Vivian Balakrishnan
Singapore
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not issue advisories on wait times at overseas airports. Travellers may wish to monitor airline and airport websites, as well as news reports for real-time information on wait times and potential disruptions at specific airports.”
“When the conflict in the Middle East deteriorated and commercial flights were halted in March 2026, the Singapore Government mounted four repatriation flights from Muscat, Riyadh and Jeddah to bring stranded Singaporeans home.”
“The Government has stepped up public engagement to explain our foreign policy fundamentals and responses to key international developments to Singaporeans and to hear their views. We do this through dialogue sessions across segments of society, including students, youths, businesses and community leaders.”
“And the larger point during the Committee of Supply was that precisely, because the world is in such a difficult, prickly, volatile and dangerous state, actually, if we keep our wits about ourselves, we maintain unity and we continue to have this clear eye-realistic, but principled, approach, there are many opportunities for Singapore.”
“Well, in short, I completely agree with you. And that is why we have indeed been hosting these events and in your own capacity as a national athlete and also as an official now, you have seen how it works in practice.”
“Since 2022, about half of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) employees are women. The proportion of women in senior appointments has remained stable at about a quarter. We recognise that overseas postings are disruptive for officers with families, especially female officers who bear greater caregiving responsibilities.”
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“The values and knowledge they learn about the importance of healthy living will follow them to adolescence and adulthood. I would like to urge MCYS to work closely with MOE. Some parents told me that they did not send their children for training at STTA, despite their children's interest in the sports, because it is not recognised as an CCA. Why not recognition as CCA, if our children prefer to train with NSAs? Sports provide recreation, fosters community relations and enhances patriotism, which I experienced when I watched the Beijing Olympics from the spectators' gallery. Fellow Singaporeans, whom I met for a first time, came to chit-chat with me and, together, we cheer for Singapore whenever our players are playing. This is the Singapore spirit, and this is the Singapore bonding that we want. Building a Culture of Sportsmanship and Participation in Sports”
“I am looking forward to full funding for our plans and programmes. Besides that, an integrated national sports policy should be initiated to ensure that all our sports initiatives complement each other in meeting our national priorities and citizens' needs through effective use of resources. For example, we do not want to build sports facilities and charge users high prices so that affordability becomes a stumbling block. And this is an area that the Government needs to invest and cost recovery may not be the right way to go if we want to make sports affordable. Just to share with Members, STTA intends to set up more zonal training centres. And during the process, I was told that we have to pay market rate for the use of the sports hall. This really adds burden to the NSA as well as the players. Is there a need to do so? We want more people to use the facilities and not just those who can afford to pay. Next, education has always been high on our list of national priorities. Our Singapore Sports School has been following this through by providing a flexible academy - a bundle of hope for our sports arena, it is also a life-line for aspiring young sportsmen and women. Sadly, stopping at secondary school level is a very short life-line. Should they give up on their studies or abandon their dreams to play for the Singapore Team? Why not incorporate through train A-level studies in our Sports School. Armed with A-level, our sportsmen and women can choose to study in either our local universities or overseas universities once their playing career is over. Next, we can induce in our young ones a keen interest for sports and fitness by making sports compulsory for school children.”
“It will definitely be complicated by our economic crisis, but perhaps this is the best time for us to remind ourselves what are the fundamentals that we need for our survival in the future and what are the politically incorrect or unpopular things and difficult messages that we need to push at a time like this, in order to get this message through. Er Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, sport is one of the key platforms to nuturing many good character traits in our citizens. Not only does sports keep one healthy, it helps to ingrain a sense of discipline, pride, endurance, teamwork, bonding and many more. These are traits we want in our citizens. Hence, I would like to propose that a bigger budget be allocated for sports even during these difficult times. This is not just for the pursuit of medals and glory, but to inject more robustness and energy into our people. There must be more funding for sports initiatives to nuture professional athletes and encourage Singaporeans to take up sports. We need to carry out more mass activities. For those who have the talent we need the funding to support them so that they can focus on their goals and become true professional athletes. Does the Ministry provide sufficient funding for the NSAs? How much funding to NSA is provided in this financial year? How is it compared to the last financial year? What is the Ministry's future direction? Will MCYS consider full funding for NSAs or are we going to let all NSAs struggling with half-hearted funding? I would like to declare my interest as the President of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA). For your information, immediately after the Beijing Olympics, STTA embarked on plans up to the 2016 Olympics. Detailed plans for the London Olympics have been submitted to SSC.”
“I am not saying that we are going to dictate what they are going to say, that is not the case at all. But we do need people to think before they say something, and think before they write or publish something. Ultimately, I hope even the dialogue in cyberspace will also move up one notch, beyond just a zero-sum game to seeing what our long-term interests are and the critical importance of integration to us. But we will see how that evolves with time. There will also be a Workplace sub-committee chaired by Ministry of Manpower (MOM), including NTUC and employers from the private sector. We all know that the workplace is another area where there is inevitable foreign worker and local interaction. And, again, managing this combination of competition, cooperation and teamwork needs to be done appropriately. I checked with Mr Heng Chee How yesterday and asked how many members of NTUC are foreign. I think he told me the figure was about 15%. It is a minority but it is a significant minority. NTUC itself has to walk a fine line between being pro-worker - in fact, they got to treat all their members fairly - and also being pro-Singapore because the NTUC, ultimately, is still a Singaporean trade union. There are proper ways to navigate this space between being fair, providing avenues for competition, avenues for integration and also looking out for number one. Number one in this case, ultimately, is still Singapore and Singaporeans. So, there will be much work to be done in the future.”
“The Community sub-committee will also be looking at reinforcing the meaning of citizenship for citizens. Last year, we had 81 citizenship ceremonies, and we have been trying all kinds of formats, some more formal, some less formal. I think Members will agree with me that we have not yet arrived at the best or the optimal solution - how to make it meaningful, how to make it significant. And how to make both the newcomer as well as the local Singaporeans understand that it is a sacred moment, that it is a moment of commitment and that the commitment works both ways. For a newcomer to commit to an existing country and an existing people, and for us local-born Singaporeans to say, "We are now collectively responsible for you and your children". We have not yet found the right formula. We will also have a Schools sub-committee led by MOE. The Singapore Tourism Board, and other educational institutions, including private schools, will be involved with this. Our schools are another area where young children, students or undergraduates from different parts of the world come together, study together, compete together and work together. And we hear anecdotal stories of people eating in separate enclaves or studying in separate groups. We need to break through these and get people to feel comfortable and truly mix and integrate in our schools and institutes of higher learning. The Media sub-committee will be led by MICA and includes the various media organisations, because the way we communicate and our public messaging are very important. Sometimes, prejudices, insecurities and anxieties can so easily slip out, and get misconstrued or poison the atmosphere and relationships. And this is an area which we need our colleagues in the media to also focus their minds on.”
