Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698054837096.pdf (Papua New Guinea)
FIRST DAY Draft Hansard Tuesday 9 July 2013 Subject; Page No; BROADCASTINGS OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS - STATEMENT BY THE SPEAKER CERTIFICATION OF ACTS QUESTIONS SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS - EXTENDED TIME FOR QUESTIONS NATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE AND SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE - SUPREME COURT (AMENDMENT No.l) RULES 2013 - PAPER - MOTION TO TAKE NOTE OF PAPER ADJOURNMENT 2 2 15 23 23 0 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES CORRECTIONS TO DAILY DRAFT HANSARD The Draft Hansard is uncorrected.

It is also privileged.


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Samfa M. Haro Principal Parliamentary Reporter FIRST DAY Tuesday 09 July 2013 The Parliament met at 2 p.m. according to the terms of Resolution of 29 May 2013.
There being no quorum present, Mr Speaker stated that he would resume the Chair after the ringing of the bells.

Sitting suspended.

Mr Speaker again resumed the Chair at 2.20 p.m, and said Prayers: " Isaiah 40: 28 says, do you not know, have you not heard, the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the Earth.

He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding, no one can fathom.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen."
BROADCASTING OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS - STATEMENT BY THE SPEAKER Mr SPEAKER - Honourable Members, I have to inform Parliament that the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings met today and resolved that: (a) The National television service Kundu 2 will be allowed to televise Question Time as part of its community obligation; (b) The National Broadcasting Corporation will be allowed to broadcast live Question Time; (c) EMTVvnll be allowed to film Question Time for news purposes only; and 1 (d) The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will be allowed to film Question Time for news purposes only, for the duration of this meeting.
CERTIFICATION OF ACTS Mr SPEAKER - I also have to inform Parliament that I have in accordance with Section 110 of the Constitution certified the Income Tax Amendment Act made by the National Parliament.

QUESTIONS Mr JOHN SUNGI - Thankyou, Mr Speaker, my questions are directed to the Transport Minister.

My question is in relation to the uncontrolled taxi services in Port Moresby.

(1) Does the Minister have any plan to regulate the unserviceable and uncontrolled use of taxi services in Port Moresby?
(2) Is the Minister aware that a number of privately owned vehicles are used as taxies and some of these are stolen vehicles?

(3) Does the Minister have any plans to allow only three major companies to operate these taxies so that there is better control?

Mr ANO PALA - Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious problem that the Member has raised and my department is well aware of it.
It is a problem that has not been properly addressed in the past and since I have been in office, we have given it the full attention it deserves.

As of tomorrow I will be presenting the National Transport Strategy to Cabinet, followed by a paper to be presented to Parliament.

Under that proposal, we intend to readdress the laws so that we bring the Land Transport Board and MVIL registration system under one organization.

It has become more of a problem of structure and system.
We are addressing the system with a view to making it more effective so that it can address the concern that you have raised.

We all have our own views.

We want to fix the problems in a certain way, but in order to address them, we need a proper system in place.

Honourable Member, your concern is one that affects everybody else in the city and in towns throughout the country.
The Land Transport Board had earlier on decided to bring in the meter services but for some reason that has not been effectively enforced.

Therefore, although the regulations and laws are there the system has not been effective.

Mr Speaker, in order to address that issue, we are doing it structurally because in that way, you have the power of the structure that will align the system and put it in place so that such issues can be addressed.
02/01 Mr RONNY KNIGHT - Mr Speaker, I stand before you as an exasperated individual.

Last time I stood on this Floor of Parliament asking for my rights as a Member to be recognized for powers to give Manus a district administrator, dedicated to do work for the Open Member; not the provincial administrator moonlighting or a deputy provincial administrator acting as a district administrator; nor a direct governance title given to a public servant to work as a district administrator.
I have been informed that Section 73, Subsection 4 of the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments, which is unique to Manus, makes it hard to achieve this for my district.

Mr Speaker, I do not want to be unique as we have two representatives for Manus and we want equal recognition accorded, if the Governor has the PA as a CEO and advisors then I as the Open Member for Manus want a district administrator.
Currently I am the only Member here in Parliament without a district administrator and I feel this to be unfair and unconstitutional.

Mr Speaker, Manus should be given the same status as other districts.

The Provincial Administrator has a heavy workload of their own to do and I need dedication and delivery from my own district administrator.

Is this unconstitutional organic law going to be changed to accommodate Manus to have its own district administrator and when can we expect this to happen?
Sir PUKA TEMU - I thank the Member for raising this issue.

