The Queensland Rugby League has informed the PNG Hunters that their Hostplus Cup match against the Burleigh Bears in Port Moresby this weekend will unfortunately not proceed as scheduled. The QRL has sought ongoing independent advice in relation to the proposed Hunters’ home match on Saturday, August 20. Based on this advice and the need to ensure the health and safety of all teams and club personnel remains a priority, the Board has not approved travel to PNG this weekend. As a result, the Round 19 game between the Hunters and Bears will now be played at Bycroft Oval on the Gold Coast. The QRL remains in open dialogue with the Hunters and will review the latest advice before a decision is made about their request to play the Mackay Cutters in Port Moresby on August 27. “We will meet again this week to discuss the proposed scheduling and we will continue to explore opportunities to provide additional support for the PNG Hunters,” QRL chairman Bruce Hatcher said today.

One of the major concerns frequently raised by the general public in Mt Hagen city is the weak law and order situation. Michael Nita, councilor for Ward 7 in Mt Hagen Urban LLG said since his election in 2019 as ward representative, he had been doing his best to address law and order in his ward. Nita, who represents one of the highly populated wards covering parts of Mt Hagen city, said he observed that most of the criminal activities like robbery and rape occurred when perpetrators took advantage of the dark streets with no lights. Nita said he was relieved that with the street lights in place, petty crimes have been reduced and mothers also had the opportunity to do roadside marketing safely. He however said there are other areas of need for his people  and he has plans to assist them. Nita also expressed interest in working closely with business houses, foundations and donor partners through the leadership of the district and provincial administrations to help set up a safe and conducive environment in Mt Hagen city for everyone.

Bougainville-based community groups can now apply for funding to support projects that promote locally driven development activities and community cooperation. The grants are designed to support grassroots initiatives, involving community groups and civil society organisations that seek to promote peace, stability, and local development. Grants will help communities to build small-scale infrastructure, respond to climate change, improve access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), promote gender equality, disability and social inclusion, and partner with local government. Eligible groups include Bougainville-based volunteer groups, communitybased development or self-help groups, youth groups, sports groups clubs or sports, women’s groups, school boards of management, health facility boards of management, community health networks or village health volunteer groups and church groups. The grant funding range is from K50,000 to K120,000 with a 10 per cent contribution required from grant recipients towards the cost of equipment and materials. The Bougainville Community Grants Program is funded by the Australian Government through the Bougainville Partnership, working together with the governments of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Applications open 15 August 2022 and will run through to 15 August 2023. Secretary for Community Development, Mana Kakarouts, welcomed the launch of the community grants. “These grants support groups of citizens and their representatives to work together with government to improve service delivery and the use of public resources,” she said. “The program aims to reach the most disadvantaged and the most remote areas of Bougainville.” Australian High Commission First Secretary, Dr Fiona Crockford, said Australia has a long-term commitment to working with Bougainvilleans to support peace and economic development. “Development is always a collective effort and that is why these grants encourage citizens, community groups and businesses to work cooperatively with government to create solutions to local development challenges,” said Dr Crockford. Information packs and application forms are available at District Administrations or the Bougainville Community Grants offices in Arawa and Buka.

