Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698054307851.pdf (Papua New Guinea)
FOURTH DAY ________________________ Friday 9 November 2018 DRAFT HANSARD ________________________ Subject: Page No.
: QUESTIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Daru General Hospital – Petition ..................................................................................................... 1 Explain APEC .................................................................................................................................... 4 Supplementary Question – APEC Declining Safety Standards – Air Niugini ........................................................................................ 12 ACKNOLDGEMENT OF STUDENTS IN THE PUBLIC GALLERY – ................................................................ 16 STATEMENT BY THE ACTING SPEAKER.................................................................................................... 16 MOTION BY LEAVE ................................................................................................................................. 16 SUSPENDSION OF STANDING ORDERS – ................................................................................................. 17 REARRANGEMENT OF BUSINESS ............................................................................................................ 17 LAND GROUPS (REGISTRATION)(AMENDMENT) BILL 2018 ..................................................................... 17 First Reading .................................................................................................................................. 17 Second Reading ............................................................................................................................. 17 Third Reading ................................................................................................................................. 18 GREVIENCES DEBATE ............................................................................................................................. 19 MOTION BY LEAVE ................................................................................................................................. 36 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................................ 37 SPECIAL ADJOURNMENT ........................................................................................................................ 37 ADJOURNMENT ..................................................................................................................................... 37 FOURTH DAY Friday 9 November 2018 The Acting Speaker (Mr Jeffery Komal) took the Chair at 10.00 a.m There being no quorum present, Mr Acting Speaker stated that he would resume the Chair after the ringing of the Bells.
Sitting suspended Mr Acting Speaker again took the Chair at 10.50 a.m., and invited the Member for South Fly, Honourable Sekie Agisa to say Prayers: ‘God Almighty, on behalf of the people of Papua New Guinea and the members on both sides of this Honourable House come as sinners this morning before your throne of grace and forgive us for that.
We thank you for waking us up again to face this new day, before we go on with the session, Lord, we ask for your kingship and leadership by your spirit to give us wisdom and understanding as we go on making decisions for our beautiful country.

We thank you for blessing this country with all the resources and help us to understand that you are the living God which give blessing and also can take the blessings away.
Forgive us for the bad decisions that we have made for our people and also ask that you also continue to be with us.

Let us all recite the Lord’s Prayer; Our Father who art in Heaven, thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily breath and forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever, Amen.’ QUESTIONS Daru General Hospital – Petition Mr SEKIE AGISA – Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister of Health.

1 Mr Acting Speaker, for the purpose of clarity I ask for allowance of a minute or two for the Chair to open with a brief proceeding leading to my question.

In this manner the Members in this House including your Chair will understand me and my people from South Fly for raising this question.
02/04 Mr Acting Speaker, on the last two Sessions I raised a question on behalf of Daru General Hospital to discuss the petition on behalf of the staff.

Within these petition were very serious allegations that were swept under the carpet by the Board Chairman and members of the Board of Daru General Hospital before this petition was re-addressed to your good office with copies to the Health Secretary and other health hierarchies in the department.
I was assured the Minister that the allegations were very serious in nature and that the Minister will come to see for himself in Daru.

He asked me to go back as he was to come, however, he did not come and address this issue.

Daru is an areas were heaps of funds are being pumped into by the National Government and donor partners with very little desirable outcome.

It is a cash cow for so-called PNG intellects, while my people continue to die from curable medical ailments.
It is an epidemic center of infectious diseases in the country.

Daru is a place where you can go for months without water and power.

We are the forgotten people in this country.

As such, what little funds given to us by the Government of the day through its Public Service machinery must be used properly?

It is not a place for soft heart of thieving public servants because this even results in people dying.
In this 13 point petition, aggrieved staff of Daru Hospital, there are serious allegations yet to be addressed.

A call for external audits and finance manpower and clinical audits were requested by the staff.

I supported the call for the external audits not the internal audits.

According to our level of knowledge on the level of corruption integrated within the national Department of Health.
Disturbing allegations of drug medical companies as Pacific Medical and Health care Limited owned by certain members of the senior executive management of Daru Hospital.

The company has con operating address in Port Moresby and not even registered with the PNG Pharmaceutical Boards yet hundreds and thousands of kina are being pumped into the company since 2016.

Monies paid without drugs delivered.


My questions are; The petition that was presented to the Minister on 19 September that was forwarded to your office contains very serious allegations on misappropriation and misapplication of funds.

2 What have you done about this issues raised in the petition?

Sir PUKA TEMU – Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and I thank the honourable Member for South Fly f or the questions regarding the issues on daru Hospital .
I also want to thank the Member for bringing the team over to see me in September where we went through the details of the serious allegations.

In the petition were also concerns raised by the staff and the Member regarding some staff that were unceremoniously suspended without pay by the Hospital.

03/04 I asked them to consult the Acting Secretary for the Department of Personnel Management and yes I did make a commitment to go to Daru, I will still visit as there is already an audit team on the ground.
I hope the Member is aware of this team that is already in the province and upon my visit I will be fully briefed on their findings.

With that information, I can be able to sit hospital staff and the board to discuss pressing issues, so that commitment is still there but I am not aware of the pharmaceutical limited health care company.

This is the first time I have heard of it, but those are part of the issues that we will try and address.
The challenges of the Daru Hospital are to do with the appointment of the CEO and the Hospital Board.

Mr Sekie Agisa –Point of Order!

Minister, can you specify whether it is an internal or external audit, because the petition was asking for an external audit.
Sir PUKA TEMU –It is an audit team from the Department of Health so it is an internal audit, that is the normal process, the internal audit does the assessment, they brief me by way of a report and upon my visit, we go and discus with the hospital management and board on the issues highlighted.

I am presuming that Parliament will rise either before or after APEC, once I confirm, then I will inform the Member and we will travel to the hospital and meet with the board and management.
I want to hear from the hospital what is happening with regards to the management under the CEO of the Hospital and with regards to the management under the current board.

I have had visits from both the staff as well as the board so I have a balanced view of where the issues are.

And I am sure that with the Member’s leadership we should try and solve this very quickly.
3 In relation to the shortage of drugs, we have always checked and ensured that funds are available for Daru Hospital and we will also assess the actual situation on the ground.
The hospital is currently dealing with the multi-drug resistant TB issue in the Western Province so that we need to make sure that the hospital management and the staff are working together in order to address and provide leadership in administering some of the new drugs that have been introduced as part of the TB treatment and that has been piloted and delivered in Daru at the moment.

With all those responsibilities that the hospital has I thank the Member for raising these issues.
And I know and have asked my secretary to have an audience with the Acting Secretary for Personnel Management to address those staff that I believe were unceremoniously suspended and my instructions were if they are unceremoniously suspended, they should be re- instated to go through the normal disciplinary processes.

Usually a staff is terminated or suspended without pay when they mismanage funds.

But these funds were not mismanaging funds, they were just suspended for reasons only known to the board.
We are working around that so I thank the Member for South Fly for raising the issue and we will continue to communicate, I will definitely make the visit, once I package the issues together.
Explain APEC Mr KOBBY BOMOREO –Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker, my question is directed to the Prime Minister, but before I ask my question, I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Mothers of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, thank the Prime Minister and his team for visiting my island of Tewai Sisasi.

04/04 I want to direct my questions to the Prime Minister and it’s in relation to APEC.
But firstly, I want to thank the Minister responsible for APEC, the Government of the day and also other stakeholders for actively setting up programs for this major upcoming event within less than seven days from now.

Mr Acting Speaker, with this upcoming event most of our people fully understands the meaning of APEC, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation but our people back home don’t really know the meaning of it.
Mr Prime Minister, if you can explain clearly and I want the media personnel must interpret in simple terms what exactly what the Prime Minster says and don’t interpret in your 4 own words.

So that our people back home who don’t know anything about APEC will fully understand it.

My questions are: (1) What is APEC?

(2) How many countries comes under APEC?

