Gerald Giam Yean Song
Singapore
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. The focus of my supplementary question will be on the film classification guidelines, which currently state that, quote, "Chinese films meant for theatrical release should generally be in Mandarin, in line with the Speak Mandarin Campaign.”
“Mr Speaker, we cannot allow physical infrastructure expansion to blind us to the shifting digital geography of global trade nor should we allow frontier technology to reduce the economic agency of our transport workers.”
“Sir, I thank the Minister for his replies. I understand the difficulty in getting the exact numbers. But is there an order of magnitude that the Government can provide as to how many such fees were collected and what is the total quantum? Just an order of magnitude, does not have to be an exact number.”
“Sir, I thank Mr Ng Chee Meng for acknowledging my OJT proposal. I am aware of the work of CTCs, but my proposal goes beyond what the CTCs currently provide. First is the depth of the wage support, and second is the structural design of OJT.”
“I thank the Minister for responding to my question just now. I am glad to hear that there will be more precise matching with the help of SWDA's the integrated intelligence function. But can I ask if this function will be provided to all jobseekers who approach SWDA or its agencies, like e2i, to seek for job assistance?”
“Sir, can the Minister elaborate a bit more about how SWDA will enhance the job search assistance programme? Specifically, will career counsellors move beyond basic resume editing and portal referrals to leverage real time vacancy data for proactive matching and advocate for candidates?”
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“Mr Speaker, I believe my question about what is the total number of newspaper copies that were printed and counted and destroyed by SPH Media and its predecessor company; the total weight of the paper and what are the environmental impact of these actions – these were not answered just now by the Minister.”
“I thank the Minister for her reply. I note the Minister said in response to my question that the Government cannot confirm if the figures reported before the period of review in September 2020 are accurate, but can she confirm that the figure cited by Minister Iswaran were accurate? And secondly, was the inflation of circulation figures a long-standing practise that did not raise eyebrows until the new management came in?”
“I thank the Minister for his reply to my question. Will the high resale prices that we have seen in recent years push up the value of BTO flats and impact the price that Singaporeans pay for their BTO flats? Or does HDB increase subsidies to completely offset the increase in land valuation due to this factor? Second, the Chief Valuer's decision on the valuation of a piece of land has a great impact on the amounts that Singaporeans have to pay for their HDB flats. How does the Government ensure that, in practice, the Chief Valuer is able to make his valuation decisions completely independently and that no one attempts to influence his decisions?”
“I thank the Deputy Prime Minister. I have two supplementary questions. Firstly, where are the risk tolerance levels spelt out to Temasek, GIC and MAS? Are they published anywhere? And under current statutes and regulations, are Temasek, GIC and MAS free to invest in anything they want to, as long as their own boards or management teams approve them and they fall within the risk tolerance level? Secondly, does the President have any say in the setting of investment parameters, mandates, objectives or risk tolerance levels of the investments by Temasek, GIC and MAS?”
“I have a quick supplementary question. I accept that the second and third car households have not contributed to the increase in the COE in recent years, but does it add to the baseline of the COE demand. Because it might well be the fact that the number of households with two or more cars has not increased over the years, but 12% is not a small number, so that could also be causing the baseline price of the COE to be high.”
“I thank the Minister for his reply and his figures. Can I ask the Minister two supplementary questions? What impact do these multiple car owners have on the price of COEs, considering they not only add to the demand, but because they tend to come from higher-income households, they have the ability to pay more for their COEs. And secondly, has the Ministry considered the possibility of introducing measures to dampen the demand for second and subsequent Category A cars from the same household, so that the limited supply of cars can be spread out more equitably to those who need it most – for example, caregivers and those who need to drive for work.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the detailed answer. I think we are on the same page here, but I understand that once the Police informs the bank that a certain account needs to be frozen, will that impact that account holders' ability to open up another bank account? As in, will the bank flag this person is high-risk and therefore not allow him or her to even open another bank account and so, that would present difficulties for them. So, the purpose or my second supplementary question just now, was then, can MHA provide more information to the banks on the update of the investigations, so that the banks can use that to assess and perhaps, lower the risk level of this particular account holder, so that they can allow them to open up, may be, a limited purpose bank account.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her replies. I have got to two supplementary questions. Nowadays, bank accounts are absolutely essential for daily living because if the bank account is frozen, it could severely impact the person's ability to conduct daily transactions like receiving their salary. My first supplementary question is, the Minister of State mentioned that they can apply to conduct some limited transactions, does this include being able to receive their salary into their bank accounts? Secondly, can the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and even the Prison Service provide banks with a letter stating that the investigation or conviction against the person has been completed and what the outcome is so the bank will not flag these persons as being high-risk and prevent them from being from using the bank account or opening a bank account.”
“Religious beliefs are also not taught as facts in our school curriculum that students are expected to accept without question. Similarly, we should treat LGBT issues as sensitive topics, just like religion. We should not force people to accept one view or another, with the risk of being labelled as bigoted or immoral. This is not to say that the issue should not be discussed at all. On the contrary, discussion should be encouraged, but as a balanced discussion on different viewpoints, not as a lesson on facts. It is inherent in a society as diverse as Singapore's that there will be fundamental differences in values and world views among our people. This need not be a source of conflict. While we may disagree on some issues, there are so many other issues that we agree on and can work together to advance. We do not need to descend into labelling, name-calling or questioning the worth of our fellow human beings. Instead, we need to open up spaces for our people to hold different views at work, in schools and even within families. By looking beyond our differences and working together on what we have in common, we will build that better society we all aspire towards. Mr Deputy Speaker, I will vote against the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill and vote for the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment No 3) Bill.”
