Acknowledgement to the Chair

2.05 pm

The Leader of the House (Ms Indranee Rajah): My apologies to Minister of State Alvin Tan. He looked so keen to move the Second Reading of his Bill. I wish to let him know it might be some time before he gets that pleasure.

Mr Speaker, as is customary, the end of the annual Budget process is marked by the delivery of a speech by the Leader in acknowledgement to the Chair of the House. This is not the first time you have presided over the Budget process, having done so in previous years as a Deputy Speaker. But this is the first time that you have done so as Speaker of the House.

You ran a tight ship, keeping close control over the process, yet allowing flexibility when needed. Under your efficient management, we covered much ground in nine days – close to 70 hours of debate. Sixty-one Members spoke for two and a half days in the debate on the Budget Statement and we covered 598 cuts over seven days of Committee of Supply.

Every year, one Ministry will emerge as the "favourite" with the most number of cuts, even though this is one prize Ministries prefer not to win as it means even more work for the relevant Ministers and their team. But anyway, for the record, this year, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) was "the 1" to win the prize and as we know "All Too Well" now, they rose to the occasion with "Style". Members may not quite get the references I just made, but it is alright, if you ask your children or Ms Usha, they will know.

Budget 2023 was delivered on 14 February and is remembered as a Valentine's Day Budget, especially with its family-oriented measures. This year's Budget was delivered on 16 February, which coincidentally fell on the seventh day of the first month in the traditional Chinese calendar, also known as “Ren Ri” or Everyman's Birthday. This is fortuitous since Budget 2024 is a Budget with something for everyone – so, everyone got a birthday present under Budget 2024!

More importantly, Budget 2024 gives life and breath to the plans in the Forward Singapore report that we, as Singaporeans, collectively developed to build our shared future together.

Budgets 2020-2023 helped us to get through the COVID-19 pandemic. Those Budgets, including five Budgets in 2020 alone, helped save lives, save jobs and enabled us to emerge stronger. But the post-pandemic world into which we emerged is very different from the one from which we entered. The world in which Budget 2024 takes place is messier, more dangerous and more unpredictable.

Conflicts are raging around the world. In Gaza and Ukraine, there has been the tragic loss of life. Even though these are far away, in an interconnected world, we are not unaffected. As a small nation-state, we have to navigate an increasingly fragmented world order fraught with geopolitical contestation. Climate change poses an existential threat for us given our small size, low-lying land and energy constraints.

At a more personal and individual level, Singaporeans remain concerned with costs of living and inflationary pressures and other immediate concerns. Against this backdrop, Budget 2024 provides a clear action plan to take Singapore forward into the future with optimism and hope, these challenges notwithstanding. Budget 2024 also sets aside resources for policies that will allow us to turn challenges into opportunities, reinvigorate our workforce by helping workers find new paths and second careers and build a Singapore that is vibrant and inclusive, fair and thriving, resilient and united.

So, let me recap what we have set in motion by approving this Budget.

First, assurance. The enhanced Assurance Package – which includes additional Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers for all Singaporean households, a Cost-of-Living Special Payment in cash for eligible adult Singaporeans and additional U-Save and service and conservancy charges (S&CC) rebates for eligible HDB households – provides assurance to Singaporeans for cost-of-living concerns. We also took decisive measures to ensure a strong, innovative and vibrant economy.

To maintain our competitive edge and ride the winds of change, we amped up support for our National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy 2.0. In this connection, I should mention that Dr Tan Wu Meng's speech on this topic, which took us on a masterful tour of the rapid AI advancements and how we prepare our citizens for this change, has attracted global attention. The clip of his post has garnered several million views across various platforms. This is a good example showing how, although we are a small Parliament, what we say and do in this House can be noticed far beyond our shores. So, I encourage Members to keep up the quality of our debates and thereby the credibility of this House. [Applause.]

Beyond this, we have strengthened support for our companies with the $1.3 billion Enterprise Support Package, which includes a generous Corporate Income Tax Rebate, as well as enhanced schemes that support collaborations and partnerships between local and multinational enterprises, scaling up of our firms and sustainability.

We introduced the Refundable Investment Credit to enhance our investment promotion toolkit, as global competition for investments intensifies with BEPS 2.0.

With the SkillsFuture measures in Budget 2024, we have expressed our belief and confidence in our workers, as well as our confidence in their ability not only to upskill but to chart new directions even at a later age. The new SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme – which includes the top-up in SkillsFuture Credits for Singaporeans aged 40 and above to pursue selected training programmes, the new SkillsFuture Mid-Career Training Allowance and the opportunity to pursue another full-time diploma – are all intended to empower Singaporeans throughout their journey of lifelong learning so that they can continue to access opportunities at every stage of life, for every stage of life.

Many of these moves were informed by ground-up feedback from citizens through the Forward Singapore exercise. These measures give effect to Singaporeans' wishes to upgrade their skills and seize new opportunities and help them embrace a culture of lifelong learning. Likewise, the new Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Progression Award is an expression of our commitment to social mobility as well as our confidence and belief in our ITE graduates.

We have continued to uplift our lower-wage workers and improve wages across different professions, through the enhancements to the Workfare Income Supplement scheme and the Progressive Wage Credit scheme. By respecting and rewarding every job, we hope that these initiatives will enhance opportunities across diverse pathways and enable all Singaporeans to progress throughout their careers.

We further strengthened our social compact by providing more support to those who need it the most. The ComLink+ Progress Packages will uphold social mobility and ensure that families from all backgrounds will have access to full and fair opportunities. We also strengthened access to justice, especially for the most vulnerable, through the civil and criminal law systems.

