PNGBLOGS

By GOVERNOR GARY JUFFA MP I see on the distant horizon, a wave approaching Papua New Guinea. It is a wave of the future and it is surely breaking on the shores of Papua New Guinea. It carries with it a great hope and inevitability where the People will be governed by the People, plotting a path to their own destiny, having full control of the steering wheel and the rudder even. The Politician and political creature will be historic anecdotes, fossils even, urban legends, mere things of the past. Here a new world will emerge whereby modern technology will provide guidance and surveillance, monitoring, enforcement, administration and punishment...there will be transparency and retribution will be swift, resources and assets carefully managed by consensus. Guided by a population of educated and intelligent citizens, assisted by groups and individuals who have vast global networks and influence, locally, regionally and internationally. Papua New Guinea will not only see the light at the en

This is the $600,000 home Petroleum Minister William Duma owns in the exclusive Cairns suburb of Redlynch. No. 38 Flindersia is described by real estate agents as: “a spectacular residence [with] 5 bedrooms and features a parents retreat upstairs with en-suite and balcony”. “Downstairs there are a further four bedrooms, separate living and media rooms and modern kitchen with stone benchtops and dishwasher. Open plan living areas open out on to two patios”. “The property is fully air-conditioned and and comes with solar hot water system”. The property is registered in the name of Willam Marra Duma: MRA CEO KEPAS WALI's 800K Cairns Property Kepis Wali is not just another public servant struggling to survive in the high cost environment of Papua New Guinea’s capital city, Port Moresby. No, Kepis is not struggling at all. As well as being able to afford life in the capital, Kepis Wali has enough money left over for a K850,000 kina house in the Cairns suburb of Bentley Park. It seems ha

This is the $600,000 home Petroleum Minister William Duma owns in the exclusive Cairns suburb of Redlynch. No. 38 Flindersia is described by real estate agents as: “a spectacular residence [with] 5 bedrooms and features a parents retreat upstairs with en-suite and balcony”. “Downstairs there are a further four bedrooms, separate living and media rooms and modern kitchen with stone benchtops and dishwasher. Open plan living areas open out on to two patios”. “The property is fully air-conditioned and and comes with solar hot water system”. The property is registered in the name of Willam Marra Duma: MRA CEO KEPAS WALI's 800K Cairns Property Kepis Wali is not just another public servant struggling to survive in the high cost environment of Papua New Guinea’s capital city, Port Moresby. No, Kepis is not struggling at all. As well as being able to afford life in the capital, Kepis Wali has enough money left over for a K850,000 kina house in the Cairns s

Papua New Guinea's treasurer has handed down an $A6.8 billion budget for 2013, plunging the developing nation more than $A1 billion into the red in a bid to improve the country's failing infrastructure. Don Polye on Tuesday announced increased spending for PNG's health, education, infrastructure and law and order sectors, as well as a plan to shift control of some state monies away from the nation's capital, Port Moresby, to provincial governments. PNG's economy is expected to grow by four per cent over the next year, substantially slower than the 9.2 per cent growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012. The deficit announced on Tuesday amounts to 7.2 per cent of PNG's GDP and is projected to decline to 5.9 per cent in 2014, before falling sharply to 1.6 per cent in 2017. Mr Polye said the next budget surplus was expected in 2017. Inflation, which dipped to four per cent year on year in 2012, is expected to climb to eight per cent in 2013, just

Papua New Guinea's treasurer has handed down an $A6.8 billion budget for 2013, plunging the developing nation more than $A1 billion into the red in a bid to improve the country's failing infrastructure. Don Polye on Tuesday announced increased spending for PNG's health, education, infrastructure and law and order sectors, as well as a plan to shift control of some state monies away from the nation's capital, Port Moresby, to provincial governments. PNG's economy is expected to grow by four per cent over the next year, substantially slower than the 9.2 per cent growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012. The deficit announced on Tuesday amounts to 7.2 per cent of PNG's GDP and is projected to decline to 5.9 per cent in 2014, before falling sharply to 1.6 per cent in 2017. Mr Polye said the next budget surplus was expected in 2017. Inflation, which dipped to four per cent year on year in 2012, is expected to climb to eight per cent in 2013,

