Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698054849268.pdf (Papua New Guinea)
EIGHT DAY ______________________ Friday 7 September 2018 DRAFT HANSARD _____________________ Subject: Page No: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF GUEST – STATEMENT BY THE SPEAKER .................................................................................. 1 QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................................ 2 Distribution of Wealth and Power .................................................................................... 2 Implant Affecting Mothers -Nawae ................................................................................. 3 Nuku District Need Teachers ........................................................................................... 6 Karimui Road Construction .............................................................................................. 9 Western Province Trust Accounts .................................................................................. 12 Administrator Jiwaka Provincial .................................................................................... 14 GRIEVENCE DEBATE ........................................................................................................ 15 ADJOURNMENT .................................................................................................................. 39 EIGHTH DAY Friday 7 September 2018 The Speaker (Mr Job Pomat) took the Chair at 10.05 a.m..
There being no quorum present, Mr Speaker stated that he would resume the Chair after the ringing of the bells.

Sitting suspended.

The Speaker again took the Chair at 10.30 a.m., and invited the Member for Gazelle Open and Minister for Police, Honourable Jelta Wong to say Prayers: ‘God Papa, yu heavenly Father bilong mipela olgeta.

Yu salim bikpela blessing kam long Praim Minsta bilong mipela na ol lida bilong mipela long dispela honourable Haus.
Mi askim yu long blesim ol lain long kantri bilong mipela tu.
Amen’ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF GUEST – STATEMENT BY THE SPEAKER Mr SPEAKER – Honourable Members, I wish to inform the Parliament that five Officers from Treasury - Canberra, Australia, namely, Amanda Tagliabue, Charmaine Aynsley, Harriet Conron, Cassie Leeds-Heath, Kerrin Mercer and Aidan Storer (Australian Advisor attached to PNG Treasury) and six officers from the Department of Treasury, Papua New Guinea, are present in the Public Gallery this morning.
On behalf of the Parliament, I extend to the visitors a very warm welcome to the National Parliament.

1 QUESTIONS Distribution of Wealth and Power Sir MEKERE MORAUTA – Thank you, Mr Speaker.

My questions are directed to the Prime Minister and they are based on six very specific national issues raised by Sir Julius Chan in his reply to the Governor-General’s Address to us when he opened the Parliament.

In that speech, Sir Julius talked about leadership roles and responsibilities of elected leaders.
He talked about the state of the nation and the distribution of benefits between provinces, landowners and the Government.

Sir Julius also talked about the distribution of powers between the State and the lower level governments including the provincial government.
On leadership he reminded us, and I quote, “to remember that in our democracy the final power is the power of the people, we are here for one reason only and that is to serve them.” On the State of the Nation he said, and I quote again, “I want to take a wider view of the challenges we face, for though we have short term problems to tackle, I fear that there are even greater problems looming over us.” Sir Julius went on to talk about resources and resource development and the distribution of benefits.
In particular, he suggested three of six important issues and they are royalties – Mr SPEAKER – Honourable Member for Moresby North-West, can you make your statement short and proceed with your questions?

Sir MEREKE MORAUTA – Yes, I am coming to that.


I want your Government’s response on the six specific issues that he raised and they are; (1) (2) (3) (4) Royalties from two to ten per cent; Increase in special grant support and Tax Credit Scheme; Establishment of trust funds to help non-mining provinces; Revision of the Mining and Gas Act; 2 02/08 (5) Derivation grant from mining provinces (6) Increase in provincial autonomy.

Prime Minister, what are your views on this issues?
Mr PETER O’NEILL –Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the Member for Moresby North-West for his questions.

Let me say that the Mining Act is under review at present and I will not pre-empt the discussions and the outcomes of that review that is taking place.

The Mining Minister and his team are already well advance in those discussions.
There will be an opportunity for this Parliament to look through that review and the new Mining Act, which will address all these issues, including royalties, the powers of the provinces with respect to the mining activities in those provinces and the management of the trust funds.

There has been a gross abuse in the management of some of the trust funds and we are all aware and are trying to correct that as we move forward.
I can assure you, that the people of Papua New Guinea, particularly the landowners will get a better share of the benefits of the resource development in this country.

That is the priority of this Government and we will continue to pursue it through the mining review which is now being conducted and is still in continuation.

Implant Affecting Mothers -Nawae Mr KENNEDY WENGE –Thank you, Mr Speaker for recognising the people of Nawae.

My question is to the Minister for Health and HIV.


My questions are in relation to medicine and family planning.

In the past, when the white man administered our hospitals, they had medication that could to cure common cold and even the most the serious of illnesses.

Our country is getting over populated as we speak.

And there is not enough money to cater for the high growth rate.
And to control the growth rate they have introduced the family planning methods, such as tablets, injection and the condoms, but today they are using a method of inserting implants on some sort into the arms of women and even very young girls.

These, I have seen to be happening in my electorate.

3 Through this method, I have seen and know of many women suffering from side effects of this method and many have died.
There are also claims that the implant is affecting mothers’ uterus because if it stops women from having children.

Many women have died in the Nawae electorate.

Mr Speaker, the polio disease arrived recently and I am suspecting that these women may have died of polio too.
Under this program or the use of this method, does the department have a plan to visit those that agree to have implants inserted, so as to monitor their progress, because the number of deaths and the side effects of this method is increasing in my electorate?

Sir PUKA TEMU –Thank you, Mr Speaker and the Member for Nawae for his question.

He was referring to immunisation and family planning.
The Member is referring to implants, inserted under the women’s arms under the skin as a method of family planning.

This method of family planning has international recognition.

Like all other health technologies that we bring into the country, we always ensure we are well versed with the uses and side effects and we always get clearance from WHO.
03/08 The new methods that are introduced in the country require professional knowledge and the approval of World Health Organization (WHO) as well as global accreditation.

This implant in women is a relatively new family planning method.

The old method included pills, condoms and injection.

I wish to inform you that the Medical Symposium is currently underway in Madang.

A group of doctors who have studied the implant will publish the results in the media when the symposium ends today.
The result revealed that the implant has a very good rate of preventing women from falling pregnant; however, there are also negative side effects such as headaches, dizziness, and itchiness.

The result also showed that there has been no fatality from the use of the implant.

I assume, the Member is referring to the side effects and not death because the study has found that no woman has died from the use of implant and that is why the implant is perfectly safe.
One of the outcome is that sometimes the couple will come and ask for the removal of the implant because they want another child or sometimes the symptom is that the 4 women cannot bear a child and her concern for that may result in the removal of the implant.

I can assure our nation that the implant is safe.

No mother has died from this.


Other contraceptive methods are also effective and safe and it is the women’s’ choice, if she has a problem or an allergy to the tablet contraceptive then she has another option.

The implant has given women many more options of family planning and also the fathers have the option of vasectomy, which is the operation to cut the urethra or sperm duct.

These are all voluntary and not mandatory.


So, when I have the opportunity, I wish to encourage us that family planning must be practiced in the country.

It is important because the population growth rate is nearly three per cent, which is one of the highest in this region, while our economic growth rate is lower which is why we cannot match our service delivery and seem to be chasing our tail all the time.
Therefore, I wish to encourage us to have family planning, proper spacing of children and fathers must support mothers to encourage family planning programs.

This government strongly supports family planning programs and antenatal care because family planning and antenatal care contribute to reduce the high maternal mortality rate in our country.

On the Honourable Member’s second question on immunisation to prevent the contraction of disease, immunisation is also good.
Polio is prevalent and you have heard us launch its immunisation process and the improvement in surveillance has resulted in the diagnosing more polio cases.

It now stands at six and I think there may be another two more being reported.

One case has been discovered in a 10-year old, an age not considered susceptible to polio.

So, as Minister for Health, I have agreed with WHO and other stakeholders to increase the coverage to include 10-year olds too.
This will require a lot more resources because polio is prevalent in the country.

I want us to cover all the Highlands provinces with polio vaccination because polio outbreaks have been discovered there and the coverage will also be nationwide.

I have urged the Secretary and other stakeholders to go back to elevate our efforts in routine immunisation programs in the country.

That is why I wish to appeal now, I have appealed before for DSIP funding from individual districts or PSIP in each provinces.
Please when you are having your DDA meetings, allocate some funds for immunisation in your districts.