Central Governor Ms. Rufina Peter on Thursday (11.08.22) paid her first courtesy call on Department of Personnel Management Secretary Ms. Taies Sansan Secretary Sansan and Ms. Peter had a brief meeting to look at Human Resource employment development for Central Province. “This is my first government department visit. I think it’s logical to come to DPM first because human resources will get the work done,” said Ms. Peter. She added that, “as a female political leader, we all know that space still has a lot of perception that women are not effective political leaders, and so for Kessy Sawang (Raicost MP) and I, we have to be demonstrative and make this perception a myth.” Ms. Peter told a packed conference room full of DPM and Censorship Board staff that she and Ms. Sawang will have to prove that in their five years in Parliament, and said she is looking at Human Resource as very critical to ensure their performances are demonstrated. “We can be political heads, but we need public servants who can articulate our vision and make it happen, and that coming to DPM was logical,” said Ms. Peter. After meeting with Secretary Sansan, Ms. Peter met DPM staff, mostly women who gave her a rousing welcome. DPM National Agency Director, Ms. Roselyn Wrakuavia who spoke on behalf of those present congratulated Ms. Peter, and told her that Papua New Guineans are empowered seeing such female political leaders persevere, determined and have the passion to beat the odds and get elected. “We have staff from Central Province here, but you see a packed conference room because we all want to catch the moment and celebrate your win too,” said Ms. Wrakuavia. DPM Secretary, Ms. Sansan also told Ms. Peter that DPM has a ratio of 60 per cent of women holding executive management positions, and the Department is looking forward to working with the Central Provincial Government in terms of public service job employment and human resource building. Meanwhile, Ms. Peter said she needs to make sure the administration and bureaucrats administer and put people’s interest first by articulating her visions, and making sure that the 300,000 people from Central Province from Amazon Bay up to Goilala are happy that a woman has delivered services.

The Remington Group commenced our 2022 On-the-Job Training Programme (OJT) last week. Each year, in partnership with a technical institute, we take students into our businesses for on-the-job training to help them improve their skills and gain experience in the workforce. The first batch of nine students for 2022 came to us from the Port Moresby Technical College, who we have partnered with to assist mentor their students throughout their training. The Remington Group, in partnership with Port Moresby Technical School, is providing this opportunity to students to assist them practice what they learn in class, and to enhance their skills with appropriate hands-on experience in the workplace. Our OJT Programme is designed to equip students with the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude required to help them apply their field of study in a working environment. “The Remington Group is well known as being committed to helping Papua New Guineans learn real working skills, the kind of skills that will assist them find jobs when they leave their school or technical college. This is how we give back to the communities in which we operate. One hundred percent PNG owned, Remington is a household name in Papua New Guinea, we’ve been around in one form or another since 1948, and we’re here to stay”, Peter Goodwin, Remington Group CEO. The nine students have been assigned to work in the several different business units under the Remington Group umbrella, over the next eight weeks. The four Printing & Graphic Arts students; Manasseh Kupa, Annette Naime, Clifford Luiya and Rebecca Luswa will be assigned to work at BizPrint & Scan. Three Maintenance Fitting & Machining students; Hapia Diwi, Gavin Gandari and Skate Apamumu will be working closely with our Facilities Team, while the two Electronics students; Chervis Hau and McNeil Clivson will be working alongside Remington Technology Service Technicians. The Remington Group is fully committed to training young Papua New Guineans and to developing a knowledgeable national workforce. W e challenge our first OJT batch for 2022 to learn as much as they can, and ask as many questions as they can in the next eight weeks.

346 Grade 12 students from Gordons Secondary school in NCD joined thousands nationwide who are currently sitting for their Written Expression Exam. The Exam started late due to traffic issues around the Waigani Area that forced some students around the Waigani/Morata area to walk to school this morning. Deputy Principal-Academic, Mr Saju Francis said the Students had 3 weeks to read their booklets and prepare for the Exam so he is confident they will do well. He added that the Education Department made the right call to defer the Written Expression Exam and give time for the election related unrests to settle down so students can feel free to come to school for the exam today.