(3) From these APEC countries how many of them are ranked top economic countries in the world?
(4) What are the disadvantages and advantages of APEC that will be faced by PNG during and after the APEC meeting?

Mr PETER O’NEILL – Mr Acting Speaker, I thank the Member for Tewai-Siassi, for his questions and I am so glad that he decided to ask these questions when we about to host this very important meeting for APEC countries.

Most these countries will be here for the first time.
There are 21 countries under APEC and that’s including PNG and PNG has been a member of APEC for almost 22 years now and as for PNG has never hosted such big events at one time which APEC meetings are held every year by those countries 21.

Some of these countries have hosted this meeting two to three times already but as for PNG none.

It will be for the first time and also our former Prime Ministers have attended this meeting.
And they are fully aware of the value of this meeting and the kind of opportunities that will be brought to our country and made aware of.

Mr Acting Speaker, our country has huge potential in economy, development, leadership in our region and also in this meetings only PNG represents our Pacific Island countries, which means that PNG is the only registered member in APEC from this 21 countries.
Mr Actin Speaker, when you look at it these APEC countries comprises of some of the very powerful countries around the world who are in this 21 countries.

They are countries like United States of America, Japan, Peoples Republic of China, Korea, Russian Federation, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Chile, Peru, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, PNG and Philippines and they will be about 21 countries attending the APEC meeting.
These 21 countries will represent all the businesses, investment and all the trades around the world.

And there about 200 world trading countries but these 21 countries control 50 percent of global trade and in terms of economy of each of these countries it represent almost 5 60 percent of the world economy and also in terms of world population, almost 50 percent of world are contributed by these 21 economic countries.
05/04 We are privileged that they are located near the Pacific Ocean making us part of the APEC Membership.

These event gives our country the greatest opportunity to trade our copper, coco, coffee, gold oil and gas and every mineral renewable and non-renewable to these countries.

These twenty-one nations are the biggest byers of those products in the world.

We want the best price for our resources and these are the very people and companies and governments we need to engage with to develop our country.
Mr Acting Speaker, it is also an opportunity to bring the investments of these country into our country.

Right now Australia is the biggest investor in Papua New Guinea.

United States is a big time investor especially in the LNG Gas project.

Japana and China are now coming on-board to invest in our shores.

In 7 days time is our greatest opportunity to showcase the potential of our country because these are our customers, the very people we are going to be doing business with.
We are not just going to go out and beatify our country and allow this opportunity to pass us by.

We are going to host Chief Executive Officers of multi-billion organizations who command trillions of dollars in investment decisions in the globe.

And it is our opportunity to make them turn our way.

How can we attract the investment to come into this country?

Our own country doesn’t have enough money to develop our country.
We need global trade and investment to boost the endeavours of our citizens in this country, boost business opportunities, develop our economy and develop our country.

Mr Acting Speaker, I urge us not to be misled and listen to false people talking.

They only know how to only drink coffee and talk about dreams and never do nothing at all.

You don’t turn to running a night club to develop a country.

Like Club 69 or something.


(Laughter in the Chamber) Mr PETER O’NEILL – We need money, investment and capital and access to capital is found here on this side.

Mr Speaker, look at the growth of China, Korea and Japan.

They come from very underprivileged economy but look at the growth of China today.

They moved close to 600 – 6 700 million people from poor to now middle class.

Because they developed their country through foreign investments.

They developed their country when they were struggling.
Look at Korea after the war they command one of the top economies in the world.

Likwise look at Japan, they were decimated, yet they built a country they are proud of today.

That is what we are trying to do in our country.

In opening our doors, we can have access to investments in education, health and infrastructure in our country.

We are not trying to mislead our country like previous governments who embarked on misusing surplus monies in the country.\ We are building the nation.
That is why huge benefits will come into this country.

Many of these very important people don’t know where Papua New Guinea is located.

I don’t know what our former Prime Ministers where doing they weren’t providing good networking or even threading one of these big important persons to come to a big state investment visiting our beautiful country.

They went to just ride on Mercedes and holiday and do nothing.

06/04 Sometimes try not to talk down our country.


Today is the time for us to stand together.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Tell me, when you go to government, will you attract any of these leaders to come here.

No, not all, you just talking, loudmouthing without any thinking.

We will deliver the best APEC that will be memorable, it doesn’t mean that we are going to spend a lot of money as they do in other countries.

We are living within our means and delivering within our means.
Papua New Guineans will be proud of this.

If you want to play politics with me, see me in 2022.

See me there and I’ll beat you again, we’ve proven it many times, don’t underestimate us.

This is a time for you to be counted, stand up for your country.

Supplementary Question APEC Mr BRYAN KRAMER – Mr Deputy Speaker, I wish to ask a supplementary question to the Prime Minister in relation to APEC.
There are 21 nations so, the question is, out of these 21 nations how many of them have polio, how many have drug shortages, how many pay their teachers 12 toea and how many pay their APEC CEO K500 000.00.

He is sitting at the back right now, is it our new APEC Office?

7 I want the Prime Minister to explain how many of those countries experience drug shortages, their teachers are not paid properly, and, have a high maternal death rate?
How many of them have these problems, you have attended it so why did you not make the deal since you went there already.

I want the Prime Minister to explain.

Thank you.

Mr PETER O’NEILL – Thank you very much, Mr Acting Speaker.

Our country has been Independent for 43 years but we have not achieved the status of a developed country where there is no challenges.

There are still challenges here.

The simple question the Member for Madang should be asking is to his colleagues over there.
They’ve been in government for over 17 years one way or another, or for over 20 years if you include Mekere’s time in government.

What have they done?

Mismanagement, misappropriation and misuse were the order of the day.

May I ask, where did you invest the K8 billion surplus that you made, these are the questions that I should ask you.

I guarantee you, Mr Acting Speaker, they did not build one school, hospital, aid post and so on.

They stole everything.


Mr Acting Speaker, if you want to talk about corruption ask those who are with you first.

Mr Acting Speaker, you are talking about developed countries, though they are developed countries they also have their medical and health challenges.

Countries like Indonesia and China with 250 million people or 1.3 billion people.

The Philippines with over 100 million people in population has its own challenges.

There is no perfect country in the world.


You’ve got no solutions because you’ve got no brains, no brains and so no solutions, just merely talking while sitting down in Darcy’s drinking coffee and you think the world is simple.

(Members shouting!)

(Mr Bryan Kramer – interjecting) Mr ACTING SPEAKER – Honourable Member for Madang resume your seat.
Mr Bryan Kramer – Mr Deputy Speaker all I asked is for the Prime Minister to to withdraw the answer we he said that I have no brains so I am asking him to withdraw that statement.

8 Mr ACTING SPEAKER – Prime Minister, go ahead.

Mr PETER O’NEILL – Mr Acting Speaker, all I am saying is that the good Member for Madang has got no policy about health or education in the country.

(Mr Bryan Kramer – interjecting) Mr PETER O’NEILL – No, this is a fact that I am reminding you off, you have no policy.
07/04 My concern is that the good Member for Madang has got no policy about Health or Education in the country – (Member for Madang interjecting) Mr PETER O’NEILL – No, this is a fact that is why I am reminding you about.

You have no policy and you are just interjecting for nothing!

(Laughter in the Chamber) (Member for Madang interjecting) Mr PETER O’NEILL – Mr Acting Speaker, if you want to talk about corruption ask those who are with you.

Well, you provide evidence and we will deal with them.
Mr Acting Speaker, I am not going to engage myself into a verbal diary with the Member for Madang but let me say that somethings the truth certainly hurts.

(Laughter in the Chamber) Mr PETER O’NEILL – Mr Acting Speaker, no country in the APEC Community are immune from the health and development challenges.
Every one of them have their own unique changes and we have our challenges also which we acknowledge and we cannot walk away 9 from it and we are only 43 years old and not developed enough so that is where we are trying to get to.

Mr Acting Speaker, if I list the things that I have done in the last six years we will run out of time today.

At least, I will be remembered because I have done something good in this country and all you will do is be talking.
That is why I can assure you that the Health Minister has already answered the questions about the health issues in the country adequately and eloquently.