These are our children and as leaders and members of your district, I appeal to you 5 that out of this K1.1 million you receive, allocate K100 000 for immunisation in your electorate.

04/08 We have found out that polio is now widespread throughout the country.

Previously, we did not have the surveillance, however, today with proper surveillance, I can say that the number of polio cases has increased.
I have issued instructions for a national wide coverage of polio vaccination for children from the age of 12 months and beyond.

For the next four years we would like to increase the immunisation program to meet the World Health Organisation standards where eight out of ten children must be immunised because that will guarantee community protection against diseases that can be immunised.

I want to thank the Member for Nawae for his question.
Nuku District Need Teachers Mr JOE SUNGI – Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Education.

This question relates to the shortage of teachers throughout the country.

In my district, I currently have about 120 vacant positions.

These vacancies are from elementary, primary, high school and TVET schools.

I will provide background mainly on the primary school vacancies for teachers.

Mr Speaker, in my district, I have about 40 vacant positions for primary schools.
This year, there were less number of vacancies compared to last year.

However, the shortage of teachers is a continuous problem every year.

Mr Speaker, I commend the Government for the free education, but at the same time, this policy has brought about more burden and stress on the teachers.

Mr Speaker, most of the teachers are teaching more than 30 or 40 students in one class, so with that ratio in mind, there are more than 40 vacant positions in my district.
Mr Speaker, teachers play a vital role in the education system.

You can have all the facilities and curriculum, but if you don’t have teachers in the classroom, you cannot educate our students.

If you multiply the 40 vacant positions for Nuku District by four districts in West Sepik - 6 Mr SPEAKER – Honourable Member for Nuku, do you want to debate or raise a question?

Mr JOE SUNGI – Mr Speaker, I am providing background information.
There are 160 positions in West Sepik and on average, there are 3560 vacant positions in the country.

(1) Does the Minister and the Department of Education have any plan in place to train teachers in this country?

(2) If so, does the Minister or the Department of Education have any plans to subsidise school fees for those attending teaching colleges?

The Kaindi Teachers College, which is under Divine Word University, is charging almost K12000 for the fees.
In comparison, Government colleges like Balob Teachers College charge only K6000.

(3) Does the Minister have any plans to fully fund the training of our teachers so that we can fill up all the vacant teaching positions in this country?

Mr SPEAKER – Honourable members, before I allow the Minister for Education to respond to these questions, I would like to remind the Members to put their mobile phones on silent mode and not vibration mode, or switch it off altogether.
We have enough time outside to entertain calls.

05/08 Mr NICK KUMAN – Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for Nuku for his questions because I did not receive any questions last week until today.

Maybe I am doing a good job in the country.

I must admit that we do have problems.

We have 56000 teachers throughout the country and the teaching staff are 10 per cent less meaning that 46000 teachers in the country are in class.
After the 2017 Elections, many of these teachers are no longer teaching because of politics.

So my position is very simple, I don’t want to see teachers on the streets; they must be on payroll and teaching in classes.

The leaders from the provinces and districts should not be playing politics on our children’s education in the country.

Let us be fair, honest and ensure that our teachers who are not teaching must be teaching and there must be some responsibility in the provinces.
7 I must admit that we do not have enough teachers to cater for the 2.2 million students throughout the country.

Mr Speaker, in relation to the total number of teachers we need for primary, secondary and TVET schools in the country, it is around 70000.

And we do have positions to cater for these teachers, the answer is yes.

We have 85000 positions in the country of which 56000 are currently occupied.

From today to the end of the term of this Parliament, we must train at least 24000 teachers.
On the question of whether we have the capacity in our training colleges, the answer is no.

That is why the Prime Minister made an announcement in yesterday’s or today’s newspaper that we are going to put a lot of emphasis to ensure that we build up capacities in our teachers training colleges.
If our private agencies and government agencies are running colleges and their current intake is 200 students per year, we want to see during this term of Parliament that their intakes increase to 1000 per year, so that we meet the demand for teachers.

We are producing less teachers so the demand is high.
That is why you see plenty of overcrowding in our school system, simply because the number of teachers currently on the payroll teaching is less compared to the increasing number of student intake every year.

When we increase in the number of students, we must also increase our number of teachers to meet this demand.

The ideal teacher-student ratio should be at 1:30 to 1:40, but we are not achieving that.

Currently, it is about 47 students per teacher.

Therefore, I do agree with the Member.


Secondly, from my statement this week, there was a suggestion to change or improve the quality of our teacher training programs.

The intakes before used to be grade 10 and now we have changed it to grade 12.

The GPA from Grade 12 examinations was 2.2, but now we have increased it to 2.4.

Those in the high school system require a bachelor of education for mathematics and science offered at Channel College in Kokopo.
06/08 We are not attracting those students because they undermine the prospects of a teaching career, therefore, they shy away from it.

However, teaching is a noble profession in this world and therefore students will have to look at other pathways if they cannot make it to the universities.

With good grades one can make it into teaching colleges throughout the country.
8 With all due respect to the Member, I know you do have problems, but I would suggest you come meet me and we can find ways to mitigate your problems.

A lot of teachers were displaced in 2017 as a result of politics so I will get those who are roaming around in the Highlands to teach in your your schools.

I can assure you that here on the Floor of Parliament.
In terms of school fees for our tertiary institutions, the Government is only responsible for primary schools up to high schools and vocational schools and this is covered under the TFF Policy.

I know that the big chunk of school fees for our children go to tertiary institutions, including the teachers colleges.

However, the Prime Minister is now putting some policies together and I am pretty sure it will go to the Cabinet, and I have just spoken to him regarding that.
There will be a tertiary loan scheme to be approved and it will be part of our school fee program for all our students in the country including tertiary institutions.

The students that go to the tertiary institutions will go through that program.

They will get a loan from the Government through our commercial banks and when they are employed, they will repay that loan.

It will become a revolving fund, so it will be available for the next group of students to keep using the same programme.
Karimui Road Construction Mr GEOFFREY KAMA – I wish to direct my questions to the Minister for Works and Implementation since he is my in-law and talks too much.

He has not received any questions, so I am giving him one.

Before I ask my questions, I would like to thank the PNC Government.

The last Government has done a lot for Chimbu Province so on behalf of the Chimbu people, I congratulate and thank you for that.
I thank you for the continuous effort in funding the Karamui Road, but I think we have taken a wrong direction which will take years to build.

It has been 15 years now and that road has yet to reach my people.

However, I have identified a shorter way because I am a landowner of that area.

This is a shorter way of reaching Karamui and I want the Prime Minister to come and officiate in cutting the ribbons next year around the month of March.
I must assure this Parliament that this road will get to Karamui by end of next year.

I also wish to convey my gratitude for the first phase of the Kundiawa road.

Two weeks ago, my governor and I visited the site.

9 Mr SPEAKER – Honourable Member for Karamui, can you shorten your speech and ask your question, please?

07/08 Mr GEOFFREY KAMA – Mr Speaker, my visit there has prompted me to ask questions to the Minister.
It seems that when the Chinese contractor bid for this job, their submission was very detailed and colourful but the actual work implemented is not the same.

China Harbour bid for this particular contract as well as others in the country.

I am grateful to the Government for the K105 million for this 20 km road in Kundiawa-Gembogl and the people of Chimbu are happy to have a good road.

My first question is in relation to people who have made submissions to work on the site.
Most of the time, those people who are supposed to work find themselves unable to do so because there are others who have been engaged to do the same work.

(1) Can the Minister explain whether there are proper checks in place to ensure those people whose names are on the contract are actually engaged to work on the site?

It seems that very junior or inexperienced people are being engaged rather than the actual people who have engaged through the contracts.
I raise this concern because there was an issue where construction engineers had to redo a particular job because they had advised that the previous job was substandard.

(2) Can the Minister ensure that there are engineers on site to monitor the work done on roads because sometimes there is a language barrier, especially with the Chinese?

This will prevent having to redo certain jobs over again.
Mr Speaker, my people want a road that can last for more than 20 years, considering the amount of money spent on the construction.

If it costs K105 million, one would expect a road that is of high quality.

