Carrie Tan
Singapore
“I would like to thank the Senior Minister of State for her reply. I would just like to check if there is any internal standard operating procedure and timeline for turnaround for the HDB engineers who are tasked to provide technical advice to TCs?”
“To do this, I recommend that the job-redesign funding for micro-enterprises running mom and pop shops be increased to 95% with a higher cap, provide rent subsidies and a dedicated facilitator team to help shop owners in this particular effort.”
“It is time to redefine our success metrics – from grades and rankings to personal fulfilment and well-being. It is time to reshape the narrative around family – from cost and sacrifice to joy and aspiration, to build a Singapore where both dreams and families can flourish. I support the Budget.”
“Just Question No 14, okay. I would like to find out whether there can be a systematic programme, given that there are already 712 minimarts that are currently operating under the HDB leases island-wide.”
“I thank the Senior Minister of State Zaqy for his answers. I would like to enquire whether in the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM's) design of the workplace, skilling and training programmes, were micro businesses, such as the minimarts and their associations, consulted and involved in understanding what are the kinds of skills that their wor…”
“Similar to the Land Acquisition Act which enabled the Government to acquire land for the construction of public infrastructure, the Government may want to consider a similar legal mechanism for strata units to be acquired, or supported, where necessary, so that parts of a fully air-conditioned building can be opened up to achieve natural…”
The complete record
Every one of 269 lines we hold for Carrie Tan, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 6.
“Other than within the geopolitical context, is it really still true that Singapore is vulnerable with no resources to rely on? I challenge that notion. From our humble beginnings in the 1960s to 2023, we have become a nation that is abundant in many aspects. We have a world class education system, we have built robust financial system and governance structures with a stellar reputation for trade and business, we have greatly admired urban planning blueprints and methodologies that many countries are keen to learn from. We continuously innovate and we have a population of people who are honest, hardworking and seen as a reliable and trustworthy pool of talent internationally. Since our Independence, our main priority has been economic growth because it had to be thus far. Economic progress was the way to survival for a nation scarce in natural resources. It helped us Singaporeans make great leaps in our quality of life that many countries today are envious of. Hence, it is only natural that economic growth seems to be the only way we understand quality of life. It has served us so well that it may seem mad to anyone to talk about deliberately slowing down economic growth. But is it not equally mad to continue this drive for ever higher economic growth when our only resource – human resource – is coming under great threat? In the Singapore Youth Epidemiology and Resilience Study last year involving over 3,000 young people aged 11 to 18, it was found that one in three youths in Singapore has reported internalising mental health symptoms. How will this impact our workforce and the quality of our talent pool, and how may our current way of life be contributing to this phenomenon?”
“In my parents’ younger days, for most families, a rare treat was going to the movies and buying a 10-cent kacang putih wrapped in newspaper. Today, having a $4 cup of bubble tea or coconut shake might be an equivalent, and for certain more well-off segments of our population, it might be enjoyed too frequently to be considered an indulgence. Many more of us can afford more things in life, many more non-essential things to adorn our lives but we do not seem to be happier. Our sense of insecurity about meeting basic needs appears to be getting worse. Of course, these anxieties are real and pressing, given that there is inflation and various global uncertainties presenting multiple pressures. At the same time, we are also one of the wealthiest countries in the world and we have emerged out of COVID-19 triumphant. So, what else might be perpetuating and driving this pervasive sense of insecurity? Is it perhaps time to rethink and review our national narrative and model of progress that we are just a small red dot with no resources, constantly fighting for our survival? With this narrative, we have pushed our people harder and harder, through various iterations of workforce development initiatives and industry transformation maps, relentlessly chasing for ever higher productivity. Is this survivalist narrative presenting a disconnect with the fact and reality of our progress? Could it be entrenching more anxiety in our people than is really necessary? My hon colleague Mr Sitoh Yih Pin’s comment in his speech yesterday resonated with me. Is it really true that our glass is always half empty and are our prospects as a nation only getting bleaker? Is the best already behind us or is our best yet to be?”
“Okay. I would like to thank all my colleagues for all the policies and for working so hard to tackle very immediate and near-term challenges that we are facing as a nation. It gives me great trust and also gives me the liberty to set my sights further into the future. I ask this House for its indulgence to listen with an open heart, an open mind, an open will as well as an open imagination for what I would like to share in my speech today. I am very thankful and glad for the Budget provisions that Deputy Prime Minister Wong has made for Singaporeans, especially the measures to increase paternity and parental leave as well as the legislation to advance flexible work arrangements as a norm. All these go a long way to enhance the well-being of our people and it has been long due. I am very inspired by the theme of this year's Budget, "Moving Forward into a New Era". It is time, I feel, for us to think boldly in order to meet the new realities we are facing as a nation as well as globally. On our shores, our workforce is burnt out – 57% of our workforce said burnout was the leading factor affecting their mental health during the pandemic. Abroad, quiet quitting, a phenomenon that emerged last year, is a silent protest within the workforce across the developed world against a state of work that is demanding too much of people. The cost of living is going up drastically. Our core inflation was just 1% in 2019. Last year, it was 4%. It is no longer just the bottom 10% or 15% of Singaporeans who feel anxious about their ability to put food on the table. Our middle-class Singaporeans are also feeling anxious. Singaporeans are working harder than ever before and our standard of living has improved.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I am not sure whether I am still the last speaker for today.”
“I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. However, we have several units and these are residents with very exceptional cases where the water seepage disamenity has been unsolved for many years. And with the recent rain and the continuous rain, it is causes a daily disamenity and disrupts their lives, in some cases, even causing fall risks amongst family members. With the ageing population, this is going to be more common – and of course – climate changes that is causing more rain. Is the Ministry looking into improving or finding doing research, to improve either the quality of the material used in our buildings or the method of constructing our buildings, to ensure that going forward, such exceptional weather conditions will not create such a conundrum, and I think, an actual risk to residents who are staying in the flats. And for those who are already facing this situation, will the Ministry consider some alternatives, such as an interim temporary housing solution until the problem has been solved. And I would like to emphasise that for these cases, it is not due to any lack of effort either by the Town Councils or the HDB departments involved, but it is just really difficult to trace and technically difficult to solve.”
