The Opposition has made itself clear that it will not support the ratification of the defence agreements signed between the United States of America (USA) and Papua New Guinea (PNG), citing its implications to the country's foreign policy interests and standing in the pacific region, and the sovereignty of the country. Opposition Leader Joseph Lelang when giving his statement during grievance debate in parliament, in response to the ministerial statement by Prime Minister James Marape on the Defence Cooperation Agreement and the Ship Rider Agreement, plainly stated that the agreements would bring PNG into the geopolitical fold of the current tension between US and China in the pacific region, putting PNG at risk should a conflict breaks out between the two super power states. The rivalry between China and United States is both military and economic; we as a nation are caught up in it by signing this Defence Cooperation Agreement, said Lelang. He said that PNG has no interest in this geopolitical matter and that the countrys priorities lie else where and that should be the focus of the government. Our priority is not big power rivalries; our people want jobs, better infrastructure. We are most vulnerable to climate change, our people are affected. Lelang also said the countrys political standing in the pacific has been marred by these defence agreements, especially in terms of making the pacific nuclear free. We have harmed our international relations with the pacific island states when we turned our backs on our international commitments to the Raratonga Treaty and the Treaty of Non- Proliferation of Nuclear weapons, the Opposition Leader further stressed. This is the tragedy caused by this government when it signed the military agreements with the United States. He added that if the government is serious in beefing up the defence force to a level where it will be capable to provide better security for the countrys borders and protection of the resources, then the focus should be on increasing the defence budget each year to support the military. The defence agreements with the US should not be seen as the better way of doing things. This agreement directly contravenes our foreign policy intent and the Opposition has resolved not to support these defence agreements with the United States, we feel it was badly negotiated and we lose as a party to these agreements, Lelang said. We will be studying these agreements further and we will not hesitate to go to the courts to have these agreements thrown out, if theyre illegal or unconstitutional.

New Porgera Limited (NPL) is pleased to announce that it today filed an application with the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) for a Special Mining Lease and supporting tenements for the Porgera gold mine. Chairman of Kumul Minerals Holdings and Director of New Porgera Limited, Dr IIa Temu, hailed the lodgement of the application by NPL as a significant step towards the restart of the mine. “The lodgement of the SML application is an important milestone for the reopening of the Porgera gold mine.” “This follows the approval and registration of the transfer of Exploration Licence No. 454 and SML 11 to New Porgera Limited and the subsequent surrender of SML11 and all ancillary tenements by NPL.” “The application will now be subject to the normal regulatory assessment process which will include the Minister for Mining convening a Development Forum in accordance with the requirements of the Mining Act to canvas the views of stakeholders.” “New Porgera Limited will work cooperatively with the MRA and other State agencies to enable them to complete the regulatory assessment process as soon as possible.” Meanwhile, Barrick Gold President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Mark Bristow, congratulated NPL on reaching this key milestone towards the mine’s restart. “The lodgement of the SML application is a big step forward on BNL’s journey with the State to reopen the mine as true partners.” “The parties are now focused on satisfying the remaining conditions under the New Porgera Commencement Agreement.” “In parallel, and in our role as operator of New Porgera, BNL is undertaking certain preparatory work on the processing plant with the support of the MRA and is building a committed team, the majority of whom will be Papua New Guineans.” “We are moving ever closer to enabling the people of the Porgera Valley to finally see the ‘white smoke’ they have been waiting for.”