(3) Can the Minister ensure that the road built is of high standard and engage professionals to monitor the construction?

We do not want to see defects four or five months after the construction is completed.

Mr MICHAEL NALI – Thankyou, Mr Speaker.


I want to say thank you to the Member for Karimui-Nomane for his very important questions.

10 Mr Speaker, the Department of Works main dream and concern is to make sure that our country has good roads and wherever our people live in this country, they must have road access.

With access to roads, they can transport their cash crops such as coffee and garden produce to markets and to easily transport the sick to health facilities.
Mr Speaker I am aware the Karimui has no road link, so the 2018 Budget includes an allocation for the Karimui-Nomane road.

08/08 Mr Speaker, we have people in the Department of Works who can work with you to make sure that the road is aligned properly in accordance with where people are and where the land is able to bear the burden imposed by that road.
So, Mr Speaker, I take on board the ideas and requests from the Member for Karimui- Nomane, and we can engage people from the Department of Works to look at the realignment that you are talking about.

Mr Speaker, on the issue of the roads built by China Harbour Engineering Corporation, when we contractors make our bid, we make sure that we have a list of very senior engineers, the financial capacity of the company, equipment and all the relevant information are included in the bid document when we bid.
So the government or whoever is going to award the contract will study the qualifications as well as the capacity of the companies.

So, Mr Speaker, I think I have a good idea on the issue raised by the Honourable Member on the road from Kundiawa to Gembogl.

Before construction takes place or before any company seals roads, strength tests are conducted before the road is sealed.

Construction of line drainages are also constructed according to plans and designs and not just at whim.
So, Mr Speaker, there are some instances where if the company does not follow the set designs and fail to get approval from the Department of Works or its representative who is a consultant engaged for that particular road, of course we have the right to and power to tell the company to remove the sealing and redo it at its own cost.
Mr Speaker, I have been to many parts of our country to inspect the roads but I must admit that I did not go to that road going from Kundiawa to Gembogl area so I will make it my business to go to Kundiawa after Parliament or after Independence so that I can see it first hand and see if I am satisfied with the work done up there.

11 But, Mr Speaker, in all the provinces we have provincial works managers, works engineers and regional works managers in place.
But I will go to Kundiawa and see if the work done on that particular section meets our requirements.

So, when I go, I think Honourable Member, you should join me so that some of the issues that you have identified, you can have the benefit of receiving some answers while we are on the project site.

Western Province Trust Accounts Mr TOBOI YOTO – Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

My questions are directed to our Prime Minister.


Mr Speaker, my questions concern the irresponsible accessing of trust funds meant for the benefit of people of Western Province within the CMCA region, by a small group of people who do not represent the interest of the whole CMCA communities living in the 158 villagers along the Fly River.
Before I ask my questions, I wish to thank the Prime Minister for putting a moratorium on that money and initiated an investigation into that money, which I believe had uncovered some fraudulent dealings and I am sure the Prime Minister will proceed to table the report in the next few weeks.
09/08 Along that line, Mr Speaker, in 2007, after an exhaustive review of arrangements for landowner benefits relating to the Ok Tedi Mining operation, communities directly impacted by the mining operations, namely CMCA communities signed what is commonly referred to as 2007 MOA.

This arrangement enabled greater benefits for the CMCA landowners due to the existence of the number of environment predictions contained in the 2001 CMCA.
In June of the same year the Finance Minister executed a trust deed pursuant to section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act, which established a trust account with ANZ office in Port Moresby to receive landowner benefits and moneys from Ok Tedi mine to be managed by a board of trustees.

Under a rigorous procurement framework, this arrangement has stood the test of time.

There is currently about K270 million in the ANZ trust account.
In August of this year, an entity purporting to be representing CMCA region people went to the National Court in the absence of legal representatives by the Fly River Provincial 12 Government and the mandated CMCA representatives and obtained a Court Order that had conclusive consequences of sidelining the mandated board of trustees which include a fair representation.

And allowing this entity to access the ANZ trust account, which I must say is a very high unusual court order.
The court order was an ex-parte court order, which means the parties have to come and return for an inter-party hearing before a decision has to be handed down for these funds to be accessed.

However, it was an ex-parte order which gave an order for those funds to be released.

As I speak, I have evidence of those funds being released to a legal firm; it is about K15 million on 17 August, 2018.

Mr SPEAKER –Honourable Governor, you seem to be reading a statement, can you, ask your question?
Mr TOBOI YOTO – (1) Given the enormity of the case, why were my people, represented by the mandated signatory representatives of the 2001 CMC Agreement, the 2007 MOA and the 2012 CMC extension agreement, not given the opportunity to be heard in the case?

When my team went to the Court House they were asked to leave.

(2) Why were final orders made by the Court to sideline the board of trustees and allow access by non-mandated persons to the ANZ account even before a trial was conducted?
I understand that funds are now being withdrawn without the knowledge of the mandated CMC leaders.

In fact, I have seen records of showing that K15 million has been accessed and transferred to a legal firm on 7 August, 2018, which is in breach of the trust deeds.

(3) What can I expect from the law enforcers and the Government authorities to resolve this issue, as a lot of times the funds are accessed and used up this way without any good coming from it?
Mr PETER O’NEILL –Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the Governor of Western Province for his questions.

It is a bit of a news to hear that the ex-parte orders have been given whilst audit has been conducted on these particular trust accounts.

I believe these orders were given in 13 Western Province.
The court hearing was done in the province without much representation from many of the affected parties in this case; so it is a concern that those orders have now facilitated the release of K15 million from these trust funds.

10/08 Few years back I put a stop to the access of these accounts because of this particular reason.

People were continuously misusing and virtually became vultures circling these trust accounts to have access to those funds.
We have received an inter-governmental report and our officials are going through the report.

I can assure the Governor that as soon as I receive it I am hoping that I can table it to this Honourable House next week.

But, in the meantime, I can assure the good Governor that NEC in its wisdom have re- established the ICAC Office.
The ICAC legislation is still being processed by the Attorney- General’s Office and because of conflict in the ICAC legislation, it is affecting all other legislation like that of the Police Force so they are correcting and checking that.

But we cannot wait for that legislation, something needs to happen.
So, Mr Speaker, I can inform this the Parliament that NEC has made a decision to re- establish the interim ICAC Office and we have appointed a very experienced Police Officer, Mr Thomas Eluh, to head as chairman and he is now putting a team together.
I want to assure the good Governor that I will be giving the office a copy of the audit report including the complaints that this Governor is making that K15 million has been withdrawn without due process in that trust account so that he can conduct an investigation and prosecute those individuals that are involved.

I can assure you that after this meeting I will be giving directions to that office.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Administrator Jiwaka Provincial Mr WAKE GOI – Thank you, Mr Speaker.
My questions are directed to the Public Service Minister.

(1) Can the Minister update the people of Jiwaka on our provincial administrator, whether his term has expired or not and has any appointment been done yet, while waiting for the position to be advertised?

14 (2) Can he give his opinion on unattached officers that engage with business or other employment with NGO’s around the country?

These people are still employed and receiving a salary but are looking for employment and also engage in business.
Your answer will help all unattached officers in the country Thank you.

Mr ELIAS KAPAVORE – Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I would like to thank the Member for Jimi for his important questions.

Firstly, the term for the provincial administrator in Jiwaka will expire in November this year and the Governor has been made aware of that information.
As a requirement they need to conduct a performance appraisal for the particular administrator if there is a need to reappoint him or to advise accordingly if the position has to go on the market.

The Governor is fully aware of that and we are yet to get a response from him.
Secondly, regarding the unattached officers who are actually paid through the Government payroll and are doing other business as well, I ask the Member if he can provide a list to my department of those who are engaged in particular activities so that we can look into it and provide necessary actions accordingly.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

GRIEVENCE DEBATE Question proposed – That grievances be noted.
11/08 Create one more District Mr SASINDRAN MUTHUVEL (West New Britain) – Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to raise some issues, concerns and challenges in our province.

Mr Speaker, everyone is aware of the economic potential of West New Britain Province and its contribution towards our country’s GDP.

Every year, West New Britain contributes K2 billion to our country.

We don’t have extractive resources but we have the 15 green gold; the oil palm generates this contribution.
Oil palm has brought about development and challenges as well within the province.

