PNGBLOGS

by Paul Amatio I am disgusted that two so-called experts namely Adrian Prouse of the Red Cross and Stefanie Vaccher of the Burnet Institute who live in my country and have the nerve to regard my country as “the next place where a new variant emerges.” This is not about burying my head in the ground and pretending in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It is about people who deliberately chose to hide behind and deny the existence of facts to the contrary in order to push an agenda that is being resisted. It also appears to be an intention to set the ground work in order to justify any future declaration of a “variant” being found and declaring it as having originated from PNG making my country an international pariah. Lets get the facts right here. There is a very high level of vaccine hesitancy in this country and it is not linked to “concerns around sorcery, concerns around being stigmatized” as Prouse says. That absolute rubbish is centered on the colonialist belief

by Mitch Renagi Anti-corruption activist Andrew Arthur’s allegations against Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey and his high-paid Australian sidekick Paul Flanagan, in relation to the commission of inquiry into the central bank, are correct, and highly alarming. The allegations, contained in an article posted in PNGBlogs, point to a breakdown of relations between the Treasurer,  his department and the Financial Sector. The breakdown is having damaging effects on the management of the economy and the Budget, and is having flow-on effects in other areas of the finance system. I can confirm that Ling-Stuckey and Flanagan are using the inquiry into the Bank of Papua New Guinea to get Flanagan and other Ling-Stuckey choices onto the board of the central bank, and to replace the Governor, Loi Bakani, with their own appointment. The Treasurer will make Flanagan a director and replace Bakani and others under the Central Bank Amendment Act 2021, which was passed in Parliament recently. T

By: Emmanuel BOBOLA    The statement by the Prime Minister on the National front page about the delay of the dominant industry levy until July 2022 may not be true. The dominant industry players levy is no longer a proposal but law when the 2022 Budget was passed by Parliament the following day. The levy is contained in the Appropriation Bill 2022 and was never repealed making the statement by the Prime Minister, James Marape utterly false. When the budget was passed, the levy automatically became operational by law (Appropriation Bill 2022) and is no longer a proposed law or proposal as claimed by the Prime Minister. The Government now has the prerogative to enforce the levy by January next year because it is now law, said one Industry expert who wants to remain anonymous. The Prime Minister cannot make public statements such as the one on the front page of the National without consulting Parliament or the NEC. It is unbecoming of the prime minister, to say one thing to the public and

by : Andrew Arthur Prime Minister James Marape had one of his worst performances in the last parliament session jumping from one place to the other over the Dominate Player Levy. One moment he pushed hard in NEC for the new tax on the advice of Ian Ling-Stuckey and Paul Flanagan and as is the case, he flips his decision when met with some resistance in Parliament. Everyone knows Marape has a real problem with being decisive- but his performance on the 2022 Budget has now left PNG with a k190 million hole by shelving the ‘Dominate Player Levy’ that his Treasury Ian Ling-Stuckey and highly paid failed Australian advisor Paul Flanagan had craftily written into the budget for additional taxes on banking and telecommunication. The budget preparation is a culmination of 12 months of planning and works for Politicians, Public Servants, and advisors that ended in a major failure and refusal by legislators in Parliament. An embarrassment to those who had worked hard to put together the 2022 Mon

By Philemon Wass Korowi LLB, Lawyer November 28, 2021 My dear Prime Minister, I have known you since our UPNG days as friend, brother, admirer and supporter until I witnessed live on tv, your response to questions without notice raised by the Governor for Morobe regarding the K66 million Wau-Bulolo road project. After hearing your response, I lost trust and confidence and support in your leadership. The following are my reasons to to my change of heart and support. Your response as to the delay in the implementation of this project on the basis that your government will inject an additional K50 million as counter- part funding in addition to the approved K66 million funded by the Australian government was merely a cover-up to save yourself from political pressure within some Ministers to which, you have terribly succumbed, by deciding not to sign the NEC decision and present to the government house, for execution of the contract by the Governor General on behalf of the Independent Sta

by MITCH RENAGI Budget week should be a triumph for any self-respecting Treasurer - it should cap all his efforts over the past 12 months and lay out a rosy future for the next 12. Unfortunately for Ian Ling-Stuckey and his team of highly-paid foreign advisers, this Budget week has been a disaster, lurching from one crisis to another. His disastrous performance has shredded the Marape Government’s economic reputation. He and his advisers should resign, and failing that Marape should sack them. Ling-Stuckey’s failures are inexcusable. First, he missed the Budget sitting day by 24 hours.  Then when he did get around to delivering the Budget a day late, he did not table the all important Volume 1, Economic and Development Policies. In effect, the Budget has not been tabled. Neither Vol 1 nor his Budget speech have been posted on the Treasury web site as of Monday morning, so the public does not have access to the information that will guide people’s lives and the nation for the next 12 mo

  Prime Minister James Marape’s Take Back PNG strategies in order of his progress: 1) He appeared as PNG's Father Moses, leading us into the Promised Land filled with milk & honey, 2. Then he turned into  becoming Prophet Elizah cursing  the Nation of himself and the nation, 3. Now he becomes Sakias the tax collector, collecting tax from our country and her people; and  4. In the cause, he has also become Judas  Iscariot the traitor selling our country to the foreigners for just few pieces of silver to enrich himself, his family  and his cronies.  "PANGU SAVE LONG ROT" has produced the worse Prime Minister in our nation’s history. Unlike in the earlier years, PANGU produced the finest and the best PM in late Great Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare.  James Marape has come and completely destroyed our country in the space of 2 and 1/2 years. This is no fantasy, it is a reality.

PNG Think Tank Group is putting together the A Team to put together the Objections Document for the K21 BILLION acquisition of Oil Search Ltd by Santos. We do not know the details of Santos plans for national content and national empowerment.  PNG Think Tank Group has appointed John Epidari to lead the team next 4 weeks to put together the objections notice to ICCC of PNG and copy to BPNG and IRC and all key Ministries to make sure PNG must get the best deal available under TAKE BACK PNG.  No resources in PNG are free for foreigners to just turn up and walk all over us. The Telstra takeover of Digicel Pacific deal must also address national content and empowerment issues as well as Westpac Bank takeover deal in PNG.  While NRI and INA and all the universities and national unions and student unions and interest groups are all silent for extended period without moving anything, PNG TTG is pushing simply for national interests through national content and empowerment.  Anyone who has stro

By: Andrew Arthur Prime Minister Hon. James Marape and his planning minister Reinbo Paita are the parties behind the theft of all Papua New Guinea’s gold for the next 100 years! They have given approval for the STATE of Papua New Guinea to sign away all gold rights to an Australian paper company in Refinery Holdings PTE LTD. First, they have done the deal with a paper company even before there is a LAW that says they have the right to do the deal. We see how the real manipulation works out. Marape and Paita now need to get the law passed by Parliament. The law is before the Parliament to set up Papua New Guinea’s first National Gold Corporation. The National Gold Corporation Bill first surfaced in 2012 but successive Government of Sir Michael Somare and Hon. Peter O’Neill, in their wisdom, had refused to pass this Bill as there have been some sinister motives and constitutional issues associated with the Bill. The new bill will allow Refinery Holdings LTD PTE to own 70% of the National