Mr Acting Speaker, we will continue to try our best to meet the health and education challenges in the country.

We are the only Government in the history of our country that meets the budget allocations to those sectors and fully funding them every year.

Unlike the past governments that just talk and did not meet their commitments.
Mr Acting Speaker, there are management challenges across all these sector which we acknowledge but the funding we are doing it so I can assure you that the APEC countries have their challenges too.

Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.

Mr CHRIS NANGOI – Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.

My question is directed to the minister for Inter-Government Relations.
Mr Acting Speaker, as the issue of Manam Resettlement is still pending, in my district, Sumkar we have accommodated the Manam Islanders in the Magam Care Centre which we have no issue about accommodating them however, it is becoming a social problem for the local Bonabong Landowners that there seems to be no respect shown towards them by the settlers since they settled.
This has been an ongoing matter and just last week I got a report that 75 houses of the landowners were touched down by the settlers when one of the landowners was caught stealing from a settlers house, he was hospitalised and died.

As long as this care centre exist in the Sumkar Area, I do not think this issue will be resolved.

My question is how far are you working on the Manam Restortatio Authority (MRA)?

Can you fast track this process so we get the settlers together for management purposes?
The only solution I see is to relocate the Magam Care Centre settlers away from the landowners of Bonabong.

Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.

10 Mr KEVIN ISIFU – Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, and I would also like to thank the Member of Sumkar for his question regarding the people of Manam and the Manam Restoration Authority (MRA).
08/04 Firstly, I would like to thank the Government for especially acknowledging the plight of the Manam and Kadavar people in east Sepik by providing the necessary support that is required.

I would like to start by saying that Mr Acting Speaker, the Government has already take pass over the Manam issue – the Manam restoration Authority and I would like to thank the Prime Minister and the National Executive Council for appointing the new Board and the Chairman of the Manam restoration authority .
Our new chairman is Mr Ken Fairweather.

Mr Acting Speaker as you know all the issues that surrounds and affected the Manam people in the care center which is a temporary place where displaced people from disaster- stricken areas are accommodated.

Under the Manam restoration Act which was approved by the Parliament, it clearly specifies the composition of the board.

The board is comprised of the heads of provincial governments, district governments and representatives from the national government.
Under the Act, there will be no new appointments except appointment of the chairman which will be an eminent person from outside.

And that is what NEC has based its decision on in appointing the chairman in its latest NEC decision.

I want to assure the people of Manam and the people of Bogia and I would also like to thank the Member for Bogia for his leadership in ensuring that this important authority is being established as soon as possible to address the people in his district.
As soon as the board is sworn in, they will make sure that we manage the authority forward in taking care of the permanent resettlement of the people of Manam from the care center that they are now living in.

I would like to also say that the O’Neill-Abel Government after their visit to the Manam disaster area has given support and it will be in the Budget for funding to make sure that the people of Manam will be fully resettled in a permanent area acquired.
With than I thank the Member for Sumkar for his very important questions and I would also like to thank the Government for at least making sure that the plight of the people of Manam has now been properly addressed through the establishment of the Manam Restoration Authority.

11 Mr KERENGA KUA – Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.


This question is meant for the Declining Safety Standards – Air Niugini Minister for State Enterprise however, in the last Meeting I directed it to the Prime Minister and now that the issue has escalated, therefore I will ask the Prime Minister so that he can make it his personal responsibility and control to alleviate this problem we are facing.
On 11 September, I raised a question to the Prime Minister during the absence of the Minister regarding the declining safety standards of Air Niugini.

The Prime Minister tried his best to answer and the Ministrer who arrived later called me a ‘Mr Know-it-all.

09/04 That is alright, it is time to ask questions so I will abide by that.

Mr Speaker, three weeks later we had the first major accident in the history of Air Niugini, one of our planes fell into the sea in one of the islands in Micronesia.
It ran off the tarmac into the sea and we had one death from this accident.

Before I go onto this question, I want to send my sincere condolences to the family of the man that died from this accident.

We have seen that the standards of Air Niugini is on a decline and we have been predicting that soon we will encounter a serious accident and we did.
My previous question was “ Can we now take it up ourselves to review Air Niugini and see if we can make reforms to the systems and procedures so as to avoid accidents.

?” And three weeks later we encountered that accident.

So now my question to the Prime Minister and I wish for him to take personal responsibility as the CEO of the country.
This question will also affect other state-owned enterprises as well as other Ministers to but we need leadership so my questions are that Air Niugini is still faced with the aftermath of this accident so we need to boost the confidence of the travelling public, both domestic and international travellers the Prime Minister as the head of the country is taking the lead in trying to address the issue.
1) Can you introduce another independent system for the selection of the boards, including the Chairman and the CEO of all State owned enterprises; including Air Niugini?

This must be an independent process, must not go to the Minister, or the Cabinet for endorsement, it must be completed outside.

2) Can the Prime Minister initiate the development of a comprehensive system to establish a fit and proper test for individual board members and CEOs?
This will be to test their academic and character qualifications, because these boards are huge state entities and we academic excellence as well as people of good character.

And we 12 need this system to check those candidates before appointing them to the board or as the CEO.

There must be a comprehensive fit and proper test and that includes Air Niugini too.
3) Can the Prime Minister introduce an independent system of procurement for goods and services between Air Niugini and all other state owned enterprises?

This must be independent being that the decisions will not come from the Minister, or the Cabinet, give them a limit to operate without political interference.

The reason for me to ask this three questions are due to the fact that there is so much political interference, whether we deny it or not.
While we interfere we compromise on the safety of all of us.

I am always alert each time I get on a plane because, you never know what’s to come.

10/04 We must introduce some measures to improve safety standards and give total assurance to Air Nuigini and all the other state owned enterprises so that they can turn over profit by generating good dividends back to the government to run the country.

I really want an assurance that there must be a comprehensive reports on these three areas.
Mr PETER O’NEILL - Mr Acting Speaker, I thank the Member for Sinasina- Yongamugl for his follow up questions on the question that he raised last September.

Mr Acting Speaker, I also want to inform this Parliament that the Government has already pass the condolences to the family of the late gentleman that died during the latest incidents with Air Niugini.

But let me say this, Air Niugini has a proud history, especially with safety.
Most of these planes are aging but we are still using these planes because we don’t have enough funds to purchase new big planes.

They are in fact, re-fleeting the planes now and the government has taken a decision to support Air Nuigini with this.

On the history of safety, I want to state here that the preliminary report has been done and it’s with Air Niugini but the cabinet has not received it as yet.
But once we receive it then it will be available for public to see and that will determine the cause of the incident that has led to that accident that happened in Micronesia.

Mr Acting Speaker, as I have said Air Niugini has a proud record of safety.

Even though the planes are aging our employees of Air Niugini don’t compromise with safety.

If the pilots feel and see that the planes have safety concern occurrences than they will automatically ground the planes and that’s the standing instructions.
The planes will be grounded for the engineers to rectify the problems and that’s the reason for flights being 13 cancelled until further notice.

They are cancelling the flights for the good of the plane plus the travelling passengers and this procedure has not changed at all.

But I understand, that the Member for Sinasina-Yongamugl is referring to board members.

These board comprises of many experience and good board members too and likewise to CEOs.
We have the trust and confidence in them because some of them have 20- 40 years experiences to run this airline.

But we know that there are many challenges ahead of us but we must also know that the board members are there only to provide leadership in policy and guidance only they don’t run the technical aspects of our airline.

They are competent and well experienced workers in this airline and there is a very high standard set.
And few times, the Minister for Civil Aviation stated that PNG has got very proud safety records and inspections audit.

These reports are done by the International Civil Aviation Safety and Audits Authority from other countries and it’s an ongoing practices.

And our Civil Aviation Safety Authority also inspects and checks each one of the airlines in our country to make sure that their inventory section is fully equipped with genuine parts and necessary equipment’s for the planes.
This airline industry is a very sensitive industry and it’s not for us to play politics with it or even treat it like a bus where we hop on and drive on the road.