In the 1970’s, when World Bank and the Government introduced oil palm, they gave blocks of land to settlers from the Highlands, Momase and Central region who now live in harmony.

The block of land was initially given to one family; however, today these families have grown.

We now have the second and third generation residing in these blocks.
But, the income generated from one block of oil palm is now being shared between more than one families within the block.

Mr SPEAKER – Honourable members of Parliament, under the Standing Orders, you are prohibited from moving around in the Chambers and conversing with other members when Parliament is in session.

Mr SASINDRAN MUTHUVEL – This gives us a great challenge because the provincial government does not have the capacity to address the issue of population growth.

We have a population of 400 000.


I often speak on the importance of having additional districts, for the sake of proper governance.

Currently, Talasea district has a population of 300 000, it is unfair for a Member of Parliament to govern and effectively provide service to such a big population as opposed to a district with a population of 50 000, when there is uniform funding of K10 million across all districts in the country.
The Talasea district boundaries start at Hoskins and move towards Talasea and Bialla.

You can drive for 200 kilometres within Talasea itself, so it is a large district and gives a big challenge.

Mr Speaker, we must not forget that this province supported our national purse since Independence.

We need more government support in the province for continued economic growth, rather than the government focusing on securing a new agriculture potential area.
When discussing new potential agriculture areas, we must not forget the existing agricultural areas which have investment and potential.

Fix Oil Palm Roads Mr Speaker, we have requested for K80 million as-per a feasibility study by Oil Palm Industry Corporation (OPIC) to fix the oil palm roads in the country which is close to 1250 kilometres.

From the 1250 kilometres, 700 kilometres is in West New Britain and the remaining is in Milne Bay and Northern Province.
If we fix these roads, we can assure you that there will be an increased production of oil palm, therefore, an increase in revenue at 16 about 20 per cent.

The investments we put into this road will not go to waste, it will continue to contribute in terms of revenue and potential.

Education Mr Speaker, in the last five years, we spent close to K30 million in education.
I thank the Education Minister for hosting the Senior Education Officer’s Conference in Kimbe, where he announced that he would make it compulsory to educate the students in this module of education.

12/08 Mr Speaker, we can go ahead in building so many infrastructures but if we don’t build the module for our kids then building of infrastructures will be of no use.
And also we must have clear demarcation between provincial and national responsibility because people don’t care whether it’s a national or provincial road, but they will still look upon the provincial government to address arising issues.

We are now faced with this pressing issue where the road starting from Hoskins to Kimbe is in a bad state.

In the last 30 years, this portion of the road was in good shape but now it deteriorated very badly and I am saddened about this.
I thank the Minister for National Planning and Monitoring for finally clearing this tax credit guide lines review but it’s not officially communicated as yet.

Therefore, the companies in the province can’t help on this issue.

Mr Speaker, next week we expect some visitors in our province such as the Minister for Police, Australian High Commissioner and Grand Chief Somare to come and initiate the independence celebration in some of the schools.
Although West New Britain Province contributes economically for this country, the road infrastructure it deteriorated badly starting from Hoskins airport to Kimbe.

We need much assistance from the Department of Works and Implementation and also the Department of National Planning and Monitoring to give some official instruction to these companies so that we can ask them to fix this portion of the road.

Mr Speaker, in relation to health care, there is clear demarcation with provincial health authorities.
Funding that goes to the province through PSIP is allocated to PHA because it’s it comes under the National Government.

In the past, rural health came under the responsibility of provincial governments.

Now that we have PHAs, they have combined with the general hospitals and rural health where they appoint CEO, board and so forth.
So 17 whatever funding that we allocate we must inform the provincial health authority so that they will know what sort of funding is coming from the National Government and so they include it in their health plan.

Mr Speaker, coordination and communication is a very important starting from the National Government, to the provincial government, district or other authorities that we have established; such as provincial health authority.
Mr Speaker, provinces that have economic potential definitely are faced with other social challenges because of sharing of income.

There is also important aspect for companies to meet the round table sustainable oil palm (RSPO) conditions, which is similar to ISO.

They need to meet this international certification because all the oil from West New Britain goes direct to London, the Liverpool refinery, and then to Europe.

And it’s a premium product which they get two per cent rebate also in Europe.
But to have access to markets in Europe, companies need to obtain this certification of RSPO and in this certification it demands that all lands must have titles to it Right now many of the landowners have passed on and the land is under the care of sons and daughters and it’s a big problem and challenge because if we don’t assist the block holders to get their title then it will affect this RSPO certification also.
The Member for Talasea is currently negotiating with the Minister for Lands and Physical Planning on how best this issue can be addressed and I appeal also to the National Government in relation to the outstanding K5 million in terms of land rent for the block holders.

In the last term, I mentioned that we should forfeit it because after continuous drought in the last term for nearly a year, we were faced with floods in the province.
So that really affected the productions of the oil palm and, therefore, I appeal that if we want to promote economic growth then it’s not wrong for the National Government to help in forfeiting this K5 million outstanding, that’s almost more than 8000 block holders.

In that way, it will very much assist the block holders to relieve and also enable them to get titles so that they can meet the RSPO standard.
The other major pressing issue in the province also is law and order and when you expect major income then law and order comes pops up.

I don’t want to complain here but the provincial government every year allocates K1 million to the operations of the police, where K200 000 is for operational expenses, vehicles, infrastructures and so forth.

Right now the PPC is facing accommodation problem there.
18 When they don’t have good accommodation and facilities for police personnel and they are forced to vacate?

How do we expect them to perform?

13/08 These are some of the problems we are facing as a province.

We stand ready to work with the National Government.

I continuously tell all Government ministers that whatever programs that are to be delivered there, I stand ready to put up our counterpart funding to see services delivered for my people of West New Britain.
Mr Speaker, again, the benefits of building oil palm roads will directly contribute to the increased income in terms of its tax revenue.

With that, I thank you for giving me the opportunity during this debate.

Performance of Government Ministers Mr ALLAN BIRD (East Sepik) – Mr Speaker, before I debate, I must commend you for a job well done in getting members of Parliament to meet with members of the private sector during the Speakers Investment Summit.

Mr Speaker, my debate is on members of Parliament.


I have been here for just over a year now.

Firstly, I still have issues with the performance of some Government ministers.

We all know that there are many good ministers here and I don’t intend to criticise the good work that they have done so far.

However, this institution is the highest decision making body of this country and we are directly the custodians of the Constitution.

They is no other decision- making body above us but the Constitution.
Mr Speaker, my issue is that during Question Time, we have the cameras videoing and the cameras record the performance of particularly the ministers.

It is a reflection not only on the Government or this Parliament but a reflection on the whole country if the ministers do not take their jobs seriously.
Mr Speaker, by taking their job seriously, I expect and the people of Papua New Guinea expect and this Parliament certainly expects that ministers would take the time to read up on the polices that their respective departments house and operate.

Not only that but we expect that ministers would take their time to read the briefs that are provided to them by their respective departmental heads.

Mr Speaker, the Opposition’s job is basically to hold the Government to account of its actions.
I know many times and we have been accused by certain ministers that we want to 19 perform in front of the cameras but it is not that.

When the public is watching us it is important that we do our best on both sides of the Parliament.

And if we ask difficult questions from the Opposition benches then it is because our people expect us to ask these questions.

It is not because we are doing it to embarrass anyone or show-off.

We are doing it because this is what our people expect.
Now conversely on the Government ranks, the ministers must rise and perform as our people expect.

Both sides of the Parliament must rise for the good of our people.

The ministers must not feel bad that the Opposition is asking such questions.

If we did not ask those kind of questions then our people will question us.

When the people question the Government then there is usually some grudges in the Government ranks.

Mr Speaker, it goes to the question of quality and decorum in Parliament.
We know that our standards are declining.

Sometimes when we come here and lament that standards are declining we are sometimes accused of talking our country down.

It is not that.

If we do not talk about our problems then how do we fix it if we deny that it exists as an issue?

Mr Speaker, this is very important to us and the country.

It is not just an Opposition issue but a country issue.

14/08 As standards fall in this House, then standards will definitely fall outside of this House.
We will expect decline in the control of law and order, we will expect declines in the performance of our institutions.

