Mr Speaker, I will speak about steps we can take, as a nation, toward moving to a better balance in our expenditure on healthcare resources. I will share some details on why I think we can increase the carrying capacity of our healthcare system—perhaps to some detriment in efficiency and some marginal pressure in costs—that will pay off in terms of greater long-term resilience.  As others in this House have shared—and as well understood by this government—our impending public expenditures on medical care will be substantially greater than what we have currently allocated for spending toda ..read more

The world is facing a severe manpower crunch in health and social care. The CEO of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) said last year that “the scale of the worldwide nursing shortage is one of the greatest threats to health globally.” The ICN estimates that due to existing nursing shortages, the ageing of the nursing workforce and the effect of COVID-19, up to 13 million nurses will be needed to fill the global nurse shortage gap in the future. The Southeast Asia region alone is facing a shortfall of 1.9 million nurses, according to the World Health Organization.  Singapore needs a ..read more

Madam Deputy Speaker, I will be speaking briefly on the intent of this Bill to amend the Companies Act 1967, the Business Trusts Act 2004, the Variable Capital Companies Act 2018 and the Singapore Labour Foundation Act 1977 to provide for meetings using virtual meeting technology. Such meetings may include annual general meetings, extraordinary general meetings or other type of meetings. The amendments provide for meetings to held in three scenarios (1) at a physical place, (2) at a physical place and using virtual meeting concurrently i.e. hybrid meeting, and (3) just using virtual technology ..read more

The Financial Services and Markets (Amendment) Bill before the House today fills a gap in our current regulatory eco-system. Over the years, MAS has closely supervised and worked with financial institutions (“FIs”) to strengthen Singapore’s defences to prevent money laundering (“ML”), terrorism financing (“TF”), and proliferation financing (“PF”). However, a weakness in the effective detection of illicit financial flows lies in the inability of FIs to alert each other to unusual activity in their customers’ accounts. Financial criminals exploit these “information silos” by making illicit trans ..read more

In the past few years, MPs have encountered residents whose lives have been devastated by online crimes such as scams.  Not only have these victims lost significant amounts of hard-earned monies or retirement savings; they also live with the mental anguish and guilt of being gullible enough to fall for such deception. Often, the victims were vulnerable in certain ways and susceptible to exploitation, such as those who live alone and are desperate for friends to chat with, or those searching for a life partner who then become the victim of a love scam.  Some may blame the victims ..read more

Mr Speaker Sir, one of the aims of the Family Justice Reform Bill is to facilitate more sustainable maintenance outcomes. I support the Bill. Beyond amending the legislation to make it easier to enforce maintenance payments, going forward, I would like to call for the Government to consider providing for gender-neutral maintenance. That will be the thrust of my speech today. How could gender-neutral maintenance payments be operationalized? This should be done by giving the Courts the discretion to order that in appropriate cases, wives should pay maintenance to ex-husbands even if they are not ..read more

Introduction  The aim of the Family Justice Reform Bill is to amend the Family Justice Act, Women’s Charter, and the Guardianship of Infants Act to among others, simplify family proceedings and to provide sustainable maintenance outcomes. I am supportive of this Bill and the efforts to strengthen family therapeutic justice. My speech today aims to seek clarifications on certain aspects of the Bill, particularly that relating to providing greater support for both the applicants and respondents to the maintenance enforcement process. At the same time, I will also be speaking on related issu ..read more

THE WORKERS’ PARTY LABOUR DAY MESSAGE: 1 MAY 2023 Greater protections and preparation for workers needed to weather the storms ahead Last Wednesday (26 April 2023), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in its semi-annual report on the Singapore economy, announced that Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023 is expected to grow between 0.5% and 2.5%, slower than last year’s 3.6%. Less sanguine employment outlook Singaporeans are already living through one of the most rapid cost of living rises in recent history, eroding the purchasing power of their wages. MAS reported tha ..read more

Introduction  Mr Speaker, the Government’s direction as encapsulated by the President’s Address continues in the same vein from the last term of Parliament. A significant part of the information contained in the addenda to the President’s Address have been made known previously even before Parliament was prorogued. The Workers’ Party MPs have therefore raised issues that remain at the top of the public mind – such as HDB matters, the cost of living, issues that affect seniors and the young, and matters of fairness and inclusivity. For my part, I will cover three broad points: First, I wil ..read more

Sir, During her address on Monday last week, President Halimah touched on several issues related to the steps which we need to take so as to achieve happiness, prosperity, and progress for our nation.  The President’s views on national politics caught my attention. I noted that she called for ‘good’ politics so as to futher advance Singapore’s progress, harmony, stability whilst warning against ‘bad’ politics that could spark polarization and rent divisions.  I would like to share my own perspective on what would be considered as ‘good’ politics during this debate, which I believe is ..read more