The law and order situation in the country continues to deteriorate, prompting calls to the government to seriously address this matter so to minimize it to manageable level. The Governor for Enga province, Grand Chief Sir Peter Ipatas, said that this is a cause for concern for the government, and that it falls back on the political leaders to address these issues within their own provinces and districts. Sir Ipatas said the recent kidnapping of the 17 school girls at Mt Bosavi in the Hela province shows just how the crime trend is also changing and it is very scary. “We are at the cross roads where we can lose this country, don’t just pretend that everything is okay, there are some fundamental things that need to be fixed and one of them is law and order,” said the governor. He said the police and even the defence force are not able to deal with this matter and therefore, there must be efforts as well made to increase their capacity to deal with law and order issues. Sir Ipatas also said that a proposition that he put to parliament to try to manage the law and order issues in the country, has not been even looked at. He said since his last proposition, he has not seen any other propositions put forward to address the problem, which is a concern because he believes the government should consider every option put forward to address the law and order issues. The governor then encouraged the new and young parliamentary leaders to take up the initiative to tackle law and order within their own jurisdictions. “You young leaders, you have duty. You focus on your people and address the issues. You get the small things right and the big things will fall in place,” said the governor. Sir Ipatas raised this very important matter in parliament during the grievance debate session, in light of the escalation of crime in the provinces that have made headlines in the media lately.

The Papua LNG project is moving further closer to its eventual commencement of the construction phase following the recent submission of six required petroleum license applications to the Department of Petroleum and Energy. Deputy Secretary of the Department Mr. David Manau, was there when the license applications were submitted. Mr. Manau said that his department will continue the review and evaluation of each submission and as the Front End Engineering and Design phase progresses, they will work to complete the process. Petroleum and Energy Minister Kerenga Kua also applauded TotalEnergies EP PNG (TEP PNG) for filing the application for a Petroleum Development License (PDL) in a timely manner, which will now take the department several months to review. TEP PNG Managing Director, Jean-Marc Noiray said that this step marked the continued development and progress of the project. “Sticking to the highest principles of quality and compliance, are absolute requirements for this world class project to succeed,” he stressed. He also thanked Secretary Manau and the department team for their steady support to the progress of the whole project, including the very efficient way in which the Landowner Beneficiary Identification (LOBID) process was carried out and concluded for the upstream part of the project area. The Managing Director also thanked their joint venture partners, ExxonMobil and Santos, for their input in the submission of the license applications. T he next step now is to submit the draft National Content Plan to the Department of Petroleum and Energy.

Prime Minister (PM) James Marape has assured the Governor for Western province that the matters relating to the disciplinary issues caused by the Papua New Guinean Defence Force (PNGDF) personnel in Kiunga town, will be addressed. Governor Taboi Awi Yoto was talking about the poor discipline portrayed by the members of the defence force at the forward operating base at Kiunga and requested for the base to be relocated our to a place outside the township. Governor Awi Yoto also said that justice has not be delivered yet for the deputy president of the Morehead Local Level Government (LLG) who was allegedly murdered by members of the defence force in an incident that occurred back in 2020. He called on the PM and the defence minister to look into this matter as well and have those responsible face the law and be dealt with for what they did. PM Marape said the disciplinary issue within the defence force is being addressed with efforts put in by the new Commander of Defence Force (CDF). He said the CDF is aware of these matters and with his team have put in new plans and programs to lift the standards of the defence force and improve its operational capability to ensure the country's borders are protected, its resources are being protected and provide the support to the government. In terms of disciplinary matters, the PM is confident the defence force will continue to address it going forward. "I have absolute faith in the Commander of Defence, Major General Mark Goina, as he settles in. We look forward to this being stepped up," said the PM. Marape then told the governor that his recommendation to relocate the base at Kiunga will be looked into. "I will pass on these issues to the defence minister, defence council, the defence secretary and the defence commander." The PM said the country's borders are important and that is why this matters raised will be closely looked at, so to ensure that soldiers deployed to the posts are performing their duties and not causing any problem for the local communities on ground. The PM said this when responding to questions from the Western Governor during question time in parliament last week.