Why?

Because as leaders our own performance has declined and we have to be conscious of that as leaders.

I note that Honourable Minister for Finance gained a master’s degree in University.

I’d like to commend him for that.


I think that all ministers should always be seeking to better themselves so that we can come here and perform better; not for ourselves or for the Chamber or any other reason except that I think our people expect us to perform better.

And as we perform better on this Floor, I think we will expect that our people will also rise and perform better.
Mr Speaker, this goes to the Prime Minister and I say again, there are many good ministers but if it will help the performance of the government, I suggest very humbly that you encourage some of you ministers to attend some training.

It’s not a thing for us to be ashamed about.

20 I spend time reading and trying to understand theory, Mr Speaker, and I am sure all of us need to do that.
No one is born perfect but we must aspire to be the best that we can be so that our people can also follow our leadership.

If we accept something that is mediocre and we agree of course our people will do the same.

Mr Speaker, this is what I mean.


In the last parliament, I recall in one debate that I watched our Honourable Prime Minister speak to the Opposition and he said this and I quote, “in the next parliament I want to see high quality debate from the Opposition.’ Mr Speaker, I speak very confidently that this Opposition it’s actually living up to the expectations of the Prime Minister and that is our job, we are doing our jobs for our people.
Commendable Role – Mr Speaker Mr Speaker, in closing, I want to talk about the second thing that I have noticed here and in order to do that I want to commend you, Mr Speaker.

Your role is to maintain the high standards in this House.

While you are the deputy leader of the ruling party, I find that a lot of your rulings are quite fair and I want to commend you for that.
We need a Speaker that rises above the politics and rises above our little issues with provinces and districts and rules in a way because it’s not so much what we do today, but it’s important what we teach future leaders and future members of parliament who are out there.

They will look at the examples we have set.

They will look at the Prime Minister’s example, the ministers, and they will look at us and they will learn from us whether it is right or wrong.
If we do things the wrong way, then we can be rest assured they will also come and do the things that we have done already.

Mr Speaker, the fact that you are leading and supporting standards, I want to assure you that certainly from this side of the House we support that.
The separation of the executive government and the legislature must always be clearly defined because in this House we are all equals and we serve the State regardless of our differences and our opinion, regardless of the differences in how we may conduct ourselves and other things, in this House we serve the State.

Mr Speaker, and in this House, you are the one that guides our conduct.

Mr Speaker, with that, I want to thank you for this opportunity for this grievance.
21 Education System Mr TOMAIT KAPILI – Mr Speaker, I would like to commend the Education Minister, especially for the outcome of Standard Base Education system in the country.

15/08 The previous system created a lot of failures among our student population.
On that note, I wish to commend the O’Neill-Dion Government in the last term and the current O’Neill-Abel government for getting rid of the Outcome Based Education Curriculum which created a lot of mess in the country and re-introducing the old Standard Based Education Curriculum.

Most of us sitting here are products of the Standard Based Education Curriculum.

From grade one to six, seven to 10 in high school and 11 to 12 in National High School.
That produced well educated, well learned products in this country, some of which are sitting here now.

That is the best.

I don’t think we should change that again.

This country should not be tested like Guinea Pigs for some doctoral thesis or whatever.

When they wrote thesis and presented it to their lecturers for marking, these are the same thesis that they are applying in advising our ministers in the previous governments to introduce Outcome Based Education.
Many students from that era and even up to now have graduated from universities and have fitted themselves into the State-owned entities, government departments and even in the private sector.

Right now we have departmental heads, their deputies and senior officers.

Right behind them are the products of that Outcome Based Education.

So we have a big gap in there.

I don’t know whether they are going to fill up that gap up to the departmental head level or not.
Some of their level of English proficiency is utter rubbish.

When the children go to school, at elementary level they are taught their languages, languages are automatically inbuilt in our system.

It is something that each individual family unit should teach their children.

It is in the blood and the families should teach them.

English is the international business language and at grade one English should be taught all the way up.
That’s what they did to me, that’s what was done to most, if not all of us in here.

That’s what was done to all our departmental heads and our senior officers within our public service.

All the Papua New Guineans who are at that level were taught English 22 from grade one all the way up to grade 12 and some of them speak the best English you can hear around the place.
The Outcome Based Education system was based on the thesis of probably a doctoral student or whatever within the Education Department advising the Minister, probably at that time, or the Prime Minister at that time, who introduced the Outcome Based Education which spoiled nearly half of our public servants in the country.

I don’t know how we can correct that but we can encourage, especially all the departments to retrain them or, at least do something to get them on par.
I wish to commend the work of our Minister for Education.

However, since he is not here, I wish to commend the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his deputy for changing this back to the Standard Based Education Curriculum.

Any other advice we receive from our departmental head must be studied properly.

Some of them are going to advise us incorrectly.


Some of them will use whatever they do at the academic level or the classrooms to advise us on their theories that might not be applicable to what the country requires, such as the Outcome Based system.

16/08 This may have damaged this country in terms of human development.

So, advice given to us must be carefully used.

It can be advice from a doctoral thesis from outside that came in and damaged this country.
Some of our children have been destroyed so we must evaluate the advice we receive.

Rearrangement of Order of Proceedings I concur with the Governor of East Sepik.

Can we rearrange the business of Parliament in such a way that presentation of statements and reports and other business should precede Question Time?

This is so that all the elected members of Parliament can be present during Parliament Meetings.

Can we schedule Question Time to take place last and other businesses to take precedence?
That is my opinion because I believe through this way, there will be full participation in this Parliament.

It seems that we are here only for the Question Time when there is media coverage and once it ends, we are all gone.

23 Mr THOMAS PELIKA – Thank you, Mr Speaker, once again, I join my fellow members in congratulating you for successfully hosting the Business Summit held this week.
I want to join the Governor of East Sepik as well as the Member for Rigo who clearly outlined our feedback from our recent trip to New Zealand.

We were privileged to observe the New Zealand Parliament in session.

I want to thank the Speaker for your efforts in trying to guide the members of Parliament during Question Time.
We have only 45 minutes for questions and a lot of members in Parliament have many important questions to ask, but it is the way in which we ask questions that takes up the time, preventing other members from asking questions.

The same applies to the responses, the Ministers must respond adequately but briefly, so that other members can have the opportunity to ask questions.

Mr Speaker, I raise this grievance to you that during this term we should review the Standing Orders of the Parliament.
It has been a while since it was last reviewed.

As the stated by the Member for Rigo to Parliament, regarding our visit to New Zealand, every new Parliament reviews the Standing Orders for change.

And this must be done here in this Parliament.

I want us to review our Question Time session to avoid members competing to raise questions.

At times, it seems as if we are competing to get a plate of food.
The Speaker should use his discretion to choose whoever he wishes to give the opportunity to during Question Time 17/08 I think that this must change.

When we ask questions we must give a notice to the Speaker in writing that you have questions to ask to a particular minister.

You don’t have to disclose the subject matter but at least give a notice that you are going to ask a question so that the Speaker can be aware which members are ready to ask questions.
Once the Sitting begins, the Speaker will follow his list and call upon the members who have given notice to ask questions because sometimes the members are not ready to ask questions but when they hear their colleagues asking questions then he thinks of something along that same line and asks another question which he isn’t prepared to ask in the beginning.

We must stop this and if we want to ask questions we must give notice to the Speaker so that he is aware.
We must be prepared well and ask our questions concisely and quickly so 24 that the minister can give a direct answer or take note and if there is any other information then he can give it in writing.

This allows for everyone to ask questions because we are only given 45 minutes during Question Time but if we can make it one hour it will be good because it will give enough time for the members to ask their questions.
Mr Speaker, I was trying to ask a question to the Minister for Works but because we were all rushing to ask questions I did not have enough time to do so, therefore, I will raise it in this debate so the Minister for Works can take note of it.

I am very happy with the Government for looking at the Highlands highway, it is an economical highway which brings business up to the Highlands and down to the coastal areas too so it is one of those highways which we always maintain.
The sealing of this road was done by Buckley Brothers when I was a small boy, now I have children and even grandchildren and that same sealed road has not changed until today.

The only work done on it is a little patching here and there.