“These are the same values and attributes that we need to bring when we talk about integrating newcomers. It is in this context that the NIC will be set up. We will draw on leaders not just from Government but also from the people and the private sectors. We will, basically, look at first promoting mutual trust and understanding and fostering a common sense of belonging, developing physical spaces and social platforms for meaningful interactions to occur, and, of course, monitor the progress of integration, share best practices and also deal with problems as some will inevitably arise. There will be four sub-committees under the NIC: (1) the Community sub-committee which will comprise MCYS, MND, HDB, People's Association, local community groups, as well as the key foreign associations currently in Singapore. This committee will look at finding new ways for greater and deeper integration and engagement between newcomers and locals. The People's Association has already announced that they are providing $1 million for grassroots Integration and Naturalisation Champions (INCs) - these are people in our grassroots organisations who conduct outreach and activities for new immigrants. This works out, by the way, to about $5,000 for every Citizen's Consultative Committee, and $1,000 for every Resident's Committee and Neighbourhood Committee. INCs will also encourage more new citizens and permanent residents (PRs) to take up grassroots leadership roles. Today, about 1,000 of them have taken up these roles. The best way to feel a sense of belonging is to contribute and to lead. All of us, since we all are involved with grassroots organisations, need to find ways to plug-in newcomers into our local systems.”
“The third principle is that even as we remain open, we must find effective ways to integrate people. Everyone who lives, works and plays in Singapore must feel that they are welcome here, and that Singaporeans not only have open doors, but also open minds and open hearts. Integration requires both the local-born Singaporeans as well as the newcomers to realise that it does not come about naturally. Yes, many of our events in our community, such as a multi-cultural show in our community centres, invites comment from people that it is so contrived. But behind the attempts at contrived shows is a more important message - the commitment that we are trying to build bridges, and that we are trying to remind everyone that it is important to welcome, integrate, and create a team Singapore out of the disparate members. [Mdm Deputy Speaker (Ms Indranee Rajah) in the Chair] 4.34 pm The fourth cardinal principle perhaps is the most important, because without that I think that everything else will come to nothing. We must uphold the Singapore system. What is the Singapore system? The Singapore system is encapsulated by our pledge: that we have built a united people, who are committed to a democratic society based on justice and equality. A fair and merit-based society and a system where hard work and talent is rewarded because that is the best spur to get the best out of our children, and to also enable talent from overseas to see that this is the best place in the world for their talent to be recognised and fulfilled. It is worth reminding ourselves that we have to come back to the basics and understand that the fair and just society which recognises talent, that is based on meritocracy, is what has brought us here so far.”
“There is another reason why we must put Singaporeans first - that even newcomers who are considering joining us, even they will want to know whether membership has privileges. So I feel quite confident in saying that we can accept, as a first principle, that we will put Singaporeans first. 4.30 pm The second principle is that we must reaffirm that Singapore got here by, and that Singapore's future trajectory depends on, us remaining an open society. We are all caught up with how to get out of this current economic crisis, and we are all caught up with how to solve the multitude of current social problems. But, sometimes, we miss the big picture. This island has got no natural resources. We cannot even grow enough food to feed ourselves. Yes, we can solve the water problem, but we can never be a self-sufficient country hiding behind a bamboo wall and depending on agriculture or even a commodity-based economy. Whether we like it or not, our karma is to survive and thrive by servicing the world. And servicing the world in the future means only one thing. It means having value-added services and value-added products that the world needs or wants to buy. And the only way to produce value-added services and these new products is by depending on human minds, human ingenuity and hard work. In other words, living talented human beings. I said earlier that almost half of the budget of my Ministry is spent on promoting families and supporting fertility. But I will be very honest with Members and say that all the money that we spend, and all the efforts that we embarked on fertility, will not work quickly enough to give us enough people - to have the critical mass of people capable of creating new products and new services that the world will depend on.”
“Let me share some of my preliminary thoughts and I say "preliminary" because the Council has not met and we have not had a chance to discuss. But I want to offer four cardinal principles which, in my mind, should undergird our efforts at integration. The first is that we must first put Singaporeans first - and I say this very carefully and I say this over the advice of my staff. Let me explain why. Singapore must always be for Singaporeans. It is almost self-evident. Singapore must be a home for Singaporeans. And without Singaporeans, there is no Singapore. All Singaporeans have a birth right. Only Singaporeans get to vote and choose the Government. That is why this Government's sacred duty must always be to preserve and safeguard the long-term interests of Singaporeans, not the long-term interest or even short-term interest of foreigners. And we need make no apology for that. But this is also why subsidised housing, healthcare, education and other essential services must be slanted in favour of Singaporeans. We cannot shield Singaporeans from competition but we can try to give Singaporeans a headstart. And we must allow our children, native born Singaporeans, to get a headstart by nurturing them to allow them to fufil their potential, and picking up Singaporeans when any of us stumble. I said, "put Singaporeans first". But do it in an enlightened way. And the reason I said that is because I believe an insecure population will not be able to accept foreigners in our midst. If people view the newcomer as a threat, no amount of persuasion and fancy speeches and meetings on integration will work. So, the first cardinal principle is that Singaporeans must understand that they will always come first.”
“But it is worth reminding ourselves that if we do not maintain our status as an immigrant society, many things will be at risk. Our natural trajectory is either to be a fishing village or perhaps a trading outpost in South East Asia. That is our natural, geographical, historical trajectory. If we are to avoid regressing to that state, then we need to remind ourselves that we need to remain open to hardworking talented people from all over the world. But it is not enough to just be open. Because if we are just open and people do not integrate or people are divided and there is tension, then it will actually cause more problems. So we need to make sure that even as we remain open, the newcomers will be integrated into our society, just as our forefathers coming from different places with different languages and religions could learn to live with each other. Newcomers must also learn to live with people today who are already called Singaporeans. Because one difference between Temasek and Singapore is that we are not working with a blank slate - an empty forest - anymore. Today, there is already a tribe of people call Singaporeans. So, integration is a real issue and as DPM Wong said, "integration is a two-way street". At first, I must confess that I did not want to chair the National Integration Council (NIC). I thought this was something either too difficult or too wishy-washy, and perhaps best handed to the people sector to do. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that, in fact, precisely at this time when we are facing tension due to economic pressures and when we have had unprecedented levels of immigration - precisely at this time - this is an area that is too important to ignore.”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, I totally agree with Mr Heng Chee How. He has hit the nail on the head when he said "Singapore must remain an open city and anchor itself at the crossroads of talent, ideas, and commerce, if Singaporeans are to have good jobs and a good living." I hope the media takes that as a pluck out quote tomorrow, because I think this is a fundamental question facing us. Let me pose this question to Members today. What is the difference between Temasek, the fishing village with about 500 orang laut, and modern Singapore, a bustling metropolis with 4.8 million people? What is the key difference? It is one word - it is called "immigration". We are here, today, because Singapore was a beacon for hardworking, disciplined people who were prepared to make great sacrifices for their families. We were built by the pioneering spirit of our forefathers who came from different parts of the world with different languages and different religions. They came here, they worked hard, they made a living for themselves, they built roads, they built schools and started their families. Ironically, they did not even need to be born or raised here to find a common stake. In fact, they did not even plan - probably, for most of them - on living and dying here. Nevertheless, through decades of hard work, and living side by side in a fair and just system, we have created modern Singapore, and there is now a common Singapore identity. Yes, it is hard to pin it down - whether it is the accent, the food, the lifestyle, the work ethic or kiasuness. But we know it when we see it. And so, today, we all proudly call ourselves Singaporeans regardless of race, language or religion.”