The national flag carrier Air Niugini is taking steps to improve its services to the people with plans to bring in new fleet of aircrafts and also to recruit new pilots and aircraft engineers. The Minister for State Enterprises, William Duma, said that a lot of pilots and engineers have moved on to greener pastures overseas, living gaps to be filled. To compensate for this, the minister said the airline is embarking on a recruitment drive with the introduction of a training scheme for national pilots to be recruited and trained. “This was a scheme that was in place couple of years ago, but was discontinued,” said the minister. “The board and management have decided to introduce a scheme where we will have a pilot training cadetship program, as well as the recruitment of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers.” In terms of the new aircrafts, the minister said the F70s and the F100s will be replaced with new jets. “Cabinet on the 10th of May authorized Air Niugini to purchase four used Dash 8 Q400 turbo prop aircrafts to replace some of the aging aircrafts and they will come in by the endo of this month and July,” said the Minister Duma. The purchase of these Dash 8 aircrafts will be met by Air Niugini’s internal cash flow. “The other major decision Cabinet has authorized Air Niugini to do is to select eleven new jets to replace the F70s and F100s, and they will come into service our routes from 2024 to 2026.” “So, we will see eleven new jets, half will be purchased, the others will be leased until Air Niugini can purchase them outright,” said the minister. The minister said this in response to questions from the Member for North- Fly on the current status of Air Niugini during question time in parliament this week.

A taxi driver escaped death this morning in the city of Port Moresby after a terrifying road accident at the traffic light intersection at Waigani. According to eye witnesses at the scene, the PMV bus number 7 smashed into the side of the small taxi sedan, squeezing both the front and back doors in and pushing the taxi onto the traffic island. The driver, Mr. Justin Aris was lucky to walk away with just minor scratches to his head, arm and leg. “I was driving towards Sports Inn when I was hit on the right side by this PMV bus,” said Justin. “It was already green light and by the time I was in the middle on the road, I realized that this bus was already near to me and hit my right side and pushed me off the road. “It could have been worse, but thank God it didn’t.” As for the driver and the crew of the PMV bus, eyewitnesses said they escaped the scene of the accident by getting on board another PMV bus and fled while the taxi driver was still left dazed in his taxi. Police were already at the scene of the accident when PNG HAUSBUNG arrived at the site. Officers took witness statements along with the statement of the taxi driver. The accident took place at the traffic light intersection between Wards Strip and John Guise Drive.

The Governor General Sir Bob Dadae by way of official gazette has revoked he appointment of Monday June 12th as public holiday to commemorate the birthday of late Queen Elizabeth II. Friday the 16th of June has now been appointed new public holiday to observe the official birthday of His majesty King Charles III in lieu of Saturday 17th June. Earlier, the Chief Secretary to Government, Ivan Pomaleu, announced late Thursday evening that the National Executive Council (NEC) had revoked the declared public holiday for Monday 12th June 2023 and endorsed Friday 16th June 2023 as the day to observe the official King’s Birthday. “The Palace confirmed two days ago that the official birthday for King Charles III is the 17th of June 2023.” “In lieu of the day falling on a Saturday, the NEC determined that Friday, the 16th of June 2023 is to be declared a Public Holiday to observe the King’s Birthday.” Mr. Pomaleu confirmed that Monday, 12 June 2023 will be a normal working day for the country and that Friday 16th June 2023 will now be a Public Holiday. He said that this notice was issued ahead of the National Gazette, released later this afternoon. “I apologize for any inconvenience caused with this late announcement but until a confirmation came from the Palace, this corrective action for public record was not possible earlier.”

A transition back to the old structure of the court system and the increase in the number of judges has been proposed by the Judiciary arm as a means to improve on the delivery of the justice services to the people. The Minister for Justice and Attorney General Pila Niningi, said the issues now with the current system is that it's not enough to cater for the number of cases going through each day, week and month. He said there is a backlog of 25, 000 cases to be presided over by a judge. And to make matters worse, there is just not enough judges in the country. He said that the current system where there is just a Supreme Court and National Court, is not helping either. To alleviate this problem, Minister Niningi said a submission was sent to the National Executive Council (NEC) proposing the reintroduction of a High Court, National Court, a Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court structure, which was a system that existed before independence. "This new proposal will see each court have their own judges, unlike the current system where the same judges sit for national and supreme court." Fortunately, there is progress to improve the service. The Minister said the NEC has instructed for the recruiting of judges from overseas. The government instructed the Judiciary to bring in 20 more judges to boost the current 40 judges to 60 judges, above the ceiling of the number of judges required. He said the NEC has given directives to look overseas to get in 5 judges from Australia, 4 from New Zealand, 2 from Canada and 5 from other Commonwealth countries, to ensure a diversity of national and international judges working in the Judiciary arm of the government.

