PNGBLOGS

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has said more than once that the country has nothing to show for all the money that has flowed into this country’s coffers in the past few years. Much, much more is about to flow into its treasury when the Ramu Nickel/Cobalt mine starts exporting; when the LNG project harvests its first shipment of gas next year; and when major new mines start up in Wafi and  Frieda River. Where is all this money going to be invested to finally reverse the trend O’Neill speaks about? Will it show up in major infrastructure projects that the nation can be proud of for years to come? Even the redistribution of financing to the rural areas might not show up in anything, as we have alluded to in this space on many occasions. This is a hugely maritime country with major river networks crisscrossing the mainland and the seas that separate it from its island provinces. Yet our marine transportation system is so poor as to be almost nonexistent. Government-chartered air and sea tra

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has said more than once that the country has nothing to show for all the money that has flowed into this country’s coffers in the past few years. Much, much more is about to flow into its treasury when the Ramu Nickel/Cobalt mine starts exporting; when the LNG project harvests its first shipment of gas next year; and when major new mines start up in Wafi and  Frieda River. Where is all this money going to be invested to finally reverse the trend O’Neill speaks about? Will it show up in major infrastructure projects that the nation can be proud of for years to come? Even the redistribution of financing to the rural areas might not show up in anything, as we have alluded to in this space on many occasions. This is a hugely maritime country with major river networks crisscrossing the mainland and the seas that separate it from its island provinces. Yet our marine transportation system is so poor as to be almost nonexistent. Government-chartered air and s

By J L BRAUN Attention: Hon James Marape, Parliament Haus On a personal note, I trust you’re sitting down, sir. We near the first anniversary of my initial expression of interest via email to FinCorp Haus’s Assistant Secretary for National High Schools. Evidently Joyce Tepu doesn’t monitor her inbox. (Do any officials?) This despite her Prime Minister’s recurring public admonitions for the public service to implement implement implement. Therefore, three weeks later I airmail a thick envelope to Secretary Musawe Sinabare and Deputy Luke Taita, requesting them to forward my credentials to the Curriculum Branch and other relevant personnel. I await acknowledgement. In Tony Fova’s late-September published proclamation related to OBE exit strategy, he requests suggestions, confirms his appointment as Executive Officer for the OBE Secretariat, and reveals his phone numbers and email contact. My email to him elicits Message copied…I shall pass your papers over to Ms Tepu. You know the rest

By J L BRAUN Attention: Hon James Marape, Parliament Haus On a personal note, I trust you’re sitting down, sir. We near the first anniversary of my initial expression of interest via email to FinCorp Haus’s Assistant Secretary for National High Schools. Evidently Joyce Tepu doesn’t monitor her inbox. (Do any officials?) This despite her Prime Minister’s recurring public admonitions for the public service to implement implement implement. Therefore, three weeks later I airmail a thick envelope to Secretary Musawe Sinabare and Deputy Luke Taita, requesting them to forward my credentials to the Curriculum Branch and other relevant personnel. I await acknowledgement. In Tony Fova’s late-September published proclamation related to OBE exit strategy, he requests suggestions, confirms his appointment as Executive Officer for the OBE Secretariat, and reveals his phone numbers and email contact. My email to him elicits Message copied…I shall pass your papers over to Ms Tepu. You

By PNG-EXPOSED The ‘new’ Panguna Landowners Association, led by its Chairman, Lawrence Daveona – a Port Moresby based businessman and civil servant – is holding itself out as the true representative body for landowners on Bougainville. And, to that end, the association has put itself in the box-seat to negotiate the mine’s reopening [1] with Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL). But there is more to this political coup than meets the eye. PNGexposed can confirm that the group’s Chairman, Mr Daveona, has received thousands of kina in payments from the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC), a body set up by BCL’s European investors to lobby for the mine’s reopening. These payments have been made by ESBC’s President, Axel G Sturm. According to The Australian , Mr Sturm is “possibly the company’s largest individual shareholder”. He has been agitating for the mine’s reopening from his home in the Principality of Andorra, a notorious tax-haven and secrecy jurisdiction

By PNG-EXPOSED The ‘new’ Panguna Landowners Association, led by its Chairman, Lawrence Daveona – a Port Moresby based businessman and civil servant – is holding itself out as the true representative body for landowners on Bougainville. And, to that end, the association has put itself in the box-seat to negotiate the mine’s reopening [1] with Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL). But there is more to this political coup than meets the eye. PNGexposed can confirm that the group’s Chairman, Mr Daveona, has received thousands of kina in payments from the European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper (ESBC), a body set up by BCL’s European investors to lobby for the mine’s reopening. These payments have been made by ESBC’s President, Axel G Sturm. According to The Australian , Mr Sturm is “possibly the company’s largest individual shareholder”. He has been agitating for the mine’s reopening from his home in the Principality of Andorra, a notorious tax-haven and secrecy jurisd

Melbourne Age Here is a good news story from Papua New Guinea: Australia's nearest neighbour has dodged the bullet of what the World Health Organisation feared could become an AIDS pandemic as deadly as those which have devastated parts of Africa. Several years ago there were predictions that as many as one in 20 of PNG's population of 7 million could become infected with HIV, amid signs that the disease was spreading unchecked across parts of the highlands region. Now the epidemic is being contained, most of those infected are receiving lifesaving treatment and health workers are optimistic that this can be reduced to another manageable public health challenge. ''It is good news. We now know that this is a concentrated epidemic, not a generalised epidemic. The disaster that was predicted hasn't happened,'' says Dr Geoff Clark, a former WHO official who is now the Australian Agency for International Development's program director for health and HIV in PN

Melbourne Age Here is a good news story from Papua New Guinea: Australia's nearest neighbour has dodged the bullet of what the World Health Organisation feared could become an AIDS pandemic as deadly as those which have devastated parts of Africa. Several years ago there were predictions that as many as one in 20 of PNG's population of 7 million could become infected with HIV, amid signs that the disease was spreading unchecked across parts of the highlands region. Now the epidemic is being contained, most of those infected are receiving lifesaving treatment and health workers are optimistic that this can be reduced to another manageable public health challenge. ''It is good news. We now know that this is a concentrated epidemic, not a generalised epidemic. The disaster that was predicted hasn't happened,'' says Dr Geoff Clark, a former WHO official who is now the Australian Agency for International Development's program director for health and H

Anthony Mambu By HILDA WAYNE in Perth, Western Australia Australian union’s fight for ‘Aussie jobs’ and campaign against skilled migration and overseas 457 workers has created what has been termed as xenophobia as it is not the foreign workers but the resources companies who are at the forefront of employing these workers with much needed skills and experience. Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard added to the “crackdown” on foreign workers saying that she would “fight to stop foreign workers being put at the front of the queue with Australian workers at the back.” However this view is not shared by many within the resources industry and business leaders in Australia. Former Queensland treasurer and current Nimrod Resources chairman Keith DeLacy said in a recent media report that the protests against foreign workers will do more harm than good to the Australian economy. “There never seems to be any balance. It just seems to come across as an anti-business agenda and no doubt playing to