“I do not present this as an alternative to paid work, but I am saying that volunteering is a fulfilling, viable and good thing to do, especially at a time like this when there are so many needs. I hope that Members will continue to support our Many Helping Hands model, continue to encourage donations, both in terms of time and money to the VWOs. And we will continue to try to improve the system. It is not perfect, not by a long way, but we will continue to make improvements. Social Enterprises”
“We would all agree that the more hands on-board, the better. I am glad Ms Jessie Phua brought up this point that as retrenchments go up, or overtime is cut and most people work shorter work-weeks, even as new graduates try to enter the market, some of us may actually have more free time on our hands. It is perhaps an opportunity to consider increasing their commitment to volunteerism. I am glad to announce that the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), is working on the same idea - I guess great minds think alike - and will be launching a new programme called Singapore Cares. This is a scheme which, as Ms Jessie Phua has suggested, will play matchmaker for people who are willing to volunteer but cannot volunteer on a long-term permanent contractual basis, but perhaps can spare a few hours a week on a specific area of interest. NPVC, through Singapore Cares, will play matchmaker between the VWOs on the one hand and this pool of manpower on the other hand. They will launch a real-time online system. In Singapore now, everybody wants to go online and to be real-time. So they will do all that. But let us not get distracted by the technology. In the end, it is the willingness of people to share their time and expertise. I totally agree with the Member that one of the most corrosive and scary things about retrenchment is the fact that people suddenly have nothing to do. That, sometimes, is even more scary than the loss of income. Whilst we do our best to get the economy back on the ground, to get jobs going again, I think we should really encourage people to find productive and fulfilling uses of their time.”
“Of course, in this year, 2009, to stand here and say that I am trying to raise the salary of any class of workers would, I think, be dissonant. So I am not going to say that social workers' salaries are going to go up this year. I cannot say that. But I will say that I intend for social workers' salary to go up in the medium to long-term. And that we will work on this together and collectively. We also have other schemes which the Member referred - the Sabbatical Leave scheme, the Professional and Leadership Development Scheme - and several social workers have already taken advantage of these schemes. On accreditation, I have asked the Director of Social Welfare, Mrs Corinne Koh, to oversee the accreditation process. Like the Member has said, we have waited long enough for this. I hope that, in the course of this year, she and the other leaders of the social work scene in Singapore can get together and get this accreditation board off the ground. Then, we will have no doubt that a social worker is a professional and there is a proper set of accredited qualifications, and not anyone can claim to be a social worker. But even as we do that, I would advise social workers to avoid the temptations of many other professionals to engage in protectionism and say that, "Well, there is a small elite group of us who are qualified. Everyone else is unqualified and not allowed to practise." I think this would be wrong. That is why we are also working with the polytechnics in order to run courses at the diploma level so that there will be associate social workers. There is some quibble about whether they should be called social work associates or associate social workers. Some of these debates reflect protectionism. But the point is that I need to get more manpower into this sector.”
“I announced earlier that we would be increasing our overall funding to social services delivered by VWOs. In fact, this year, it would be somewhere between $131 million and $140 million a year. That means, apart from the $100 million we deliver directly to needy families, MCYS funnels another $140 million through VWOs in order to serve people in need. Another question which has been raised in the past, although not today, is the issue of GST - that VWOs providing these services are also liable to GST. But what I will do is to help them offset this GST by providing additional funds to the VWOs, so that when they are providing Government-backed programmes, they would not have to worry about additional GST. We will provide that additional assistance to them. Let me now turn to professionalising the sector. I totally agree with the Member that we need to give due recognition to social workers. For a long time, as she said, sometimes they are not even given the status of a professional. They were considered as associate professionals. I have always felt that this is wrong. And I am glad that we have taken some steps, maybe not as fast as Members would like, but Members would agree that we have taken steps in the right direction. We revised the salary guidelines in 2007. Having said that, the bulk of employers of social workers is not from the Government. It is from the VWOs, and it takes time for them to translate our norm costs, our salary guidelines, into their own actual payments to their staff. Nevertheless, the fact that we have revised the guidelines and that we have also said that we are looking at further revisions to the guidelines, will make a difference.”
“We intend to do this through a combination of providing additional training avenues, accelerated courses, conversion courses as well as providing more scholarships and bursaries. And as the Member has said, we also need to make sure that we recognise the professionalism of social workers. I will say more about that later on. The other key thing that our FSCs need to focus on is to establish a working relationship with key community partners. Ms Denise Phua always talks about having an integrated, comprehensive, functioning network. And yet, if we ask ourselves honestly, if I ask all the 84 MPs here, both Opposition and PAP, how many of you have a working relationship with the FSC that services your residents? I am glad to see a Member raise his hand. But can we say that universally, across-the-board? Similarly for the CDCs and their relationships with the VWOs and FSCs. We have made much progress in the last few years. But we have not yet reached the happy state that Ms Denise Phua anticipates. We need to work on developing these relationships and it starts at the human level. Do we have each other's phone numbers? Do we consult? Do we call urgently? Do we share information? Yes, we do have a common database but this database is only as good as the data that is put in. If everyone, who is helping a person in need, does not put in the data to begin with, or the data is not updated, then that database is not very useful. Today, every single MP here has access to that database, but I will tell you, quite honestly, not everyone has accessed that database. We do not need to get defensive about why we have not accessed that database. But the point is that the system is there. The other thing is that the VWOs who are serving in our sector include more than just the FSCs.”
“I have been in this game long enough to know that there are no quick and easy solutions, and I will not stand here and make promises which I cannot fulfil. But having said that, let us take a critical look at what has happened so far. 4.00 pm We reviewed the role of the FSCs. Currently, we have 36 FSCs scattered across the island. We have decided that we need to get back to basics and affirm the role of the FSCs to focus on the social well-being of vulnerable families. There is a lot of other upstream and downstream work that they can do, but those are additional options. But every FSC must be like a polyclinic out there in the community. It must be the general practitioner of social work. Families who go there must be assured that there is a minimum level of service which is available. That also means that from the Ministry's perspective, we must provide enough resources so that they can provide that suite of services. My Ministry will raise the funding for FSCs by $3 million this year. It would therefore reach $16 million for this year. Frankly, this is not a very large sum of money. In fact, it shows you how efficient and how much work they have been doing despite such a relatively small sum of money from my Ministry. $3 million is not much but as the workload goes up, I must be willing to allocate more resources to enable them to fulfil these programmes, particularly programmes which the Government supports. The next issue, of course, as the Member alluded to, is the quantity and quality of manpower. It is very labour-intensive. It is very hands, heart and mind intensive. We cannot automate or outsource this. Even as we talk about increasing the number of FSCs, we do need to increase the number of social workers.”