No, all the pilots must be qualified and have licence and must be trained under extreme training to fly planes.

And likewise to the engineers, they must be fully trained to be qualified to maintain the operations of the planes.

The engineer assigned will sign off on the day the plane commences its flight.
In other words the assigned engineer is responsible for the safety of the plane and passengers as well.

Mr Acting Speaker, Air Niugini needs support and we all need to give that.

Just recently we have made changes to board members by appointing new board chairman, the new managing director is a senior and experienced Quanta’s senior executive.

11/04 Just recently, the Board was changed and the new Managing Director is very experienced who was a Qantas senior executive and was also with Jacks Star.
The Board appointed him and the NEC supported the appointment and he has started already.He is taking stock of the airline itself and I can say that the appointment system allows the Government to have a say but we try to get the most competent person.

If there is anybody who is appointed politically and has got no experience and shouldn’t be there I urge you to let us know so that we can move him on to a better qualified area where they have expertise in.
14 Mr Acting Speaker, the airline industry is a very sensitive industry and needs very technical people to run that.

It is also a costly industry and I can assure you that our Government will continue to support Air Niugini.

Mr Acting Speaker, in the long term we all need to agree that Governments are not best at running businesses.
We have to agree to a program to bring partners and capital expertise into those businesses so that they can continue to bring delivery of services that State Owned Entities continue to provide.

Mr Acting Speaker, there is nothing wrong for a country to be in business.

Mr Acting Speaker, for example look at Singapore, has got no resources but most of its industry is owned by the State and they run it well.

These are sort of examples that we need to follow.

It can be done.
It can be done.

It is the people we are putting to manage these intitutions that are sometimes letting us down.

We need to find the right experienced and qualified talented people to run these organizations.

We are now slowly doing that in all the organizations.

Mr Acting Speaker, sometimes it means displacing our own citizens in those citizens because ethey are not performing.

We are bringing experts from outside to take charge of this organizations.
Our people deserve those services in airlines, telecommunications, electricity and water to be up to date to international stages and standards.

Mr Acting Speaker, let me assure the Member for Sinasina-Yangomuggl that he is on the right track and he should continue to support the government in making sure that we are doing the right thing.

Mr Kerenga Kua –Point of Order!


Mr Acting Speaker, my question is if the Prime Minister can give an undertaking to reform the existing system because the existing system has failed that resulted in one of our planes crashing.

I asked him if he will give an undertaking to conduct reforms on three key areas.

He did not answer my question so I am asking if maybe he can stand and respond yes, I will give that undertaking and do series of study to do some reforms in those key areas.
Mr PETER O’NEILL – Mr Acting Speaker, the former Attorney General was responsible for drafting legislations that gave rise to the Kumul Consolidated Holdings which is the principle shareholder of these SOE’s.

15 I don’t know where he is coming from.

Is he saying to us in this Honourable Parliament that the law is not good enough that he helped drafted and that there are weaknesses in the law that he is referring to.
But the appointment of Board Members if that is what he is leading to please refer the sections which he has drafted that is not performing then we are quite happy to seat down and work it through.

Mr Kerenga Kua – Point of Order!

Mr Acting Speaker, let me conclude this conversation because it is constructive.

In the draft organic law that I prepared contained this provisions the independence of all these.
But before I presented this law to Parliament I was removed and they also removed those key provisions in the draft law it’s a current problem now.

So I urge the Government to put those provisions back.

Mr ACTING SPEAKER – Honourable Member your point of Order is out of order.

You don’t debate this issue.


12/04 ACKNOLDGEMENT OF STUDENTS IN THE PUBLIC GALLERY – STATEMENT BY THE ACTING SPEAKER Mr ACTING SPEAKER – Honourable Members, I have to inform Parliament that the Grade Five from Birdwing Independent School and their teachers are present in the Public Gallery this morning.

On behalf of the Parliament I extend to them a very warm welcome to the National Parliament.
MOTION BY LEAVE Mr JAMES MARAPE (Tari Pori – Minister for Finance) – I ask leave of Parliament to move a motion without notice.

Leave granted.

16 SUSPENDSION OF STANDING ORDERS – REARRANGEMENT OF BUSINESS Motion (by Mr James Marape) agreed to – That so much of the Standing Orders be suspended as would prevent Notice 91 of Government business this day being called on forthwith.

LAND GROUPS (REGISTRATION)(AMENDMENT) BILL 2018 First Reading Bill presented by Mr Justin Tkatchenko and read a first time.
Second Reading Leave granted to move the second reading forthwith.

Mr JUSTIN TKATCHENKO (Moresby South – Lands and Physical Planning and APEC) – I move – That the Bill be now read a second time.

Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.

An amendment to Section 36 of the Land Groups Incorporation Act is to extend the transitional period for all non-compliant incorporated land groups to comply with the following.
The intention of the amendment is to ensure that 5all land groups that were established under the Land Groups Incorporated Act before 2012 when the new rules come into force are given enough time to continue to re-register under the new rules and processes under the Lands Group Incorporated (Amended) Act of 2009.
This bill seeks to amend the five year transitional period from 2012 required for all incorporated land groups and extend this to 10 years from 2012 to 2017 thus giving back legal status to a great many ILGs that ceases to exist on the 27th of February 2017.

The requirements are stringent to ensure the accountability and proper management is in order for the upkeep and establishment of each ILG.

17 This extension will enable all non-compliant ILGs to meet very stringent criteria on ILG registration.
13/04 This extension will be enough time for transition to the rules and processes required under the Land Groups Incorporated Act of 2009.

This Bill will now extend the transitional period to 2022 for all ILG’s who will now need to re-register under the current Land Group Incorporated Regime.

Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.

Motion – That the question be now put – agreed to.

Motion – That the question be now read a second time – agreed to.

Bill read a third.
Bill read a third.

Leave granted to move the Third Reading forthwith.

Third Reading Motion (by Mr Justin Tkatchenko) proposed – That the Bill be now read a third time.

Motion – That the question be now put – agreed to.

Motion – That the Bill be now read a third time – agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

18 GREVIENCES DEBATE Question proposed – That the grievances be noted.

Mr ALLAN BIRD (East Sepik) – Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.
Today, in my grievance debate I would like to speak about how sometime we seat here and conduct the business of Parliament which involve our people and most time we mock about the issues that our people are facing.

Mr Acting Speaker, many times when you are in powerful positions you will feel that you know better and know better than anyone else and this can cause you to not want to listen to other people’s advice.
When we go the local areas, we go with Police escorts, we get frightened to sleep in our houses so we go sleep in the hotels and when we do this we distance ourselves from our people – (Mr Sam Basil interjecting) Mr ALLAN BIRD – Mr Acting Speaker, it Grievance Debate.

Mr Sam Basil – Point of Order!

Yes, it Grievance Debate so you must structure your debate properly.

Mr ALLAN BIRD – And that is what I am doing?


Mr Sam Basil – Some of us do not need escort or to our electorates and sleep in hotels so direct your grievance to whoever you are referring to.

If you do not do that in East Sepik good for you.

Mr ALLAN BIRD – Why are you getting annoyed for?

And, if you are not doing that then why are you getting annoyed.

Mr Sam Basil – Stop generalising.

We are all leaders here who are elected by our people Mr ALLAN BIRD – I am not generalising.
19 Last time the Prime Minister came to visit my province, 20 Special Forces also accompanied him.

You had a helicopter gunship circling every site and there was no threats so I am not talking for nothing.

There was no need for the Prime Minister to bring 20 Special Forces with him to my province because there was no threats there so, let me talk while you listen, you have a lot of chances to run the country.
Mr Acting Speaker, I am trying to express my grievances not trying to pin point anyone but to give an example that we need to exercise the power that you all have with responsibility and unity.

14/04 That is the point I am trying to make.

Mr Acting Speaker, due to the less numbers of members on the Opposition, this might give you the impression that you have all the powers.
Yes, you can make decisions, but when we see issues like the shortage of medication, I heard the Treasurer, the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister speaking saying they have supplied our budgets for over many years.