Highlands Highway Weighing Stations I would like to commend the Government for trying its best to help to fix up the Highlands highway because of reasons I have already reported.
One of the main reasons of these highway deteriorating is because it is constantly used by heavy trucks which carry heavy machines and heavy loads of cargo up the mountain where the gold and gas mines.

My main concern is that even though there was a weighing station in 9-mile, Lae, highway trucks were not using it to check how much weight they were carrying on the highway.

It was not being used for its purpose and they pulled it down.
When the new four- lane road was built, a new truck weighing station was built again and has not being used up till date.

I do not see highway trucks lining up at the weighing station.

I asked the Minister for Works to give a report on that and I think the Minister has taken note and he will give a statement so that he can clarify to everyone that runs on that highway.
If this weighing station is fully operational then all these highway trucks that are running on this highway will be weighed on the right tonne of cargo to be carried on the highway.

This will prevent destruction to the road and we will not have to repair the roads constantly.
25 18/08 In the last Parliament Meeting, I informed the Minister that these contractors are not genuine contractors and that they are doing very substandard or poor standard work without proper equipment, therefore, the sealant will come off when heavy trucks start travelling that road.

Therefore, I am raising this concern so that the Minister can look into this issue.
As a Member I had the opportunity to travel to other countries and I noticed that their freeways and highways had the user–pay system or tollgate, where users of a particular road had to pay before they travelled further.

We can use this system in Papua New Guinea so that these fees collected can be used to maintain the road resulting in better service provision.

Lawlessness on the Rise in PNG Mr MEHRRA KIPEFA – Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to join this debate.
I want to talk about one of the alarming issue that is taking this country by storm.

It is happening right in front of us and is affecting our people in their daily operations.

It is the issue of killing and law and order issue.

It is a time-bomb, sooner or later this country will be in total chaos, with civil unrests and lawlessness.
This is something that the leaders must take a full stock of and try to address it amicably, so that law and order becomes a brick that can house the people of Papua New Guinea.

Everything rises and falls on law and order.

All our service and development that we have been talking about such as infrastructure, health and education, community development all depend on law and order.

Without law and order, I don’t think all these plans will be successful – the MTD Plan and national goals.
I would like to also contribute to look at some of the things we can do to help restore law and order in our country.

We know that the Police, Defence and judiciary system are responsible in maintaining law and order in this country.

I would also suggest for one more department to be part of this sector and that is the department of Community Development.

Through churches, youths and women’s’ programs.

They are the fabrics and foundation of our society.
Restructure Police Department Looking at the Police Department, we should review the PNGRC, structure in this country.

We seem to have all the administrative function all located in Konedobu, even the operation is in Konedobu.

All the Deputy Commissioners are in Konedobu.

Now what about 26 a lone Policeman in Marawaka, he does not know Konedobu and what happens there.

He is struggling out there trying to fight all lawlessness all by himself.
The message that he sends from Marawaka to Konedobu disappears somewhere in the air.

19/08 This is a major issue.

How do we get the law and order problem of Marawaka and transmit it down to Konedobu so that there is a rippling effect and a solution for law and order problems.

This has been the practice for so many years up until now.

I would like to suggest and very seriously look at this law and order issue and allow and decentralise the powers of the commissioner to the four regions.
Allow Konedobu to be sent out to the four regions and give the deputy commissioners power to operate administratively, operationally and human resources.

All those can be part and parcel of the four regions so that command and control is not from Konedobu but from those four regional base areas.

Police personnel can report to their regions and get the rank and file directly from there so that the format of sending the message to Konedobu is cut off and it is from within the four regions.
And then we can split up Bomana into four regional training areas and we start recruiting within the four regions and improving the police personnel in our regions, provinces and districts.

Also, the village courts.

There is a barrier between the village courts and the police.

Many of the village court cases are still pending.

Nobody listens to the magistrates.

When the magistrate gives a verdict, no one obeys so every time they will ask the DDA to send the police to help remove all the pending cases.
The DDA will then have to spend on the police again to get their rations, allowances, fuel, vehicles in place, if there is a need for it, and so on and send them to those locality where they can assist the village courts.

So, we need linkages for that.

And the last thing that I want to mention is firearm control.

Guns have been here, all of us know about it.

Just a little suggestion.

If we are very serious we can buy the guns back but again they would charge us at a high cost to get those guns back.
In my view, I would like to suggest that any youth that comes in and surrenders a high powered gun automatically goes into police training.

So we change that particular youth and discipline him under police training so that he can go back to his locality and look after his 27 own people.

As in the past, at the patrol posts, when the Australians colonised us, they would go into the outside areas and recruit people to be police officers.
They trained them there and then and then they send them into their own communities to bring the people together so that the government service can be transmitted.

These are some of the things that we can be able to review and bring back into our system.

We need to re-assess our law and order structure and law and order system in Papua New Guinea so that we don’t fall into the category of any civil unrest or killings which are happening every day.

While we are speaking here there is killing going on.
Celebrate Progress of the Nation Mr POWES PARKOP (National Capital District) – Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to our Grievance Debate.

We have many grievances and I have a lot more but this is not the time for grievances, the time for it is Question Time, Mr Speaker, if you extend the Time for Questions to one hour, I think all of us can be able to speak.

20/08 Next week Sunday will be an important day for our country and our people.
We can have all the grievances in the world but this next Sunday will be the only day we celebrate our independence, and I would like to talk about that.

Mr Speaker, I do not know about other parts of the country but as for us in the city, we are all geared up to celebrate the 16th of September.

We already have our programs in place so if you don’t travel to your electorates then please stay and celebrate with us and that also goes to you, Mr Speaker.
If your people in Manus do not want you then stay and we celebrate here.

This is our city and we all worked to build it.

It’s all our resources including our intellects who are here working and developing our city.

Mr Speaker, what I want to say is that sometimes we are too harsh on ourselves.

We are always complaining and being negative without giving ourselves some positivity.

I would like to encourage both sides of the benches that we can be arguing to and fro but at times we must be positive too.
We cannot be negative all the time because negative energy gives negative results and that is not what we want in our country.

If we compare us with some other countries then we would realise that many of them came a long way.

It was not easy for them to arrive at what is termed as a developed nation.

28 Once upon a time Europeans lived in caves and once upon a time we were already working our land when they didn’t.

But they went through a lot of changes to be where they are now.
For example, when we talk about asylum seekers, it was the Europeans that started this drift.

They were the ones who migrated to the US and built it to be what it is now.

They had so many different wars in those times.

They had to go through a lot to be where they are now.

Mr Speaker, it is not easy to change things just like that.

We can have all the critics but things will and cannot change overnight.

Change will happen overtime because this is how things happen and not an overnight miracle.
We must celebrate the small changes that are happening to us so it will help us to build our foundation for the future.

We look at China as a powerful economy of the world today but they had to go through a lot of sacrifices.

They went through a lot of challenges to be where they are now.

They had a lot of invasions and wars and problems all throughout history before becoming who they are now.

They had the Mongolians, the Japanese, and the British invading them in history.
All these things challenged them and built their character to be resilient so that they can build their nation.

I do not think the world will give us a chance.

We are country of a thousand tribes with so many languages and cultures.

But we are still intact and going forward.

We do have our differences but still united and moving forward.

We are taking small steps but we are arriving there.

It is not easy to manage and lead a country like Papua New Guinea because of our diversity.
There are a lot of different opinions, thoughts and expectations for us as leaders of our country.

Mr Speaker, I would also like to acknowledge our Prime Minister, Honourable Peter O’Neill because it is not easy being the Prime Minister for a country like ours.

21/08 I want to acknowledge the work of our Prime Minister, Honourable Peter O’Neill, Member for Ialibu-Pangia in 2011 up to now.
Mr Speaker, to be the Prime Minister in the country, you must be like the superheroes for America like Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Captain America.

Our Prime Minister has done that while in his time now and we have achieved a lot as you can now see in Port Moresby, Lae and some other parts of the country with the airports and the hospitals being 29 upgraded not like in the past.

So we must not criticise and say it’s not enough because we have not seen this type of development before.
Mr Speaker, when we both left school in 1977, you went back to Manus while I have stayed permanently in Port Moresby.

I didn’t see many changes taking place during that time.

That is the reason why we need to celebrate in Port Moresby.