“Sir, the social service sector and VWOs are critical for our system to work. So I share the concerns of Members that this is a sector we need to pay more attention to. I take the Member's point that perhaps we have not reached the tipping point yet. I am also acutely aware that this is a counter-cyclical business. At a time of a severe downturn like this, their workload will increase. But this is also a time when there will inevitably be strains on the financing side because of worries about donations from the public. Nevertheless, we still do need to press on and continue to raise funds. As I said in my earlier speech, we estimated that there will be about $460 million flowing into this sector this year. More than half of that is from the Government. The other $220 million is from donations, I also alluded to the fact that this represents a significant portion of tax foregone by the Ministry of Finance. So let us see how this pans out. Yes, there has to be some element of belt-tightening. It is not possible for me to stand here and say, "Don't worry. There will be no impact on your bottom lines. There is no need to be careful with your expenditure". We all need to do our bit. Our social safety net is really held up by a tripod - first is the support from the Government side, directly through MCYS, and the CDCs, which represent our decentralised delivery arm in the community. Second, the FSCs and the VWOs that stand behind them, as well as the VWOs which provide specialised services. Third is the grassroots network. We need all these three to function. I take Ms Denise Phua's point. But I wish it was so easy - to promise you a masterplan, a master Committee, and that everything would then fall into place.”
“I am hoping with the combination of moral suasion, some targeted subsidies, greater transparency and competition, we will be able to get a childcare sector that has got high quality, that charges reasonable fees, and is universally accessible. If we can do this, and if I can make a difference by allowing our children to fulfil their destiny by giving them the best environment possible, then I think this is an investment well worth the amount that we are spending. So I hope Members will support the huge amounts of money that my Ministry is budgeting for children and families. Child Protection”
“In fact, in this economic downturn, can I make a plea again to people who may otherwise be looking for jobs that this is a growth area, and we need highly qualified, committed and dedicated teachers. If you are willing to undergo the courses and the training that both MOE and MCYS provide, we have avenues for you. Let me also deal with this issue of fee increases. Last year, when we announced an increase in the universal subsidy provided by Government - we increased it from $150 to $300 - some childcare centres raised their fees. In fact, I have been told that 18% of childcare centres have raised or announced their intention to raise their fees. The average fee increase was about $78, so that is still much less than the $150 increase in subsidy that the Government provided. I share Members' concern that it would be a big pity if that entire additional $150 that Government made available was wiped out and eroded by childcare centres increasing the fees. So I want to make two points. First, today, I want to remind all childcare centres that, in fact, they are one of the major beneficiaries of the Government's Jobs Credit Scheme because they also receive the additional 12% which the Minister for Finance announced. So their cost of employing teachers, in fact, is partly subsidised this year. Second, remember that there is a recession going on but we still want our children to continue their education. Third, I want to remind the operators of childcare centres that I am going full steam with establishing another 200 new childcare centres over the next few years, so competition is coming your way.”
“There is still a tiny percentage which we are still trying to hunt down and make sure they attend pre-school, and tell their mothers there is no excuse for them not to place their children in kindergarten or childcare. And money is not an excuse because the assistance schemes are there. If you need help filling up a form, we will help you fill up the form, but they must understand that this is a joint responsibility. You must also make that effort to send your children to school, kindergarten or childcare. We will help them and together we will give your children hope for the future. I realise that we do have, as Mr Yeo has called it, a "market-driven" model for early childhood education. But it is nevertheless a sector which, as I have said, is currently able to provide enough places. And it is a sector in which we are elevating standards by working on the quality of teachers. So we will put in more resources and avenues for teachers to be upgraded. We will enhance the minimum standards and qualifications for teachers. The details are in the handouts which we have circulated to Members. And I can also assure Members that my Ministry will increase the licensing requirements for childcare centres. I also remember Prof. Kalyani's repeated appeals to me in the past to make all information available to parents. Although my staff keep telling me it is difficult - believe me, I keep pushing them - we will make more and more information available and transparent, so that parents can choose. And by introducing competitive transparency, I think we will get an overall elevation in standards. We are also looking at the issue of providing more places for training.”
“I will in a later speech talk more about what we are going to do to further resource the social service agencies and, in particular, on enhancing both the supply and the quality of social workers. Let me now turn to investing in our children. Of all the things which I can do in my Ministry, let me tell you that at a personal level, this is the one area which I want to make the greatest difference to. I do not believe that the destiny of our children is limited by their genetic inheritance. I believe the family, the culture and the environment play a huge role. And because we can influence the environment, I believe this is an area which deserves investment. In the case of pre-school education, in particular, because childcare centres, for now, come under my Ministry, I intend to do whatever it takes to put all the resources available to make a quantum leap in the standards and quantity of places available for early childcare, in particular, for dysfunctional families and for low-income families. And that is why in my Minister of State's speech just now, you will have heard that, in fact, for low-income families, it is a negligible amount that they need to pay in order to put a child in either kindergarten (no more than $5) or even childcare ($10 a month). And the reason we are doing this is because I believe this gives these children an opportunity to break out of a trajectory which would have been stunted by a dysfunctional family or a less than ideal environment. So I hope Members will rest assured that we will do whatever it takes to keep investing in this area. Today there are 482 kindergartens and 749 childcare centres in Singapore. And I am glad to inform you that that means so far today, 97.5% of all children attend pre-school.”
“We will pilot a new mentoring framework starting with 150 youths who are at risk and we will scale this up because, clearly, many more young people will benefit from mentoring. I am also aware of many mentoring schemes started by VWOs and other organisations in the community, and we must support these other efforts, because sometimes a parent or an older person is less effective at transmitting role model behaviour than a peer, or an older brother or sister. The relationship dynamics are different and I think mentoring is something which we need to support. 2.30 pm Our third strategy is to intervene judiciously and practically where there are problems. So we will set up a new unit and will start first with our youth who are in the MCYS residential homes, offering practical skills and jobs training for them, because life has already dealt them an unfair hand. If we do not enable them to find jobs and to develop the pride and dignity which come with jobs, these youth will remain at risk and may even offend or re-offend later on. We will also be piloting a two-year intensive case management programme for identified families at risk. That is because we know that for these dysfunctional families with multiple problems, they really need far more intensive hand-holding than our current system allows for. So each case worker who is performing intensive case management will handle no more than 10 families at a time. This is a much lower caseload compared to the average of one social worker to 40 or 50 families, which is the normal caseload in the FSCs currently. Frankly, I think even 40 and 50 is too high for normal caseloads. We will need to increase the number of qualified social workers.”
“It may be polyclinics or hospitals, especially if there is any evidence of child abuse. It may be the MPS sessions because they come to you ostensibly for financial assistance or for housing assistance. We want to have a network of "tripwires" which will allow us to identify those families at risk, because the moment there is one child at risk, there will very often be other siblings at risk, and there is often a vulnerable woman, and maybe a man also - an entire family at risk. The second aspect we also have to work on are upstream preventive measures so that these families are not condemned to repeating this cycle of dependency and dysfunctionality. Mr Seah Kian Peng has been campaigning for the extension of the Home Ownership Plus Education (HOPE) scheme to divorced mothers. Today, I am very happy to tell Mr Seah that we totally agree with him. We will extend the HOPE scheme to divorced mothers with no more than two children. The reason for this is that we want to send a message to women: if you have two children and if you find someone who says that he loves you and wants to marry you, by all means go ahead. But do not find someone or feel pressurised to marry someone and offer your fertility, simply because you feel the need to provide security for your existing children. By putting these women on HOPE and reassuring them that there is housing, training and education for their kids, these women are now secure women and they can look after their two children. If they find true love, by all means, go ahead. But keep your families small, focus your resources and your attention on your existing children. So I totally agree with Mr Seah and I think he can be happy with that proposal. Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim has also asked about mentoring.”