This is the second time that he has raised this issue.

At the outset when we made an attempt at 3 Mr TOBIAS KULANG - Mr Speaker, I direct my questions to the Prime Minister.

Mr Speaker, in today's daily newspapers, the Prime Minister made a full-page statement in support of the current intended Bill.
In his statement he described those who were against the Bill, including the Members from Opposition, as economic, political and social misfits and psychopaths.

To define the last two words; misfits are violent people and they are supposed to be in places like Bomana Prison.

And psychopaths are mentally affected people and they belong in Laloki Mental Institute.
My questions are as foliows:- (1) Why has the Prime Minister made such references when no one here in the Opposition falls under those definitions?

(2) Does the Prime Minister agree with having an Opposition and that its role is to question the government of the day?

(3) Can the Prime Minister agree with me by saying that these sort of words are used to describe people who want to destroy our Constitution?
Mr PETER O'NEILL - I thank the Member for Kundiawa-Gembogl for his good questions in relation to the statement that I put in the papers today.

Firstly, Mr Speaker, the Bills that we are proposing to this Parliament are very important to this nation.

And I think it's important as responsible leaders that we must hold debates that are sensible and not emotional.
We should not try to build up support by encouraging failed politicians and NGOs to hold illegal rallies to try and distract attention over debates.

Mr Speaker, these Bills were introduced because of the experiences of the past 37 to 40 years of instability in Government, and we as a country have not fully realized the big opportunity that is there as a country.

And that is why these Bill are introduced to try and strengthen stability in the management of the affairs of the country.
I welcome the debates that the Opposition is encouraging, but let us do it sensibly with constructive suggestion on how we can improve on it, and not become destructive.

Why I made this statement was basically because the day before, the Leader of the Opposition released a statement and now it's viewed through Internet and Facebook throughout the world.

He mentioned that it is terrorism, but what's terrorism?

This brings bad impression on the leaders in the Government.
We are not 5 the Department of Personnel Management level upon his initial request, we did go ahead to establish a position of the district administrator, however, going through the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments, under the section that he has quoted; the peculiar Manus situation with one district and one province allowed for in my understanding the deputy provincial administrator to take charge of the Open Member's programs.
But the politics in the provincial administration are giving a hard time to the Member.

And so it is a very difficult situation, so the question that he is asking as to whether we could be able to amend the organic law, we consulted the Deputy Prime Minister who is the Minister responsible for the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments but as the Minister responsible, I do not see any problems with it.
In the interim, what my secretary has done is he has written to the Acting Provincial Administrator, that the director for field services which is a grade 16 position will be designated to the district administrator's role.
The job description under my secretary's instructions to the Acting Provincial Administrator is that the Director of field services whose grade is equivalent to the District Administrators around the country should take up the role as the district administrator for Manus and serve the Open Member for Manus as the interim arrangement.

As we all know the Prime Minister's initiative is to establish district authorities and he has given instructions for that Bill to come before Parliament.
I hope with this issue, and the Member's request to amend the organic law in consultation with the Deputy Prime Minister, it can be done.

The long term solution is for us to move into the district authority.

03/01 In that we have a Provincial Administration in one location and District Authority in the other location, where the Open Member works through the District Authority while the Governor works through the Provincial Administration.

And I think that's a good way out.


But in the meantime, I advise the honourable Member to work with the Acting Provincial Administrator, Mr Andrew Posson.

He has been instructed to create this position and allocate this district field services to fully service the honorable Member.

terrorists who are running this country and we don't practice terrorism here anyway.

We were mandated and respected by our people and some of us have been trusted and elected back for 15 years.
These kinds of words are linked to extremist countries that we see on TV such as the Middle East countries.

So many of these things are foreign to us and such a word like terrorism automatically paints a very negative picture about our country.

We are only attracting negative attention.

We don't need our position to promote that kind of image for our country internationally.

As I said, this is on Facebook all around the world.
Rather than arguing about the merits of the Bill we are proposing, they are now talking about terrorism.

Now, I know the honorable Member will agree with me that it's not good for our country.

04/01 I want to assure the honourable Member that we will debate properly in Parliament and we are not to going to hijack any debates like governments with large numbers do.

We will encourage everybody to speak freely but as I said, let us do it sensibly.
On the second question regarding the Opposition, they have a very important role to play in this Parliament and the country and it is not about numbers.

Opposition can also be within the Government.

We are not a Government that restricts Members from speaking, as you would have noticed.
They are members of the Government but we are encouraging them to speak up on national issues but don't personalise and make it emotional, let us talk about the issues that we can find solutions for and the challenges that we have as a nation.

