Move a vote of no confidence?
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill’s Government’s decision to go offshore and ask Australia to lead the investigations into the tragic event of February 2, where the Rabaul Queen, operated by Rabaul Coastal Shipping company, capsized and sank with an unconfirmed number of lives this year has to to be viewed with some apprehension by the Transport Department and the Papua New Guinea National Maritime Safety Authority. According to the Prime Minister the Government has to go to Australia to ask the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to conduct the investigations “because our own people here, will have to come under investigation as well’’. He wants a “totally independent’’ investigation. It is an interesting choice of words from the Prime Minister but in the nutshell, this is a vote of no confidence in the NMSA and questions its independence. Could the Government be feeling that those at the helm of the NMSA may have compromised themselves somehow, or that the authority is not competent to