PNGEXPOSED Blog Recently PNGexposed has posted a series of articles that scrutinize the past of Rex Paki. Paki currently sits on the Board of the PNG Sustainable Development Programmed and the Bank of PNG, in addition to being the Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority. These articles pointed out that Paki was slammed in two Commission of Inquiry reports, two Public Accounts Committee reports and an Auditor General report. In response to these articles, the Chairman of Transparency International PNG, Lawrence Stephens, who is also a Program Manager at PNGSDP, defended Paki, claiming these reports amounted to mere “unproven accusations”. PNGexposed took issue with this slight against PNG’s public accounting agencies and judicial organs, and our view was made known yesterday –  TI dismisses Commission of Inquiry findings . In response, Mr Stephens continued his defense of Rex Paki: “So where do we put a headline which points out that PNG Exposed is involved in astonishing displays of arro

PNGEXPOSED Blog Recently PNGexposed has posted a series of articles that scrutinize the past of Rex Paki. Paki currently sits on the Board of the PNG Sustainable Development Programmed and the Bank of PNG, in addition to being the Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority. These articles pointed out that Paki was slammed in two Commission of Inquiry reports, two Public Accounts Committee reports and an Auditor General report. In response to these articles, the Chairman of Transparency International PNG, Lawrence Stephens, who is also a Program Manager at PNGSDP, defended Paki, claiming these reports amounted to mere “unproven accusations”. PNGexposed took issue with this slight against PNG’s public accounting agencies and judicial organs, and our view was made known yesterday –  TI dismisses Commission of Inquiry findings . In response, Mr Stephens continued his defense of Rex Paki: “So where do we put a headline which points out that PNG Exposed is involved in astonishing disp

THE much glorified PNG LNG project, with its mega-buck promises, has now come to haunt Papua New Guinea. That is the immediate reaction from the Shadow Minister for Public Enterprise and Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang, following media reports of a further K6.9 billion equity injection needed to bring the project into fruition. “This is a scam, concocted by Exxon Mobil knowing absolutely well the vulnerable position PNG is in. The announcement unfortunately comes just a week away from the handing down of the country’s 2013 National Budget, putting further strain on it, and the Government must reject it outright,’’ he said. “Where would PNG look for the extra K1.3 billion to meet such unplanned and ill-forecast announcement when it is just about to borrow heftily from the EXIM Bank of China to fund its development agendas?” The MP fears that Papua New Guinea will now be forced to further reduce its 19.4 per cent stake in the project, which was a reduction from the mandatory 22.5 per c

THE much glorified PNG LNG project, with its mega-buck promises, has now come to haunt Papua New Guinea. That is the immediate reaction from the Shadow Minister for Public Enterprise and Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang, following media reports of a further K6.9 billion equity injection needed to bring the project into fruition. “This is a scam, concocted by Exxon Mobil knowing absolutely well the vulnerable position PNG is in. The announcement unfortunately comes just a week away from the handing down of the country’s 2013 National Budget, putting further strain on it, and the Government must reject it outright,’’ he said. “Where would PNG look for the extra K1.3 billion to meet such unplanned and ill-forecast announcement when it is just about to borrow heftily from the EXIM Bank of China to fund its development agendas?” The MP fears that Papua New Guinea will now be forced to further reduce its 19.4 per cent stake in the project, which was a reduction from the mandatory 22.

By GOVERNOR GARY JUFFA MP Recently I have been writing serious stuff by my own declaration anyway. Somewhat dreary and inciting spats of anger from various sectors of those who bother to read my writings and comment or give some thought (perhaps I kid myself). I decided to look at something we all in PNG have an idea about. National Security. Many are no doubt quizzical but read on, you will no doubt agree that you know more then you had initially believed. Papua New Guinea is a blind nation in so far as national security is concerned. In fact, it is also severely handicapped. Also malnourished and add to that disinterested. State secrets are openly discussed at every ones usual betelnut stall by anyone and everyone who can speak one of the three main languages or 800 plus languages of Papua New Guinea with anyone who will listen. NEC decisions are also openly discussed along with rumor and rhetoric at the very same stalls where people chew copious amounts of betelnut and compete to sp