“(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Mdm Deputy Speaker, in response to what Ms Hazel Poa has just said, I am glad that PSP is now acknowledging the fact that the state land is also part of our reserves. I would like to seek a clarification from the Members of the PSP. They said that the purpose of their Affordable Homes Scheme is to strengthen the principle of owner occupation. So, what PSP is promoting is that once you buy a HDB flat, you should live there until the end. Say someone lives in the flat until he reaches the end of his life, what is this person going to do with the flat? Is he supposed to sell the flat back to the Government and pay back the land cost together with interests? Take the example of an Ah Gong or Ah Ma in his or her 70s or 80s, who is no longer able to work. If he or she has to sell the flat back to the Government and pay back the land cost with interests, is he or she not going to leave a large debt to his children? Can you please clarify?”
“Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I thank Mr Leong for the clarification. I am sure it is reassuring for people to know that he does not look down on Singaporeans who live in HDB flats. But I just want to offer a clarification in response, is that when I read the response and the question posed by the member of public, in the member of public's words, he was concerned about whether the Affordable Homes Scheme (AHS) proposed by Mr Leong would keep citizens stuck in a particular type of housing. And that was the exact word that the citizen said in the Facebook comments. He said "stuck". But it was Mr Leong who responded with the word "condemned", so that is all I wanted to clarify.”
“If we were to implement the PSP's policy, Ah Gong and Ah Ma's asset value will drop sharply. Where then can they get their retirement security? I can understand the anxieties our residents have been feeling in the past two years. Geopolitical uncertainty, rising prices and the pandemic have made young people, who were forced to stay at home, to want to have their own space more urgently. Construction delay has also made the younger generation worry about if they are able to get a flat. All these anxieties add up to the challenges in getting a flat successfully. It is human nature to feel this way. However, if we look further, these feelings are all transitory and caused by the special circumstances in the past two years. We cannot step on the brake suddenly on the government policies and simply reset. What will happen if you brake suddenly? The cars behind will ram into you. Now the PSP is calling for a policy reset and its proposals are only for immediate convenience, hoodwinking the people with short-term interests. Their so-called policy reforms on retirement security are likely to cause 80% of Singaporeans who own HDB flats to lose their safety net overnight. I believe Singaporeans are rational. We need to address the immediate challenges with right solutions, not empty theories on paper. I urge Singaporeans to think over this thoroughly and not try to make hasty changes to important policies because of temporary challenges. Hasty actions will only lead to our forefathers’ efforts being wasted away. To resolve the current issue, I think the Government is right to step up the supply of BTO flats and give young couples priority to get a flat through targeted measures. I support the Motion raised by the Minister for National Development, Mr Desmond Lee.”
“Since December last year, Mr Leong has kept on changing his stance. First, he said that we should not include the cost of the land into the prices of HDB flats; then he said we should use historical prices; yesterday he said that we could include the land cost, but delay it until we sell, and give it back to HDB together with interests. Within three months, he changed his stance three times. Can such a scheme be reliable? Shifting stances aside, I tried to give serious thought to his proposal. Mr Leong suggested that when selling new flats, the price should only include building cost, thus reducing the price drastically. Hence, people do not need to spend their CPF money to buy a flat. This is indeed very appealing. However, if you think twice, you will realise that this will further increase the price gap between BTO flats and resale flats. Looking at the BTO application data last year and considering our "kiasu" mentality, the PSP proposal will only cause more people to apply for BTO flats, because it is a good deal! But the resale market will suffer from lack of buyers, the resale price will fall precipitously. Can Mr Leong be sure that such a scenario will not happen? If this were to happen, the asset value of current HDB flat owners will fall. How is Mr Leong going to resolve this? In my constituency in Yishun, there are many Ah Gong and Ah Ma in their 70s or 80s who are thinking of leaving their flat to their children, or selling it and distributing the proceeds to their children, or selling it back to the Government at market price. In this way, they will not only be able to stay in the same flat, but also have spare money to spend for the rest of their life, without the need to depend on their children so much.”
“(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to speak. Having heard the debate yesterday and comments on social media, especially after having heard the speeches of Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Members of Parliament, I feel that I should say a few words. First, yesterday, Member of Parliament Hazel Poa asked why we could not build sufficient flats in one go, like what we have done during Mr Lee Kuan Yew's time. She also asked the Minister whether he thought Mr Lee Kuan Yew had raided our reserves. Her questions surprised me. Times have changed. At that time, we didn’t have a mature HDB resale market, nor did we have much reserves to speak of. What was the point or purpose of her question? Second, Mr Leong Mun Wai had also spoken about PSP's Affordable Homes Scheme, the purpose of which is to strengthen the principle that a HDB flat is for owner occupation, not investment. However, when he responded to a netizen's comment on his Facebook, he said that his intention was for Singaporeans to keep their CPF money, and not to be "condemned to living in HDB flats" forever because they cannot afford private housing. When I read this, I was very puzzled. What did he mean by saying "condemned to living in HDB flats"? In Singapore, more than 80% of our citizens live in HDB flats and many of them have been living there for their whole life. We bring up our children in HDB flats and some of us have upgraded from a 3-room flat to a 5-room flat. Many middle-income families are very proud of this. Mr Leong Mun Wai really should not say that people are "condemned" to stay in HDB flats. What is wrong with staying in a HDB flat? By saying so, Mr Leong seems to be subconsciously looking down on those who live in HDB flats.”
“Thank you, Speaker. I would like to check with the Minister of State whether CASE works with the Police in cases where they have multiple complaints from various consumers against the same operator or business provider. To what extent does CASE assess that this could be more than a misrepresentation but bordering on fraud for the cases to be referred to the Police for investigation? Is there a certain threshold, such as the total number of consumer complaints against a particular service provider, before it gets escalated to become a criminal fraud case?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the answer. I would like to understand in terms of the public reporting misuse of PMAs, it is not uncommon for us to see people on the streets ferrying grandchildren or ferrying a boyfriend or a girlfriend on PMAs. So, if a member of the public sees this, can you explain how exactly can they report this on the OneMotoring app? Do they take a picture and submit the picture? What would be the enforcement actions that will follow?”
“Hopefully, we can create, through these collective efforts, a virtuous cycle driven by the will and initiatives of our people. The more we care and share, the healthier we get. I support the White Paper.”