Uruguay men and Japan women earned core status on the HSBS World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 after they each emerged triumphant from the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2022. Following three days of energy-sapping action in Santiago, Chile, Japan dug deep to turn in an impressive performance in the women’s final, beating European champions Poland 17-0. “Finally, we’ve done it! It’s been a really long time,” Sakura Sevens forward Chiharu Nakamura, who scored her side’s opening try against Poland, said after the final whistle. In the men’s final, Georgia ultimately paid the price for first-half indiscipline as Uruguay scored three tries to win 19-5, securing the 2022 Challenger Series title and with it, their place on the 2023 Series. WOMEN’S RECAP In the opening women’s semi-final in Santiago, Poland found themselves 10-0 down at half-time as China twice crossed the whitewash through Hong Ting Ruan and Xu Xiaoyan. Malgorzata Koldej started the comeback within a minute of the restart, however, before tries from Katarzyna Paszczyk and Anna Klichowska gave the Rugby Europe Women’s Sevens Championship 2022 winners a seven-point lead. Koldej then added her second try of the match, and 11th of the tournament, to give Poland a two-score advantage. Zhou Yan crossed for China before the end, but it came too late to prevent a 22-15 defeat. Japan made sure of their place in the women’s final by beating Kenya by the same score, but the Lionesses ensured the Sakura Sevens had to work hard for victory. The Sakura Sevens led 17-5 at half-time before Kenya narrowed the deficit to just two points as Laurine Otieno and Janet Okello, for the second time in the match, crossed the whitewash. It set up a tense finish in Santiago, however, Wakaba Hara had the final say, touching down her hat-trick try to send Japan to set up a final showdown with Poland. Japan again started quickly in the final as Nakamura went over in the second minute, after Koldej had done brilliantly to haul Hara down before the line. The Sakura Sevens were then forced to soak up a period of Polish pressure before a stunning Mei Otani break led to a try for Yume Hirano on the stroke of half-time. Poland had been here before, in the semi-final, of course but in the final Japan stood firm and another brilliant try, this time scored by Michiyo Suda, put the stamp on a 17-0 win, the title and their place on the 2023 Series. Meanwhile, China recovered from their semi-final disappointment to exact revenge on Kenya, who beat them on Friday, defeating the Lionesses 31-5 in the bronze final. Tries from Yan Melling, Sun Yue and Gu Yaoyao put the Chinese 19-0 up at the break and they wrapped up third place with second-half scores from Wang Xiao and another for Yue. Earlier on Sunday, Kazakhstan beat Belgium 17-5 to take fifth place, Argentina edged Colombia 17-12 for seventh, South Africa ended the weekend with a 29-10 defeat of Chile in the ninth-place play-off and Papua New Guinea won 29-12 against Mexico to claim 11th. MEN’S RECAP Hosts Chile could not have hoped for a better start to their men’s semi-final against Georgia, as Joaquin Huici touched down within two minutes of kick-off, and Vicente Tredinick converted. Georgia, though, hit back through Teimuraz Kokhodze and after Alfonso Escobar was shown a yellow card, Miriani Modebadze went over twice in quick succession for the Lelos. Tredinick converted Lucas Westcott’s 10th-minute try to cut Chile’s arrears to five points with four minutes left but that was as close as it got. Kokhodze scored his second try of the match before a late Lasha Lomidze score confirmed a 31-14 win for Georgia. Uruguay at least ensured there would be South American representation in the men’s final at Estadio Santa Laura, though, as they held off a second-half comeback to beat Germany 19-15. When Diego Ardao crossed the whitewash in the first minute of the second half, Uruguay held a 19-5 lead and looked to be comfortable. Germany had beaten Uruguay in the pool stage and responded through Ben Ellermann and Chris Umeh but neither try was converted, which enabled the South Americans hold on for the win that put them within 14 minutes of core status. Neither of the men’s finalists had previously been a core Series team but it was Uruguay who appeared to cope better with the pressure of the showpiece match. Georgia were twice reduced to six players in the first half, both for not retreating 10, and Los Teros took advantage on each occasion, scoring through Felipe Etcheverry and Bautista Basso. Basso was himself shown a yellow card on the stroke of half-time and Georgia found a way back into the contest at the start of the second as Giorgi Tchuadze touched down within a minute of the restart. However, that was as close as they got to Uruguay, who only made it out of Pool C as one of the best third-placed finishers and confirmed their place on the 2023 Series when Valentin Grille scored late on. Despite defeat in the men’s semi-finals, the home crowd had something to celebrate on Sunday night when Chile overcame Germany 14-12 in the bronze final. In what was a tight and bruising encounter, the Chilean defence held off some late pressure to finish the tournament on a high, converted tries in either half from Ernesto Tchimino and Diego Warnken ultimately enough to seal third place. Earlier on Sunday, Hong Kong wrapped up fifth place with a 12-7 defeat of Uganda, Tonga edged Zimbabwe 28-26 for seventh, Lithuania beat Jamaica 34-15 to take ninth and Papua New Guinea finished 11th following a 40-19 win against Korea.   Source: www.world.rugby