So Opposition, it does not matter if you have one, 10 or 100 members, it is necessary in this country and we must work together but let's work together for the benefit of our people and the country.
Mr GARRY JUFFA - Mr Speaker, I direct my question to the Minister for Works.

First of all, I want to thank him for taking the time to sit with me and discuss my problems in Oro Province.

Minister, recently, I wrote a letter to you with a report in relation to a fraudulent attempt to get K5 million for a logging company which does not have any experience in road construction.
They circumvented the proper procedures and 6 processes and they never attached any company profile with tax code, GST, IP A certificate or lists of previous experiences and there was no justification whatsoever.

(1) Has the Minister receive this report or not?

(2) What action does the Minister intend to take?

(3) What are the procedures and processes of obtaining such funding and allocating it in a proper and fit manner to a genuine company so that this project really takes place in the Province?
Mr FRANCIS AWESA - Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I also thank the Governor of Oro Province for these very important questions.

Firstly, I am not aware of his letter and the report and whether they have reached my office.

But in answering this question, I want to say that the Governor and his other Open Members in Oro Province must work together.
The National Government is allocating money to each provinces and I think it is in their interest to work together and go through the proper processes like the Supply and Tenders Board through their districts and provincial plans and budget priorities committee.

So in response to that question, I have not received the report yet in relation to the K5 million contract that was awarded to a timber company.
But if this timber company does not have the necessary machinery and has not gone through the tender process, I think it would not be legal and I want to assure the Governor and the people of Oro Province that we will look at this issue properly when the report reaches my office.

As to how the tenders are managed, all the tenders must go through the Provincial Supply and Tenders Board and if it has gone through that process, I don't see any problems with the contract he is referring to.
However, I want to assure the Governor that we will take it up and if it is illegal, we will terminate it and re-tender the job and award it to a contract who is qualified and have the necessary experience and capability to complete the job.

Mr Speaker, in concluding, I want to repeat to all the Governors and Open Members of Parliament to please work together.

Most of the issues raised in this Parliament do not necessary need to come to Parliament or the public.
It requires the respective leaders to work together to try and implement the projects that have been funded by the National Government.

Mr AMKAT MAI - Mr Speaker, I direct my questions to the Minister for Communication but before I do, I want to thank the O'Neill-Dion Government for the good job they have done in bringing in power from Indonesia to the two Sepik provinces.

05/01 I am merely acknowledging the tangible progress brought about by the O'Neill-Dion Government for the people along the border.
On that note, I want to thank the current Government for the good job they are doing for the people along the border provinces and people in the Sepik Region.

For the first time, something like this is done and I am very proud to stand here as Governor of West Sepik to report to this Parliament.

We have a serious problem along the border with accessing Internet and email services.
My questions are: (1) Why is it that access to Internet is very expensive in this country while it is very cheap in the Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines?

(2) Why can't we have cheaper access to Internet services?

(3) Could the Minister consider and put in place systems that could minimize the cost of Internet access?

(4) Moreover, could the Minister consider accessing Internet from Indonesia for those of us who are along the border provinces?
Mr JIMMY MIRINGTORO - Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I wish to thank the Governor of West Sepik for these very important questions.

All the questions that he asked are very technical in nature therefore I wish to ask the Governor of West Sepik to put them on paper so that I can give detailed answers.

But to summarise the answer, I can say that the problem started with the usage of the submarine cable.

In this country, the submarine is under utilized.


The amount of megawatts that is given to the service providers is only 10 megawatts, and when that 10 megawatt is exhausted, many Internet service providers cannot be supplied.

When they use the facility traffic in communication is so expensive and as a result the service providers incur costs which they pass onto the consumers.

And that is why I believe Internet service is so expensive.
Mr Speaker, I ask the good governor to furnish the questions to me n writing so I can answer them in detail.

Mr MALAKAI TABAR - My questions are directed to the Deputy Prime Minister.

In 2010 the Government organized a Benefit Sharing Agreement in East New Britain.

There is some talk of service providers not being paid for the services they rendered to people who attended.
Last year the PNG Grassroots Games were held in East New Britain and some schools in my electorate accommodated some provincial teams.

I urge the governors to listen to what I have to say they can hold discussions at their level.

Some schools in East New Britain were never paid for the services they provided to some teams last year.

I wish to ask the Deputy Prime Minister on behalf of the Minister for Sports if he can discuss and get the governors to assist their teams.
You have heard and are fully aware of the difficulties the teams faced after the games.