“This is really to help them during their startup stage. We can also consider providing Government tax deduction benefits to impact investors who invest in early stage social enterprises that provide similar services in the same way that it incentivises donations to Institutions of Public Character (IPCs) because after all, if more people can be harnessed and built in their capability to care in the neighbourhoods, then we all can hopefully pay less taxes because of institutional healthcare costs. Ground-up initiatives have closer experience on the ground. Often, their interventions and services are designed with personal experience of founders or beneficiaries. They can plug the last mile service gap much better than Government agencies can. In summary, I would like to wrap up my speech to emphasis this point that aligns with the Ministry's intention for Healthier SG, which is that as individuals, we can do more to own and to take charge of our health. To do this, we need to harness the capacities, strengths and assets of individuals amongst residents. We need to invest in and grow the capacity of leaders amongst our citizens. In so doing, we can truly bring the power of the community together and build up our citizens' agency and health by facilitating their initiative and their pioneering spirit through mutual sharing and caring activities that they start. There is a Chinese saying, "百花齐放" – a hundred flowers bloom. I hope the Government can seriously consider these proposals to nurture and fertilise the flowers to bloom in this community health and community care space. And so, I urge MOH to set up a dedicated work group that includes MSF and MCCY to help drive Healthier SG because the social determinants of health are key if we wish to see the outcomes we want.”
“With the team there, they have created a list of care tasks and micro-errands that do not require medical expertise for people to help with. We are enrolling volunteers from the community to step up so that discharged elderly from the hospital can be adequately cared for and caregivers can have more support and more respite. As we worked on this pilot, along the way, I met other initiatives in the form of social enterprises and ground-up groups that are doing the same or attempting to do the same. Initiatives like SG Assist by amazing Singaporeans like Adrian Tan and Greg Tan as well as Denise Tay and Michelle Lau, who founded KampungKakis. They are doing great work to excavate and pull together the human power for mutual support and caregiving in the community. We need to grow the efforts of these leaders and champions for community care. These are social entrepreneurs with hearts that care and a commitment to pledge their careers to creating solutions for society. We should support, harness their strengths and invest in them. I would like to ask the Government to enable their growth by incentivising impact investors and philanthropists to invest in such initiatives to help scale up their work and impact to reach more of Singapore. I have some specific suggestions to support social enterprises to provide capability building in community care so that we can help to accelerate the de-institutionalisation of health and healthcare. One, it is possible to look into expanding the Community Capability Trust with specific funding injections from MOH to invest in social enterprises that provide such capability building services for the community. We can do this for as long as before they show any positive monetary returns or profits.”
“But we are looking at in the A-B-C-D model is to enable residents to initiate and own the programmes themselves, thereby increasing their sense of ownership and their personal sense of agency. Minister Ong mentioned that the community plays a big part in this plan. Specifically, I call for MOH to lead and to help fund a dedicated community health team within PA to train specifically personnel in asset-based community development in collaboration with Yishun Health's community outreach team as well as other community partners who are well-versed and familiar with the A-B-C-D model. I think this would help effect a very important transformational mindset shift from our people being at the receiving end of services to them being the enablers for change in the community and within themselves. My next point: how can we better distribute care in the system so that it is not concentrated in formal settings, which are costly to provide? The good news is I believe we leverage the very good momentum that the COVID-19 pandemic has provided, where we see that in many parts of Singapore, neighbours are already helping neighbours, whether it is buying food, helping to fetch groceries when their neighbours are in quarantine and so on. These acts of kindness and helping and care are already happening sporadically in a rather organic manner. The question is – how can we be more intentional about it and grow such mutual support and care within the community more systematically? In Nee Soon, I am now piloting an experiment with Yishun Health to explore tapping on neighbours to help so that the hospital can readily discharge patients who are ready to be discharged but may not have people at home to care for them.”
“Often, these are the people who will shun visiting the GP when they are sick because they cannot afford to pay the cash even after subsidies. They end up getting into A&E when their conditions get too severe. They also avoid seeing the doctor because they are in jobs that are daily paid. They work long hours or are mentally overloaded with too many chronic stresses to make healthy lifestyle choices. Under these circumstances, the mindset that they are often beset with is, "I cannot" or "It is too difficult". Yet, in the example of the Yishun Health community outreach teams' Wellness Kampung efforts, we see how peers can influence peers to see that, "If you can, maybe I can too." Such share and care activities harness the power of the community and the assets and strengths from amongst residents themselves to initiate activities that provide positive influence and share their own knowledge with one another. Such asset-based community development initiatives help to uplift wellbeing from lifting the self-esteem and social connection of people and contribute to their socio-emotional health – a key dimension as well as determinant of physical health. We can scale up such efforts by involving and enhancing the capabilities of PA to do similar. People may ask, "What is the difference? We already have so many grassroots activities, interest group activities, brisk walking" and so on. I would like to highlight that there is a distinct nuance here because to date, PA has developed itself and it is very strong as an organiser and often seen as a service provider of these activities, both recreational and social.”
“I think what is really beautiful about this initiative was that it harnessed the strength of an individual, created a ripple effect and it built up this man's sense of dignity in being able to contribute to his community despite his medical condition. I think the self-esteem that he got and the wellness that he got from such an initiative and being a contributor really, really showed him to be a positive role model amongst his peers. I also heard from the Yishun Health team that amongst these groups, there were successful cases where elderly gentlemen saw a friend of theirs pass away due to lung cancer from having been a chronic smoker. That prompted them to decide that they would also want to quit smoking. In these examples, we see that it is actually the power of social relationships that worked wonders. Often, people do not need an expert to come and tell them what to do. People can make good choices for themselves when they are inspired by the stories and people amongst them. As much as I am very glad for the current plans by Healthier SG that focus on physical health, I would like to encourage MOH to work closely with other Ministries such as MSF because the social determinants of health are equally, if not even more important in upstream efforts. Our efforts may go to waste if we neglect this critical piece. As Woodlands Health Campus' Chief Operating Officer (COO) once shared with me a few years back in my then capacity as the executive director of Daughters of Tomorrow, many of the hospital's "frequent-flyer users" come from the lower-income segment. In fact, Woodlands Health Campus' utilisation trends show that 20% of patients use up to 80% of healthcare cost.”
“To that, I would like to propose that we harness and strengthen the community's capacity to be the peer influencers and peer enablers for each other. I would like to make two points in my speech – to involve other agencies in tandem with MOH and to expand our collective efforts towards greater health together. First of all, we need to harness our people, our citizens for mutual support to be influencers as well as facilitators. For the past two years since being a Member of Parliament at Nee Soon, I have worked closely with Yishun Health and gotten to know and see the very good efforts they created in neighbourhoods as part of their community health outreach efforts. I am very inspired by their approach and model towards health, which is to decouple it from sickness and to emphasise instead empowering the agency within the individual for wellness. They started initiatives like Share A Pot, which Nominated Member of Parliament Janet Ang mentioned yesterday. It is a programme that taps on seniors to gather together with other seniors. They are cooking and sharing bone broth together to strengthen their bones, to decrease their risk of frailty and risk of falls. The other notable project is called Repair Kakis, where a group of elderly uncles come together and they provide handyman services to their neighborhood. It was actually started by a gentleman who suffers from Parkinson's disease. The Yishun Health team discovered that he was an aircon serviceman before and he possesses the technical knowledge and mechanical knowledge to repair appliances. They encouraged him and he started this group. Before long, more uncles joined him. And now, weekly, they create a session where they welcome neighbours to bring their faulty home appliances for them to repair.”