Mr Acting Speaker, I was the chairmen of my hospital in my area for four years, Mr JAMES MARAPE – Point of Order!

Mr Acting Speaker, let me place on record that we never fully said we supplied for all Budgets.

We did not make that admission.

This has to be corrected.


He said that we said that we supplied for every year let’s not misconstrue words.

If you want to quote, make quotes that are accurate to what we have stated .

we have said on record that in 2017 we struggled to catch up due to the elections and in 2018 we are making the best of our endeavours to catch up so please Governor, with due respect make correct quotations.
(Mr Kerenga Kua interjecting) Mr ALLAN BIRD – Well Minister, the Prime Minister just said during question time that the Government was funding it well so far.

So that is the same quote I have rephrased.

I want to correct that statement.

Mr Acting Speaker, three years ago when I was chairman of the Hospital in my area, we had to cut back the entire Health Sector Budget by almost K600 million.

These cuts are becoming regular.


In my province, Mr Acting Speaker, the open Members need to understand this, when functional grants are not fully released it becomes challenging to carryout projects 20 like roads to rural villages, it becomes difficult for the provincial government to ensure that the clinics are operating.

It becomes difficult for the provincial government to ensure that funds reach schools for refurbishment.
Many open Members bear these burdens through their DSIP funds which should be addressed through functional grants; but the functional grants gets cut.

Mr Acting Speaker, since I was elected, I have been vocal on the release of functional grants because I want us to understand this grant.

Mr Speaker, for my province, the cuts made since 2016 totals up to almost K70 million.
Many open members are frustrated that the provincial governments are not doing much and that is because the funds needed to carry out these projects were not released.

Yet, the Government finds it fit to sit here in power and tell us something else.

Mr Acting Speaker, if you can make promises for huge funds and if we actually receive these funds then I can verify that what you said has come into fruition.
But if the promises in parliament are empty resulting in no tangible development in the rural areas whilst we boast and rejoice is upsetting me.

Therefore I am making this grievance debate.

So, yesterday, I raised a question and some Governors on the Government side sent me text messages admitting that they received 16 to 17 per cent of the functional grants.

I felt the resentment in me fade when I learnt that my province has actually received more than the those on the Government side.
Mr Acting Speaker, I think that we have to be honest in our statements and not because we are in the Opposition or Government but because we are trying to serve the same client – our people.

It is not about who is in power or the size of the budget it is about the impact it has on the average person; about how our decision affects them.

In the next two weeks, we will passs the budget like we did a year ago.

In my village, I am doing my best and my open Members can attest.
We have tried to solve our own issues with the limited funds.

Mr Acting Speaker, if we cannot be honest in here and humble ourselves and exercise our powers responsibly.

15/04 I am scared of what our people will go through and get angry with us.

And when they have that little opportunity they will explode like never before.

They will blame all of us in here.

Those who have power and those who do not have power.

We will all be blamed.


That is the danger that we are forgetting as we continue to feel ourselves as more important and as we continue to ignore the fact that Budget cuts are actually being felt by ordinary people.

I am sure many of the Governors here are trying their best but a lot of times 21 because of the vindictiveness, we cannot speak out the truth.

That is not the reason for asking the question the reason for asking the question is not to provoke you.
It is asked to so that you are set on the straight path, we have no powers on this side and that is the appeal to our colleague brothers on the other side.

The power rests entirely on you, in how we manage it.

It is not about the pronouncement, it is about how we action it.

The actual delivery.

This is what some of us here worry about.

I am quietly sitting here and I hear my brother the Deputy Prime Minister, joking about this on the other side.
I am saddened that he has to joke about this but that was to demonstrate that our people are voiceless, we are holding onto their voices here.

I want to be able to depart from this House and say that, I have done an honourable thing for my people.

And if I did not do that, I will be ashamed to look at my people.

My appeal is that we exercise the powers that you have responsibly, do not reduce budgets that are supposed to be for service delivery.
My police in East Sepik, I have six districts, about 4 million hectares to cover.

My police receive K3, 000 a month.

How can you cater for 6 districts with this amount?

This is not even enough to pay for fuel in a week.

I am trying to find money through the functional grants to support the operations of the police, which is a national function.

If there is no internal revenue here, you can continue to be loud and make smart comments.

As we are increasing our revenue.


When I became Governor, east Sepik had K5 million, this year we’ve got K14 million but we have allocations are trying to support them, but the police are a national independent function.

It is supposed to be funded nationally, not by individual provinces.

Thank you for making time to listen to my grievances.

Mr THOMAS PELIKA (Menyamya) – I would like to contribute towards this grievance with some issues affecting the province and the country as a whole.
We have about 70 000 school leavers annually.

But we have not jobs created for this school leavers.

When we were in the production stages of the Oil and Gas we have put our funds off shore and now we have no money in the country.

We have a lot of show-offs in here.

16/04 Who is going to stand for us and talk, some of us come here and talk as if nothing is wrong in this Chamber and continue with side deals.
If we can stand as a true leader and put issues concerning this country first and not to serve our own individual needs.

22 For instances, those fishing companies, when they catch all the fish in our sea and taken them back to their countries and no funds coming in to our country, no one even bother to check on such activities, likewise to timber.

And here we talk smart and pointing finger at each other, my goodness I don’t know, I don’t know.
We got plenty natural resources such as gold and oil right in front of our noses yet my goodness we are still struggling.

Our policy has not changed for the last 42 years, we keep on saying, yes, you come, come, come and get all the gold, copper and timber and go.

That’s what happened to South Africa and all other African nations.
Let me say this before the sun sets, the Wafi Golpu mining deal will be the best and it will bring benefits for both the people of Morobe and the people of this country can benefit.

Is my message heard properly?

Thankyou we must not preach nonsense around this place.

Many times we have done and practiced so many stupid things around here and outside as well.

My other point is when you go into most of this small stores and kaibars in this city then you will notice it.
Is our Labour Department really carrying out their duties or not?

Some of our friends are already monitoring the tiles in major stores, mending the front desk as receptionist now, or as security check point and screening the movement of people with their receipts.

Yet we turn a blind eye on them and ignore them completely and they carry on normal each day’s operations.

Now comes tomorrow, what about the kids that we bring to this world with our wives.
Is there any job created for them to do to earn their daily living.

Most of these kids will come and live with their parents and demand for all sorts of things.

If the parents don’t meet their demand than they start fighting them.

So I appeal to both sides of the House to keep watch on those people and if anything wrong doings occur than then report to the right authority and try to remove some of these bad activities.
If we continue to turn a blind eye on them and ignore than we are simply destroying ourselves.

I appeal to all the health inspectors to check on all the mini kaibars operating in all the streets.

Some of these cooked food have been there in the food warmer for so long, for instances, two to three days passed food are sold again.

Yet our health inspectors are not carrying out their duties by checking on such food sold in kaibars.
We come and talk about big issues but if we can’t solve minor issues than forget about the country.

We represent 800 different cultural societies to form one nation, with that I thank Somare for taking the lead, otherwise there could have been anarchy.

23 But now we are not trying our best to unite our country, we are all over the place.

The only thing that has been practised to unite the country is sports.
Yet we talk about reform by giving powers back to the provinces, yes I was the only one who was against this idea.

This country doesn’t need to be given such powers to be on their own.

We are simply trying to bring back tribalism and regionalism.

Do we need it now?

We are simply going back to the stone-age days.


My other point is in relation to public servants; when the officers from Finance Department take the DSIP Funds to each of the districts, They have to make sure that the cheques that they are collecting are not for sleeping in hotels and hiring cars.

17/04 That money is meant for the people.

I state clearly that I am going to cut one of the finance officers hand very soon in Menyama.

Charles Abel – You will be in prison for doing that.
Mr THOMAS PELIKA – I don’t care I will be in prison.

Because they are totally doing the wrong thing.

In the last 15 years in my electorate they spend money left right centre slepping in hotels and hiring cars and nothing has been done.