“But you and I know that, especially in modern times, there are limits to these traditional values. Whilst I believe we need to keep reminding people of family responsibilities, I think we also need to have a strong legislative line drawn. So I am also studying whether we should put more teeth into the Maintenance of Parents Act. One suggestion I have heard was for the Tribunal for Maintenance of Parents (TMP) to be more inquisitorial regarding whether the children truly can or cannot afford to look after their parents. Very often, the parents are actually a proxy for a battle between siblings - who was the favourite son? Therefore, the favourite son should pay more money now to maintain their parents. All this sibling rivalry gets into the equation. There is a time and place for siblings and families to resolve their differences but, I think, if they do not and old folks end up becoming bargaining chips, we need to step in and make sure that they get the proper maintenance which they so rightly deserve. So I am flagging up another area that is open to ideas. Let me now turn to dysfunctional families. We have in Singapore - by our estimate - about 7,500 such families. These are families, as I have said earlier, with multiple social personal relationship problems, which make them stuck in a hole which they cannot climb out of. We formed a committee to see how we can best help these families. Let me just share some of the ideas and recommendations of this committee. First, we need to identify such families early, so we will train key "touchpoint" agencies, i.e. agencies which will make first contact with such families. Typically, it will be schools because the children attend school and may be playing truant or doing badly in school.”
“I totally agree with Mr Wee Siew Kim on his comments and concerns for elderly parents. In my own MPS Sessions, I have had one lady who has been seeing me every single week for the last six months, because she wants an HDB rental flat. But the issue is not really about the HDB rental flat. She and her husband have bought two flats previously. They sold them and made a profit. I believe Dr Maliki informed me that a cash repayment of over $100,000 was credited back into their CPF. I asked her what happened to the money. She said her son used it for some business which failed. He got cheated so the money has disappeared. Her son and his wife now do not want her to stay in their flat. She has multiple children - and they are not staying in small flats either - but none of them wants to house her. So she comes to see me every week, and every week, I write a letter to Dr Maliki to try to bump her up in the queue for a HDB rental flat. Dr Maliki or HDB can act as a surrogate provider of housing but, really - I am sure Members will agree with me - the issue here is the discharge of family responsibilities. I totally agree with Members that we cannot legislate love and filial responsibility. It is very ironic that, even in this House, the Bill that brought about the maintenance of parents was not initiated by my Ministry. It was initiated by the current Attorney-General, Prof. Walter Woon. I tried to find out why it was, that the Government did not initiate it. It was because of what I believe was a misguided fear that by legislating the Maintenance of Parents Act, it represents the Government getting involved in what should be a family responsibility, and it involves, perhaps, an erosion of this supposed Asian concept of filial responsibility.”
“It costs a "grand sum" of $1 to launch that process. The Family Court can attach an earnings order on the defaulting ex-husband, or even fine or jail him. But you and I know that there are some husbands who play this all the way to the brink and say: "Fine. Put me in jail, then I can't earn money. Then, I can't pay the maintenance." Unfortunately, in Family Court, you see basically decent people at their worst behaviour. This is unlike the Criminal Court where you get criminals putting on their best behaviour. In 2008, there were about 3,200 applications for enforcement of maintenance orders, made by 1,700 applicants, and a majority of these applications, of course, are from women. I do not think we have arrived at a satisfactory solution to this, so I am still open to ideas. My Ministry is consulting the Ministry of Law and the Family Court, and if any of the Members has creative or even unorthodox ideas, please send them to me. I will share some of the ideas I have heard, and I am not saying I am going to implement them. These include informing prospective new wives of the payment history of the ex-husband. I am sure women will know - men do not change their spots, even if they find a new wife. So, if he has not been fulfilling his commitments to the first wife, I think they should consider very seriously his commitment to you. It is just a suggestion. Another suggestion I heard is that maybe we should have different thresholds for declaring bankruptcy for a person. In other words, to make a priority the payment of maintenance over and above all the other debts which a person may accumulate. This is also fairly radical. Well, I am just putting all these up because I am telling you that we do not have a complete solution yet. I am open to ideas.”
“I think these are questions which each and every single one of us needs to ask ourselves, before we ask about what the Government can do or should do about divorces. Sir, I say this because I believe that there is a limit to how much the Government can do. But, having said that, my staff are very keen that I do say what the Government can do, because they have invested so much time, effort and resources into it. So what do we do? We provide courses and family life education. We encourage pre-marital preparation and counselling. Last year, we established the Marriage Central, which is a one-stop centre to provide information to couples who are considering getting married. Families in distress can also turn to the Family Service Centres (FSCs) for advice, counselling and specific assistance. The National Family Council has also recently launched a Family Resilience Series to help families cope during this downturn. I hear that the talks have been well received - I admit I did not go for one myself - and there are plans to bring these talks to even more places. Mr Seah Kian Peng has suggested a family resilience index. I think we can explore this idea. Actually there is a very simple index for families - what is the outcome for their children? If their children are growing up safe, secure, fulfilling their potential, I think that is a resilient family. But, despite all these efforts, we will recognise that some marriages will still fail. Our goal then is to minimise the impact on family members, especially children. Dr Maliki has brought up this issue of the payment of maintenance by men to their ex-wives and children. Today, women can file a Magistrate's Complaint in order to begin enforcement actions against their ex-husbands, if they fail to pay maintenance.”
“Mr Chairman, I thank Members for their concern for the state of families in Singapore. Incidentally, when I said that my budget for this year is $1.9 billion, Members might be interested to know that about half of that amount - $851 million - is actually allocated to promote family formation and family development. So we put our money where our mouth is. I totally agree with Mr Ong Ah Heng and other Members' concerns about the increasing divorce rate. I asked my staff to check - since I have been married slightly over 20 years - on the performance of the people who got married in 1987. Twenty years later, 14% of my cohort are divorced. Then I asked my staff to look at the cohort 10 years after me. In other words, those who got married in 1997. And they reported that 13% of this cohort had divorced after 10 years. So, in other words, the younger cohort has reached practically the same failure rate as my cohort, but they have done it in 10 years (half the time). So I do not think anybody needs to have any doubts that the divorce rate is a clear and present danger to us. Last year, there were 7,220 divorces. This represents a 35% increase from 5,333 divorces in 1998. This is a high figure when you realise that there were only 24,590 marriages last year. Can and should the Government do anything about this? Well, I did my usual thing when it comes to matters of family - I consulted my wife. We had a discussion two nights ago, and we concluded that this is primarily a challenge which married couples ourselves have to overcome. Have we set the right expectations of each other? Do we fulfill our mutual responsibilities to each other and our responsibilities to our children? Do we still believe in making irrevocable commitments?”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, may I answer the supplementary questions?”
