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SINGAPORE: Parliament sitting will kick off on Tuesday with 21 questions tabled by MPs for oral answers.
Among them - ensuring that self employed and contract workers are able to benefit from Workfare if it is to be tied to Medisave contributions, and the status of employers and employees who have not been making CPF contributions last year.
MPs have filed nearly 370 topics for discussion by the Committee of Supply on the expenditure estimates for the next financial year.
The Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sports (MCYS) has the largest number of issues.
Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Michael Palmer sits on two Government Parliamentary Committees (GPC).
In the area of defence, he believes what is of interest is the impact of the 3rd Generation SAF and the new shortened national service stint.
And on foreign affairs, Singapore's ties with its Asean neighbours will likely be raised.
"One of the things that I get from the ground is that we seem to remain quiet when our neighbours are banning us from having more sand and there are the issues in Thailand in terms of Shin Corp. There are also issues from Malaysia every so often. I think people want to know what our position is and how we are playing out in this political arena," says Michael Palmer, Defence and Foreign Affairs GPC.
Education is also close to Mr Palmer's heart and he says there is a need to teach students about financial management.
"Now that we are going into being a developed country and with globalisation, we need to teach our children how to manage their money and get to grips with the different components of finances such as debt, mortgage and interests. So when they graduate into their working lives, they will have some foundation before they get hit with credit card offers," says Mr Palmer.
On employment, the Manpower GPC wants to see an improvement in the quality of jobs being created.
"We have been very successful in bringing down unemployment from the high levels of 5 percent, or slightly more, to 2.7 percent. But the fact is that many of the jobs that have been created are low-paying jobs. We would like to see more measures being put in place so that this group of people can achieve higher incomes," says Dr Ahmad Magad, chairman of Manpower GPC.
The Committee of Supply has seven days to complete its scrutiny of the ministries' budget allocations. - CNA /ls
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