in its distribution. Is the Government going to form a corporate body to supervise the payment of out of this large sum of money? I urge the Government to look through the worse case scenario for those who are in dire need of help.