“The public can report any such cases to CASE which will not hesitate to investigate further. In addition, to encourage competitive pricing from retailers, CASE has been publishing price surveys on groceries on its website since May 2008. Consumers should make full use of these price surveys to make informed choices when they make purchases. EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK FOR NEW GRADUATES IN 2009 (Assistance programmes) 30. Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Acting Minister for Manpower (a) what is the employment outlook for new graduates in 2009; and (b) whether his Ministry will consider coming up with assistance programmes similar to SPUR to help job-seeking Singaporean graduates from polytechnics and universities.”
“On a year-on-year basis, the overall Consumer Price Index (or CPI) inflation has come down from its high of 7.5% in the second quarter of 2008, to 6.6% in the third quarter. Consider energy prices. Retail petrol prices have declined in tandem with world market trends. The price of one litre of Grade 95 petrol was about $2.30 at its peak in July 2008 but has since dropped to about $1.55, a 33% decrease. Taxi and airline companies have also announced adjustments of their fuel surcharges. However, there is often a time lag between import and retail prices. This is because retailers often purchase their goods in bulk, or sign contracts on advance orders, thereby locking in prices that could be higher than current market prices. The time-lag not withstanding, a random survey of rice sold in our supermarkets suggests that between May 2008 and January 2009, retail prices of rice of 5kg and 10kg-pack declined between 5% to 17%. This shows that international prices of commodity filter through our distribution channels which we believe are efficient because of large number of players. Ultimately, market competition as defined by the presence of many buyers and many sellers would provide the best defence against unreasonable price increases. By creating a conducive and competitive business environment for enterprises to thrive, we ensure that consumers have a wide range of choices. This allows consumers to switch to cheaper alternatives should some business charge unreasonable prices. For instance, consumers now have the choice to switch to cheaper house brands, as more local supermarkets widen the variety of products under their house brands. There may be some businesses that maintain high prices unreasonably.”
“PROFITEERING BY BUSINESSES (Measures by Committee Against GST Profiteering) 29. Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what measures are being taken by the Committee Against GST Profiteering in adopting a proactive approach to ensure that businesses do not profiteer by maintaining high prices despite the recent fall in prices of commodities. Mr Lim Hng Kiang: The Committee Against GST Profiteering (or CAP) was set up when GST was first introduced in 1994. Its role is to investigate specific complaints on using the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as an excuse for profiteering. The most recent increase in GST was in July 2007. Since then, CAP has worked with grassroots organisations and the Consumers Association of Singapore (or CASE) to investigate 274 cases of potential GST profiteering. Grassroots leaders have visited individual stall owners and worked with them to resolve the issue. For chain stores, CASE has written directly to the businesses asking them to explain their reasons for increasing prices. No new complaints pertaining to GST profiteering have been received by CAP in the past eight months. High prices are not always due to profiteering. In a competitive and open economy such as Singapore, prices move up and down in response to changes in supply and demand. Most price increases that Singapore experienced in the past year can be traced back to increases in global prices such as the price of commodities. For instance, higher oil prices have translated to higher pump prices, taxi fares and airfares. Consumers naturally expect prices to adjust when the price of commodities fall. Global commodity prices have eased from their peak in July 2007. This already has, and should continue to help ease domestic price pressures in the coming months.”
“The number of children abused averaged 93 cases each year during the period of 2004 to 2008. There is no clear trend during this period. The figures range from 101 in 2005, to 58 in 2006, to 114 in 2008. Every single child that is abused is one child too many. We have a comprehensive framework that focuses on prevention, early detection and effective treatment of children who may be abused. Social workers, healthcare professionals, police officers, educators and those in regular contact with children are trained to detect signs of abuse and to refer potential cases for thorough investigation. Public education is also necessary. For example, my Ministry commissioned a school assembly programme to raise awareness on family violence amongst primary school students. Social workers from the Centre for Promoting Alternatives to Violence (PAVe) engaged the students by providing more information on family violence and available help channels. We also focus on early intervention strategies. MCYS administers the Integrated Healthy Start Programme, which targets "high risk" children up to six years from dysfunctional families. This programme provides for early detection and intervention in reducing family stressors and potential family problems. Parents who face challenges in parenting should seek help from the nearest Family Service Centre (FSC). The social workers and other professionals in the FSC will be able to help them overcome their difficulties in managing their children. The community also plays an important role. I encourage anyone who suspects that a child has been abused to call the Child Protection Service helpline at 1800 258 6378 or lodge a police report. We must all do our part to protect our children.”
“Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Transport if he will provide an assessment of the current traffic flow situation arising from (i) the phased implementation of new ERP gantries; and (ii) the revised charges to existing gantries, particularly those located in the CBD.”
“The Government increased the childcare subsidy from $150 to $300 a month for working mothers with effect from 17th August 2008. Since August 2008, enrolment in childcare centres has increased by about 1,900 children or 3.5%, from a total enrolment of 53,000 children in August 2008, to reach about 55,000 children now. This is slightly higher than the 2.5% increase over the same period last year. During this period, 114 centres have given notice that they will increase their fees. This is about 15% of all childcare centres. About one-third (36 centres) of these centres will effect the revised fees in January next year, while the rest are implementing the new fees late this year. The average fee increase is about $80. MCYS strongly urges operators to exercise restraint and to keep their services affordable for parents. Operators should bear in mind increased competition in the sector given the plan for a further 200 new childcare centres to be established over the next five years. We expect that parents will select childcare centres that best meet their expectations in the most cost-effective manner. For low-income households who require further assistance in childcare fees, MCYS currently provides the ComCare 'Centre-Based Financial Assistance Scheme for Childcare' (CFAC). Eligible low-income families can benefit from up to $340 under the CFAC. This is in addition to the $300 subsidy for all children of working mothers. The Ministry will continue to monitor the situation and ensure that quality childcare services remain accessible and affordable to all Singaporean families. IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW ERP GANTRIES (Assessment of traffic flow situation) 5.”
“Dr Ong Seh Hong asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (a) what were the reasons for the Traffic Police to charge security supervisor, Mr Paul Antony Fernandez, for speeding in spite of him providing proof that he was not the driver; (b) whether there was a need for Mr Fernandez to make 10 court appearances and spending thousands of dollars in legal fees before the charges were dropped; and (c) what measures, if any, are in place to prevent such future lapses.”