“I would like to thank the Minister for Health for the wonderful efforts to tackle our people's health challenges and also our nation's healthcare cost challenges using this upstream approach and also to thank Senior Parliamentary Secretary Rahayu Mahzam earlier for going into detail and describing the various technologies and apps – I think it is very creative to tap on Singapore's national love for food and taking pictures of food – and also considering support for caregivers, which is really important. Minister Masagos also spoke about many hands on deck. I believe that is the correct direction to go. I am very supportive of these initiatives in Healthier SG. I would like to expand on all these efforts a little bit more by highlighting some nuancing that I believe are quite important in the way we approach the community efforts for greater ownership of individuals. One, I am hearted to note that these efforts to reduce cost of healthcare amidst the ageing challenges is to mitigate institutional healthcare costs, which is by de-institutionalising care. I believe the Government is already embarking on this with various "Ageing in Place" efforts, like Minister Masagos has said. I personally think that the pilot for Queenstown's Health District pilot is very commendable. It is really good to see the concerted efforts by both MOH and MND to do so. To supplement the infrastructure design and development of care within the vicinity of people's homes, we also need to build up what we call the "soft infrastructure". As my hon colleague Denise Phua brought up yesterday, what is there in between GP visits to ensure that people follow their health plan that is recommended to them? What is there in our everyday?”
“Thank you, Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for addressing the question. But my Question No 6 is about whether we are right now meeting the targets of having enough teachers come forward to enter the SPED sector. I am heartened to hear that there are training schemes and even sponsorships for a Masters programme and so on. But how are we, in terms of meeting the targets that are needed, in terms of the projections of the number of SPED teachers we will need in the coming years and does the Ministry look into what are the current pain points that are preventing people from coming forward, despite all of these very good incentives and training schemes provided? The other thing is, I am seeing this disconnect, I am a little bit confused – so, I would appreciate the Minister's clarification. I understand that SSAs are coming under MSF, but MOE is now taking a proactive stance in terms of creating the frameworks and training for the SPED teachers. So, is there any kind of operational disconnect for SSAs that they have to navigate, because of this dual Ministry involvement in terms of the development of the sector?”
“Thank you. I appreciate the Minister of State's responses and clarifications. Pertaining to the point about increased costs in order to maintain a pool of vacancies in order that we can optimise matching parents choices, what I see in my Meet-the-People sessions where a lot of residents are coming to me are challenges like the very real challenges, where distance actually matters greatly. The 15 minutes or 20 minutes of travelling time that they can save every morning goes a great way to alleviate their stress and mental health and mental well-being. So, when they are juggling between looking after old people, and then kids, and then multiple kids for some families, bring them to different locations to preschools and infant care and so on, it really simply does not make sense. Hence, my follow-up question on whether ECDA or MSF will be open to looking into calculating what are the costs and trade-offs of maintaining a vacancy post so that we can allow families to have that peace of mind and reduce their stress in fearing that they might have to give up their jobs in order to maintain or upkeep this fetching and bringing of children to school and back, which actually could impede on the family's one source of income if someone has to lose their job in order to to manage all that caregiving within the family.”
“In a world where innocuous messages are sent constantly to women to make us feel lesser, the last thing that we need is a cloud hanging over our heads, making us wonder and doubt whether we have gotten a position out of our own merit or for anyone else to have that doubt. So, let us focus on doing the real work, the deep work that may not sound very ambitious but is important to help change the values and inherent unquestioned mental models that build these narratives that cast doubts on women's self-worth. We need to build up women's innate confidence and the work that truly eradicates narratives and barriers are the ones that we need to do, so that they no longer stand in the way of women's self-worth and brilliance. Stop making us doubt and stop making us choose. De-conflict our choices so that we truly can have it all. If not for us now, at least in the near future, for our daughters. With that, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I support the Motion. [Applause.]”
“If compulsory enlistment is too big a step for now, we can introduce CCAs in schools in the likes of National Cadet Corps or National Civil Defence Cadet Corps, perhaps called the National Care Corps for both boys and girls. This will help to socialise young people from a young age to see women as equals and themselves as caregivers, giving them exposure to care work as a meaningful vocation. De-conflicting work and care is the urgent priority to advance women. When men and society take some care burdens from the shoulders of women, women can have more space on their shoulders for their aspirations and for daughters to stand on. In doing so, we will create role models for both our sons and daughters, for a world that sees true and equal partnership between men and women and on this point about true partnership. True partnership requires recognising and affirming the inherent worth of women in all spheres of life. It requires the eradication of the mindsets and the narratives that create barriers to women's worth being recognised. These narratives have conditioned society so much that, often, women doubt ourselves, we doubt our own worth. When Minister Ong Ye Kung said earlier about the comments that relatives make, an innocuous comment to say "When are you going to have sons?" could hurt a girl child very deeply, causing a wound on the perceptions of their self-worth. Because of this, mandated representation, alluded by our hon colleague Assoc Prof Jamus Lim earlier, saying that it is charity that should begin at home, is deeply patronising to women.”
“Finally, the White Paper suggests some efforts to encourage men to take their paternity and parental leave. There is still stigma around men spending time away from work to take care of family. Men shared with me their concerns that taking time off from work for care obligations could compromise their chances at promotions or create a negative impression of them at work. One key strategy to change this mindset is to ungender care and normalise care work for both men and women. We need to create mindset shifts upstream. One way is to expand the scope of National Service to include care vocations, enlisting both young men and women. We can deploy young people based on their aptitude in either the armed forces or the care forces. Those who are physically unsuitable for the armed forces can be deployed to care roles in the community, such as respite caregiving, care coordinators, medical escorts, befrienders, mental health responders and so on, while those with the desire and physical aptitude can opt or be deployed to military positions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many families' caregiving needs increased. Many citizens had to quit their jobs to care for the young and old at home. Including care vocations in National Service (NS) to support the community with their caregiving needs will help reduce the stress of our people and our workforce and, more critically, for care work to be seen as a shared civic responsibility in a nation with a rapidly ageing population, in an un-gendered manner. This is not a novel concept. In Switzerland, men can choose to do civilian service instead of military service, serving in healthcare, welfare, environmental protection, research projects or development assistance abroad.”