“My vote is not an attack on their values nor a diminishing of their humanity in any way. Some have criticised me for allowing my faith to inform my vote in Parliament, arguing that the two should be kept separate. However, what one member, informed by their faith and conscience, believes to be in the best interests of the country in some issues may differ from what another member believes. This issue is, certainly, one of them. I have been told in my face by a constituent that he will not vote for me in the future because of my stand on this issue. I accept the importance that many Singaporeans place on their elected Members of Parliament's positions on these Bills to the extent that it will be a factor in their decisions at the polls. However, I hope Singaporeans will consider the broader issues at hand. There are too many important issues that affect the lives of Singaporeans for one's vote to be decided based on this single issue. Mr Deputy Speaker, this has been one of the most difficult speeches to prepare. I was worried I might come across as prejudiced against members of the LGBT community. Hand on heart, I am not. LGBT persons are human beings worthy of the same amount of love and respect that we accord to any other person. Many are our family members, friends, colleagues and fellow Singaporeans. Disagreeing with LGBT positions is not an attack on LGBT persons. In fact, I hope that my speech will open up a platform for more difficult but respectful conversations on this issue. However, we must recognise that LGBT issues are sensitive issues, just like race and religion. People who subscribe to one faith do not force their belief on others.”
“This assurance was strengthened when the Court of Appeal wrote in February 2022 that section 377A is "unenforceable in its entirety" unless and until the Public Prosecutor of the day provides clear notice that he intends to reassert his right to enforce section 377A proactively by way of prosecution and will no longer abide by the representations made by Attorney-General Lucien Wong in 2018. Section 377A is, therefore, no longer a Sword of Damocles hanging over men in same-sex relationships. They will not be prosecuted or convicted under section 377A for consensual sexual acts done in private. Furthermore, section 377A has never criminalised same-sex attraction between men or same-sex relations between women. The final reason for the vote I am about to cast is that my conscience does not allow me to vote in favour of a repeal of section 377A. I am grateful to the Leader of the Opposition for lifting the whip on Workers' Party Members of Parliament for a vote on both these Bills. This permits Workers' Party Members of Parliament to cast "conscience votes" on these Bills. Sir, I entered politics almost 14 years ago because I wanted to contribute to the democratic development of our country and propose policies that will improve the welfare of our people. It is important to me and the example that I have set for my children that I hold fast to the values that I have established to be true, without wavering because of political headwinds. Whilst some, especially those in the LGBT community and many of my friends, residents, party members and volunteers, may strongly disagree with my position, I hope that they will accept that these are my sincerely held values which I am trying my best to uphold.”
“Listening to constituents on both sides of this contentious debate presented challenges for me on how to raise them both in this House. I see it as my responsibility as a Member of Parliament to reflect the feedback and concerns of my constituents in this House. However, as an elected representative, I will also need to take a stand and vote on these Bills. My vote will be based, first and foremost, on what I believe is in the best long-term interests of our nation. This will take into consideration the viewpoints of my constituents and my own conscience. Mr Deputy Speaker, it is my sincere belief that retaining section 377A without enforcing it provides the best balance of the conflicting interests in our society. I have come to agree with what the Prime Minister said in Parliament on 23 October 2007 when he explained that the Government was retaining section 377A but not proactively enforcing it. This was, to quote the Court of Appeal, a "political compromise" that was "conceived with the express intention of accommodating divergent interests, avoiding polarisation and facilitating incremental change". Attorney-General Lucien Wong took further steps in 2018 by noting that the Police will not proactively enforce section 377A, for instance, by conducting enforcement raids. He added that the Public Prosecutor has taken the position that prosecution of two consenting adults in a private place under section 377A, absent other factors, would not be in the public interest.”
“Fourth, some have expressed concerns that the higher health risks of some types of sexual practices are not being adequately communicated to young people for fear of sounding discriminatory. Fifth, others are worried that the disruption to the current equilibrium will lead to an increase in advocacy by groups on both sides and spark the type of culture wars seen in other nations, which will present challenges to Singapore's national cohesion. Sixth, some have argued that the LGBT community is already disadvantaged by the laws that support the heteronormative family and that repealing section 377A does not confer any tangible disadvantages on those who oppose the change. These residents are of the view that section 377A should be repealed. Seventh, residents on both sides of the debate have cited the need to live and let live and call for greater tolerance of different views. These are diverse and often opposing positions on what is clearly a very controversial issue. Those at one end of the spectrum rue the day that this marker is removed while those on the other see it as one of the many social changes they wish to see in our country. I have also noticed a large middle ground which does not have strong opinions on this issue and is more concerned about bread and butter issues. There is in fact some agreement on both sides of the divide. Both agree that section 377A bears significant symbolic weight in our society. They both also anticipate that the repeal of section 377A will open the door to many more challenges to the prevailing norms in our society. These are all valid concerns and sincere feedback expressed by Singaporeans, all of whom have the interest of our nation at heart. They included young, middle-aged and older Singaporeans.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, the Government has decided to repeal section 377A of the Penal Code. Since this plan was 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 visits, came to my Meet-the-People Sessions, sent me WhatsApp messages, emails and petitions, and wrote detailed letters explaining their arguments. Several invited me to their homes, where they gathered their friends and family to passionately express their concerns and urge me to raise them in Parliament. This included representation from members of the LGBT community who see section 377A as a law that discriminates against them and victimises them and who support its repeal. I acknowledge these sentiments as they cut to the core of how members of the LGBT community see themselves. My constituents' feedback can be grouped into several, sometimes, overlapping, categories. First, there are concerns that the repeal of section 377A will remove an important societal marker and open the door to an erosion of traditional values in our society. Second, some are worried that after this law is repealed, there will be a domino effect on other regulations and policies, leading towards a normalisation of homosexuality in our society – from changes to sexuality education in schools to more liberal media portrayals and eventually, the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Third, many, especially those from the younger age groups, are concerned that as the societal narrative shifts, they will find it harder to freely express their own beliefs without being labelled as homophobic. They worried about getting cancelled or suffering discrimination in school or at the workplace because of their beliefs.”