The roads are all fucked up…… Mr ACTING SPEAKER – Honourable Member that is a very unparliamentary language and you need to withdraw that.
Mr THOMAS PELIKA – The roads are in a very bad condition and my people are suffering so I am just plainly expressing my frustrations at the last administration.

I withdraw that word.

But I must say that is real life experience of suffering.

I know we are trying to ban buai but buai is going to be here for ever.

We need to bring some other people like the Africans to manage our streets because we cant even manage it ourselves.

The security guards are forever playing wantok system.
If they know you you, will be off the hook but if they don’t know you , you will be charged K50.

That is happening.

24 We are spending huge sums of money on APEC facilities and just to find out that the taps are linking and my goodness whos going to fix all that.

We must be found without fear or favour.

I believe in God and fear him alone so I am speaking my mind.

I am not afraid of rascals I will also kill them too.
(Laughter in the Chamber) Mr JOHN SIMON (Maprik) – Mr Acting Speaker, let me join my colleagues in this grievance debate.

We can all stand here talk and complain about money and all you can but I think we need to help the Government to grow the economy.

That is where the problem is.

We can all run to Waigani and I don’t think we will find money here but we must assist this Government to grow the economy.
Mr Acting Speaker, Papua New Guinea is a growing country and infact one of the fastest growing country in Asia.

I will be turning 50 years old and I am not young like Brian Krammer is.

I have spent more than 20 years of my life in the private sector.

Now I will be spending another 10 years in politics.

I have watched this country and as I look back 20 years in the past what was my society like?

What was this country like 20 years ago?


Then I looked at the present and then I looked at the next 20 years on where this country is heading?

I became very worried.

We have a big problem with our children today.

The youths of today.

We can complain about money and everything but most of all people are just a liability to this country.

They are not contributing anything to this country.

You drive around Erima you find people just standing there doing nothing.
They are not contributing anything to this country.

Like the Member for Menyamya can say and my honourable Governor also highlighted that there just people standing there doing nothing.

If all the Sepiks get up and do something where 90 percent of sepiks have a massive land mass and start doing something about that land than we will be doing something for this country.

18/04 These people are standing there doing nothing.
If all the Sepiks get up and we do something, 90 per cent of Sepiks work in Sepik with the massive land that we have we will 25 contribute to this country.

We are not contributing but we are complaining.

Can we contribute to this country before we complain?

When we were at home we were not fed by the elders when we don’t work.

So, in the past we used to have communal gardening, in the afternoon we will go and eat together and if somebody does not work with them he is not allowed to eat with them.
Where did you work and you want to eat now, they will ask him.

They will not allow him.

He we are having free lunch and free dinners and yet we tend to complain to the government, in fact we complain to everyone.

I would like everyone to stand back and look into you own little villages and electorates and compare it to 20 years ago.

What were the villages like?

What were the people like?

How did your people behave and right now, how are our youths behaving?
My good brothers, Members of this House if you spend time thinking about the past, the present and look towards the future you will realise that we have a big problem with today’s children.

Our children who are 10 years old today will be 30 years in in 20 years time, those who are 15 will be 35 years old and those who are 20 will be 40.

I am getting very worried.

If we don’t use them now, these are the workforce that this country must use in order that they become productive.
They are not productive any more, our children and our people are becoming liabilities in this country.

We have a big labour force out there just doing nothing.

If we can use this than this country will become productive.

We need to use this labour force which is loafing around idly in Port Moresby, Wewak and in Madang were many Sepiks have migrated to and are not doing anything constructive.

We need to do something about this.

We need to change and come up with interventions and programmes.
Each one of us, leaders and Members need to do it in our own electorates to keep your own people together.

We can change this country together.

I am doing little interventions in my district in terms of the agricultural sector by coming up with intervention programmes.

I didn’t ask anyone for help.

I couldn’t get help from anyone so I had to use my DSIP.

I have used DSIP in most of my interventions.

In terms of cocoa rehabilitation and other activities.
You know, if I can use DSIP, I appeal to all of us.

I have used DSIP to fix the roads, thank you for maintaining the DSIP.

This is a big amount of money.

But we need to do more.

We need to do more in this county then we will help this country.

Just let me tell all of us.

We are going to have problems in this country 20 years from now if we don’t see or come up with interventions to engage our young children of today who will 26 become future leaders who will sit in this House.
You and I will be old men.

We will sit outside and watch whether they will become productive or continue to be what they are.

Whether they will be the ones to help change this country or whether they will come and beg for money.

I have interventions I am doing in my district and I am using my DSIP to do it.

I am very proud of what I am doing and I invite the rest of you to come to Maprik.

I have never been a State Minister.


I have got no complaints but come and see what I am doing in Maprik, come and see my district.

Whats happening to Maprik District with the interventions I am putting in place.

I have simply used DSIP.

But the problem that I see is, I sit down and I imaging and I think about what Maprik will be like 20 years from today as the current Member for Maprik.
And I tell myself, 20 years from now, I won’t be around, I won’t be sitting in this chair, I will go home sit down but what will Maprik be like without my leadership?

What can I contribute that leaves behind w legacy?

I don’t want Maprik to be different, I’d like Maprik to maintain its status that it is enjoying now as one of the best districts.
19/04 As one of the best and fastest growing districts in the country as well in terms of economic activities, none of your districts can compare to my district on record.

It is not a provincial capital, I am talking about districts so I would like to invite all of you members to come to Maprik and see for yourselves what I am doing there, the interventions and the problems that we will say like I said.

One of the main issues is Law and Order.


I have been talking to the Minister of the Police Department; the minister grow up in front of me and now is the minister, I keep having Law and Order problems in Maprik as well and we all know that it has a big impact on development.
In Maprik we provide service to six to seven districts including Nuku and Lumi and we provide service to them at no cost, I try my best to use my DSIP funds so everyone can have access to my district but currently, we have very big problems in the district but the people themselves are keeping the law and order so this is why I am saying that our people can behave if we teach them then we might not need the Police.
But, it goes back to the youths of today’s attitude and behave which we need to change and if we do not change it know 20 years from now we will have bigger problems.

So, advice to the leaders is to look at the past, study it and adjust the present we are in and plan for the future we should be alright.

But if we do not do that I will be very sorry.

Thank you Acting Speaker.

27 Mr RICHARD MASERE (Ijivitari) – Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.
I would also want to contribute during this grievance debate to share my thoughts and plans that I have for my districts particularly, to do with Agriculture.

Firstly, let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister for Agriculture on his Statues Report on Agriculture in Papua New Guinea.

In my view that particular report is very important that this Parliament must take note and capture all those important sectors that he highlighted.
Mr Acting Speaker, when he started his statement he made a profound point, I quote, ‘In the 1960 and 1970’s the Agriculture sector was contributing between 70 to 80 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)’.
What he said was that during the 1960’s and 1970’s the income that was generated went to our rural communities and that is a good indication that we had a very active rural economy that was upholding the economy of this country, in other words we were putting money back into our rural communities.

In my view this is empowering our people to make money.
One of the biggest issues we are currently experiencing is our Law and Order problems and most of these problems are contributed by an influx of our rural communities coming into the urban towns and cities where the problems are created.

But, if we put the money back into our rural communities, I believe that a lot of this Law and Order issues that we currently experience in our country will be resolved.
20/04 When we put the money back into the rural communities, Mr Acting Speaker, we begin to see our people becoming more independent rather than depending on the government to meet their requirements in the rural community.

When they become independent they are able to meet their school fees, haus krais and their daily needs in their villages.
I believe that when we go back to agriculture which is the key and one of the biggest fundamental resolutions to solving our country’s issue with low income earning is to improve agriculture and put more money in the hands of our rural communities .

I believe that when we do that this hand-out mentality will quickly fade away in our country because our people will have more monies in their pockets they have no reason to ask members of Parliament to help with their needs.
Mr Acting Speaker, in my district we have started some programs and of them was meeting with the Israel Community here in PNG.

