Measures Used to Quickly Pass Law Blocking Income-Allianz Deal 'Used Sparingly': Indranee

Normally, such law proposals would have gone to a select panel before being passed

- Ng Wei Kai

Under normal circumstances, laws like the one that allowed the Government to block the Allianz-Income deal in October 2024 would have gone to a select committee before being passed, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah.

But the situation was pressing, and that is why a certificate of urgency was issued, allowing the new law—known as the Insurance (Amendment) Bill—to be debated and passed on the same day, she told Parliament on March 3.

Such measures have been and will continue to be used sparingly, and only when necessary, Ms Indranee added.

"It is not that every day we have urgent certificates. In this particular instance, there was a need to do it quickly," she said.

Ms Indranee was responding to a speech by Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC), in which the Workers' Party MP had argued that urgently passing the Bill without convening a select committee "may have dented the reputation of Parliament".

Ms Lim said: "While the circumstances may have required it, such certificates of urgency should be deployed as a last resort.

"For example, the urgent Bill could have been avoided had the lacuna in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth's (MCCY) regulatory ambit been identified in 2022 when Income's corporatisation exercise was approved."

Legal provisions before the Bill was introduced did not provide explicitly for the minister in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), or MAS itself, to assess an application on considerations other than financial ones, such as the views of MCCY.

Ms Lim said the issue was of great social importance and that MPs were deprived of the opportunity to hear from affected parties at a select committee.

She said: "So I think to that extent, Parliament has been prejudiced."