In the Parliamentary sitting on 13 April, WP MPs raise questions ranging from the number of foreign students offered permanent residency, reviewing/extending Edusave awards to full-time Madrasah students, effectiveness of AVA’s monitoring and warning systems for fish farmers, ‘net neutrality’, data on Eldershield, and more.
Questions for Oral Answer:
*6. Mr Yee Jenn Jong: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) whether Singapore-based airlines have a two-person cockpit rule or other systems to protect the cockpit; and (b) whether their pilots are required to be subjected to periodic psychological tests.
*9. Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (a) what is the weight limit on the transport of gold and other precious metals in and out of Singapore by individual travellers; (b) whether diplomats are exempt from this limit, if any; (c) whether the Police is aware of a diplomat carrying up to 27 kg of gold bars in his luggage on a flight out of Changi Airport in March 2015; and (d) what measures are in place to ensure that diplomats do not abuse their diplomatic immunity to carry precious metals, drugs or weapons in and out of Singapore in their luggage.
*15. Ms Lee Li Lian: To ask the Minister for Transport whether there are plans to extend bicycle crossings at traffic junctions to other parts of Singapore.
*16. Mr Png Eng Huat: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs from 2001 to 2014, what was (i) the number of foreign students who were offered and who had accepted permanent residency when they reached Secondary 1 or later; (ii) the number of such student PRs who had gone on to become citizens; and (iii) the number of such students who had renounced their PR or citizenship.
*17. Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap: To ask the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will consider reviewing and extending the Edusave Awards to full-time madrasah students.
*20. Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what is the number of families that have come under the Home Ownership Plus Education (HOPE) scheme since its implementation in 2004; (b) what is the percentage of families under HOPE that have managed to keep their number of children at two; (c) whether the Ministry can provide an update on the profile of families that have broken the conditions of the scheme and their plight; and (d) whether the Ministry considers the HOPE scheme a success.
*23. Mr Yee Jenn Jong: To ask the Prime Minister whether the Ministry is working with banks to improve SMEs’ access to foreign exchange hedging products, including renminbi hedging.
*24. Mr Yee Jenn Jong: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) whether AVA’s real-time monitoring and early warning systems are effective in alerting fish farmers ahead of time of the occurrence of harmful algal blooms to prevent massive fish kills; (b) whether there is a need to relocate fish farms away from areas prone to algal blooms; and (c) whether persistent algal blooms have made it difficult for Singapore to achieve its target of 15% of fish supply to be from local sources.
*26. Mr Png Eng Huat: To ask the Minister for National Development when will plans to develop Hougang Town Centre under the Remaking Our Heartland programme announced in 2011 be released given that the projected timeline for the development site to be launched is three years.
*27. Ms Lee Li Lian: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) whether the revision to the Code on Accessibility in the Built Environment requiring 1.5 metres of minimum clearance along common corridors applies to buildings built before 1 April 2014; (b) if so, whether there are plans to align SCDF guidelines with this; and (c) if not, whether Town Councils will need to have two sets of by-laws for flats built before and after 1 April 2014.
*31. Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information with regard to ‘net neutrality’ (a) whether Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or network operators are allowed to (i) throttle legitimate Internet content, albeit without rendering them unusable and still remaining above the threshold of IDA’s minimum Quality of Service (QoS) requirements; (ii) impose extra charges on consumers or providers of over-the-top (OTT) services like WhatsApp and Skype; and (b) whether there are any plans to introduce net neutrality regulations to prohibit discriminatory network management practices which negatively affect consumers’ experience when using legitimate Internet services.
Questions for Written Answer
3. Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) if he can provide an update on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations; (b) when is the Agreement expected to be successfully concluded; (c) what are the key obstacles that need to be overcome; (d) to what extent the TPP is likely to improve market access for Singapore-based firms in US, Japan and other markets; and (e) what are our economic agencies doing to prepare Singapore firms, especially SMEs, to take advantage of the improved market access that a successfully concluded TPP can bring.
4. Mr Chen Show Mao: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Ministry will consider monthly releases of services exports data so as to provide closer trend indicators as well as to help dampen the effects of fluctuations in monthly goods exports data.
8. Mr Chen Show Mao: To ask the Minister for Health (a) what is the cumulative number of people who have received payments under Eldershield300, Eldershield400 and the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly (IDAPE) respectively; (b) what is the cumulative number of Eldershield300, Eldershield400 and IDAPE recipients who were deceased before the end of their respective payout periods; and (c) what is the cumulative number of Eldershield300, Eldershield400 and IDAPE recipients who remained in need of assistance beyond their respective payout periods.
13. Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Manpower for each year since 2005 (a) how many CPF members have successfully applied for CPF withdrawals on each of the following medical grounds: (i) permanently incapacitated from ever continuing in any employment (ii) terminally ill with a life expectancy of 12 months or less (iii) suffering from a severely shortened life expectancy (iv) mentally incapable of handling and receiving monies (v) other reasons; (b) what is the proportion of successful applications which have been granted a full CPF withdrawal; and (c) how many applications have been rejected.
Source: The Workers’ Party