“I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I just have two supplementary questions. What lessons has MHA learnt or drawn from the recent tragedies in South Korea and Indonesia, to ensure that such incidents do not occur in Singapore. I understand as the Minister of State said that MHA does read and understand what happens in other parts of the world. So, will the Ministry be obtaining and studying the detailed investigation reports from the respective governments?”
“I thank the Minister of State for her answer. I have two supplementary questions. When firms engage phantom workers or illegally recover costs from their foreign employees, they artificially inflate their firms' foreign worker quota and make foreigners cheaper to hire. This puts lower-income Singaporeans at a severe disadvantage, both in terms of landing jobs and bargaining for better salaries, and there is little incentive for workers to report this because they risk having their Work Permits cancelled. As a result, many of such offences may go undetected and unreported. So, my question is: can the Ministry conduct victimisation surveys of both local and foreign workers and employ more sophisticated intelligence gathering techniques to obtain a clearer picture of the extent of the problem and catch these offenders? Secondly, I note that the Minister of State just said that of the 660 reports of phantom workers, there were only 11 penalties issued. This number of 11 seems very low, compared to the extent of the problem that is out there. Is there a reason for this gap between 660 and 11? And what is the reason why so few employers were taken to task for this?”
“How will Singapore's Bill safeguard democratic freedoms while protecting the young from online harms? I note that some electronic services are excluded from this Bill. Examples of these are SMS and MMS services. Can I confirm with the Minister that other private messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal are also excluded from this Bill? For the avoidance of doubt, I am not advocating for these services to be included in this Bill, as they are primarily used for private communication between individuals. Much of the communication is end-to-end encrypted, which means even the platforms do not have access to the data exchanged by their users. I would have strong privacy concerns if this encryption were to be broken for the sake of enhancing online safety. Madam, I look forward to the Minister's responses.”
“For example, section 29 of the latest draft of the UK's Online Safety Bill requires content providers to "have regard to the importance of protecting the rights of users and interested persons to freedom of expression within the law", when deciding on safety measures and policies. Section 15 of the UK Bill also requires social media services to put in place clear policies to protect "content of democratic importance", such as user-submitted comments supporting or opposing particular political parties or policies, and to enforce this consistently across all content moderation. The UK Bill also requires that platforms must not discriminate against different political viewpoints. The UK's draft legislation has also been designed to safeguard access to journalistic content. News publishers' content will be exempted from social media platforms' new online safety regulations. Because of this, social media platforms will not be incentivised to remove news publishers' content, as a result of a fear of sanction from the regulator. Are there such provisions in Singapore's Online Safety Bill? If not, will the Government study the Online Safety Bills of other countries, including the UK and Australia, and include democratic protections in the Code of Practice and subsidiary legislation? Will Singapore have the equivalent of an eSafety Commissioner like Australia does? Who will this eSafety Commissioner be, and will he or she be empowered to make directions independent of the Government? Australia's Online Safety Act itself was controversial in part because of the huge amount of discretion and power it puts in the hands of the Minister for Communications and the eSafety Commissioner to determine what are community expectations.”
“In contrast, Australia's Online Safety Act requires platforms to provide a clear and easily accessible complaints system for end-users to submit complaints or requests to remove certain material and the platforms must respond to the complainant within 48 hours, failing which the end-user may contact the eSafety Commissioner, who has the power to investigate the complaint. I would like to propose that Singapore's Code of Practice include these specific requirements and timelines. Another potential area of harm to young people is online gaming, which can be both addictive and cause social problems. Can the Minister share to what extent this Bill and the Code of Practice will regulate online gaming? I note that the Bill covers cyberbullying content that is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to the targeted person. Will the non-consensual sharing of intimate images be covered in this Bill? There have been cases, recently, of disgruntled ex-lovers sharing such images, which, most certainly, will cause alarm and distress to the victim. Next, I would like to seek clarifications from the Minister regarding the protection of Singaporeans' democratic rights in this Bill. Some respondents to the public consultation sought assurance that the proposed measures would not affect user privacy or freedom of expression. The Bill gives wide-ranging powers to IMDA to issue directions to social media companies to remove harmful content if it deems it so. Can the Minister elaborate on what safeguards will be in place to ensure that such powers are not abused? Will there be channels for independent appeal or judicial review? The UK's Online Safety Bill specifically includes protections to safeguard pluralism and ensure Internet users can continue to engage in robust debate online.”