“SHE Project showed that mothers with longer-term housing stability were better able to rebuild a path towards financial independence. This model is already in use in the US and Japan. We can study their experiences to create a model that works for Singapore. Second, regarding workplace equality, I urge the Government to enable SMEs to build more progressive workplace cultures by supporting them in the culture and operational transformation journey. The call for non-discriminatory hiring practices needs to come hand-in-hand with equipping SMEs better. Larger companies and MNCs often have sufficient resources and services to help them address harassment and discrimination, but many SMEs might not, and they have very real operational challenges. I recommend that the Government provide subsidies for training on such matters, or for “diversity and inclusion” coaches to support SMEs in their culture transition. These do not need to cost much. For example, in February, I moderated a panel discussion at NTUC, together with TAFEP, where HR and business owners from SMEs gathered and came to hear about ways they can better tackle workplace discrimination and grievances. The attendees who came found it helpful and they saw that grievance handling does not necessarily have to end up in lawsuits or firing someone but could be opportunities for education within their companies. We talked about the possibilities of harnessing the energies of their own employee community to advance this cause without incurring high expenses as a form of internal corporate social responsibility. The Government can help rally business associations to do more of such sharing sessions with NTUC and TAFEP to facilitate best practices and capacity-building amongst SMEs.”
“Those who are in rental flats face similar uncertainties when weighing income opportunities against loss of rental subsidies when their salary increases. Many residents from public rental flats who sought my assistance after they have employment requested for reduction in housing rental. After securing a job and income, many want to clear their arrears or other debts that they may be owing to friends and family. It is not uncommon for single mothers living in rental flats that Daughter Of Tomorrow (DOT) works with to turn down promotions from their employers so that they will stay within the salary band for the existing rental rate. Doing well at work, ironically, becomes a disincentive. It holds back the progress of lower-income women that we want to see the most. We already know that the average length of stay in rental flats before families move out into their own homes is seven years. Reducing financial shocks during this period and helping the families to build buffers are critical for successful emergence from poverty. An automatic 12-month grace period before adjusting rent in public rental flats, post-employment, will help these families greatly. I urge the Government to relook at the income criteria model for rental housing provision. We must also, at the same time, explore more stable and sustainable alternatives, such as communal housing, in the long term. While at DOT, I collaborated with AWARE's SHE Project, which provides two years of communal housing for two to three low-income single mothers and their children. They offered peer support to each other and pooled resources for domestic and childcare needs, which helped them retain their jobs and build up their financial resources.”
“Now, what is core and stable scheduling? Daughters Of Tomorrow (DOT) has advocated since 2018 for employers to take up core and stable scheduling. What it means is that managers give employees their preferred shift to accommodate their care duties at home. And since DOT started enrolling employer partners in 2018, 126 companies have adopted this model successfully, where single mothers have managed to plan their daily routines more efficiently, reducing work-care conflicts, when they do not have to juggle multiple different shifts within the same week. To enable companies to adopt core and stable scheduling, perhaps the Government can consider giving wage top-ups to workers who may not have as many care responsibilities at home to take the shifts during periods when home care is most needed, usually these are the evenings and the weekends. Such a scheme could be called "Work-Care Grants" and some may argue that the higher hourly wages could cause these evening and weekend shifts to, in turn, become more popular instead. However, similar experiments of the international retailer Gap have shown that mothers with care responsibilities preferred to forego the marginally higher hourly wage, in favour of being able to be at home during care hours for the children. In addition to stable shifts at work, lower-income women need better housing security. I hope the Government will look seriously into communal housing for single mothers and extended rental subsidies for vulnerable families which are striving their utmost towards social mobility. Single mothers in shelters face massive anxiety from being told that they can only stay for six months. Shelters have to use this approach currently to ensure adequate capacity.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I would, first, like to thank all Ministries and staff, everyone who has worked very hard on this White Paper, distilling the many diverse voices into these recommendations throughout the past year, even though the pandemic has brought challenges. It is very needed momentum towards women's equality. I would like to offer three more points today for practical consideration and, later on, I would also like to address something that has come up in the course of today's debate. One, work and housing security for low-income women; two, enabling workplace fairness and equality; and three, ensuring sustainable distribution of care. While I welcome the recommendations in the White Paper to enable more women on boards and mentorship opportunities and PMET jobs, we need to pay special attention to lower-income women who struggle to access stable employment in the first place. And I believe, we can do more to improve work accessibility for them as a society. Non-PMET workers have lower incomes and lesser financial resources to outsource their care needs. For example, most cannot afford to hire domestic help. We should provide them with more support to help them reduce work-care conflict. Although I am happy that the Government would be extending the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) to more sectors, we need to make sure that these higher wages are not met with strategies by businesses to cut corners on the welfare of workers, which will have a very detrimental impact on low-income women. We can incentivise businesses to adopt innovative work allocation strategies, primarily targeted at the low-wage job sectors. This could be flexi-hours, flexi-shift, shift-swapping, compressed work weeks, core and stable scheduling, to name some examples.”
“I thank the Ministers for addressing this very important topic. I would just like to understand with regard to the extension of the financial support for short- and medium-term assistance that Minister Lawrence Wong talked about earlier. Since the Government is already prepared to provide this extension of support – and I think we can safely be assured that the lowest income amongst us will be hit by the inflationary pressures and we all understand that beyond the actual pain of having to pay more are the anxiety, frustration and uncertainty that could hurt us more, presenting vulnerabilities for people to exploit in our society – what are the downsides of just making this three-month extension to our lowest-income automatic? Will the Minister consider making these extensions automatic, so that both the recipients and also our civil servants and SSOs can do away with the administrative burden of having to reapply, renew, find justifications and so on, which could go a long way towards reducing the stresses that people are facing at this very difficult time?”