Prime Minister Hon. James Marape says he is not in a rush to make ministerial appointments after he was elected by an overwhelming 97-0 in Parliament last Tuesday (August 9 2022). He said this yesterday (Sunday, August 14, 2022) when giving an update on ministerial appointments. “We are not in a rush to make Cabinet appointments,” PM Marape said. “I want to first see who in our current Coalition are able persons to be entrusted with portfolios. “We want to ensure that whilst we satisfy our political obligations to all Coalition partners, the best persons must be appointed to various portfolios. “ Also, as we review individual department and agency performances of the last three years, we want to also look at heads of departments and agencies so that we appoint experienced and capable people. “This is so that we hit the ground running so that we achieve the outcomes we desire.” PM Marape said one of the most-striking things about Papua New Guinea was that the Human Development Index (HDI) had not improved over the last 10 years. “We want to arrest this decline and post a good HDI,” he said. “Vision 2025 talks about us being in the mid income-earning nations at the earliest, and in fact, at the end of the Vision 2050 timeline it talks about us being in the Top 50 nations. “That’s a good goal and aspiration, consistent with my view on becoming the ‘Richest Black Christian Nation’ – a statement which equates to not just money, but about our people being happy and satisfied with life in their own country, blessed with an abundance of God-given resources." Christianity is about all our national character, which must be refined towards Christian values and beliefs, tolerance, love, care, forgiveness, no hatred, to name a few.”

For the past nine years the NRL has been working alongside some of Australia’s top mental health experts to provide a range of workshops and resources, and using some of the game’s biggest stars to help deliver them to rugby league communities across the country, through the NRL State of Mind program. Mental illness is Australia’s single biggest health issue, impacting almost one in two people, and through the mantra of “In footy and in life, be there for an offload”, the program promotes the fact that, just like an offload can change a game of rugby league, a conversation change a day or even a life when it comes to mental health. The organisations have formed two key programs aimed at achieving positive outcomes in the area, with the State of Mind Grassroots program (18+), which is facilitated by current and retired NRL and NRLW players, using rugby league language to convey positive mental health and wellbeing messages. The four-step process is targeted towards senior players, club administrators, coaches and managers of grassroots rugby league clubs and includes a 90-minute workshop involving on and off field activities to provide the participant with the knowledge and confidence to provide support to a person experiencing mental health problems. State of Mind Get in the GAAME (13-17) are youth focused 90-minute standalone workshops, again delivered using rugby league language, with on and off field activities designed to help participants understand the importance of good mental health and recognize it is an area they can have an impact on. With the support of the NSW Government, the NRL State of Mind program reaches out into regional NSW, while the Australian Government provides assistance in supporting Indigenous mental health, connected with the annual NRL All Stars. Among the stars behind the campaign are Indigenous legend Preston Campbell, Rabbitohs winger Josh Mansour and former NRL players Joel Thompson and Clinton Toopi. Source: NRL.com