“As far as possible, each case should be amicably resolved through family mediation or conciliation without unnecessarily dragging out the process. We will also establish systematic referral protocols between our community partners and the Commissioner and the Tribunal to ensure that no one falls through the cracks. Second, the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents plays an advocate role for elderly parents who are without support and are unable to represent themselves. The Commissioner works closely with the community agencies to identify such cases and will file the applications at the Tribunal on their behalf. Some elderly may not be aware of the Act and do not know who to approach for assistance. We will need to raise public awareness of the Tribunal process and the Commissioner’s role in protecting the vulnerable elderly. Third, where conciliation and mediation fail, the judicial process under the Tribunal should be accessible and impartial. Justice should be served efficiently so as to remain an effective deterrent. Once the maintenance orders are issued, they are enforced in the Family Court, in the same manner that orders for wives and children are enforced under the Women’s Charter. Tribunal officers conduct post-hearing briefings on the options available to elderly parents should their children fail to abide by the order. [1] Orders of Tribunal are made whether the outcome was achieved through mediation or Tribunal hearing. It typically takes between two to three months from filing to the issuance of an Order of Tribunal. [2] Cases which need further assistance would be referred to various social agencies for follow up. [3] From January 2002 to June 2008. Column No : 665 SPEEDING CHARGE OF MR PAUL ANTONY FERNANDEZ (Preventive measures) 39.”
“The Maintenance of Parents Act provides the legal means for elderly parents needing financial support to claim maintenance from their children. The Act reminds us of the moral obligation and reciprocity of care that should exist within the family. It also serves as a deterrent to the minority of people who wilfully refuse to support their elderly parents. Since 1996, 1,411 applications for maintenance have been filed at the Tribunal for Maintenance of Parents (TMP), of which 1,047 maintenance orders[1] have been made. The remaining applications were dismissed or withdrawn[2]. Some of the reasons for dismissing applications include: parents not having discharged their duties, children being unable to pay any maintenance despite their best effort, and parents already being adequately maintained. In keeping with the principles of the Act, effort is made to help families resolve the issue amicably and privately, so as to preserve family relations as far as possible. In 2002, a Pre-filing Alternate Dispute Resolution service was introduced to render alternative assistance such as mediation and counselling. A quarter[3] of the cases will still proceed to file applications for maintenance. The aim and the principles behind this Act and the Tribunal remain sound. But as our population ages, its processes need to be updated so that it remains an effective deterrent to unfilial children and that the elderly receive help in a timely and efficient manner. We will review the processes to ensure that the elderly are served in the following ways. First, we will work closely with our community partners, the Community Development Councils and Advisors, to ensure that any elderly parent in need will be offered advice on the provisions of the Act, and the avenues available to him.”
“We have no plans to build an interim stadium whilst the Sports Hub is being built as it is not cost effective. This is especially so with the present escalating construction cost. The more cost effective way is maximise current facilities for our sporting events. Some of our existing stadiums are undergoing upgrading developments. For example, with temporary stands, Bishan Stadium will see an increase in seating capacity from 3,000 to 10,000. Improvements in lighting and supporting amenities will also be made to the Bishan, Choa Chu Kang and Jurong West Stadiums. With these upgrading, safety for spectators and participants and the overall spectator experience in our sports facilities will be enhanced. Key sports events requiring a spectator seating of more than 10,000 can be held at the Padang. In addition, the Marina Floating Platform, with its seating capacity of over 25,000 and a panoramic view of the city skyline, is also suitable for organising sports and entertainment events. Column No : 653 ILLEGAL LOANSHARKS (Situation update) 27. Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (a) if he will provide an updated assessment of the illegal loansharks situation in Singapore; and (b) whether the Police is able to adequately handle the complaints against illegal loansharks harassment.”
“The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. – [Dr Vivian Balakrishnan]. Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed. Column No : 645 Column No : 646 ADJOURNMENT Resolved, That Parliament do now adjourn to a date to be fixed. – [Dr Ng Eng Hen]. Adjourned accordingly at Eighteen minutes past Seven o'clock pm to a date to be fixed. WRITTEN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWER NOT ANSWERED BY 3.00 PM Column No : 647 PATIENTS RECEIVING TAINTED BLOOD (Protection and compensation) 20. Ms Ellen Lee asked the Minister for Health (a) what protection and compensation, if any, are offered to patients who receive tainted blood and contracted infectious diseases; and (b) how many such cases are there within the last 12 months and what has been done to minimise such incidences.”
“I am not keen to move more aggressively and in a way which may impair the competitiveness of our companies, especially bearing in mind the economic weather that we are going to face over the next one to two years. Nevertheless, I would urge companies to exercise more flexibility. You know, sometimes all they need is an extended lunch or a couple of hours in order to attend to the more urgent domestic duties which they have. So, again, I echo the words of my colleague, Mr Gan Kim Yong, that both employees and employers exercise flexibility. A lot can be achieved without having to resort to legislation. Let me conclude by saying I totally agree with Mrs Josephine Teo that this cannot be a transaction between Government and people. This is not a bribe to ask you to have more children. All that we can do is that for those Singaporeans who do want to get married, who do want to have children, we can help them. For those who do not want to, they are entitled to make their own choices. Of course, those choices have implications on the future of Singapore but does that mean that we need to depend more on those who want to have children and, therefore, we need to support them more actively than we have in the past and that does mean a significant commitment of Government resources and expenditure. So, yes, we have, in a sense, a system in which different priorities and different allocation of resources are made, but we need the understanding of all Members, all Singaporeans, that we need to have such a system in order to keep Singapore going and to make sure we continue to have a hard core of born and bred, locally-made Singaporeans. Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.”
“But there is a difference, and the main difference is that working mothers are entitled to maternity leave, childcare leave and infant care leave, which they need by definition because they are working, and they need time-off from their work in order to recuperate and look after their children. Similarly, working mothers also enjoy higher rates of subsidies for infant care and childcare because they need these services more in order to enable them to go to work. So, it is not true that we do not support stay-at-home mothers but we do provide them support. But she is right, the playing field is tilted somewhat in favour of working mothers. The majority of women actually are working mothers and, in fact, if you speak to the younger generation, most women do want to have it all. They do want to be able work and to have children and, hence, our focus has been to provide as much support as we can for this group of women. However, we are not making or casting value judgments as to which is a better path. I think, at the end of the day, whether to stay at home and look after your children full time or whether to pursue a career and to depend on childcare or other home-based care solutions is a personal choice. We can help but we cannot make that choice, and there are consequences whichever way we choose. Mdm Halimah also asked whether we could consider introducing family care leave. Let me quite honestly sound a note of caution at this point in time. This Bill has just introduced up to 10 new days of extra leave per year for both father and mother of a child under the age of seven, plus an additional one month of maternity leave. I think these are significant additions and alterations to our working regime, and I believe it will suffice for the time being.”