By GRAHAM TENAEN ROBINSON The O'Neill- Dion government majestic speeches captured in parliament on consecutive occasions echoed change for this country released a vibe that saw the old and new crop of leaders display unwavering support in changing this country, with the paradox ascertained in reality stating; “the world’s richest and poorest live in this country.” The rather ‘old mix new’ political front brings to the table, a once upon a time enemies that drew fierce lines in battle, sleep together at night with wide-open eyes, adulterous in nature and desperate in kind with intention to keep this country from the one destined to deliver it from the pain and misery faced by a silent majority. So benevolent in nature that commands authority is a man that leads the pack bearing a scar with an untold story to date, how millions of kina found its way into mysterious accounts the writer dreams of knowing to date. Yet time will take it’s toll over the next five years showcasing the work

By GRAHAM TENAEN ROBINSON The O'Neill- Dion government majestic speeches captured in parliament on consecutive occasions echoed change for this country released a vibe that saw the old and new crop of leaders display unwavering support in changing this country, with the paradox ascertained in reality stating; “the world’s richest and poorest live in this country.” The rather ‘old mix new’ political front brings to the table, a once upon a time enemies that drew fierce lines in battle, sleep together at night with wide-open eyes, adulterous in nature and desperate in kind with intention to keep this country from the one destined to deliver it from the pain and misery faced by a silent majority. So benevolent in nature that commands authority is a man that leads the pack bearing a scar with an untold story to date, how millions of kina found its way into mysterious accounts the writer dreams of knowing to date. Yet time will take it’s toll over the next five years showcasing the

By GOVERNOR GARY JUFFA I have been accused of racism by Angels of Change (I know not who this is) and several others who have accused me of being racist simply because I corrected a report by their good friend VLAD SOKHIN who claimed that all PNG men were violent towards their women. I agreed that violence in PNG is a major problem and I abhor violence against women and am trying to address it in my province and country as a leader. However, I am very saddened that a foreign journalist has made a study which is being promoted by the UN which make generalizations that ALL PNG men are violent towards their women. This is insulting to me as a PNG man and it is also insulting to many Papua New Guinean men and women alike. Not all men in PNG are violent towards their women and NOT all men beat their wives as claimed in the report. I was offended by this and said so. I was also offended by many other generalizations which I felt were incorrect and improper. The writer is promoting his image

By JOHN FOWKE 1.   Our agriculturalists are cash-poor subsistence farmers, and their land-entitlements are held under customary clan-authorised usufructuary understandings. The daily life of subsistence-dependant families is dictated by needs both physical and in regard to social obligations. A trading, budgeting, calculating sort of life it is not; and since the cessation of the need for constant preparedness for war, mens’ part in it has lacked imperatives and become accepting of a role where a taste for leisure may be indulged. All these facts militate against any inclination for a typical rural clansman to set up a commercial farming enterprise. And yet, although modified in recent times our extension methods tend to focus upon technology and business-mindedness. Instead of creating sad and silly monstrosities like the  morbid and  bad-debt-ridden 20-hectare coffee scheme and the smallholder cattle schemes of twenty years ago. I believe  we should encourage the production of cash

By JOHN FOWKE 1.   Our agriculturalists are cash-poor subsistence farmers, and their land-entitlements are held under customary clan-authorised usufructuary understandings. The daily life of subsistence-dependant families is dictated by needs both physical and in regard to social obligations. A trading, budgeting, calculating sort of life it is not; and since the cessation of the need for constant preparedness for war, mens’ part in it has lacked imperatives and become accepting of a role where a taste for leisure may be indulged. All these facts militate against any inclination for a typical rural clansman to set up a commercial farming enterprise. And yet, although modified in recent times our extension methods tend to focus upon technology and business-mindedness. Instead of creating sad and silly monstrosities like the  morbid and  bad-debt-ridden 20-hectare coffee scheme and the smallholder cattle schemes of twenty years ago. I believe  we should encourage the production of cas