About three of my schools have received word that their bills will be settled but up to now, nothing has happened.

(1) When will these bills be settled?

(2) If there is a major event taking place in East New Britain in future, can the organizers make a commitment to put some money upfront before coming?
Mr LEO DION - Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for Gazelle for the good questions he has asked on behalf of the service providers of East New Britain.

East New Britain is an attractive place for hosting conferences and national events.

I want the Members of Parliament to support the Deputy Prime Minister to make it more attractive for tourism and other events like these.

The Minister for Sports is not here but I believe that provincial governments have their own events calendar.
And this is where the East New Britain experiences come from.

06/01 As the former Governor of the province and the regional Member, we believe that there is a lack of coordination and failure between the national organisation of those events and the provincial government regarding venues where those events were held.

East New Britain has hosted a number of important events including the signing of the agreement of the PNG LNG Project, and of course the PNG Grassroots Games.
On behalf of the Sports Minister, I had received a note regarding this matter.

If the Sports Minister is listening I would like to congratulate him as he is addressing some of these issues.

Even though I may not have answered your questions from the beginning, I would like to say that, those concerns have been taken into consideration.

We have processes and system in place where there is a system of certifying the service provider that provides this service to the government.
Also, the provincial government has its machinery in place as well and that should be used in terms of certifying service providers who have not been paid for their services at that time.

To be more specific, I would like the Member for Gazelle to write to the Minister responsible to itemise the service providers who have not been paid and the amounts owed to them.
This is so that we may not generalise this matter and minimise the perception that the National Government has got a bad record in actually paying for this when we have actually done so much for meeting such costs in the past.

Therefore, we would like to thank this government for recognising and providing assistance in East New Britain where needed and leaving a legacy after the 2012 PNG Grassroots Games.
One such example is in regards to the bus services where they were given to the provincial government and schools.

Therefore, I would like to assure the service providers of East New Britain who have not yet been paid that the government will pay them if they prove that their issues raised are genuine.

Mr Speaker, we will be managing this and instead of continuing to ask the same questions for last few years, let us get down to the facts and figures.
If these are provided then it is the responsibility of the government that all service providers are paid.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Sir MICHAEL SOMARE - My question is directed to the Minister for Police, but since there is no Acting Minister - 10 Mr SPEAKER - The Prime Minister is the Acting Minister for Police.

Sir MICHAEL SOMARE - Mr Prime Minister, now that you have appointed yourself as the Acting Minister for Police, I would like to ask this question to you.
I would like to apologise for that, Mr Prime Minister.

Seeing that you have now been appointed as the Minister for Police, I would like to direct a few questions to you.

My questions are in relation to the appointment of the Provincial Police Commander for East Sepik.

In 2011, your government decided to remove the young and vibrant Vincent Pokas as the police commander for East Sepik.
He was replaced with someone whom we hardly see in the province Mr Speaker, to date, law and order situation is at the brink of collapse in the East Sepik Province.

07/01 Mr Pokas was accused of having some disciplinary problems with the Police Department.

I believe that the National Court of PNG has found him innocent.

(1) Why was Mr Vincent Pokas not reinstated to his position as Provincial Police Commander for East Sepik?
(2) Are you also aware that all police cars have tinted windows and no one can tell if they are police cars or not?

I do not know how the police would identify a drunken driver with a tinted car.

The Commander himself is driving a vehicle with tinted windows.

You cannot even see the face of a person from outside.

All the police cars in East Sepik have tinted windows so no one can recognize their face if they have broken the law.

I do not know what they do inside these tinted cars.
(3) Can the Police Minister also disallow tinted windows on cars belonging to the Members of East Sepik?

Mr Speaker, I see that there is no reason to hide our faces as elected leaders of the districts and the provinces because we all should be traveling with untinted cars so 11 that our people can see our faces clearly, likewise the public should also see the faces of police clearly in police vehicles.

The public would not know what the policeman or woman is doing in the tinted car.
They could be taking their friends around the car.

I think it is about time you remove the tinted windows on police cars.

I think when a police car is tinted there is no clear command of police in a town or district.

When a police car is clear or not tinted, the public would know that it is a police car and they are there to protect them.

We should lead by examples so that our criminals should see that the leaders are showing good example and they will do the same.
Mr PETER O'NEILL - Mr Speaker, I thank the Governor of East Sepik for his very important questions concerning police work in East Sepik Province and of course throughout our country.

I guess this is not a new problem and I believe he fully understands that situation.
Mr Speaker, I basically would like to say that this is a area that is a concern to the Government that we have allowed the police force its command and structure to decline to a level where now we are not capable of enforcing law in the country.

