The government said yesterday it would add wording to a clause of the Race Discrimination Bill to make the law apply to itself - but said some of its functions would still be outside the measure's scope to avoid a flood of lawsuits.
Without the amendment, the bill only covered government actions comparable with those of the private sector. Now its public functions will also come under its ambit.
The government has promised to add the words, 'this ordinance binds the government' to one of its clauses.
However, exemptions in the bill remain. Government departments would not break the law if they practised discrimination by their use of one language rather than another; and the law would not apply to ethnic Chinese from the mainland.
Lawmakers said the government's changes had not met their demand that it cover all its functions. They called the changes superficial, and one said it was absurd to cite a fear of lawsuits for not making the bill apply to the government.
But, in a paper submitted to the Legislative Council, the government said: '... To expand the scope of the bill to cover all government functions would [have] uncertain and potentially far-reaching adverse implications on the government's ability to make and implement policies: any policy or practice could be challenged in the courts.'