Prime Minister James Marape hits the ground running in the frontier-breaking clean green energy projects he has been championing over the last two years when he met with leaders of Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) in Singapore yesterday to progress the talks further. He said from Singapore FFI has voiced its intention to partner Papua New Guinea in a big way to harvest clean green energy from both hydro and geothermal sources as well as move later down the line into solar and wind energy production. Currently, FFI has identified and set up project sites in Gulf Province for hydro and West New Britain Province for geothermal work and has been working in these areas since the signing of two important agreements since 2021. Prime Minister said from Singapore today: “With global consciousness of fossil fuel-induced global warming, clean green energy is the way to move into the future and this meeting follows on the Head Agreement PNG has signed with FFI to progress investment in this energy sector.” The Prime Minister flew into Singapore to continue these important trade & investment conversations including those on Papua LNG, Pasca LNG, Pn’yang LNG and also to get Porgera and Wafi-Golpu sanctioned. The Prime Minister also visited the PNG High Commission in Singapore with a view to strengthen it further as a trade and investment office while getting the PNG government to increase trade and investment with the ASEAN and APEC countries. He said: “The Singapore office will be given more support in that context in partnership with Investment Promotion Authority, the Kumul companies, National Fisheries and Forestry authorities, and our Agriculture & Livestock departments so that it coordinates export and trade into the lucrative Asian market of over 2 billion people who need food and energy, and products PNG can mass produce into the future as we are planning under my government.”

Secretary for the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council has called a meeting today for Bureaucracy Heads to align their work together to meet the goals of the the Government. More than 60 people, consisting of Heads of Departments, Statutory Bodies, Constitutional Offices and State-owned Enterprises showed up to attend the meeting held at the APEC Haus, Port Moresby. Mr. Pomaleu told everyone present that in his inaugural speech, the Prime Minister has challenged the Public Service to do better and warned that staff who do not perform maybe asked to leave the public service. "I would like to take the time given to me to sensitize everyone of us as to the expectations that is before us," Secretary Pomaleu said. “The government takes its mandate seriously especially if it came from the people. And to have had overwhelming support from the floor means that the government wants to make sure that its actions from hereon has significant impact for its people.” He said everyone would have seen those expectations that were put out in a press statement by the Prime Minister. Mr. Pomaleu said for the meeting, there are several areas that will be looked at and that is the performance of all government organizations, which the Prime Minister made some strong remarks about in his recent press statement. He added that the Prime Minister has also made a request for a progress report from each organization that he wants submitted to his office by Tuesday next week. Mr. Pomaleu also proposed for the Central Agencies Coordination Committee (CACC) to take up their role to plan and truly coordinate sectoral approaches for all Agencies to work together in achieving the goals of the current Government.

Prime Minister Hon. James Marape says his Government will do its “utmost best” for the people of Papua New Guinea. He said this today (Sunday, August 14, 2022) as he goes through the process of selecting ministers and laying the groundwork for the next five years. “On August 30, 2022, when Parliament resumes, the Governor-General will be addressing MPs,” PM Marape said. “Our full Cabinet will be in place by then and I will make a response to the Governor-General and the country as to what exactly we will be doing and some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will hold the Government accountable.” PM Marape said his Inaugural Statement to Parliament on Tuesday, August 9, was a general one that covered the thoughts and intentions of Government. “When I make a response to the Governor-General’s statement on August 30, 2022, it will be more detailed and will indicate what we will do in different sectors like Health, Education, Law-and-Order, Infrastructure and Economy,” he said. "These were the bases on which Pangu Pati received overwhelming support nationwide, since we reclaimed Government in 2019. "We will not let our people down since they shared these aspirations when they voted for Pangu. “We have committed to a better Papua New Guinea through strategic interventions in these key sectors, which are vital for our country to grow. “We want to better our Law-and-Order environment, Infrastructure, Economy, Health and Education. “We will expand on these five focus areas into an exact plan on what we will do.” PM Marape urged all Papua New Guineans to be positive about the future of the country. “We are a continuing Government and know exactly what to do for our country over the next five years,” he said. “The next five years are fundamentally important as we work towards our 50 years of nationhood in 2025. “We want to steer our country in a better direction guided by our core principles and values like ‘Take Back PNG’, ‘Richest Black Christian Nation’, and ‘Leaving No Place and No-one Behind’. "These are very much congruent to the Vision 2050 intentions and clarity on what these mean, and our national outcomes will be augmented in the next sitting of Parliament. “The country can rest assured that we know exactly what we are doing, and that we want our country to be a better place. “By the time we hop out of this decade, into the 2030s, we must be well on our way to the better destination that we have created in the 2020s.”