They have a program called the keyboots program.

This program was introduced for the first time in Papua New Guinea and it was also 28 the first in the South Pacific which includes Australia and New Zealand.

This is also the first time where they introduced a program that also covers Asia.

It covers the whole South Pacific.


I am proud as the Member for Ijivitari to stand here and say that out of all these countries, they selected Ijivitari district to pioneer this keyboots program where we are going to select some young people from my district, it is a similar program like the fruit picking program in Australia.
The fruit picking program is more focused on generating income for people but this program is not really about generating income but it’s about broadening our knowledge on agriculture.

As we all understand and appreciate, Israel doe not have what we have.

Israel don’t have the rainfalls that we have, or the land that we have.

Yet they export over US$40 billion worth of agriculture produce to the United States of America.
With that knowledge and technology that they use, we are going to send young people to this country Israel where they will be adopted into the keyboots families which are religious familes.

These young people will work on farms and will be paid a few allowances but the most important thing is the knowledge they gain from the Israelites.

It’s a three months program and these young people will go to rural communities and train our rural communities on how to produce the best crops.
In the Musa Safia district there is a village which is usually floods and damages gardens during the rainy season.

But when they bring this technology , for example the hydroponic farming where you grow the food above the ground , you can imagine that when we have floods, they will still have food on the tables because of this particular program because of this particular technology being used in Israel which we now have it at nine mile.
I encourage members of Parliament to go and see for yourselves how you can adopt those plans and bring them back to our districts to equip our proper to grow agriculture to be one of the biggest sector in this country.

21/04 We have the land, we have the climate and the people, so we have the capacity to advance in agriculture.

We can from relying on the extractive industries to become dominant player in agriculture within the Australasia corridor.
Mr Speaker, we are also looking at cocoa and we have engaged and will be signing an MOA with the Cocoa Board shortly, where they will be supplying seedlings and this is on a domestic scale where we are trying to create wealth within the district.

So agriculture is the key element to change this nation, not the extractive industries.

If we become too dependent on the extractive industries we must understand that the extractive industries is controlled by time and when it runs out we end up having nothing.
29 But for agriculture and tourism, these are the next LNG.

Let us think and talk like that.

And grow this industry because everyone of us here has the capacity to produce some cash crop in our district and create domestic wealth.

Food security is also an issue in this country.

He also touched on rice; and I would like to thank our Prime Minister for allocating funds in the 2018 budget to look at agriculture.

And rice is one crop that we should start looking at seriously.
We have the land and water and a suitable climate to make rice as one of our commercial industry in the country.

China reckon that by 2020, it can only feed up to 85 per cent of its population, so there is a vacuum of 15 per cent that they are going to have to source food for outside of China to feed.

I want to challenge our Minister for Commerce and Industry, is that he needs to make a trip to China tomorrow and strike deals with China.
Chinese when you tell them about rice planting to them, they are the experts.

Why can’t we bring Chinese here and when we are talking about rice in this country, I do not want us to be talking about 100-1000 hectares.

I am talking about 25,000 hectares of rice.

When you look at oil palm, when it was introduced into the country, what did oil palm bring?

It brought in the road infrastructure and increased wealth in those provinces.
So if we go into commercial rice farming, think about the potential of this growth.

When they bring the rice and if we have 25,000 hectares of it and if I bring the Chinese and give them 25,000 hectares in Musa, they are going to build my roads.

They will help me with my school, aidposts and even seal my roads.

Why can’t we open up Papua New Guinea to China and bring rice into the country.

When I was campaigning, and wanted to give them bananas, they said we do not want to eat bananas we want rice.
My time is up and I want challenge our Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for commerce and industry, let us look at practical things that can change our economy and I believe rice is one way that we can be able to improve our agriculture but at the same time grow our economy as a result of that and supply other countries outside of Papua New Guinea and increase our revenue, through this particular program.

Thank you.
Thank you.

22/04 Mr LEKWA GURE (Rigo) – Thankyou Mr Acting Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this grievances debate.

The issue I want to talk about today is in relation to in view of the questions that were raised by the Member for Sinasina-Yongamugl, regarding Air Nuigini.

But not in a context that 30 he asked the question but especially in context of the accident that happened at Chuuk Airport in Micronesia.
Before, I talk about that in general sense I want to also join my Governor, he shared his appreciation on Wednesday, in relation to the culture show that we just had in Rigo.

I also want to thank the fours ministers that joined us particularly, Minister for Culture and Tourism, Honourable Emil Tammur, Minister for Religion, Youth and Community Development, Honourable Soroi Eoe, Minister for Public Service, Honourable Elias Kapavore and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for joining us .
Back to the accidents that happened at Chuuk Airport, obviously there was a lot of conversation in social media at different circles and also reported in the daily papers as well.

But out of the professional respect for the pilot that flew the aircraft and I actually refrain from making any comments except may be the general comment somewhere along the line.
So just very quickly, significant Air Nuigini extends that I am aware of was F28 overrun that happened in Madang, in the late 90s or early 2000, there was a F28 that was landing early evening in bad weather and it rained and reduced visibility and the aircraft handed up overing the runway and punching into the water at the end of the runway in Madang harbour.
That particular accidents was caused by weather conditions, it was night and reduced visibility and the runway which has not been maintained well had groouves, where the tires normally touchdown which caused the breaks not to be as efficient and then the plane handed up overrunning the runway.

And the second one is the 737 that did the water landing at Chuuk Airport in Micronesia.

All I am going to say in that extent was the weather was bad and it rained and visibility was reduced.
At this point in time although the investigated have released their preliminary findings reports the caused of the accidents is yet to be determined so I will not speculate or comment on the cause of that accident.
But just to put the all things into perspective other big airlines in the aviation industry is listed with many accidents I will just quote three of them; Singapore Airlines which one of the best airlines in the world that wins a lot of international awards in as far as the aviation industry is concern.

They had a very serious accidents in Taipei on one particular night the 747 was taking off on the wrong runway and handed up hitting some barricades and caused a lot of deaths as well.
And the Korean Airline also had a very significant incident where by it flew into the hill in Guam many years ago.

And then a Boeing 777 approaching into London, handed up landing short of Heathrow Airport.

So the aviation history is littered with many examples of accidents that happens so simply what I am saying is accidents do happen even in the best 31 airlines in the world.
Just for our general understanding and appreciation I just want to briefly talk about some of the factors that caused accidents and I will only mention five of them and not necessarily in any order of preference.

23/04 As I alluded to the two accidents in Madang and the Chuke Airport in Micronesia the weather was a contributing factor and that is for sure.

1.

Environmental factor that is the weather or sometimes volcanic ash also causes aircraft accidents.
The plane flies into a volcanic ash causing an accident.

2.

Infrastructure in terms of runways.

In relation to the Madang F28 over-run the run way condition had not been maintained and ended up with grooves and the touch down areas where with water and the plane was not able to apply brakes efficiently within the confines of the run way.
The run way length and the runway width and the lighting systems and of course the navigation system as well, .where if we have a precision runway approach insurance lining system it makes the approach a lot safer.

The pilots are able to come to a lower minimum see the runway and land.

When they come down on a precision approach the are very much in the landing slot fully configured ready to touch down as soon as they become visual.
Contrary to that they have what they call non-precision approaches where the quality of the approach is such that they have to become visual a fairway from the runway at a much higher height and thereafter they have to manuvour visually to get to the runway and land.

That is not as safe as the precision approach and landing.

3.

Technical meaning the aircraft technical condition itself like any other machine can also develop defects as well.
In the document maintenance or minimum equipment requirements they can carry certain defects but there are some defects they cannot carry so that has to be fixed before they depart so the technical condition is a contributing factor.

Maintenance in terms of what actually is done on the line.

The qualification of the maintenance person and all the engineers and so fourth These things can actually contribute to accidents.

Especially if the aeroplanes are not maintained to the required standards.

4.
4.

This brings me back to the question that was asked by the Member for Sinasina- Yongomuggl not so much in terms of the Board itself but management.

