Latest speeches by Workers’ Party
Members of Parliament in 14th Parliament
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I will first speak on the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill before moving on to the Constitution Amendment Bill. The MDA Bill has two purposes – first, to regulate psychoactive substances, and second, to increase the punishments for possession of larger quantities of certain controlled drugs. I shall touch on... -
Introduction “Our workers fighting in the trenches and workers supporting the fight – from nurses to cleaners, from GP doctors to infectious disease specialists, from medical researchers to delivery persons, and those Singaporeans driving our people to hospitals and quarantine facilities – are our heroes. We should not forget our...
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Introduction Mr Speaker sir, the Covid pandemic put our society to the test in every way. It tested our healthcare workers, our companies and small businesses, our workers, our government and politics, our NGOs and indeed every citizen. The costs and sacrifices were borne unequally, as is the case everywhere in...
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Mr Speaker: Three long years of pandemic living was announced to be at an end just last month, and many of us heaved a sigh of relief that the remaining measures of our pandemic response were finally behind us. Given the serious and uncertain nature of the pandemic, it was a...
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Mdm Deputy Speaker, this Amendment Bill seeks to introduce three main requirements to the Act: Introduce a plastic bag charge scheme starting with the larger supermarkets with annual turnover of more than $100 million; Introduce a beverage container return scheme; Require the segregation and treatment of food waste in prescribed buildings with...
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COVID-19 was the crisis of a generation. Our front liners, including nurses, doctors, cleaners and drivers, responded heroically in the face of an enemy that we knew little about before 2020. Words cannot repay the debt of gratitude we owe each one of them. COVID-19 also took the lives of...
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Mr Speaker, as we do our rounds with our constituents during our house visits, we would undoubtedly have met those who have expressed their concern about the rising cost of living. This is not a recent phenomenon. While rising prices of groceries or gas may have dominated our more...
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Mr Speaker I would like to first declare my interest as an equity research analyst in a financial institution, covering the real estate industry. Mr Speaker, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This saying is usually attributed to Albert Einstein, but one might...
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Mr Speaker sir, the two motions before the House today touch on a subject that is near and dear to Singaporeans – housing. The first part of my speech will touch on the over-arching principles and values that should guide our housing policy. The bedrock principles that should guide our housing...
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A public housing flat should be an affordable home for our families to live and grow up in. The original mission behind the Housing and Development Board (HDB), when it was set up in 1960, was to alleviate the severe housing shortage at that time by building affordable homes for...
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Mr Speaker, I support the amendments in the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Bill. However I do have some concerns with the new proposed Section 17A which creates a presumption that the owners or tenants of the property are responsible if any refuse or article is deposited, dropped, placed, thrown,...
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Mr Speaker sir, the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Bill seeks to make several changes. One group of changes affects the licensing of cleaning businesses and the roll-out of the Progressive Wage Model for this sector. Another group of changes relates to the dumping of waste from vehicles and another...
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Mr Speaker, home is where the heart is. And at the heart of our public housing estates are our heartland retailers and hawker centres, which play an integral role in our lives throughout one’s life stages. Growing up as a child in Ang Mo Kio and certainly before the...
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Mr Speaker, I understand that this motion—like similar ones I had spoken on in 2021 on contributions to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—are largely routine and technical, and reflect our nation’s ongoing commitment as a responsible citizen in the international system. Funding rounds for the International Development Association (IDA)...
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Over the years, I have met several residents who were undischarged bankrupts and whose estates were being managed by the Official Assignee (“OA”). They shared with me their experience liaising with the OA officers for various purposes, ranging from proposing instalment payments of their debts to obtaining permission to...
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Mr Speaker, the two associated bills to amend the SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) Agency and Skills Development Levy Acts are sensible efforts to improve regulatory oversight over SSG grantees and training providers, while simultaneously strengthening investigative powers available to the agency. As someone that had previously sought clarification on lapses...
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Mr Speaker, the Electric Vehicles (EV) Charging Bill is a step toward institutionalizing the process of preparing for the transition of our transportation infrastructure into the 21st century. The fundamental problem it seeks to address is: how will the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Energy Market Authority (EMA) work...
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Mr Speaker, one of the first widely produced models of the battery-powered electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf, was launched in 2010. Feted as a breakthrough model, the Leaf was considered one of the most efficient and user-friendly electric cars. A decade later, Singapore is beginning its journey towards electrification. In...
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Mr Speaker, I welcome the move to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code. For too long, the law has remained in our statutes, explicitly stating that sex between adult men is a crime, even if it’s consensual and done in private. Despite the Government having said multiple times...
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Mr Speaker Like many of us in this House, I am often filled with questions, thinking about the type of world we live in, the world that I want my children to inherit from us. I worry about how I can inculcate in them the right values, the right tools...
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Mr Speaker, as members of this House executing our duties in Parliament, we simultaneously hold three distinct identities. We are, first and foremost, representatives of the people that voted for us. In my view, this is our utmost responsibility: to properly capture and reflect the views of our constituents....
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Mr Speaker, my Adjournment Motion speech today will address the issue of ensuring a culture of accountability to students and staff at our Institutes of Higher Learning, or IHLs. I was moved to give this speech by having met many young people over the years, be it at my...
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The Government has decided to repeal section 377A of the Penal Code. Since these plans were first revealed, many Aljunied GRC residents have reached out to me to express their views about this issue. Residents spoke to me during my house-to-house visits, came to my Meet-the-People Sessions, sent me WhatsApp...
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Mr Speaker sir, I’d like to start by asking a simple question. What if you were born into a world where your actions mark you out as being in a minority because most people don’t do what you do. An unpopular minority. What if you were able to live...
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Mr Speaker, today the House is debating the Government’s amendment bill to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code and a proposed amendment of the Constitution to insert a new Article 156 relating to the institution of marriage. In 2007, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the Government will...
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Mr Speaker, At the outset, I wish to state that I am in support of the Penal Code Amendment Bill. This is due to the likely unconstitutionality of Section 377A for violating Article 12, especially in the light of recent legal developments. I wish now to focus on the Constitution Amendment...
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Mr Speaker, beyond the bread-and-butter matters of economics and material well-being, Singaporeans must occasionally confront issues that concern our collective values, how we see each other as a citizen-community, and what kind of place we want Singapore to be. Section 377A of the Penal Code—which I will henceforth refer to...
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Mr Speaker, according to the Healthier SG White Paper, all residents will be encouraged to enrol with a family doctor or a family physician, who (I quote the White Paper) “will serve as the point of contact to holistically manage the residents’ health” (unquote), focusing on providing holistic care,...
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Mr Speaker It comes as no surprise that big changes are needed in the way we approach healthcare to keep our care systems sustainable. The plans announced are ambitious, and are meant to address the long-term well-being of an ageing Singapore. As always, the actual execution and implementation of these...
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Healthier SG is a welcome new initiative, even though focusing more on preventive healthcare is something that has been advocated for over the years. In February this year, the Member for Aljunied GRC, Mr Leon Perera, made a very comprehensive adjournment motion speech on rethinking preventive health to generate better...