It’s an historic week for Papua New Guinea (PNG) as it hosts, for the first time, one of the powerful forums in the region and in the world – the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Leaders from the world’s powerful countries of USA, Russia, China, Australia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Indonesia,…
On behalf of the women and girls of Papua New Guinea, I’m grateful and humbled to take this opportunity to warmly welcome the Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers, leaders and delegates from the 21 APEC economies and observers from around the world to our beautiful country. The host city Port Moresby is not Papua New…
In March 2018, I was invited by the University of Melbourne to present a paper on Uneven Capital Flows at the Conference on New Geographies of Global Inequalities and Social Justice. It was an inter-disciplinary conference aimed at generating new knowledge about enduring and emerging forms of inequality and injustice, and contribute to public debate…
Happy First Anniversary The PNG Woman It was on this day a year ago (01 November, 2016) that I started this blog. My very first post was about the unlawful spending of K10.5 billion in the 2016 National Budget by the O’Neill Government. To date, that issue has been swept under the carpet. That Tuesday,…
O’Neill and PNC dupe the people of Papua New Guinea by giving away for free equity that taxpayers have paid for. Unlike shares in BCL and OTML that O’Neill gifted to landowners the LNG equity takes directly from the rest of the country. BCL equity came from Rio Tinto. Ok Tedi shares were stolen from PNGSDP and indirectly the people of Western Province and then only 33% was returned to landowners whilst 30.4% was retained for the government.
A bankrupt BPNG made an unlawful dividend payment of K102 million in 2014 under direction by the O’Neill Government.
The economy occupies center stage in debates in elections worldwide. Often the economy plays a major role in determining the outcome of election results. The political rhetoric and spin cannot change the realities on the ground – how our people are deeply impacted by economic growth. Economic performance and the incumbent government’s role in engendering this is fundamental in the concerns of our people. Nobody should attempt to stifle discussion of something so important.
The challenge of curtailing the corrosive culture of corruption and instilling good governance is the ultimate leadership challenge. In the Alotau Accord the O’Neill Government promised that it would “be remembered … as the most decisive, action packed, transparent and accountable Government the nation has ever had”. Sadly, it seems the O’Neill Government will be remembered instead for the slow but devastating erosion in good governance and poor development outcomes.
O’Neill and his party PNC promises the country that it will borrow more and burden us with more public debt if returned to office. Alas Papua New Guinea cannot be built on a mountain of debt. The immediate real cost of the O’Neill Government’s addiction to debt is a tax by stealth on economic growth.
The O’Neill Government’s spending on “awe and envy” NCD infrastructure with poor net returns whilst allowing our rural people to languish in hardship from drying funds for much needed goods and services betrays the deficit of the O’Neill government not only in public finances but also in its morals. The cost of the very large new NCD roads exceeds the annual revenue for all those provinces outside NCD and Morobe. This gives perspective to the gross inequity and misallocation of resources.