“But he is absolutely right, an entirely machismic society where men play golf and women are expected to look after the children will inevitably lead to a decreased fertility rate. I share a lot of the sentiments that Mrs Josephine Teo expressed, but I am a little bit more optimistic than her. The fact that we have been able to move the total fertility rate from 1.24 to 1.29 is significant in itself. I think even preventing an erosion is a significant achievement. I hope we will see it go beyond 1.3, and if we are lucky, maybe even 1.4. But even at that level, I think it will still guarantee that future generations of Singaporeans will continue to have a hard core of people born and bred in Singapore, who will be able to transmit that cultural and social DNA that constitutes the Singapore identity. So, this investment in marriage and procreation is still worthwhile and although it is not easy and, as I have said earlier, it is expensive, but I believe it is something which we ought to do. I would also go on to say that I have sympathy for Mdm Halimah's suggestion that we look at reimbursing the employers at a shorter interval rather than waiting for the employees to complete their entire term of maternity leave before we reimburse them. Smaller companies may have cashflow problems and it is something my Ministry will study. Mdm Halimah has also spoken about non-working mothers. This is a perennial issue. What I would say is that all mothers, including non-working mothers, are entitled and do enjoy the Baby Bonus and their families can also tap on the parenthood tax rebates.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank all the Members for their comments. I thank especially the Acting Minister for Manpower for his reassurance that the Ministry of Manpower will take a firm line to prevent discrimination against women at the workplace. I would also urge Members to bear his comments that there is a need for balance and flexibility to be exercised by all stakeholders involved in this. I fully agree with Mr Sin Boon Ann that raising the total fertility rate requires a comprehensive approach. It is not just a matter of leave or Baby Bonus, and the Member has outlined a series of suggestions, not all of which we can move on, but I can assure him on things like provision of student care, and especially to locate them more conveniently within schools. The HDB is stepping up its building programme. But what we cannot assure every couple is that they will get a new flat in a location of their choice. Nevertheless, if they are prepared to buy resale flats and enjoy the housing grant, there are options for newly-married couples. Issues on stress and education system are a much more intractable problem, but we know that the Ministry of Education has made significant measures over the last couple of years, for instance, to teach less learn more. But having said that, at the end of the day, this is a competitive society and no amount of engineering with respect to curriculum or pedagogy is going to remove all stress from that. And that again requires a certain balance and perspective to the approach in life. On the issue of an unfair burden between men and women, that is not something we can legislate. I think every couple will have to negotiate their own terms of engagement and an equitable sharing of the burden.”
“Let me take this opportunity to reiterate that our vision is to make Singapore a great place for families and this cannot be done by Government and legislation alone. Employers and employees have to play their part and they also have to look beyond legislation to embrace the spirit behind such measures, to appreciate that our families and our children are important to us as individuals, and ultimately essential for Singapore's future. Having children is a matter of personal choice, personal priority and, ultimately, a vote of confidence in the future. Sir, I beg to move. Question proposed. 6.19 pm”
“Similar to childcare leave, for errant employers who do not grant infant care leave to employees without reasonable cause, this Bill introduces a new penalty of a fine of up to $5,000 for the first offence and $10,000 for subsequent offences. Transitional period This Bill is scheduled to come into effect on 31st October 2008. The Government will also reimburse our share to employers who voluntarily grant their employees the enhanced leave from 17th August 2008, that is, even before the enhancements were made mandatory through legislation. We chose 17th August because that was the date that the enhanced measures were announced by the Prime Minister. This is also to encourage employers to be generous and to start giving the enhanced leave provisions early, and I am glad that many employers have already done so. For maternity leave, the Government will also reimburse its share to employers who provide 16 weeks of maternity leave to those who delivered on or after 17th August. For births on or after 31st October, it will be mandatory for employers to do so. For childcare leave, it will be mandatory for employers to give their employees at least three days of leave between 31st October 2008 and the end of the year, although childcare leave given prior to 31st October will also be counted as part of the three days. For those who voluntarily provide more than three days of leave between 17th August until the end of the year, the Government will also reimburse its share accordingly. For infant care leave, employers should give their employees all six days if an employee wishes to take this leave. Given that infant care leave is unpaid, it is unlikely to be used frivolously.”
“To ensure accountability as well as parity amongst all Singaporeans, the Bill sets a limit that the Government will only pay for three days of childcare leave per employee per year. This also applies for an employee who works for more than one employer at the same time. MCYS will set up an online enquiry system for employers to check how many days of Government-paid childcare leave an employee has already taken in that year, including incoming new employees. This will help employers to determine the remaining number of days of childcare leave which the employee is entitled to. To enhance protection for the employees, the Bill also introduces a new penalty of a fine of up to $5,000 for the first offence and $10,000 for the subsequent offences for errant employers who do not grant childcare leave to employees without reasonable cause. Unpaid infant care leave Finally, we are introducing a new type of leave – unpaid infant care leave. The objective of infant care leave is to provide working parents with some flexibility to take leave should they need additional time for their newborns. The Bill will provide for each working parent with at least one child under the age of two to be entitled to six days of infant care leave per year. After careful consideration, we decided to make this leave unpaid, as we do not want to inadvertently escalate the costs of doing business in Singapore and ultimately adversely affect the employability of our workers, especially women. This is especially so when we have already enhanced both maternity and childcare leave at the same time this year. If a parent has a child under the age of two, he can take both the unpaid infant care leave as well as the childcare leave, which means 12 days of leave per year.”
“Childcare leave In 2004, two days of childcare leave, paid by employers, were introduced for working parents. To enable parents to have more time to care for and to spend with their children, the Bill will increase the childcare leave benefits, such that each working parent with at least one child under the age of seven will be entitled to six days of childcare leave per year. Bringing childcare leave under the Children Development Co-Savings Act will also now allow all working parents with a Singapore citizen child under the age of seven to enjoy this leave benefit. The first three days of leave will be paid for by the employers, which is an increase of one day for employers compared to the current system. But to minimise business costs to employers, the Government will pay for the last three days of the childcare leave, up to a cap of $500 per day. Based on feedback from employers, we have agreed that it is fair for employers to pro-rate the six days of childcare leave if an employee, who has just joined the company or who decides to leave the company, does not serve the company for a full year. For instance, if an employee works for the same employer for only six months that year, an employer might want to grant only three days of leave. This Bill, therefore, allows pro-ration of childcare leave, to a minimum of two days. Should an employee leave in the course of the year after consuming more leave than he would have been entitled to after pro-rating, the employer may recover from the employee payment for those extra days of leave which the employer had already paid for. However, the employer should not recover from the employee payment for those extra days of leave that the Government paid for, unless the employer plans to return money to the Government.”
“But we recognise that our economy is changing, and more women are likely to take on alternative working arrangements, sometimes with more than one employer. To ensure parity for these women, so that they can continue to enjoy the same level of income when they have a child, this Bill provides that these mothers will be entitled to paid maternity leave from all their employers. The Government will reimburse the employers accordingly for its share. These last four enhancements, namely, the reduction in the qualifying period, the extension of the protection of pregnant employees who are dismissed without sufficient cause to the last six months of pregnancy, the protection of retrenched employees in the last three months of pregnancy, and allowing for paid maternity leave under more than one employer, go beyond just supporting the formation of families and should be basic employment prerogatives. These enhancements are therefore also covered under the Employment Act as well. There is also another group of mothers – adoptive mothers. While they do not have the same need for physical recuperation and, therefore, do not receive maternity leave, the Government has decided to reimburse up to four weeks of pay if the adoptive mother's employer voluntarily provides her with leave. This benefit was provided to adoptive mothers whose family size did not exceed four children, including the adoptive child. The Bill now extends this benefit to all adoptive mothers regardless of their family size, in line with our intention to be supportive of larger families. We also recognise the important roles that fathers play in raising children and, therefore, both the father and the mother will be entitled to the extended paid childcare leave and the new unpaid infant care leave.”