“Thank you, Chairperson, I will try to keep it short. I appreciate the Ministry's efforts to increase the digitalisation efforts to make financial assistance more accessible. But given that many of the vulnerable communities are very low on their digital literacy, where they literally may not even know how to use Gmail on their phones, let alone to navigate Government portals, I would like to know what are the Ministry's efforts in trying to bridge this digital literacy gap and, if the befrienders from ComLink are meant to also support them on this front, then what are the ways that the Ministry might be looking at empowering befrienders and giving them the necessary access and safeguards around PDPA to support ComCare beneficiaries for their online applications? Secondly, given that the process of climbing out of poverty tends to be a long one and it is not a matter of bouncing back, will the Ministry consider automatic extension of ComCare to short-term financial assistance recipients, given that, right now, it presents a disincentive to some of them attaining jobs with the uncertainty and prospect that they may lose financial assistance upon getting a job? So, would that not be a way to reduce the administrative load of the Ministry and, at the same time, helping to reduce the bandwidth tax on applicants?”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I would just like to clarify this: it looks like a multi-Ministry effort to review the allocation of space in Singapore for HVPs. And I am just wondering whether there is an expectation by the Ministries that employers need to be responsible for the cost of commute of the HV drivers to get to and from their residence to their parked vehicle, wherever that may be located, and whether this expectation of these commuting costs has been communicated to the employers of HV drivers.”
“If we could provide better care for our caregivers, they will be able to better look after more people. (In English): I look forward to coordinated plans by MOH, MOE and MSF to enhance their support and care of our care workers. If we take better care of our carers, they can care better for many more. Notwithstanding the above that begs further attention, I fully support the Budget.”
“I am heartened by the Budget announcements that the Government will provide a $100 million top-up to continue the dollar-for-dollar matching to donations to charities until end 2024. We should use such support to encourage private philanthropists and corporate donors to finance capacity-building in Singapore's SSAs for roles and headcounts, such as volunteer management, marketing and communications and fundraising. Getting multiple sectors to sponsor and support diverse and value-adding job roles to careers in SSAs will make the sector more attractive and vibrant for Singaporeans. This helps to increase the non-profit sector's capacity and bring three wins: one, it reduces the stress that SSAs often experience due to public funding limitations and large reporting and bureaucratic requirements; two, it allows for more experimental approaches to support vulnerable communities; and three, it frees up Government monies to be directed to the professional training of additional social workers and healthcare workers. The Charities Capability Fund by MSF as well as the Community Capability Trust are steps in the right direction and I am glad for the $26 million top-up to these efforts. I look forward to the implementation details and hope it will be a simple process for SSAs in its execution. Mr Speaker, a mentally healthy nation is a strong nation. The mental health of those who take on the brunt of care work in our country is an immediate priority. We need to help redistribute their care load. In the year ahead, I urge more attention and creative resourcing to look after the mental health of our carers. In Mandarin, please. (In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] A mentally healthy nation is a strong nation.”
“Within the wider community, I urge MOE, MSF and MOH to jointly resource and enable the training of mental health responders and volunteers from the grassroots to be empathic listeners. Our People's Association (PA) grassroots network has been a formidable and dependable way to reach out to residents in times of need, from mask distribution to mobilisation for vaccination and, in pre-COVID-19 times, organising activities to bring people together. We can tap on this network further, provide targeted training to suitable members and build their capabilities in one-to-one care support to residents. Social Service Agencies (SSAs) can partner PA to train and equip volunteers as befrienders in the community for anyone who needs a non-judgemental listening ear and guidance on further resources for help. Someone facing mental health struggles may not need to see a counsellor if they feel listened to early on in their difficulties. Those who require more attention and expertise can be advised by the befrienders on where to get more support. This pool of volunteers serve to help distribute and mitigate the care load from the limited number of existing professional counsellors until we can train more to handle the needs in the system. I am piloting this in Nee Soon South with the support of Yishun Health and HPB this year, and I look forward to share our learnings to help build this care network model in Singapore. Lastly, we need to enable SSAs to improve their capacity-building capabilities. Increasing funding from private, corporate and philanthropic donors can reduce SSAs' reliance on Government funding and the Government's administrative workload.”
“Yet, teachers face more challenges as well as increased expectations of them, with home-based learning and the rising concern over our youths' mental health. In October last year, there was a letter written from a Mr Ng Wei Yang to The Straits Times and his plea went, "My wife's a teacher. Can I have her back with my family please?" I have spoken about this before in Parliament and I caution again about putting dual responsibility on teachers to double up as counsellors amidst an already overwhelming workload. Although teacher-counsellors will have a reduced teaching load, I am concerned about whether they will have sufficient bandwidth and emotional capacity to do both effectively while maintaining their own mental health. Some teachers shared with me that providing students with some form of basic counselling is already part of their role and they do it quite organically. However, I am concerned that formalising this role could create even more expectations by parents and the public towards teachers. The mental health of our teachers is next on the line if we continue to load them with too many expectations. I hope MOE will augment its efforts in this area with effective stakeholder communication towards parents. On top of that, other than being trained in youth psychology, the Ministry could consider adding on training in family therapy for school counsellors. School counsellors need to be well-versed in the everyday struggles faced by youths, including those they may encounter within their families. Other skills, such as mediation, could be helpful to foster and bridge relationships between students and their parents, especially during the difficult adolescent years.”
“Carefare is what I propose as a scheme similar to Workfare, but for lower-income individuals who provide full-time care to their loved ones, not by choice, but by circumstance. Many caregivers who had to quit their jobs suffer a loss of self-identity, decreased self-worth and emotional stress. Family members who are not involved in the actual care work also often fail to understand how demanding it is. Carefare is a way to provide crucial financial relief and offer recognition for the labour of caregiving. (In English): Second, we need to ensure adequate national resourcing for social work, social services, healthcare and mental health care to be adequately staffed and well-protected from work hazards. Beyond salaries, we can do more to enable them in their work and support them in their well-being. In the healthcare sector, on top of burnout, cases of nurses being physically or verbally abused and even sexually harassed by patients are increasing. More preventive steps need to be taken to ensure that healthcare workers remain safe and supported at work. I encourage MOH to look into proactive policies in hospitals and other healthcare settings to protect our healthcare workers from abuse. We could also consider amending our laws to toughen punishments for those who abuse healthcare workers, to send a very clear signal that such behaviour will not be tolerated. Beyond just improving salaries, we need to ensure safety, support and adequate staffing, to retain and develop individuals in the care sector for as long as possible to adequately meet the needs of our ageing population. Similarly, we need to protect our teachers from burnout. The role and workload of teachers have expanded drastically over the years.”
