PNGBLOGS

A PAPUA New Guinea businessman accused of misusing millions of dollars of government funds in his home country still holds a 457 visa and is free to return to Australia. Eremas Wartoto came to live in Cairns in 2011 after he was granted the temporary permit. He reportedly obtained the visa, a type which is at the centre of a federal government crackdown over claimed rorting of the system, for a car hire company he owns because there was a shortage of general corporate managers in the area. It is understood he left Australia last week after media reports that he was wanted in PNG. Following a request by the PNG National Court, a Queensland judge ordered the seizure of some of his Australian assets earlier this week. They included several rental properties, vehicles at a car rental agency of which Wartoto is the director and a number of bank accounts. PNG Director of Crimes Peter Guiness told AAP that Wartoto has been charged with misappropriation of funds. He was granted permission to r

A PAPUA New Guinea businessman accused of misusing millions of dollars of government funds in his home country still holds a 457 visa and is free to return to Australia. Eremas Wartoto came to live in Cairns in 2011 after he was granted the temporary permit. He reportedly obtained the visa, a type which is at the centre of a federal government crackdown over claimed rorting of the system, for a car hire company he owns because there was a shortage of general corporate managers in the area. It is understood he left Australia last week after media reports that he was wanted in PNG. Following a request by the PNG National Court, a Queensland judge ordered the seizure of some of his Australian assets earlier this week. They included several rental properties, vehicles at a car rental agency of which Wartoto is the director and a number of bank accounts. PNG Director of Crimes Peter Guiness told AAP that Wartoto has been charged with misappropriation of funds. He was granted

INCREASINGLY, in circles where Papua New Guineans with some knowledge of history gather, there can be heard references to the continuation of the “White Australia policy”. This unfortunate reference is made in the context of Australia’s very strict immigration policies and the agonisingly painful delays for most Papua New Guineans seeking visas into Australia. The lines outside the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby stretch into the street at times. Questions, checks and counter-checks stretch to weeks before any visa is granted. Often they are refused. Particularly annoying is the insistence that the Papua New Guinean applicant for a visa comes up with bank statements showing balances of no less than K10,000 in the bank. The unfortunate event in recent years where Sir Michael Somare, then the prime minister, was forced to remove his sandals by Australian immigration officers and the repeated references over the weekend by Foreign Minister Bob Carr to Papuans rather than Papua

INCREASINGLY, in circles where Papua New Guineans with some knowledge of history gather, there can be heard references to the continuation of the “White Australia policy”. This unfortunate reference is made in the context of Australia’s very strict immigration policies and the agonisingly painful delays for most Papua New Guineans seeking visas into Australia. The lines outside the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby stretch into the street at times. Questions, checks and counter-checks stretch to weeks before any visa is granted. Often they are refused. Particularly annoying is the insistence that the Papua New Guinean applicant for a visa comes up with bank statements showing balances of no less than K10,000 in the bank. The unfortunate event in recent years where Sir Michael Somare, then the prime minister, was forced to remove his sandals by Australian immigration officers and the repeated references over the weekend by Foreign Minister Bob Carr to Papuans rather than

By SEAN JACOBS The death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has caused a brief moment of pause and reflection throughout the world. Renowned globally for her convictions, Thatcher's economic policies discouraged inflation, introduced flexibility into the labour market, limited state ownership of enterprise and, in doing so, helped banish the cloud of economic malaise that hung over Britain in the 1970s. The philosophy behind this set of policy ideas – now known as Thatcherism – had clear proponents in intellectual heavyweights like Milton Friedman and, by overlapping with Reagaonomics, resulted in powerful repercussions in economic thinking beyond Britain throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the import of similar Thatcher-type ideas into the plans of fiscal policymakers and political leaders, although late and incomplete, is apparent in some of PNG's economic policies. It is worth reflecting briefly on the impact of these ideas in PNG. The

By SEAN JACOBS The death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has caused a brief moment of pause and reflection throughout the world. Renowned globally for her convictions, Thatcher's economic policies discouraged inflation, introduced flexibility into the labour market, limited state ownership of enterprise and, in doing so, helped banish the cloud of economic malaise that hung over Britain in the 1970s. The philosophy behind this set of policy ideas – now known as Thatcherism – had clear proponents in intellectual heavyweights like Milton Friedman and, by overlapping with Reagaonomics, resulted in powerful repercussions in economic thinking beyond Britain throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the import of similar Thatcher-type ideas into the plans of fiscal policymakers and political leaders, although late and incomplete, is apparent in some of PNG's economic policies. It is worth reflecting briefly on the impact of these ideas in

Fairfax Media/Sydney Morning Herald An alleged crime boss wanted in Papua New Guinea over the theft of $30 million has used a 457 visa issued by the Australian government to avoid arrest and prosecution. Eremas Wartoto, accused of being one of PNG's most corrupt figures by anti-graft authorities, has been living in Cairns since mid-2011. He obtained a 457 visa, the foreign skilled worker visa at the centre of a Gillard government crackdown, after learning PNG authorities planned to charge him in August 2011. Since then, Mr Wartoto has claimed to be too ill to face trial in Port Moresby over serious criminal charges laid against him in absentia two years ago. Advertisement But travel records obtained by Fairfax Media reveal that Mr Wartoto has travelled to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and the Solomon Islands during the past two years and has been able to return to live in Australia each time because of his 457 visa. Mr Wartoto returned to PNG on Wednesday after Fairfax Media