“The Media Literacy Council could also directly push out educational materials on the platforms that young people access, like TikTok and Telegram. This should be an ongoing process, not a one-time effort, because harmful content is constantly evolving, and new trends are always emerging. Under this Bill, failure to comply with the directions from IMDA could be an offence punishable by a fine on conviction. Can the Minister clarify if this fine will apply to only the company or also the individual officers within the company responsible for ensuring compliance? Given the financial might of social media companies, they might have no problem paying even a huge fine. The Code of Practice will require social media services to submit annual reports to IMDA to reflect Singapore users' experiences on the service, including the actions that they have taken on user reports. I would like to propose that social media services also be required to submit quarterly reports, listing the type of content that has been flagged by users. This is so that IMDA can be kept apprised of trends in harmful online content and behaviours. Section B of the Code of Practice requires that users of OCSs must be able to report harmful content or unwanted interactions to the platform providers through an "effective, transparent and easy to use mechanism" and social media services are expected to take action on these user reports in a "timely manner". This leaves open lots of room for interpretation.”
“This additional friction will deter many parents from signing up, leaving young children vulnerable to accessing harmful content without their parents' knowledge. It would be better for Internet service providers to block harmful content at the network level by default, rather than expect parents to set up complicated filtering software on their children's devices. This remote filtering should be activated by default for all new mobile and broadband subscriptions and offered for free for all subscribers. This will ensure that even children of less tech-savvy parents will be protected by default. Adults who need full access to the Internet should be able to opt out of the filtering service without any charge. I am glad to note that under the Code of Practice, content that may encourage young users to engage in dangerous acts will be considered harmful content and be subject to additional safeguards for young users. Examples of these include the "Skull-breaker Challenge" where two people trick a friend standing in between them to take a vertical jump, then kick their legs from under them as they are in the air, making them fall backwards and potentially injure their head and back. People sometimes do not properly assess the risk associated with an activity. They may have seen others perform it without incident in a YouTube video and may be tempted to experiment themselves. Ultimately, we cannot completely insulate young people from all dangerous, harmful and silly online content. The best protection is for parents and teachers to educate their children and students of the potentially harmful content that may be accessed online and the consequences of indulging in them.”
“These parents can only regulate their children's Internet access by looking over their shoulders. This is a suboptimal solution, given the asymmetry of technical knowledge between most parents and their children. Most children nowadays can run rings around their parents when it comes to configuring settings on their mobile phones. Also, for such content filtering to work for young people, age verification is needed. The Code of Practice for Online Safety for Designated Social Media Services proposed by the Ministry states that social media services must have additional measures to protect children, including minimising children's exposure to inappropriate content and ensuring that their account settings are age-appropriate by default. However, the Code of Practice does not prescribe how this age verification should be implemented. Indeed, attempts at imposing age verification have previously failed in the United Kingdom's implementation of the Digital Economy Act of 2017, in part because of privacy concerns. Online age verification providers could collect excessive personally identifiable information and process it for other purposes in violation of privacy laws. Separately, a young user can circumvent age restrictions by declaring his age to be 18 when, in fact, he is only 12. Can I ask the Minister: how will content providers be required to perform age verification checks in practice? Some Internet service providers do provide parental control tools which block harmful content before they come through the fibre. However, they require a separate subscription that entails an additional cost each month. Many parents are not even aware of this service. They will have to take the effort to log in to their broadband provider's website and subscribe to this service.”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, the Online Safety Bill before us seeks to tackle harmful content on online services like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, which are accessible to users in Singapore. I support the Bill, given the online harms that people in Singapore have been subject to on social media and on the Internet, and the growing need to protect our people, especially the young, from these harms. However, I have some clarifications to seek on the Bill which I hope the Minister will address before we vote on the Bill. Access to digital communication devices is not optional in this day and age, even for younger children. For example, if a 10-year-old child were to take public transport on his own to and from school, his parents would want him to be able to contact them in case of an emergency or to track his location. In most cases, this can only be done using a mobile phone or smart watch. However, it will be unwise to give that same 10-year-old unfiltered access to the Internet on his phone. Currently, parents can install a parental control app on their child's phone. This app will allow parents to restrict content, approve apps, set screen times and filter harmful content. It can also locate the child using GPS. I set this up for my son some time back. However, even with all my professional technical knowledge, it took me quite a bit of time and research to figure out which was the most suitable software to use and how to configure it. I wonder how many parents have tried to set up parental control software for their children. For those who have not, they should be aware that their children and teens essentially have unfiltered access to the Internet and all the harms that come with it.”
“Thank you. I thank the Minister for his reply. Indeed, bus service 228 is very close to my heart and, more importantly, close to the hearts of my residents in Bedok Reservoir. I would like to clarify with the Minister what he deems to be an acceptable interval between feeder buses, because he says that all the services, including bus service 228, have met the standard. What is really the interval, because I just checked the bus stop opposite Block 716 in Bedok Reservoir Road and it shows an interval of seven to 15 minutes, which I would think that it is a bit long because, previously, residents had several other buses to be able to get to Bedok Interchange from their houses. But now, they have only one bus. So, they depend on that bus and the low interval of that bus. Secondly, can the Ministry look into reducing the headways further because this will go a long way in terms of improving the commuter experience of many commuters?”
“I thank the Minister for his reply. I deeply appreciate all our healthcare workers and staff – from doctors to nurses to hospital receptionists – for their tireless efforts in caring for patients. Both they and the patients suffer tremendous stress when the queues of patients build up. So, I have two clarifications for the Minister. First, I understand that some patients are not discharged because the downstream care facilities are not available to receive and accommodate them. The Minister said just now that there were some delays in the opening of nursing homes and daycare facilities, and transitional care facilities are being used to reduce the burden on acute care hospitals. Can the Ministry also look into providing more home support for patients to help their families care for the patients who are suitable for discharge from acute care hospitals? And secondly, queue clearance depends, in part, on the ability to triage and diagnose arriving patients and this, in turn, is limited by the number of qualified healthcare professionals. Is the Ministry looking at giving greater responsibilities to nurses so that they can take on more of the responsibilities that are currently being done by doctors?”