This is a reality and we cannot deny that.

Like I always said in the past, we cannot blame anyone but we must take the ownership of it and we need to work towards rebuilding the police force in the country and that is what precisely what we are doing.
Let me also inform this Parliament and the people of PNG that we have allocated a record number of money to the police force.

In addition, we are re-equipping the police force and re-opening the training facilities, which had been closed for well over ten (10) years.

Thus, this is a huge challenge and this Parliament and this Government need to work together to rebuilding the police force in our country, where it is now a question of trust and respect.
Our own people do not trust the policemen or women when they have trouble to go to police stations and that is a serious problem.

When your own people do not trust and respect your own agencies of governments, especially, the law enforcement agencies, you simply allow the tendency of people taking law and orders into their own hands.

That is a case in this country and we have experienced this throughout the country.
I believe our Government's desire to rebuilding the police force is the highest priority for this 12 Government.

I have already said that last year we graduated about 300 police personnel and this year we will graduate about 700 policemen and women.

08/01 But what we have is that, I'll give you a good example and I think the honourable Governor for Enga understands this very well.
Enga Provincial government funded some policemen to get training at Bomana and those 100 officers were then deployed back in their respective locations but their behavior was influenced by the older generation of Police who were there .We are not breaking that cycle, so it is important that this partnership with Queensland Government and Australian Federal Police for the Exchange Program be encouraged so some of our senior management people can take up roles with the Australian Police Force and we bring their experienced people to come in and help train our young people.
This is so that they are taught to do the right thing in the police force, so that is the sort of rebuilding that we are doing now.

Mr Speaker, I want to assure the Governor that the policing in his province is also a priority to this Government.

In terms of the Police Commander and the change of the police personnel that is role of the Police Commissioner, I have no say what so ever.

The Governor has raised a concern with me and I brought it up with the Commissioner.
I will follow it up again and I will inform Governor directly, but I share his concerns that if a policeman does not go to the located he is posted to, he does not deserve to remain in that position.

They are paid to do that job and we expect them to be present in carrying out their responsibilities.
I will follow it up and I will write to the Governor and inform him of that discussion but for the benefit of the Parliament and the Governor, let me also say that we are also through the reform progress in the Public Service and though the districts.
We plan to introduce district authority as part of that reform where we try to give the district administrator and provincial administrator as head of public servants in the province the responsibility to supervise and manage all public servants in the province, whether you are a policemen, teacher or doctor.

In this case where policemen don't turn up for work, the district or provincial administrator can dismiss them.
Likewise, we have many examples throughout the country where people are paid to do the job but do not turn up and many such cases involve school teachers, that is why we need to restructure the public service 13 machinery where the district or provincial administrator will take ownership of all the public servants in their districts and provinces.
We are slowly transferring all the management powers to the districts and I think over the next four or five years, you will see a greater autonomy of management of the affairs and public servants in those provinces and districts become more relevant.

Mr Speaker, I agree with the Governor of East Sepik on the banning of tinted windows on government vehicles.
I know that many years ago when we tried to introduce a law to ban tinting of windows in the country, everybody was jumping up and down and we were not able to get that law into Parliament.
I will direct the Chief Secretary today to make sure that all Government vehicles do not have tints and that all Government vehicles be now registered with Z plated .If public funds have bought those vehicles it must be Z plated so that we know it is owned by the people and not owned by individuals running around doing their own thing.

I will give those instructions today; not only for the police vehicles but all government vehicles throughout the country.
As to the private vehicles, I don't have much say on that.

I will leave it to private individuals to make a conscious decision whether they want to have tinted glasses or not.

Discipline in the police force is a concern, especially drunken behavior.

We almost had a riot in West New Britain because of a drunken Policeman and a drunken CIS Officer causing problems on a Friday afternoon, then getting everyone involved.

This kind of behavior is a disciplinary issue.


I think we need to tighten down and those seen to be causing this kind of behavior and causing disruption to society must be punished, and we are now working closely with the Police Commissioner.

Mr JOE KOIM KOMUN - Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Labour.

Papua New Guinea is right now experiencing "brain drain" because lot of our Papua New Guineans are going overseas to work.
Is the Minister and his department undertaking any reviews to ensure the wages between our locals here in PNG is comparative to their counterparts that are coming in?