“Care recipients who require assistance with more activities of daily living (ADLs) can and should be supported with higher amounts of HCG. Carefare is what I proposed before as a scheme similar to Workfare, but for lower-income individuals who provide full-time care to their loved ones, not by choice, but by circumstance. Many caregivers who had to quit their jobs suffer a loss of self-identity, decreased self-worth and emotional stress. Often, the family members who are not personally involved in care work fail to understand how demanding it is. Carefare is one way we can provide crucial financial relief and offer recognition to informal caregivers for the labour of caregiving. I will now speak a few words in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] I recommend that the Government enhance financial support for informal caregivers. I urge the Government to increase the quantum of the Home Caregiving Grant for informal caregivers and implement "Carefare". Many caregivers shared that they faced various challenges, including not being able to pay for outpatient expenses that are inadequately covered under MediSave. Such costs add to a family's financial burden, especially those who had little choice but to give up their jobs and income to care for their ageing parents, special needs children or mentally-inflicted family members. According to a survey done by the Singapore Alliance for Women in Ageing in 2020, the pandemic made care resources like daycare centres and domestic workers short in supply, aggravating the financial burden and pressures faced by caregivers. Because finances are the most significant source of stress for caregivers, improving the Home Caregiving Grant will go a long way to lighten their load.”
“Two things are vital to ensure quality care: adequate capacity and adequate recognition. We need to provide sufficient resources and support to carers so that no one burns out. We also need adequate recognition through reasonable compensation and opportunities for advancement to boost morale and motivation and ensure that the care industry remains sustainable in the long term. Most people who chose the care professions are motivated by a strong desire to care for others and very few are calculative about monetary contributions and compensation. However, we should still take good care of them and ensure that they have the means to sustain themselves. Hence, my first recommendation is to enhance financial support for informal caregivers. I urge the Government to increase the quantum of the Home Caregiving Grant (HCG) for informal caregivers and implement "Carefare". Many caregivers shared with me in focus groups last year that they struggled to pay for outpatient expenses that are inadequately covered under MediSave. Such costs add to a family's financial burden, especially for those who had little choice but to give up their jobs and income to care for ageing parents, special needs children or mentally-afflicted family members. The pandemic also made caregiving responsibilities and expenses heavier because care resources, like daycare centres and domestic workers, were short in supply, as shown in a survey done by the Singapore Alliance for Women in Ageing (SAWA) in 2020. Enhancing HCG will go a long way to lighten their load because finances have shown to be the most significant source of stress for informal caregivers. I suggest that we tier the HCG according to the care recipient's needs and associated expenses.”
“Mr Speaker, I am thankful that Minister Lawrence Wong mentioned mental health in his Budget speech this year. With COVID-19, the mental health of care workers, caregivers – and I shall refer to them as "carers" – has deteriorated significantly in the past two years. Many news articles have come out recently, documenting the stress that they have come under due to the disruptions brought about by the pandemic, whether they were social workers, teachers, healthcare workers, mental health workers or informal caregivers. As my colleague, hon Member Mr Louis Ng, mentioned in his speech last evening, 56% of social workers had mild to severe anxiety during the past two years. Such statistics point to an increased risk of burnout amidst a lengthy pandemic and, in the longer term, of an increasingly unattractive care sector. It is not surprising that 1,500 medical workers resigned in the first half of 2021, when many of them worked too long hours, with inadequate manpower and support. Burnout occurs when people feel overburdened and depleted of emotional and physical energy. Some effects of burnout include loss of motivation, negativity, a sense of failure, self-doubt and a cynical attitude towards others, as well as a loss of empathy. Empathy is the bedrock of caring professions and it runs short when people feel burnt out. What quality of care can we reasonably expect when those who toil in our care professions and social services are stretched too thin? In charting a new way forward together, we need to protect the well-being of those who take on the work of caring for others, because people can only provide quality care to others when they themselves are well physically, mentally and emotionally.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her answer. I just want to set the context for my supplementary question. It is not uncommon for us to come across cases where, post-divorce or during divorce, individuals try to find reasons to deny or prevent access or custody of the ex-spouse from the children. In the spirit of MSF's latest efforts to introduce restorative justice into divorce proceedings, whether MSF currently has or will include emphasis in the divorce counselling process to stress to parents that depriving children of access to their parents can actually have detrimental effects on their well-being and to stress the importance that collaborative co-parenting is necessary for the children's well-being. I ask this because I have come across several attempts by residents to seek advice from me, knowing that I champion women's rights, to ask for advice on how they can prevent custody of their ex-husbands for their children. Personally, those can be stemming from vices or fears that the individual may have. So, I feel that MSF can do something to help citizens understand the importance of having both parents in a child's life despite divorce.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her response. I am very heartened to know of the various efforts to increase capacity. What I would like to understand is, does MSF currently know what is the practitioner-to-survivor ratio in terms of the capacity for rehabilitative and therapeutic care? And is there a concrete manpower plan to enhance the sector? The Minister of State and I have been doing our own engagements with social workers, and we are familiar that they are already using trauma-informed approaches but I think the practical consideration is that when social workers are overwhelmed, counsellors are overwhelmed, therapists are overwhelmed, they are not in the best space to hold space for their clients. So, we need to ensure that there is adequate resourcing and adequate manpower. So, is there any commitment that within the next three to five years, what numbers would we be training and putting in additional capacity in the system for the therapeutic care for survivors of violence?”
“Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for her clarifications. I would just like to speak on the point in her response about allowing husbands to seek maintenance, that, currently, it is a very small number and not the norm. In the interest of developing and uplifting women, I would like to seek the Ministry's consideration that in order to create a mainstreaming, we must start with the right signals. And perhaps to encourage more men to take on an equal role domestically, we may need this legislative safeguard to then nudge different behaviours. I think that this would aid the cause for women to be unburdened from an over-proportion of care responsibilities and to encourage men to take up more of a role in the home as a participating father and spouse. So, would the Minister of State like to comment on whether we can expedite the consideration of this so that we can expedite the accelerating of a different future, in mainstreaming men's equal role domestically?”
“In conclusion, I summarise my three recommendations for the amendment Bill in addition to the current ones: one, to change the name of the Women’s Charter to Family Charter to see through its intention of protecting the rights of both women and men in the context of family matters; two, for maintenance applications to be allowed for both men and women without condition of incapacity or disability if the domestic role is undertaken more by the husband; and three, for the time bar of three years’ marriage for divorce to be reviewed and reduced to one year should the trend of futility in reconciliation be shown in relevant data. Notwithstanding these, which I hope can be considered in future amendments, I support the Bill.”