“I thank the Minister for his reply. Sir, resale flat prices have gone up about 28% in the last two years and this year alone, between January and September, more than 266 flats sold for over $1 million. So, this has put resale flats beyond the reach of many Singaporeans, even after factoring in the generous Government grants. The purpose of my question was to discuss ways to moderate resale flat prices, so they are more affordable for lower- and middle-income Singaporeans. And one way to achieve this is to increase the supply of resale flats. So, since HDB flats are meant for owner occupation, can HDB owners who buy private property in the future be required to sell their flats so that the flats are freed up to be bought by other Singaporeans? I note that the Minister has said that this is under discussion and I appreciate that. Because this will be consistent with the current rule which requires private property owners who buy an HDB flat to dispose their private property within six months of the flat purchase.”
“Mr Speaker, I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the tragic shootings in Thailand which involved children in preschool centres. In Singapore, during preschool dismissal times, it is common for a large number of caregivers to be fetching their children at the same time and it is difficult for teachers to identify each and every caregiver, and they are likely to use their own subjective judgement to decide whether to open the door to the centre and release the child to the caregiver. Can I ask the Minister of State whether all preschools are required by regulation to have their doors locked at all times and unlocked only for authorised persons, whose identity is authenticated by the centre staff, and are they required to maintain a list of pre-designated caregivers who are allowed to fetch the children? If these are not spelt out for the preschool centres, could ECDA assess if these enhanced security measures are necessary to ensure the safety of our very young children?”
“Question No 9, please. The Minister of State for Social and Family Development (Ms Sun Xueling) (for the Minister for Social and Family Development): Mr Speaker, Sir, if I may take Question Nos 9 and 10 together?”
“Our officers are very committed to doing this because they understand the needs of the people, especially when they are travelling and especially during the peak periods.”
“Mr Speaker, I wish to thank the ICA officers for the hard work that they do under very trying conditions to clear, sometimes, more than 400,000 travellers per day through the checkpoints, every day. I am sure the individual officers are doing their very best and their work is very much appreciated. However, I would like to ask the Minister of State if there are systemic bottlenecks that ICA can look into to tackle the long waiting times at our land checkpoints. If there are 300,000 travellers a day and each takes one and a half hours to clear immigration, that is 450,000 manhours of productive time lost every day. One observation by travellers is that, sometimes, not all the immigration counters for vehicles are open. I understand, because of limited manpower, ICA dynamically deploys officers to counters in busier zones, leaving counters closed in another zone. Can I ask the Minister of State, then – can ICA prioritise its recruitment and training of more officers so that all car counters are manned to clear travellers in all zones? And secondly, can ICA increase the number of automated clearance counters for vehicles, especially motorcycles, to relieve some dependence on manned counters? Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Sir, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions. These are issues that we continuously look at and which we also train our officers for regularly. In fact, while we were preparing for the reopening and easing of travel, these were things we were doing with our officers. I want to assure the Member that we are continuing with this process of continuously looking at how to improve how we handle the situation and how we run the operations.”
“I thank the Minister and Senior Minister of State for responding to my proposals and questions. I would like to seek clarifications from both of them. First, for the Minister, I would like to clarify that KPIs and targets are not synonymous. The White Paper already lists many good KPIs. I am just asking MOH to take the next step to set targets for each KPI so that all stakeholders can work together towards achieving those targets. The best practice in performance management is actually to jointly set KPIs and targets with stakeholders – including doctors of course – and then review them regularly and make adjustments if the conditions change. So, they are not set in stone. But I also do not think that we should start out such a major initiative without any target set. Secondly, for the Senior Minister of State, can I clarify with the Senior Minister of State that under the Healthier SG initiative, residents can choose to enrol with polyclinics instead of with GP clinics? And lastly, the Healthier SG White Paper said that MOH will waive the requirement for residents to co-pay part of their bills in cash. Can I clarify that patients will be able to use MediSave to make that co-payment? And will that still be subject to the annual withdrawal limit? Because if this is so, then patients will more likely hit their annual withdrawal limit and thereafter, have to co-pay in cash. So, even if MOH cannot remove the annual withdrawal limit now, can it consider increasing it to, let us say $1,000 a year?”
“So, is Ms Mariam Jaafar saying that we should not set targets right now even though we have the KPIs, or is she suggesting that there is a certain time frame later on that we should set the targets and so when will that be?”
“Thank you, Mdm Deputy Speaker. I just want to make a clarification to Ms Mariam Jaafar. She mentioned that she was concerned about setting targets to accompany the KPIs because she mentioned that the hospitals could game the system. I just want to clarify if that is what she said, because the KPIs that I mentioned were all KPIs that were mentioned in the White Paper. So, which are the KPIs is she not concerned that the hospitals will game?”
