Prime Minister Lawrence Wong criticised the Workers’ Party’s (WP) positions on housing and foreign manpower on Sunday (25 October), saying they were “not always consistent or coherent”.
Speaking at the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) Awards and Conference, PM Wong, who is also the party’s secretary-general, argued that the opposition’s positions did not always account for competing needs or longer-term consequences. He also warned against offering easy answers to difficult problems.
Housing Supply And Competing Land Needs
On housing, PM Wong said the WP had advocated building fewer new flats in 2019, when HDB resale prices were falling.
He contrasted this with its criticism in 2023 that the government had built too few flats, following construction disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his assessment, the WP had not acknowledged its earlier position.
PM Wong said that although the housing situation had stabilised, Singapore still needed more flats. The government also had to balance housing development with protecting and expanding green spaces, he added.
Foreign Manpower Policies Have Wider Effects
PM Wong also described what he saw as changes in the WP’s approach to foreign manpower.
He said the party had sought greater flexibility across industries when the government tightened foreign worker policies in 2012, before later proposing zero growth in the foreign workforce during the population policy debate.
More recently, he said, the WP had called for foreign worker quotas to be eased as small and medium-sized enterprises faced manpower shortages.
PM Wong characterised this as the party’s position appearing to “shift with the political winds”.
He argued that foreign manpower policy could not keep changing in response to immediate pressures. Even small changes to Work Permit and S Pass rules could substantially increase foreign worker numbers across the economy, he said.
Warning Against Easy Promises
PM Wong argued that opposition politicians could advocate particular policies without having to resolve every competing demand or bear responsibility for the results.
The PAP, he said, had to make decisions that would remain sound over time.
He urged the party to take Singaporeans’ concerns seriously while resisting populism. However, he also said making difficult decisions did not mean assuming the government was always right. It needed to listen and change policies that were not working as intended.