I want us to honour and respect our nation.

Is there any other country that is there for us to go to?

We must also encourage our people to celebrate our country us well.

We have faced so many challenge.


I admit that we got so many things wrong at the beginning such as this the vote of no confidence law.

Just imagine, in six months can you as the Prime Minister, or even as a parent, deliver something in six months?

Mr Speaker, in the beginning of our journey, 43 years ago, we said that by vote of no confidence, you have the right to remove a Prime Minister after six months.

This law gave us a lot of trouble.


Some people especially our lawyers were over obsessed and wanted checks and balances, and we got it wrong.

Maybe Grand Chief Somare had many good ideas, but we removed him after six months because we expected him to be more like Superman.

Sir Julius came and tried his best but we knocked him out as well because we were so obsessed with this English system which is not a Papua New Guinea system.
Then Governor Paias Wingti came and also worried about that superman image and played some of his tactics and took himself out of the office.

Governor Paias Wingti had some good ideas and was passionate about economy and agriculture but he never had the chance.

If we look around our region the nations that are prospering are politically stable.
Maybe they are not really democratic but as Lee Kuan Yew said, it is better to be successful and get good outcomes than be a demo-crazy’ It’s good that the Prime Minister is here.

We can see the fruit of his work in his two terms and if he performs well again let’s give him another chance.

We as the members must also have this thought and should not think five years but 10 to 20 years.
When you think like that, you eventually give confidence to yourself and to your constituents and they will keep on supporting you and if you are thinking of short term you will never get back.

I want to just encourage us.

My final words for I wish to leave with Member for Obura-Wonenara, Minister for Labour, I think it’s a big challenge.
Economy and infrastructure is a big challenge, and corruption maybe is an impediment to our progress but as for me, Mr Speaker I see that - 30 22/08 Mr SPEAKER – Honourable Governor, your 10 minutes for debate is up, please resume your seat.

Word of Appreciation to Government Mr CHRIS NANGOI (Sumkar) – Thank you, Mr Speaker for giving me this little time for me to participate in this Grievance Debate.
Before I speak on my grievances, I wish to say thank you to the Prime Minister for the visit we made together to Manam Island.

I also thank him for visiting Madang town where the government has made a commitment to replace bitumen roads with cement roads for the town, which is a big achievement for Madang Province.

On behalf of the other members of Parliament and colleague members from in Madang, I want to say thank you to the Government for recognising Madang.
Donation of Ambulance May I also express my gratitude to the Prime Minister for donating an ambulance to Gaubin.

I have informed the people and they are glad.

They said thank you very much for that initiative in giving us the ambulance.

I thank the Minister for Health because the last time I asked a series of questions on the conditions of health in our hospital at Gaubin, he responded quickly.

After two weeks he sent in officers to conduct a survey.
I am happy that today in the government caucus he mentioned that Gaubin Hospital is included in this Budget.

I say thank you very much to the Government for these initiatives.

Sumkar Electorate – Relook at Boundaries That same trip to Manam with the Prime Minister gave me an idea that Sumkar Electorate looks after Karkar Island, Bagbag Island and part of the North Coast of Madang.

Karkar alone has 86 000 people.

This population is larger than that of provinces such as Manus.
Karkar with 86 000 people is too much for me to cater for so I am asking the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Electoral Boundaries and I have also given him notice on this.

31 Provide Sea Transport My concern is that with this population, on the side of infrastructure, Karkar is an Island and we do not have road links, I am concerned about transportation.

I think the Minister for Transport should take note of this.
Island communities such as Karkar, Long Island, and Bagbag which are going to miss out on links such as roads want the government to look at us transport wise, especially with landing crafts or barges.

So, for instance when we have problems like Manam we will have our own ship to move people.

I am concerned that there are still whiffs of smoke emanating from Karkar.

If I don’t have such a plan in place, when Karkar blows I will be in trouble.
So, I wish to bring these sorts of problems to the government.

I can assist with DSIP but I want the Governments’ assistance to look at these in their plans for inter-island transportation.

Many of the commodities we produce supply the mills in Madang because in Karkar we hold the title for growing cocoa and coconuts.

Many people in the villages move their cash crops by dinghy and on many instances when the sea is rough we have difficulty moving them.
Even in Long Island, nowadays it is far worse off, services ae not reaching the people because there is a lack of sea transport.

Law and Order Issue on Karkar The next point is law and order problem.

I think last month a fatality occurred when a man from Ulun Village, Karkar, raped a woman.

When the woman refused him, he forced her and raped her and then killed her.

23/08 Just two weeks ago at Dangsai Primary School, they forced a young girl, raped and later killed her.
I am raising this concerned and I even brought it up through Whatsapp during the government caucus.

The Minister then responded but to date there has been no feedback.

However, the population for Karkar has grown and the ratio of policemen to people is not enough.

So I want if there is police surveillance especially with sea pirating, because there was an SDA women’s group that was travelling to Ramu, they were stopped by sea pirates and were told to jump ship.
And the banana boat in which they were travelling was hijacked, there was a child in that group too, these mothers were lucky to have been rescued by another 32 boat.

The life of people are at risk especially those people on the islands, therefore, I want an intervention by the police to provide security on the sea.

Signatories to District Cheques My final point is, many of us here are Open Members and we are the CEO of the district.
And when we do get moneys for our district, we do not sign on these cheques.

Our CEO and those in the Treasury Department sign for us.

The only time that we have an actual signature or say is when we are making the plans on the DDA and provide a resolution, and that is about all that we do.

And we have no say on how these moneys are spent.


Mr Speaker, my concern is this, many times I front up at BSP to get statements just for check and balance and see if all is in order but BSP Madang staff do not issue statements or refuse to give me the required statements that I request for.

I do not know why they refuse to give me the statements.

These are my little contributions to this debate.


Fast-food Outlets – Health Risk Mr THOMAS PELIKA (Menyamya) –Thank you, Mr Speaker, I have some grievance that I wish to raise today.

One of my grievance is in relation to fast-food outlets around the country, especially the ones in Port Moresby and Lae and I just wonder whether we have health inspectors or not.

There is outbreak of cholera and typhoid.


You will note that many fast-food chains preheat leftovers and continue to sell them regardless of the harm that these foods may cause.

They lack the necessary hygienic requirements to handle food, there are no proper food covers and containers.

If we do have health inspectors, they are not doing their jobs.

If they were moving around doing their jobs, we would have many of the fast-food outlets closing down.
I do a lot of walking in Port Moresby and Lae and that is how I have noticed the quality of food sold in these outlets Labour- Jobs for our People My second grievance is on the Department of Labour.

We are producing about 70 000 school leavers each year but we are not putting emphasis on training our young people through apprenticeship courses and now our streets and mainly the shops are full of these young people.

What are we skilling them with?

The jobs are taken up by foreigners.


They 33 work as cashiers, sales people, timber loaders at timber sales yards, and the list goes on.

Some of them do not provide good customer service.

24/08 Last time I threw a timber on someone who lacked proper customer service and told him, you can take your timber and go.

He later asked people who I was and they told him I am a leader.

I told him the next time he does that I will tell them to beat him properly.

All these work can be done by Papua New Guineans.


Even when it comes to roofing, some of them do that.

Plumbing work is also taken up by them.

They also do electrical work and they are now venturing into motor vehicle mechanics.

When are the officers from the Labour Department doing?

They are being paid fortnightly for this.

Some of us are blindly loafing around.

We must not blame law and order.

If our people do not find jobs what will they do?

This is the oldest profession.


They turn back to crime.

My next grievance is on the banking system.

Our banking system is not in order.

All the grassroots people invest money in the banks but how many hours will you see people standing in the queue in the banks.

When you go to Boroko or even in Lae, you can see the length of the queue.

For those who are employed, how many man-hours will they spend on the line?

In other parts of the world we travel to, we don’t see such long lines.
When we go to countries like Singapore or Australia, by the way I have stopped going to Australia, - Member interjecting – Maybe you should go to China!

Mr THOMAS PELIKA – Yes, I will go to China later when I befriend one.

Mr Speaker, we stand on line lines but ironically we, ordinary man or woman are not allowed to borrow K2000 or even K5000, not at all.