“These include the adoption of IT systems that make it easier for patients to make and change appointments, reducing waiting time and sharing of clinical data with other healthcare institutions. Good service quality would encourage patients to more regularly seek preventive health services. Last week, I received a phone call from a market research firm doing a survey on behalf of the Government. The pollster asked me to state the extent of my agreement: from strongly agree to strongly disagree, to statements like "Singapore is heading in the right direction", "the Government is managing Singapore well" and "I approve the way the Prime Minister is running the country". This was not the first time I was surveyed this way. But this time I was also asked a series of questions about healthcare financing, which was an uncanny coincidence given that it was only a week before today's debate in Parliament on healthcare. The questions revolved around whether I was worried about being able to pay for my family's healthcare needs, currently and in the future. I must admit that the questions made me ponder about my own family's healthcare expenses. Individual healthcare expenses are unpredictable, and a large chunk of the costs are likely to come in the final years of life as a result of chronic conditions, many of which are preventable. Given that the survey was funded by taxpayers, the Government should release the survey results, so as to better inform the public on issues regarding future healthcare spending, and prompt them, as is the objective of Healthier SG, to make the necessary adjustments to their lifestyles and preparations to avert preventable chronic illnesses in the future. Sir, I support the Motion.”
“The Healthy 365 app could also be used to provide more continuous guidance from healthcare professionals to women who are planning, undergoing and recovering from pregnancy. Many habits are developed from a very young age and persist for the rest of our lives. The benefits in terms of cost savings and health outcomes of preventive health initiatives for expectant mothers and children could, thus, be tremendous in the long term. I would now like to discuss more about the health outcomes under Healthier SG. What gets measured gets done. Both performance metrics and targets should be set before embarking on Healthier SG. I am glad to see that the White Paper has listed some short-term and long-term metrics. However, it does not provide their targets. Without targets, these metrics hold much less meaning. I have filed PQs to be answered by the Minister tomorrow on the targets for various short- and long-term preventive health metrics. These include the target screening rates for chronic diseases, the proportion of residents actively using the Healthy 365 app, the obesity rate and the avoidable emergency department attendance rate. I look forward to the Minister's reply to these questions. The achievement of these targets should be closely monitored, so that adjustments can be made to better achieve them. Given the huge investment in Healthier SG, the public should expect an improvement in both the short- and long-term metrics. Family doctors that accept enrolment should also be held to a high standard of quality and transparency. They should publish their prices, bill sizes and clinical outcomes. This will allow residents to make informed decisions when choosing or switching to their enrolled family doctor. Other non-clinical metrics should also be used to gauge them.”
“They should, however, remain with a polyclinic in the same healthcare cluster, so that their medical records can be shared with whichever doctor is attending to them. If, eventually, most residents enrol with private family doctors, can the Minister elaborate on what will be the role of polyclinics under Healthier SG? Will the Government continue to build more polyclinics or will there be a reduction in polyclinic capacity as Healthier SG gets implemented? Another area that can potentially reduce healthcare costs in the long term, but was given relatively less attention in the White Paper is maternal and child preventive healthcare. A research study on childhood obesity published in the International Journal of Obesity found that early life risk factors increased childhood obesity. These risk factors included the father's obesity at 24 months after the child was born, the mother's pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive weight gain during pregnancy, short duration of breastfeeding and early introduction of solid foods. The study found that early life and preconception intervention programmes may be more effective in preventing obesity if they concurrently address these risk factors. Another study by local researchers published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth found that women interviewed had poor knowledge of the child health consequences of maternal obesity and were often unaware of reliable sources of health information. Is MOH looking to take a more preventive approach to maternal and child health? For example, family doctors could take a more proactive approach in advising expectant mothers and young parents on healthy dietary habits for themselves and their children.”
“I also note that a new subsidy tier for CHAS for common chronic drugs will be introduced. Singapore Citizens who are CHAS, PG or MG cardholders can opt to obtain these drugs at the private family doctor clinic which they have enrolled with. These are welcome changes. However, the words "more comparable" suggest that CHAS, PG and MG cardholders will not necessarily enjoy the same low prices for drugs and medical consultations at private family doctor clinics as they do at polyclinics, let alone the other patients who are not eligible for these additional subsidies. The Minister mentioned just now in his speech that the basis for computing subsidies for polyclinics and GPs is different, so the prices cannot be equalised to the last cent. However, can the Minister confirm that the differences will only be in cents and not in dollars, or tens of dollars for each prescription? I am asking for these details because any price differentials will be a disincentive for Singaporeans from switching from polyclinics to family doctors. I note that Healthier SG aims to encourage residents to enrol with a family doctor by "narrowing the difference" in drug subsidies across polyclinics and private clinics. Can the Minister confirm that the "narrowing" of the difference will be brought about only by lowering the price of drugs for patients of family doctors, and not by increasing polyclinic prices to achieve parity? Furthermore, how much can drug costs be brought down, without subsidising private GPs' profits, given that GPs also make a margin from the sale of prescription medication? With all this in mind, it is my recommendation that residents who currently prefer seeking outpatient medical treatment at polyclinics should not be compelled to enrol with a private family doctor.”
“It could discourage them from seeking treatment for their conditions and lead to a further deterioration of their health. This could necessitate more expensive interventions down the road, like hospitalisations or amputations, which will drastically reduce their quality of life. Given the direction of Healthier SG towards waiving cash co-payment requirements for chronic care management, I would like to call for the annual MediSave withdrawal limits for chronic disease management to be completely lifted, especially for those over 60. This will encourage residents with chronic diseases to see their doctor early and stay on with their disease management plan. In answer to another Parliamentary Question that I filed, in 2018, about 563,500 local patients were seen at polyclinics for non-CDMP conditions. These patients were not eligible for the full subsidies and MediSave withdrawal allowances under CDMP. Moving forward, under Healthier SG, can CDMP be expanded to all chronic diseases, so that more patients can benefit from it? Next, on polyclinics. Polyclinic attendance has increased from under 410,000 10 years ago, to more than 550,000 in July 2022. The White Paper acknowledged that many residents, especially retirees who no longer have company health plans, have been switching away from private family doctor clinics to polyclinics for their medical treatment. Cost is a factor in these decisions, with drug prices a key reason why medical treatment is often more expensive at GP clinics. Under Healthier SG, drug prices at participating private family doctor clinics will be made "more comparable" to those at polyclinics through a combination of enhanced drug subsidies and drug price limits.”