“While there currently is a clause that allows for "exceptional hardship" for divorce before three years is up, it is open to subjective interpretation. Those contemplating divorce while suffering in a marriage would be caught deliberating what would be considered or not considered "exceptional hardship". What would be helpful would be a non-exhaustive list of factors or considerations of what would constitute exceptional hardship or depravity to serve as a guide for the Courts and also for those experiencing suffering within their marriages within the first three years. In cases where the individuals in the marriage have irreconcilable differences, a three-year window of futile attempts at reconciliation is precious time lost that holds individuals back from pursuing a more fulfilled life. I recognise that it is a difficult matter to choose and decide on, whether we should mandate time for the couples to work things out in order to "save marriages" or allow people to move on and to pursue the possibility of more workable marriages. Some data would be helpful, and we should look into data on how successful the deed of separation has been in achieving reconciliation. What numbers of marriages get successfully salvaged and turned around after the deed of separation period? If the data shows that most of them end in divorce anyway, I recommend the time bar for divorce be reduced to one year for all couples.”
“I will share here a quote in Mandarin from one of my residents. He said: “政府只要保护女人，这个没有错。可是谁会聆听我们的心声。” or “The Government wants to protect the women; it is not wrong. But who is going to listen to the men's voices?" To truly protect families, men deserve protection equally and clauses should provide for that, even if the number of occurrences of men being victims are significantly lower than women. Finally, we should reduce unnecessary time and stress where possible on divorce proceedings. At the risk of sounding utilitarian – and my intention is not to undermine the sanctity of marriage but to take a pragmatic view – we must note that couples are getting married at older ages now, compared to 40 years ago. The average Singaporean man gets married three years later and the average Singaporean woman five years later. Much time is spent and wasted because the current Charter only allows couples to apply for divorce after three years of marriage. And this is precious time lost for those who find out after getting married and living together that they are not the right lifelong partners for each other. I understand the perspective that marriages need to be worked at and differences need time to be worked through for marriages to work out, and I agree with Mr Lim Biow Chuan's views that we should not offer an easy cop-out. However, there are also cases where individuals may find out intolerable issues about their spouses only after marriage, such as chronic infidelity, a tendency towards violence that surfaces only after the honeymoon period, or a history of debilitating financial debt that renders a marriage unreasonably difficult.”
“We can go beyond that, to allow for husbands to apply for maintenance from wives, if the distribution of labour between the spouses during marriage favoured the earning potential of the wife to be realised instead of the husband’s. In the past, it may have been the predominant phenomenon that men were the primary breadwinners and that women were the primary caregivers. However, times are changing rapidly. In our current efforts to uplift women and help women fulfil their career aspirations, I have championed the ungendering of care as a key tenet to free up women’s bandwidth from an overburden of care responsibilities. As a feminist, I believe there should be no double standards. If women expect men to pull their weight in domestic and caregiving chores in order to free us up to pursue our career aspirations, it follows logically that in cases where a woman earns much more than her husband and the husband has been taking on more of the domestic responsibilities, husbands should also be able to access maintenance after divorce. This will send a strong signal and provide actual reassurance to men that their well-being and rights, too, are protected should their roles at home be shifted vis-à-vis their wives. In fact, for the clauses around “offences against women and girls”, we will do well to reword them to be gender neutral. After all, not only women and girls get hurt. Men can be victims of violence, too, whether in domestic settings or in wider contexts. I have come across cases during my Meet-the-People Sessions where husbands suffer physical abuse from violent wives, as well as mental abuse through emotional blackmail and threats. However, these are rarely reported due to the stigma around men showing their vulnerability.”
“In line with making divorces less acrimonious, renaming the Charter to Family Charter can reduce the acrimony and forge a more collaborative approach to negotiating divorce settlements. And I said the word "collaborative". The aim of divorce proceedings should and must be to ensure all parties’ well-being post-divorce and not of anyone winning or losing. For that, the spirit of collaboration should and can exist even when someone breaks up, when one seeks to ensure the well-being, especially that of the children’s. My hon colleague Mr Lim Biow Chuan mentioned earlier a variety of ways children are caught between acts of vengefulness by parents against each other. With the change in name to Family Charter, no gender’s rights or interest is placed above another's. Husbands would have less reason to perceive that the system is against them. Defensive or retaliatory behaviours stemming from acrimony, mounted whichever way by husband or wife, can cause undue suffering and, most unfairly, to children who have to witness the ill-feelings between their parents. The emotional trauma and wounds on children from divorce can have long-lasting impact, as an MSF report has shown last year. Since the intention behind the Charter is to protect people, families and children, the intention must be seen through by taking into account the perceptions that can arise from its name. My second point is on the maintenance of children and the ex-spouse, and I believe it should go both ways. Husbands should be entitled to apply for maintenance from their wives where the circumstances are necessary and appropriate, both during and after marriage. In 2016, the Women’s Charter was amended to allow husbands to apply for maintenance from their wives if they are sick or incapacitated.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the name "Women's Charter" has given many the impression that it only benefits women. In reality, the Charter protects some men, women and children from exploitation within the family. My colleague, Member of Parliament Louis Ng, spoke on this earlier and I would like to reiterate the same point. We can still do more to promote gender equality and also address the erroneous impression that the Women's Charter protects only women's rights when what it aims to do is to protect the rights of individuals, pertaining to families. My speech will focus on the matters around divorce. And I speak as someone who had been married before, had an annulment and is currently dating a partner who was divorced with two lovely sons. And I speak because I believe that we can re-imagine life post-divorce and that second chances can be better. I support the current amendments to make divorce less acrimonious to protect the well-being of all parties involved and to enable better post-divorce emotional healing for all parties, especially for children. Hence, my first request is the change in the name of the "Women’s Charter" to "Family Charter". In the spirit of enabling better healing from the pain and trauma of divorce, renaming the Charter would send an important signal to reduce the animosity seen too often in divorce proceedings. Firstly, it would correct the prevailing impression that family law in Singapore favours women over men. This common misconception that there is a statute that protects women against men, gives divorce a "zero-sum" tone that induces a fear-based and defensive approach. Hence, the mindset that divorce cases must be "fought", and that someone must win and someone will lose.”
“And lastly, the question is about whether MOE is effecting any kind of mindset change within the system and amongst school leadership and principals to change their mindset towards the notion that hard work is what it is, and teachers just need to suck it up. Because I think we have seen interviews of teachers that they feel like they do not have a safe space to go to. So, thank you, I hope the Minister can clarify on this.”