Families are the bedrock of our society and we have committed to supporting them through every stage of life – from providing strong foundations for the young, to enhancing the golden years of the elderly. In this Budget, we have increased support for parents. We are improving preschool affordability by reducing monthly childcare fee caps in Government-supported preschools and enhancing preschool subsidies for lower-income families. The pilot to provide affordable and reliable childminding services will give parents another caregiving option and hopefully pave the way for such services to be delivered at greater scale.

To support married couples and young families, we have ramped up the Build-To-Oder supply, given them greater priority, increased the number of Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) flats and will provide the PPHS (Open Market) Voucher.

For our seniors, we have made adjustments to the Central Provident Fund system and strengthened the Silver Support Scheme to support their retirement needs. Young seniors will get an additional boost for their retirement through the Majulah Package.

We also set aside funds for Age Well SG, a new national programme to support seniors to age actively, stay socially connected and be cared for in their own communities. These initiatives position us well to holistically take care of the needs of our ageing society.

As the threat of climate change looms ever larger for the world and for Singapore, we have taken concrete steps towards achieving our ambitious climate target of net-zero emissions by 2050, including setting up the Future Energy Fund this year with an initial injection of $5 billion to help decarbonise our energy system and enhance our security in clean energy.

Inclusivity is the glue on which unity is built. By building on the previous Budgets and having something for everyone, Budget 2024 ensures that no one is left behind. At the same time, by creating opportunities and providing catalytic assistance to encourage and amplify individual effort, we are fostering a resilient and united Singapore.

Mr Speaker, we were able to cover all this and more in a relatively short period of time due in no small part to your able Chairmanship. I thank you for your patience, professionalism and fairness, and also commend you on your ability to remain in the Chair for extended periods without a break!

On behalf of the House, I would also like to convey our appreciation to the Clerk of Parliament, Deputy Clerk and the other Assistant Clerks, as well as the Parliament Secretariat and staff, interpreters and translators, whose dedicated efforts and support behind the scenes over the past two weeks ensured that the proceedings went smoothly. Unlike Members of Parliament (MPs) who are seen and heard on camera, their work is unseen and often unsung. But it is only because of what they do that we as MPs can do what we need to do. We are grateful for their hard work. [Applause.]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and congratulations on your successful maiden Budget and Committee of Supply. [Applause.]

2.17 pm

Mr Speaker: Finally, I get an opportunity to speak. Hon Members, it has been a long but intense debate – nine days for Budget 2024, a Budget that moves our country upwards and forward. Sitting in this Chair and also down there, in that chair, I listened intently and quietly to all of you and, in some cases, we went for a six-hour session before going for a break. For me, spending over $130 billion is a serious business, and I thank hon Members for your time, your energy and your ideas.

For me, this debate scored a few firsts. Personally, this is the first Budget and Committee of Supply in which I am Speaker. Accordingly, it is the first time in 18 years that I did not have to make a Budget speech nor file any cuts. And for the record, I averaged about 10 cuts per Budget.

In all, some 61 Members from both front and back bench spoke this year in the Budget debate, compared to 58 Members last year. Some more statistics: there were 598 cuts filed this year for the Committee of Supply, compared to 661 cuts last year. In fact, this is the first time in the last six years that there was a decline in the number for cuts over the previous year. I think, in part, due to the fact that we have fewer Members in the House this year.

There is one other first which we all do not want. For the very first time, our total fertility rate (TFR) unfortunately, has gone below 1.00. Singaporeans are very special to all of us and our Budget reflects that from birth to old age. We are spending more than ever on each one. Being a father myself to two adult children now, I can only hope that more young Singaporeans will have the privilege of experiencing the joy of being parents themselves.

But the next first is something which is a good first. It is the first time in three years when Members from both sides of the aisle have explicitly expressed their support for the Budget. And this support came from no less than the leaders of both opposition parties. We all want to build a Singapore for all and we want to build it for all Singaporeans.

Whether speeches are long or short, whether it is 15 cuts that you filed or five cuts, all I can say is that more is not necessarily better. In fact, I also heard Members from both sides of the House echoing the same in that more handouts are not necessarily good. Likewise, more Parliamentary Questions, more Committees are not necessarily better.

Indeed, from my perspective, crispier and sharper speeches are much preferred and the order for the day. When speeches go on too long, some of us may start to wonder whether they were written by ChatGPT.

I am glad that there was no need for me to cut anyone off, although there were quite a few Members who breached your time allocations but, in the spirit of give and take, I cut them some slack. But please do not take this as a given. For those Members who attempted to slip in a mini speech during clarification time, please refrain from doing so, as I will be more strict from now on.

It leaves me now to thank all Members for your cooperation and support in helping me ensure we had a smooth Budget debate. My appreciation also goes to the Leader of the House, Minister Indranee Rajah, and also her Deputy, Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad.

My final round of thanks goes to my two Deputy Speakers, Ms Jessica Tan and Mr Christopher de Souza, my Clerks and all, all the support staff for ensuring that proceedings went well each day throughout the entire two-week period. It does take meticulous care, experience and a whole team to ensure Budget and Committee of Supply 2024 went smoothly. And the Parliament of Singapore has, over the years, received the support from an invaluable and experienced team.

Let me conclude. I said more is not necessarily better. So, my speech is also short.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has described the world we are in now as, I quote, “messier, more dangerous and more unpredictable.” As a small country, we cannot do much to remake the world into a neater, more predictable one. Nor should we want to, because complexity and multilinearity is a part of the human condition. To thrive in this new world, Singapore cannot aim to be a mere “safe space”.

We must, as our forefathers have always done, take risks, accept failure and rise again and say “Majulah!” And in this, Singapore is a beautiful home and a safe harbour, where we will help one another along when we are down. And we provide over $130 billion and more a year, to those among us who need it most. Only in this way, can we move Forward Singapore. Thank you. [Applause.]