The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday rejected two debate motions, both proposed by directly-elected lawmaker José Maria Pereira Coutinho.
This came after the legislature also rejected two debate motions proposed by directly-elected lawmaker Ron Lam U Tou during a plenary session late last month.
In his first debate motion, Coutinho proposed that the government should require gaming operators to upgrade outdated IT equipment because, he said, many casinos in the city were still using outdated IT systems because of which the respective devices were slow when reading gamblers’ membership cards, adversely affecting the respective casino workers, he said.
Coutinho’s first debate motion also proposed that the government should require gaming operators to raise their casino workers’ salary every year with the aim of helping them cope with the city’s constantly rising living cost.
In his second debate, Coutinho proposed that the government should roll out effective measures to attract more foreign visitors by making better use of the local airport.
The 33-member legislature comprises 14 directly-elected seats, 12 indirectly-elected seats and seven government-appointed seats.
During yesterday’s plenary session, a total of 21 lawmakers voted against Coutinho’s first debate motion, while seven abstained from voting.
A total of 25 lawmakers voted against Coutinho’s second debate motion, while three abstained.
Only three legislators voted in favour of Coutinho’s two debate motions, namely Coutinho himself, Lam and Che Sai Wang. Both Coutinho and Che ran on the same candidacy list three years ago, New Hope.
If a debate motion is passed by lawmakers during a plenary session, the legislature will then request government officials to attend another plenary session in the near future for a formal and public debate between the officials and legislators on the matter raised by the debate motion. Yesterday’s rejection of the two debate motions means that the legislature will not schedule any plenary session to debate them.
Several lawmakers who voted against Coutinho’s first debate motion expressed their views saying that while the government has the statutory powers to oversee the operation of the city’s gaming operators, the government should not excessively interfere in their daily operations and normal business decision-making, such as their IT equipment and systems as well as human resources management.
Several legislators who voted against Coutinho’s second debate motion said that the local government’s policy of attracting more foreign visitors should be considered comprehensively by taking Macau’s current situation into account, rather than merely rolling out measures aiming to make better use of the airport.
After lawmakers rejected Coutinho’s two debate motions, the legislature’s president, Kou Hoi In, reminded his fellow legislators that different tools are available to them to monitor the government such as oral interpellations and debate motions but that they should always consider first which way would be the most appropriate for every occasion or topic.
This file photo taken earlier this year shows casino-hotel resorts in Cotai. – Photo: Tony Wong