“Mr Speaker, Healthier SG is a welcome new initiative, even though focusing on preventive healthcare is something that has been advocated for over the years. In February this year, the Member for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Mr Leon Perera, made a very comprehensive Adjournment Motion speech on rethinking preventive health to generate better outcomes. Among his policy recommendations were for the Government to set short- and long-term targets for reducing the incidence of chronic diseases, encouraging more people to go for health screening by providing additional subsidies for MediShield Life premiums and nudging people to buy healthier food products providing a digital currency earmarked for their purchases. To its credit, MOH is now bringing preventive healthcare to the forefront of healthcare policy, through the Healthier SG programme. My speech today will focus on managing the cost of healthcare under Healthier SG, and measuring and improving the desired health outcomes of the programme. Under Healthier SG, MOH will waive the requirement for residents to co-pay part of their bills in cash when using MediSave for chronic care management at their family doctor under the Chronic Disease Management Programme (CDMP). Can I ask the Minister if there will still be an annual MediSave withdrawal limit for chronic disease management? According to an answer to my Parliamentary Question, in 2019, some 15% of patients reached the $500 withdrawal limit – this is now being increased to $700 – most of whom had complex conditions. Fifteen percent of patients in 2019 translates to about 20,000 patients in absolute numbers. These patients were restricted in the use of their own medical savings for chronic disease treatment.”
“Mr Speaker, some of my elderly residents have shared with me their experiences of being passed over for jobs for younger candidates, or not getting re-employed after reaching retirement age. Many are reluctant to even try looking for work because of their bad experiences with age discrimination. Age discrimination is in the workplace is rooted in ageism, which is an attitude of the heart. Can MOM embark on a more extensive and sustainable public education and engagement campaign to ingrain into the mindsets of everyone in Singapore, that age discrimination is morally, socially and legally unacceptable and, ultimately, hurts the ability of companies to attract and retain good workers? The Senior Minister of State mentioned some numbers – he said 80 cases have been adjudicated. The fact that there are so few cases being adjudicated points to either two things: one, there is very little age discrimination in Singapore, or two, older workers are not confident that the process will achieve their desired results. So, can the Ministry look into improving the reporting and appeals process, to better assist older workers who have experienced age discrimination?”
“Mr Speaker, these incidents occurred in the clinic in Bedok Reservoir-Punggol ward of Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), so I am naturally quite concerned about this. The incidents occurred on 15 September 2022, but MOH was only alerted on 19 September 2022, a four-day delay. I am concerned that a crucial window of time, where emergency actions need to be taken may be lost if there is a delay in reporting such incidents. The Senior Minister of State said just now that they must report no more than three hours after an incident happens. So, clearly, there must be something that MOH will be investigating. Can I ask the Minister how soon must clinics notify the affected patients and extend emergency assistance to them and are there any penalties for non-reporting or late reporting?”
“Sir, since the Ministry is not imposing any quotas on Employment Pass holders, would it consider fixed-term EPs which cannot be renewed once they expire? This way employers can be incentivised to hire and train Singaporeans to fill those positions when the EP expires and there will be more knowledge and skills transferred to Singaporeans. This is a proposal that the Member for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) Leon Perera raised in October 2020. Second, with the COMPASS framework, a candidate can attain a passing score even with zero points on the diversity criterion, which in any case is quite low because it looks only at the share of the candidates' own nationality among the firm's PMETs. Can MOM tighten the COMPASS framework to require the candidate to obtain at least 10 points for each of the four foundational criteria and a minimum of 50 points overall? This will ensure that companies give consideration to all the criteria and ensure a more level playing field for Singaporean PMETs during the hiring process.”
“Sir, will MOM allow ONE Pass holders to earn $30,000 dollars a month from one company and smaller amounts from several others, since they will be exempted from job advertising requirements, minimum salary thresholds and local PMET shares in those other companies, will Singaporean PMETs and those companies lose out in any way if this happens? Secondly, I note that ONE Pass holders do not need to reapply for a new pass if they change jobs. How will the Ministry prevent ONE Pass holders from switching jobs and joining another company at a lower salary after getting their ONE Pass?”
“Thank you, Speaker. I know that there is currently a multi-agency approach to hoarding cases and it often involves engaging volunteers to persuade the hoarders and to help clear the items. I am very grateful for the big-hearted work of these volunteers, but given that there may be urgent public health and safety issues at stake, does the Senior Minister of State agree that there is a need to deploy more trained and experienced officers to lead the engagement of the hoarders and for paid workers to help with the clearance so that it can be done more expeditiously? Secondly, the Senior Minister of State said that just now that enforcement levers are being reviewed. What will be the scope of this review and will it involve putting more resources into dealing with this difficult problem, not just in terms of engagement, but also in terms of engaging the hoarders and their families?”
“Mdm Deputy Speaker, I just have one clarification for the Minister. The Minister said that DIS will compete with other organisations for tech talent. I am concerned that this would further exacerbate the talent crunch in the private sector, especially for SMEs who cannot provide the same salary scales of the Government or MNCs. Besides scholarships, what is MINDEF's plan for increasing the pipeline for tech talent in Singapore to feed into DIS and other organisations. For example, will MINDEF be working with MOE to help our IHLs increase their Singaporean intake for IT-related majors?”