The management can also be a contributing factor to accidents.

What I mean by that Is the working conditions they set for the employees in general will affect morale as well.

Particularly the pay conditions for the pilot themselves.

In the past Air Niugini pilot conditions where such that the expatriates where paid more than the national pilots.
That is not the case anymore.

In a situation where 32 you have a pay disparity you can understand perhaps some level of discontent within the cockpit if you had an expatriate pilot flying with a national pilot.

So pay conditions always affect morale and if your morale is down you are probably not flying the aeroplane well.

That is where management can contribute to accidents as well.

If the remuneration conditions are not attractive enough that causes accidents of pilots.
Pilots move to greener pastures.

If we have a lot of pilots leaving all at the same time especially the experienced once, because the more experienced they are they become more marketable and they leave it causes a depletion lacking experience in the airpline.

24/04 Because the more experienced they are they become more marketable and they leave and when we have a lot of pilots leaving that causes a depreciation on the experience base of the pilots and that can be a contributing factor to accidents.
And then lastly, I know my time’s up but lastly it is human factors and it comes to the pilots themselves right at the pointy end of the aeroplane.

Human factors say the pilots are also human as well and they might have a domestic issue with his wife at home before he goes to work so he is distracted.

And then his social life, whether he’d been out partying with the boys the night before, that can be a contributing factor.
Cultural issues, it has been shown that the people from our neck of the woods and Asians tend to accept technology as they are whereas people form the Western societies question technology and they are always questioning what the aeroplane I doing know whereas we blindly accept what the technology is telling us.

And then lastly, it is the training itself.

The training environment, whether the pilots had been trained to be really competent in flying the aeroplanes or not.
So training itself can really contribute to accidents and then off course fatigue also.

If the pilot has not rested well before he goes to work the day before then that can also contribute to accidents.

So, having said that, I still maintain that Air Niugini is still a very safe airline as demonstrated by other big airlines which also have accidents as well.

So, personally when I get on the Air Niugini aeroplane I feel very safe and comfortable.
And then that fact that a lot of Papua New Guineans are flying overseas demonstrates that our pilots have reached their levels where they can be competitive on the international market.

And Air Niugini is still a very safe airline because before I left I used to work very closely with some Czech pilots who are working for Customs PNG as Qantas and they boast that Air Niugini 33 has reached a stage where, in terms of operational standards and safety, comparable with airlines like Qantas and Air New Zealand.
Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.

Mr JOSEPH SUNGI (Nuku) – Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, I have one grievance to air in this Grievance Debate.

Firstly I want to say thank you to those, the government, the ministers and the public servants and others who have worked tirelessly to prepare for APEC.

I think we should all be proud, as a Parliament that this is being hosted at this time, during the Tenth Parliament.
And at the same time I think we have seen a huge facelift to Port Moresby City itself, not just faraway but to the Parliament itself.

So you have to hold your heads up high and be proud of the capital city that is changing face so I think it is a major development and we must commend ourselves as Members of this Parliament.

It is not one person’s money, it does not belong to the ministers or any individual Members the money belongs to Papua New Guinea.
So we should all be proud of what is happening now and to those that are taking part in the offices, I say thank you for all the things that are happening now.

My Grievance Debate, Mr Acting Speaker is to do with the general customer service where we as a country is going through in individual public offices as well as the businesses as far as we can see.

Our people are not getting the services on time.

There is so much queue.


Lining up at the banks, lining up at the counter for ticketing at the airlines.

They are lining up everywhere.

They are looking stupid trying to get services which are supposed to be there for them.

Mr Acting Speaker in my debate I want us to try to take responsibility especially those in the offices, to respond to our people when they come for service.

It doesn’t matter who they are.

But now you can see that there is favouritism.


When they see customers or clients who are well attired they will serve them quickly or there are some other means of selecting which customer to serve first.

But generally when our people come to look for service they will have to line up from 8.00 o’clock or 7.00 o’clock in the morning and some of them, even as early as 6.00 o’clock in the morning.
34 25/04 So we must now change the way of people that are in charge of the authority to change their minds to spend time and reorganised the office so that the customer service must be improve.

There is some evidence that in some government offices they mark certain day for appointments like Monday and Fridays or Wednesdays and Fridays so whose laws are they following?
This cannot be happening because the official working time is from 7.45a.m to 4.06p.m from Monday to Fridays so which law are they following by putting up their own appointment days?

It is really sad to see our people struggling to get basic services when the offices are supposed to be opened for them.
You do not have to look far to experience this it is happening here in many of the Government Offices in the Waigani and if they do not get served on that particular day because the officer is attending to his personal obligations they are told to come the next day or week.

It is not fair to our ordinary citizens.

Even I have been to couple of department offices and I have seen officer’s instead of serving clients they are busy chatting on the phone while there is a line of clients waiting to be served.
So, I urge the ministers and those who are in charge to scan their officer thoroughly and appoint people who have management and leadership skills.

If they do not have these skills we should appoint them because they will not manage and lead the Public Servants down the line.
I say this because at the end of the day the customer service will affect the basic services for our people just like in the banks and many of you do not experience this because you go through the back but I speak on behalf of our ordinary citizens who really feel the pinch of being neglected.

Our students trying to get support seeking medical certifications or police clearance etcetera have to sit and wait in long queues and if not on that day it will be a week later.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we must now admit that these have become the norm and the Public Servants must admit that almost 40 per cent of our officers are now aging, they have come to the stage where they are supposed to be retired but they still are working.

So, how do we expect them to work effectively when their systems are already shutting down?

I have a police officer who is sitting there in my district that is getting paid and not delivering service because he is of age and can’t move around.
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is my biggest concern for our country now because when you compare PNG to many other countries their response to providing adequate services to their clients is very fast.

In PNG we are not there yet, I think we are all aware of the NID Cards we need to really improve our customer services which is a very big issue in this country.
People are now looking for services and it is taking them longer to receive the basic services – 35 26/04 People are now looking for service and it is taking them a long time and long distances to look for basic service.

The services should be reaching the people not the people searching for services.

So it is a general behavior or attitude that those that are in the offices now, which includes corporate entities, not just the Government.
As long as they are paid, they don’t care anymore, So I appeal to those who are in office especially the front desk – the role of managing customer service.

We need improvement in that area.

The manager and duty officer on that particular day must be active to respond immediately.

For example, travelling the airports, you see lot of people and the lines drag.

Can something be done about it?


The management should be fast to come up with strategies to alleviate the problem of congestion at the check in counter during peak periods.

This is so that during peak periods, the flow of passengers must keep moving.

And not for them to look stupid sitting with their cargo outside while their children cry from fatigue of being online.

It looks bad on us, we must look after our people, after all they are paying for the service, they are not getting it free.
So these are my thoughts I would like to share.

As a country we have a long way in terms of responding to our customer service and client service.

Most of us get paid for not doing less.

Many of our public servants spend more time on their mobile phones than on proving services.

Particularly in our hospitals, the nurses don’t care if a patient is almost dying instead they can spent a good amount of time on their phones.
So this is my grievance and that is – our people must be served and get treated in the shortest time possible so that they can be satisfied.

Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker.

Motion – That the Grievances debate be noted – agreed to.

MOTION BY LEAVE Mr JAMES MARAPE (Tari-Pori – Minister for Finance) – I seek leave to move a motion without notice.

Leave granted.
Leave granted.

36 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Mr JAMES MARAPE (Tari-Pori) – Mr Speaker, before I move the motion let me thank everyone for sitting right through the Grievances debate.

The Prime Minister had to excuse himself to meet with the President of Exxon Mobil who is here.

I sympathize for the Member for Kairuku- Hiri who couldn’t find time for the grievances, I hope next week we can find the time to squeeze in all those issues.
SPECIAL ADJOURNMENT Motion (by Mr James Marape) agreed to – That the Parliament at its rising adjourn until Tuesday 13 November at 2.p.m.

which is the time the Honourable Treasurer will present the 2019 Budget.

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

The Parliament adjourned at 1 p.m.. 37