14 09/01 SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS - EXTENDED TIME FOR QUESTIONS Motion (by Mr Mark Maipakai) agreed to - That so much of Standing Orders be suspend as would prevent Question Time being extended by 20 minutes.
Mr MARK MAIPAKAI - Mr Speaker, firstly, there are public servants such as teachers who have their own unions that determine employees' terms and conditions so whatever is agreed upon under the determination, they get it in terms of their benefits.

Those that do not come under the unions, the Minimum Wages Board is appointed by the Government to deal with their interests and remuneration packages.
In terms of brain drain when most of our people go abroad to work, these are people who are on a market salary and we can do very little.

If someone offers you something that is better than what you are earning right now, it is your right to take it.

As a government we have mechanisms in place to negotiate senior executive packages, otherwise if someone is recruited on the international market in terms of benefits we have little to offer to those who are applying to work outside of this country.
Supplementary Question Mr MICHAEL SOMARE - Mr Speaker, I think the Member was questioning the salary or wage structure.

It looks like we have not reviewed these structures for a long time, therefore allowing for more of our graduates to move overseas in pursuit of better employment conditions and this is not only in our public sector but more so with the private sector.

It is high time we do a proper review and pay our people properly for what they should be earning.
We must have acceptable wage for our locals as well as our foreign employees.

Can the Minister inform the Parliament when a review will be carried out to ensure our people are paid higher wages?

15 Mr MARK MAIPAKAI - To answer the question from the Grand Chief, I will say that the Labor Department does not have any right to determine where people are employed.

The power to negotiate as to how much be to be earned rests on the unions and the minimum wage board.
I cannot set the benchmark for the people because it is a contractitive process.

All stakeholders, come together to negotiate what to do and who to pay and how much too pay, whether graduate or not.

Public Service Commission is responsible for public servants and Teaching Service Commission is responsible for teachers and likewise there are other associations and minimum wages board responsible for such issues of workers pays.
10/01 The Labour Department does not have the power and authority to set terms and conditions for University graduates.

Mr FRANCIS POTAPE - Thank you Mr Speaker, I direct my questions to the Prime Minister and it's in relation to promotion of prostitution and spread of deadly diseases, especially in Port Moresby.

Mr Speaker, we read in the newspaper lately that nightclubs are becoming a haven for social illegal activities.
My questions are as follows:- (1) Can the Government introduce new laws to control various activites such as this so called 'mosko boys' and 'mosko girls' promotion in nightclubs?

(2) Can nightclubs be restricted to nationals only?

(3) Can compulsory ID cards be issued to boys and girls of school age so that only people above the age of 18 can have access to nightclubs?

(4) Can the Government issue instructions to relevant agencies to ensure nightclubs close at 2 a.m. and not beyond?
(5) What measures will the Government take on nightclubs that operate beyond 2pm and promote illicit activities in there?

Mr SPEAKER - Honourable Member, can you explain the term 'Mosko boys' and 'Mosko girls' because it is new and many of us do not understand.

16 Mr FRANCIS POT APE - Mr Speaker, if you read in the newspapers, certain nightclubs have introduced promotional activities such as the one I have referred to as 'Mosko' boys and girls.
If a girl drinks certain number of Mosko drinks then the girl either goes home with the buyer of the drinks or he gets further discounts on the drink.

And this is not good for young girls.

Mr PETER O'NEILL - Mr Speaker, I thank the honourable Member for Komo-Margarima for his questions.

I commend him for doing an excellent job in his electorate particularly in the area of social awareness and I congratulate the Member for taking that lead.
Mr Speaker, this issue about alcohol and drug abuse in the country is a very big concern for many parents and citizens in the country.

I thank the honorable Member for asking this question because I think it has been allowed to play down the significance of the damage that it is doing to our young men and women in the country.

Alcohol is a regulated industry and it is suppose to be consumed in a manner that is responsible and that's the kind of thing that we want to encourage in this country.
This kind of behavior we must discourage amongst our young men and women in this country.

The brewery will still be open the next day so you can drink in moderation to enjoy yourself.

I think it's timely that our Government needs to put some regulations in place.

Because we have allowed the liquor license and responsibilities to be monitored at the districts, city authorities and provinces and as a result of that National Government has got no direct control over licensing issues.
One thing that concerns me is clubs, hotels and other agencies who are now selling alcohol operating beyond 2 a.m.

But some open till 6 am to 7 am in the morning.

When you are driving along the Poreporena Freeway and other main roads in the city you will see drunkards just walk out of the clubs in the early hours of the morning.
This is unacceptable and in fact, Mr Speaker, I have directed the Police Commissioner to instruct the officers in charge to shut down the nightclubs at 2 a.m. That operation has been going on for some time and you will see that the number of drunkards have reduced but once in a while you will see some of the clubs owners abusing the system.