“Fourth, to safeguard Singapore's critical infrastructure from being hacked, the Government should consider implementing a Vulnerability Equities Process to decide whether to retain or disclose to vendors any vulnerabilities that its agencies, including the DIS, discover. And fifth, MINDEF should develop a framework for allowing some defence technologies to be commercialised to benefit our nation, but without compromising national security or allowing the technologies to be abused.”
“There should be some scope for allowing some limited commercialisation of defence technologies that would benefit our nation, economy and society. MINDEF should develop a framework for allowing some of these technologies to be commercialised without compromising national security. This framework should also have safeguards in place to ensure that commercialised products are not abused by private organisations or foreign governments for nefarious purposes, as this could have a negative effect on Singapore's international reputation. The interaction between defence and commercial technologists could also spark ideas, innovations and discoveries within the DIS and the wider Defence Tech Community, and help the SAF improve its technological edge. In summary, I support the creation of the DIS within the SAF but hope the Minister will consider the points I have raised. First, the DIS must not operate in a silo. All armed services need to continually digitalise in order to maintain their edge on the battlefield. The DIS should work closely with other digital Government agencies to jointly counter the cyber threats that Singapore faces. Second, the significant technological capabilities of the DIS must be balanced with adequate checks and balances, legal safeguards and oversight to prevent the abuse of power and violations of citizens' right to privacy, especially during peacetime. Third, the establishment of the DIS will create a greater demand for local tech talent. Local higher education institutions must increase the intake of Singaporeans in IT-related majors to meet this demand.”
“The VEP comprises an Equities Review Board chaired by the National Security Council and attended by senior officials from agencies concerned with the security of critical infrastructure, like the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Commerce. This Board reportedly meets quite regularly. The Singapore Government should consider developing a VEP process of its own for determining whether to retain or disclose vulnerabilities to vendors, so that our own critical infrastructure is protected from hacking attempts. The last point I wish to raise concerns the potential for commercialising defence technologies to benefit Singapore. Many technologies that we use every day originated from military technology. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, invented TCP/IP, which is the plumbing that makes the Internet possible. The Global Positioning System, or GPS, was originally developed by the US Department of Defense and is now used in almost all our mobile phones. Israel is widely recognised as a "startup nation". Many of Israel's high-tech companies were founded by soldiers who completed their National Service in Unit 8200, the Intelligence Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. In Singapore, we hardly hear of commercial technology or tech start-ups originating from the Defence Tech Community. I can understand why MINDEF would rather not share any defence technology discoveries publicly, because that may cause us to lose our edge over our adversaries. With the establishment of the DIS, there is likely going to be billions of dollars from the public purse spent on developing digital capabilities within the SAF.”
“Zero-day exploits can potentially enable their owner to access sensitive information in other computer systems or take control of those systems remotely, often undetected. One of the most well-known zero-day exploits is Stuxnet, a cyber operation that sabotaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges. I would assume, but will not ask the Minister to confirm, that the role of DIS will include building capabilities to conduct offensive cyber operations. In the course of this, DIS may discover and stockpile zero-day vulnerabilities in operating systems that run critical infrastructure and the military networks of potential adversaries. It would be natural for DIS to want to keep the knowledge of these exploits secret, so that our potential adversaries do not patch their systems and DIS maintains its offensive capability. However, there is an offence-defence trade-off between stockpiling zero-day exploits and helping other local Government agencies and private organisations patch these vulnerabilities so our own critical infrastructure does not get hacked by others. In 2016, a group of hackers calling themselves the Shadow Brokers released a cache of top-secret cyber spying capabilities that likely belonged to NSA. Some of these included zero-day exploits, which could be used to exploit vulnerabilities in products produced by companies like CISCO, Juniper and Fortinet, that protect US companies and critical infrastructure. The existence of these zero-days raised questions about whether NSA should have told the vendors about these vulnerabilities, so that the vendors could patch them. The US Government has a policy, whereby, any agency that wishes to keep a zero-day exploit has to argue their case through what is known as a Vulnerability Equities Process (VEP).”
“Members will recall how Edward Snowden, who leaked highly classified information from the US National Security Agency (NSA), was not an NSA employee but a contractor with a consulting firm hired by the agency. The need for security clearance will naturally limit the pool of manpower available to DIS, in what is already a very competitive labour market for tech talent. This will make it a challenge to find sufficient local tech talent to join DIS. In fact, the introduction of the DIS could further draw talent away from the private sector, as many Singaporean tech workers are likely to be attracted to the pay, benefits and job stability that DIS has to offer. In order to expand the pool of tech manpower, our Polytechnics and local Universities must urgently increase enrolment in IT and technology-related majors. This is a point I raised before in this House. More funding should be provided to our local institutions to achieve this. This will benefit the recruitment pipeline of both DIS and the private sector. I am glad to know that NSFs and NSmen with tech talents will be leveraged to support the SAF's digital core. The Central Manpower Base should identify such talents early, even before enlistment, so that they can be drafted into the DIS during their full-time National Service and later during their Operationally-ready NS cycles. Next, zero-day vulnerabilities are software or hardware bugs in systems that have yet to be discovered or patched by the developer or manufacturer. When governments or individuals discover these "zero-days", they can create software code to exploit the vulnerabilities, known as "zero-day exploits".”