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UN wants PNG to uphold rule of law

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has raised concern about threats to the rule of law in Papua New Guinea, which has been locked in a leadership battle. The nation's politics have been in turmoil since August 2011, when parliament elected Peter O'Neill as prime minister while then-leader Sir Michael Somare was recovering from illness in Singapore. Somare contests the legitimacy of the vote - a view upheld by the Supreme Court, which ruled in December that O'Neill's rise to power was illegal. Pillay accused O'Neill's government and parliament of interfering with judicial independence with a new law on judicial conduct. "One after another, the executive and parliament have taken very worrying steps to interfere with judicial independence," she said in a statement. "It appears that the Judicial Conduct Act is being used to interfere in particular with the legal proceedings to determine the legality of the current administration,"

UN wants PNG to uphold rule of law

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has raised concern about threats to the rule of law in Papua New Guinea, which has been locked in a leadership battle. The nation's politics have been in turmoil since August 2011, when parliament elected Peter O'Neill as prime minister while then-leader Sir Michael Somare was recovering from illness in Singapore. Somare contests the legitimacy of the vote - a view upheld by the Supreme Court, which ruled in December that O'Neill's rise to power was illegal. Pillay accused O'Neill's government and parliament of interfering with judicial independence with a new law on judicial conduct. "One after another, the executive and parliament have taken very worrying steps to interfere with judicial independence," she said in a statement. "It appears that the Judicial Conduct Act is being used to interfere in particular with the legal proceedings to determine the legality of the current administra

Peter O’Neill makes a commitment to May 18th for Elections

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Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and the Government  Caucus  (Which means all the parties in the Government) Assured the nation that the electoral Commission has stated the date as 18th of May as issue of Writs on which the elections begin and Papua New Guineans go to the Polls and the Return of writs return  on the  27th of July. There will be no extension of Parliament, Mr.O'Neill said they look forward going to the Polls. The Judicial Conduct Bill and other bills that were recently passed by Parliament are still in Court and are held up by various Court Orders, they will be dealt with when the next Parliament comes in.  Unions, churches, business, Transparency international said they grateful for the dialogue with the PM and tomorrow Port Moresby should be back to normal. Richard Kassman of Transparency International (PNG) addresses a serious point of confusion in the minds of the public, in regards to the Status of Members of Parliament after the issue of writs on May 18. He st

Peter O’Neill makes a commitment to May 18th for Elections

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Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and the Government  Caucus  (Which means all the parties in the Government) Assured the nation that the electoral Commission has stated the date as 18th of May as issue of Writs on which the elections begin and Papua New Guineans go to the Polls and the Return of writs return  on the  27th of July. There will be no extension of Parliament, Mr.O'Neill said they look forward going to the Polls. The Judicial Conduct Bill and other bills that were recently passed by Parliament are still in Court and are held up by various Court Orders, they will be dealt with when the next Parliament comes in.  Unions, churches, business, Transparency international said they grateful for the dialogue with the PM and tomorrow Port Moresby should be back to normal. Richard Kassman of Transparency International (PNG) addresses a serious point of confusion in the minds of the public, in regards to the Status of Members of Parliament after the issue of writs on May 18.

Fraud and blunders cost aid agency $1.5m

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FURNISHINGS for the homes of Papua New Guinea bureaucrats have been ''incorrectly'' bought using $150,000 worth of Australian taxpayers funds and a thief has pocketed just over $250,000 from a justice strengthening project also funded by Australia. The waste was among about $1.5 million worth of AusAID funding the federal agency admits will never be recovered as a result of frauds and irregular spending from 2004 to 2010. This was revealed after the Herald asked the agency to detail how much had been recovered from a series of high-value frauds and whether those responsible had faced justice. AusAID confirmed no one would ever face charges in four cases involving significant amounts of aid money dating back to 2006. Suspects in four other incidents are yet to face court despite the suspected fraud occurring in one case up to six years earlier. However, the AusAID first assistant director general, Laurie Dunn, defended the agency's handling of the matters, saying som

Fraud and blunders cost aid agency $1.5m

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FURNISHINGS for the homes of Papua New Guinea bureaucrats have been ''incorrectly'' bought using $150,000 worth of Australian taxpayers funds and a thief has pocketed just over $250,000 from a justice strengthening project also funded by Australia. The waste was among about $1.5 million worth of AusAID funding the federal agency admits will never be recovered as a result of frauds and irregular spending from 2004 to 2010. This was revealed after the Herald asked the agency to detail how much had been recovered from a series of high-value frauds and whether those responsible had faced justice. AusAID confirmed no one would ever face charges in four cases involving significant amounts of aid money dating back to 2006. Suspects in four other incidents are yet to face court despite the suspected fraud occurring in one case up to six years earlier. However, the AusAID first assistant director general, Laurie Dunn, defended the agency's handling of the matters,

Maintain the Rage PNG

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The lawyers advising this bunch of crooks in ‘government’ need a serve as they operate under the radar and seem to escape scrutiny here. Tiffany Twivey, as dumb as she is pops her head up now and then and blows their cover with her silly postings, trying to defend the indefensible. To those lawyers advising the O’Neill/Namah ‘government’, you are there only because O’Neill and Namah have the keys to the treasury which I hear is just about dried up now. (The entire Department of Environment and Conservation was thrown out onto the streets and there is no money to accommodate them, yet there are barrels of cash for rogue ‘illegal’ advice. Shame!) You shamelessly help yourselves in the pillage and raid of the peoples’ treasury with your high fees, like the wolves you are, lining your pockets and bank accounts while the people suffer. You are being paid for introducing the most devious piece of legislation in the history of PNG to keep this useless regime in power and render our judiciary

Maintain the Rage PNG

Image
The lawyers advising this bunch of crooks in ‘government’ need a serve as they operate under the radar and seem to escape scrutiny here. Tiffany Twivey, as dumb as she is pops her head up now and then and blows their cover with her silly postings, trying to defend the indefensible. To those lawyers advising the O’Neill/Namah ‘government’, you are there only because O’Neill and Namah have the keys to the treasury which I hear is just about dried up now. (The entire Department of Environment and Conservation was thrown out onto the streets and there is no money to accommodate them, yet there are barrels of cash for rogue ‘illegal’ advice. Shame!) You shamelessly help yourselves in the pillage and raid of the peoples’ treasury with your high fees, like the wolves you are, lining your pockets and bank accounts while the people suffer. You are being paid for introducing the most devious piece of legislation in the history of PNG to keep this useless regime in power and render our judici

A REPLY TO TIFFANY TWIVEY PART 1 OF 3

NOU VADA Tiffany Twivey’s claims that this political impasse has been caused solely by Courts is unbelievably biased and her Article on PNG Attitude Blog is hardly a proper or a proper enough assessment of the political impasse. It is at best a piece of propaganda from a Government consultant being paid a lot of taxpayer’s money. Twivey states: “Repeat, these sorts of orders have NEVER, EVER been made by any Court in a Westminster system of democracy as they are clearly without jurisdiction and are unconstitutional.” First of all let me just say that it is immaterial that such orders have never been given in the Westminster system. It is immaterial because Papua New Guinea is a constitutional democracy and the powers of the Government’s three arms are set out in the Constitution. Twivey’s mention of the Westminster System is at best a spin-doctor tactic… to make her argument broader than it actually is. In fact her argument is narrow and misleading as you will see. Ms. Twivey opens her