The prime minister has put through to parliament proposed amendments to the constitution that would see the term of suspension for a political leader in office extended, and to bring in public enterprises under the radar of the Ombudsman Commission (OC).   Prime Minister (PM) James Marape when presenting the proposed amendments to parliament, said the reason for this is to improve the functions of the OC and as a deterrence to any malpractices from people in office.   PM Marape said the penalty regime of the OC legislation has been outdated and not reviewed for a long time. and therefore, needs to be revised and updated to a reasonable and appropriate status.   He said the updated penalty should also capture and encourage deterrence and at some level, resonate the level and cost of resources utilized by the OC in the conducting the investigation as well as setting up the leadership tribunal.   “Hence, section 31- subsection 1 will be amended by removing the word three and replaced with the word five,” said the PM.   “These amendments, one, deal with term of suspension from three years to five years. This is the first part of this proposed amendment, the second part relates to section 219, bringing other office holders under the state-owned companies within the radar of the Ombudsman Commission.”   Marape said that although there will be opposition to these proposed changes, especially from the heads of the state-owned enterprises, the move is to ensure accountability on their part as well.   During debate time, most of the Members of Parliament supported the proposed changes; however, some did caution the PM about certain implications for mandated leaders that must be considered before the law is passed.   Meanwhile, the third readings for the two proposed amendments to the constitution and second required opportunity for debate and the second vote, have been adjourned to two months’ time as per the standing orders.    

There will be no Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday next week Monday as traditionally observed each year. The Chief Secretary to Government, Ivan Pomaleu, announced late Thursday evening that the National Executive Council (NEC) has revoked the declared public holiday for Monday 12th June 2023 and endorsed Friday 16th June 2023 as the day to observe the official King’s Birthday. “Earlier this evening, the NEC made the decision to correct the confusion surrounding the date. This announcement concludes a long and protracted wait on Buckingham Palace to confirm the official birthday for King Charles III.” The Palace confirmed two days ago that the official birthday for King Charles III is the 17th of June 2023. In lieu of the day falling on a Saturday, the NEC determined that Friday, the 16th of June 2023 is to be declared a Public Holiday to observe the King’s Birthday. “All public holidays, including the Queen’s Birthday holiday for 2023, were approved on the 1st of September 2022. The Queen died on 08 September 2022 and we have not been able to secure a confirmation on the Kings birthday until now.” Mr. Pomaleu confirmed that Monday, 12 June 2023 will be a normal working day for the country and that Friday 16th June 2023 will now be a Public Holiday. He said that this notice is issued ahead of the National Gazette, which is expected to be done today Friday 09th June. “I apologize for any inconvenience caused with this late announcement but until a confirmation came from the Palace, this corrective action for public record was not possible earlier.”

Morobe Governor Luther Wenge has finally presented a petition from the student body of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, to the Prime Minister in Parliament this morning before question time. Governor Wenge said Prime Minister James Marape was made known of the petition when he was in Lae last month on his visit to the province. "I, as a mandated leader, present this petition on behalf of students regarding the defence agreement signed between Papua New Guinea and United States." In the petition, the student body requested for a review of the Defence Cooperation Agreement by parliament before it goes through for ratification of the agreement by parliament. This is because the student body is concerned that the DCA undermines the country's sovereignty and is in breach of the country's laws, which they also raised in the petition. Governor Wenge later handed over the petition to the Clark of Parliament. The PM is expected to make a response; however, it is also expected that a ministerial statement will be made as well regarding the DCA and Ship Rider Agreement in this season of Parliament, when the Agreements go through for debate on the floor.