When police don't check on them they open till morning and as a result we have plenty of drunkards on the streets.
So I want to say that we are seriously now considering putting laws that will be 17 punitive for regulating alcohol and drugs in the country.
And especially trading of alcohol in the country, I will instruct the Minister for Community Development and my suggestion is that those owners, managers and employees of the night clubs who are operating beyond the license hours must also face prison terms 11/01 We have to impose summary offences where they will be held accountable for their actions when they know that the person who is drinking is already drunk but they keep on selling more drinks to him.
In Australia and many other countries, the person who is serving the drink is held liable.

I think it is about time now we introduce those kinds of laws where the owners, managers and employees are held accountable for their actions and I for one will be supporting it and encouraging us to do that.
But in the case of immediate steps, I will be instructing the Police Commissioner again to put a concerted effort in shutting clubs, hotels and all the alcohol outlets at 2 a.m. and the bottle shops at the hours that they are regulated to close.

Mr WESLEY NUKUNDJ - I direct my question to the Prime Minister in relation to the police matters.
Before I raise my question, many of us and the general public often see police abusing the law by brutalising people but many times I have not personally seen what happens to the police personal who break laws.

Recently there was an incident at 9-Mile where police have beaten up some people from Morobe.
Not long ago, a similar incident occurred in my district where eight police Land Cruisers filled with policemen both from Jiwaka and Chimbu provinces, went into a secondary school and terrorised teachers and students for no good reason.

They damaged the gate and other school properties and beat up the students and the students retaliated and fought with the police and broke all the windscreens of their vehicles.
They locked the gates and blocked the road with logs but luckily the police had 4-Wheel Drives so they escaped through the back gates.

If there is a small offence caused by the general public, we are quickly put behind bars but when police cause such big offences, are they accountable to the law or not?

The small people are being punished by law but who is going to punish the 18 policemen who break laws?
Is there a law covering their offences or do we need to legislate a law to punish policemen who break laws?

In this particular case that I reported, it is difficult for my people to go the police and report because they have broken police vehicles and fought with the police personal so they are scared but there is a report with me and the easiest way to settle this is for me to address it with the Governors of Eastern Highlands and Jiwaka provinces.
I know that they have ordered the police to come so they are going to meet the cost.

Mr SPEAKER - Have you finished asking your questions?

Mr WESLEY NUKUNDJ - I have not completed my questions yet.

I want everyone to know this because police brutality happens every day of our lives and we don't speak up.

Mr Prime Minister, can we have a specific law and create an office within the Police Department to punish police personal who caused these offences?
Mr PETER O'NEILL - I thank the Member for his good questions, which relate to the question raised by the Governor of East Sepik earlier.

It all boils down to police brutality and trust and the discipline issues that we have in the country.

We now have a society fearing their own police who are supposed to go to our people and save them but instead are brutalising them and putting fear in them.

This is what is happening throughout the country.


12/01 When the police vehicles drive through, the people are not at ease; they are in fear.

And when the police turn up at any one of our doors, we are already fearful.

Why are they here?

Are they here to arrest us or are they here to spoil?

That shouldn't be the case in the society we are building where we would like to see tolerant behavior.

So, I want to say that police brutality is a concern; some of the issues are about internal discipline.
As I have said earlier, we have allowed the police force to decline to a state where we now need to rebuild it from the ground upwards.

Over the last few weeks that I have held onto this portfolio, I have been able to see some of the older photos of some of the older policemen and women.

Some of our 19 old people in the police force at that time were very proud of their jobs.
They were smartly dressed even though in those days there were no irons and things like that but they were smartly dressed, their clothes were clean.

They were not overweight and were lean and very disciplined.

And this is the sort of pride that we want to restore in our police force.

I think it is important that we also help to build that up by working with the Commissioner and his hierarchy in trying to do that.
In terms of police brutality, we are not re-establishing, through the Commissioner the Internal Affairs Division, which is tasked to investigate complaints against the police themselves.

So there is a specific division within there which can handle complaints of corruption, brutality and all the other issues.

That division is starting to work.

Recently some of the incidents that have happened in the NCD, we already have some of the policemen charged, others suspended and some dismissed.
This is happening as we speak.

These is going to take some time, but I understand the issues that the Member is raising and I think that it will take a few years to rebuild the police force and I want to assure him that the Government is determined in ensuring that by the time this term of Parliament comes to an end, we should have a police force that we can be proud of.
Finally mobile squads were established to stop tribal fights but they are now used to carry out normal policing duties throughout the country.