They will ask you all sorts of questions.


So, those people working in towns and those of us who deposit in the banks are making money for the upper echelon of society to borrow from, at the expense of ordinary people.

So, let us not blame law and order.

We the leaders have not made right polices.

And those policies that we made, we did not have control over their implementation.

We have not reviewed the policies to ensure that people are adhering to them.

34 And then many of our timber is going out.


We don’t know how much exactly.

They sell the soft wood to us and the hard wood such as kwila are taken out and sold at higher prices on the world market.

What benefit is there for Papua New Guinea.

Nothing!

Some landowners have not received roads, power lines or even hospitals from the timber companies harvesting their logs.

It is about time.

After 43 years of Independence we must change some laws so that they cannot take out logs.
We are now talking about oil palm.

I am not blaming oil palm but there are some minor inconsistencies such as building mills.

The finished product is made in London.

Are we taxing them there?

Are we getting some money from them when the country is faced with financial constraints?

Increase State’s Equity on Mining Projects I am happy that the Prime Minister has stated that they are looking at the mining laws.
I hope the Tenth Parliament can change some laws, for example, the two per cent for landowners must increase to five or 10 per cent free carry.

25/08 And then the two per cent or whatever is with the Finance Department.

The Finance Department must not hold onto these moneys because the governors whose provinces have mining projects are like little children, running to beg for money at Finance Department.

They give when they want to give.


Can they increase the revenue up to 10 per cent so that a regulation can be out in place or a trust account controlled by the provincial government so that the Financial Treasury can monitor the provincial government to ensure they abide by the rules.

This is so that it becomes easier to implement projects at a faster pace.

The Government must put its foot down.

This is our resource, our gold, our copper and our oil.

It must stop from borrowing.


We should not go and borrow 30 per cent to get what is ours.

These resources belong to the people of Papua New Guinea.

Of course, they spent time and the money to come here, but we must make it a win-win situation.

We cannot say that they spent a lot on extracting the resources, we must find out how much they spent on extracting the resources then repay them then we can claim for 40 to 50 per cent.
This is so that we don’t go looking for money to repay the 30 per cent equity.

For too long we have been paying for what is ours.

We are still repaying and they are laughing away.

A good example is the gas pipeline; we don’t even own the pipeline.

They 35 take the oil, the gas and the pipeline, we are a joke.

I’m questioning whether we are educated.

Thank you that is my frustration.

I am not fighting for Menyamya, I am fighting for our country.
We should be proud of Papua New Guinea, I congratulate the Prime Minister for the great job he is doing and I hope he takes note of what I have said.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Attendance During Grievance Debate Mr SIMON DUMARINU – Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to share my grievances.

Firstly, I want to commend the Prime Minister.

I have been here before, and I noticed that Prime Ministers were usually absent during Grievance Debate.
This is for the first time after returning to Parliament after 10 years and I’m pleased to see the Prime Minister sharing their grievances.

This is an example that all Members of the Parliament must follow.

It is a concern that when the Prime Minister has made time to be present to hear members from the back bench and middle bench discussing their challenges and Ministers should also be here to listen to us.

They claim to read about if from the Hansard, but I don’t believe that.
How many of us read the Hansard?

I can see the Police Minister raising his hand, but this is the only opportunity we have to make our comments.

26/08 Many times we discuss major issues affecting the country, but we don’t talk about the small things affecting us, some of us are even involved in it.

We have to help our people understand the reasons for a government and why it is there to help them.
Police asking for Favours For example, when an ordinary citizen reports something to the police, he is usually told by police to buy fuel before they attend to his problem and this is happening everywhere in the country.

We need to look at why police are requesting money to pay for fuel.

Are we supporting police with sufficient resources?

We as leaders can afford these things but what about the small people?

I have heard so much about such situations and I am very sorry about it.
I am beginning to think that police are now commercialising their responsibilities because of our lack of support.

Sometimes they even go as far as asking for a hire car.

These maybe small issues but they add on to the bigger problems that are now occurring in this country.

36 NCD – Need for More Roads I thank the Governor of NCD for doing a very fine job for our city.

I have been living here and I have seen Port Moresby change to a better city.

However, there is still more to be done for our city.
Despite so many roads being built in the city there needs to be more.

We are still running out of roads because there are more cars than roads today.

This bring us to the question of why such is happening.

This is because some entity of the State is not doing its job.

Look at the PMV buses operating, many of them do not have registrations.

We have a lot of commuters in the city use this public transport but yet there are so many unregistered buses using our public roads.
These unregistered PMV buses are transporting citizens of this country and we as leaders are not doing our part in looking after or doing things for our people.

This are small problems that we seem to overlook every now and then.

In other countries, cars raise a lot of income for their country but we are not paying attention to this issue.

I commend the Prime Minister for taking this country out of the status quo that was maintained before your term.
I hope that we pay attention to the small things in order for us to fix bigger problems.

Thank you.

Mr RICHARD MASERE (Ijivitari) – Thank you, Mr Speaker, I have only two points I want to contribute to this Grievance Debate.

27/08 Firstly, I would like to challenge our ministers in this Tenth Parliament.

Secondly, I want to talk about an issue that I flagged with the Minister for Commerce and Industry during the week.
But I feel that I should deliberate on it more so that we members of Parliament can get a good understanding on why the business communities of PNG are very important and major contributors to the revenue of this country.

Mr Speaker, my first challenge is; how many ministers in this 10th Parliament have visited my district and province since I became a member of this Parliament.
The only person who visited my province is our good Prime Minister and those of you who accompanied him didn’t come in your capacities as ministers but simply accompanied him.

So don’t lie and say that you visited my province.

37 All of us members have issues which are affecting our districts and provinces and at times when we bring to this Floor of Parliament and debate over it here, you tell us to put it in writing so that you can address it later.
Mr Prime Minister, I want to take all your ministers accountable is that every year you must ask them to furnish a schedule to you on which ministers are visiting which provinces and districts.

When the ministers come to our districts they can see first-hand the issues that we have.

And I don’t want to tarnish any one of the ministers but example, when I talk about roads, the Minister for Works and Implementation will respond but he never comes to my district.
When I talk about tourism and I challenge the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, who is a brother to me, he never comes to my district.

When I talk about law and order the Minister for Police never comes.

When I talk about public servants issues the Minister for Public Service never comes.

Sorry Minister, I am not angry with you all but I am just trying to make a point.
Is that if you want to be accountable then you must understand that you are not minister for Port Moresby, you are all ministers for PNG.

This country deserves your visit and when you go back to your electorate then people will not dance for you at the airport but when you come to my province I will dance for you and that’s how we will treat you.

The reason why Port Moresby is changing is because you all are here, Governor sorry.
Laughter-in-the-Chamber Mr RICHARD MASARE (Ijivitari) – But if you start traveling into districts and see first-hand the problems we have there, you will be familiar with the issues.

When I first thought of getting into politics I patrolled my entire province and it took me two years.

This is so that when I win and if somebody from Akore visits me then I will understand him because I have been there and likewise to Kokoda.

So ministers, I want to challenge you all.

Don’t stay in Port Moresby.


I guarantee you if today they want you to travel to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and America you will be the first one to get on that plane and go.

But for you to come to my district you will only send your secretary or manager to come on your behalf.

Therefore, you need to change and start visiting your districts and provinces around this country.

38 According to Standing Order 44, Mr Speaker interrupted the debate and adjourned the grievance debate.
Motion – That grievances be noted – agreed to.

Mr SPEAKER – Honourable members before I adjourn Parliament, I have two announcements to make.

Firstly, under the Standing Order 48 for Maintenance of Order of the House, it states that Speaker must keep maintenance of this House.

This week the Chair has recognised that members of Parliament have not properly dressed.

Therefore, I ask all members of Parliament to follow the dressing code of this Parliament.
Secondly, the Standing Order does not allow another member to walk across in front of a member who has the Floor.

These rules must be adhered to at all times.

Thirdly, the Chair recognises that Standing Order 54 states that members of Parliament are not allowed to walk or stand and talk with another member within the Chamber precincts.

ADJOURNMENT Motion (by Mr James Marape) agreed to - That the Parliament do now adjourn.

The Parliament adjourned at 1 p.m. 39