They are in full riot gear addressing our own people and this is ridiculous.

So we need to go back and re-think and rebuild the police force and through that we must earn the trust of our people and the only way we can do that is by our actions and our discipline within the police hierarchy.
Mr PHILIP UNDIALU - My questions are directed to the Minister for Higher Education, and I ask the Minister for Education and the Prime Minister to take note.

We have a big problem in the towns and cities with public institutions.

While the Government is spending hundreds of million of kina to promote free and affordable tuition fees for our young citizens, there are institutions that are charging a huge amount of money in excess of K20 000 to K30 000 per year.
(1) Do we have any control to ensure that the rates are on par with what the Government is doing?

20 Recently I paid about K30 000 to an institution for five to six student to attend but the institution said that amount could only cater for one student.

So I suppose we are supposed to cut down that cost.

(2) Are there any mechanisms in place for the Government to control the expensive fees charged by private institutions operating in the country?

The other question relates to graduates.


We have thousands of students from all the universities and colleges but I don't see any graduate programmes being organized by the extractive industries such as oil, gas, mining, fisheries and others.

There is no part time work for our students and 15 000 to 20 000 students are left out year in and year out.

They must get the exposure and experience to prepare them for the real employment scenario.
13/01 (2) What has the Government done so far in terms of graduate programs?

(3) Do we have any policies in place?

(4) Are we making all the industrial companies accountable for contributing to the human resource development and employment in the country?

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr DAVID ARORE - I would like to thank the honourable Member for his very important questions.

From calculations at the end of last year, it will cost approximately K30, 000 per student per year in our universities.
We have government-run universities and private-run universities.

Currently, we have two private-run universities in the country who determine their own fees.

At the moment I have to admit here that we are working on it as we do not have a mechanism in place.

Nevertheless, we have approved policy guidelines in Cabinet regarding private education providers at the higher education level.
Therefore, with that policy in place now we should be able to move in to monitor and regulate the school fees for private institutions.

At the moment, the government universities are charging about K15 000 for their under graduate programmes, and from that and under the scholarship programme we are only paying K8 000 per student, thus the balance is paid for by the parents.
Therefore, for state universities, it would cost about K15 000 where the TESAS 21 Scholarship Programme is taking care of only about K8 000 of the K15 000 where the balance is coming out from the parents.

I am thankful for this question because you asked at a time when this Government is now moving on with the Tuition Fee Free Education at the lower secondary level where that up to Grade 12.
Therefore, we have now created a bottleneck in our system whereby this Government is looking at extending this up to the university level at the tertiary institutions.

This is because with this Tuition Fee Free Education Policy at the lower secondary level, it has therefore increased the base of the number of intakes in the lower secondary thus creating a bottleneck in our system.

This Government is looking at opportunities and ways so that we can open up the system at the top.
Therefore, my former successor, whilst I was absent pending my case, attended a conference at the University of Goroka, and we are now looking at mechanisms to put in place to control and monitor our school fees for our tertiary institutions.

I would also like to inform this Parliament that, if we were to look at the unit cost for educating an undergraduate student it would cost about K30 000 per student for a Bachelor's Degree.
As you move up to the Master's Programme the cost would be about K80 000 to K200 000 per student according to what discipline or faculty they are in.

That is how expensive it is to educate our students at that level.

Once again, I would like to thank the Member because his questions are raised at a time when we are working on revamping the higher education system in this country, which has been overlooked all these years.
As the Minister responsible, I am working on this to ensure that it is revamped, and I would like to take this opportunity to inform the country that last week the NEC had approved K500 million roll out for the next five years for the University Rehabilitation Programme for our seven universities in the country.
I for one would like to congratulate the O'Neill-Dion Government for recognising the importance of our higher education and for the NEC for approving K500 million for the University Rehabilitation Programme for our 7 universities in the country.

As for the Member's other questions, I would like to ask the Member to put it on paper and have them brought to my office.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.
22 NATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE AND SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE - SUPREME COURT (AMENDMENT No.l) RULES 2013 - PAPER - MOTION TO TAKE NOTE OF PAPER Mr Speaker -1 present the following Paper pursuant to statute: 'National Court of Justice and Supreme Court of Justice - Supreme Court (Amendment) No.l Rule, 2013' Motion (by Mr James Marape) agreed to - That the Parliament take note of the Paper and that the rules be referred to the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Laws and Acts and Subordinate Legislation.
Debate adjourned.

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

The Parliament adjourned at 3.40 p.m.. 23