The government ratification of three International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions will pave way for the improvement of labour laws and all matters relating to the workforce in the country, both in the private and public sectors.    The three conventions are the Labour Inspection Convention No. 81, Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention No. 144, and Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190.     Secretary of the Department of Labour and Industry Mr. George Taunakeke, explained that the governance of priority conventions are the Labour Inspection Convention and Tripartite Consultation Convention.    “They are categorised as priority of governance under ILO and those conventions become legally binding when ratified by parliament,” said the secretary.     “The other one, the violence and harassment convention, is only a technical convention and it also  becomes legally binding when ratified.”    The ratification of the conventions will be conveyed to the ILO in due course after the department completes its consultations with the Department of Foreign Affairs.    Meanwhile, the secretary further stated that the review of the country’s labour laws will coincide with the ratification of these ILO conventions.    “It means going forward now is the immediate review of our labour laws that are currently in the process of being updated by the ministry and the department.”    “Reviewing and updating them, so they are compliant or consistent with these international conventions.”    He explained that the intention is to create a robust mechanism to establish effective labour inspections in the country, step up the tripartite consultations and strengthen the laws to protect everyone at the workplace in support of the government's overall objectives.    “Our labour laws many of them are colonial laws and we have prioritized some of these labour laws for review this year. We are trying to modernize the labour laws so that they reflect the current social and economic climate.”    He added that the department will make sure that those reviewed laws are consistent with international standards as communicated through those three ILO conventions.    “In the ministry and the department, we will be doing that as part of our work this year and moving forward in terms of institutionalizing some of these conventions that have been ratified.”  

The Australian Football League (AFL) International Cup (IC) is marked for 2024 and AFL Papua New Guinea (PNG) is not wasting any time to make preparation for the selection of the national teams to participate in the challenge. Following the success of the 2022 season for most of the centers where ALF was played in, the country’s main AFL body is now looking forward to hosting the national championships once again after the COVID pandemic disrupted things from 2020 to 2021. AFL PNG Senior Football Operations Manager Mr. Rex Leka said the national championships is one avenue from which the selections for the national teams for both males and females are done through; therefore, the national championships is on the cards for this year. He further explained that the national championship will enable the selectors to select potential players to form the train on squad for both the PNG Mosquitoes and PNG Flames national teams. The last International Cup was played back in 2017 (IC17) in Australia where the PNG Mosquitoes men’s team took home the title for the second time and are currently still holding on to it. However, 2017 was long ago and it is now time for some new young bloods to represent the country in the national teams for the upcoming IC24. “Most of the players in the team then played in 2017 and many of them have moved on. Now it’s time to find new ones,” said Mr. Leka. Mr. Leka said that the championships and the selection for the national teams will be among the main agendas to be discussed during the upcoming AFL PNG start of the year meeting with the executives and management. Meanwhile, the PNG Mosquitoes will be defending the IC title for the third time next year in IC24. The Mosquitoes initially snatched the title in 2014 and successfully defended it in 2017. The International Cup, which started in 2002, is staged every two years. Since 2002, it has been held in 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014 and the last one was in 2017 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, which then led to the cancellation of the scheduled 2020 IC. The IC is the biggest worldwide tournament in the sport of AFL and is open to all nations except for Australia. This is mainly due to the presence of the professional AFL competition and an abundance of semi-professional leagues in the country.

The Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) Association is currently in the process of seeking sponsorship before the start of the 2023 season. Association President Mr. Douglas Lai, said they will be requesting sponsorship from Moni Plus once again for the 2023 season, which is seen as appropriate because the financial institution has been sponsoring the nations capital AFL competitions for some time. We are looking at requesting about K30, 000, sponsorship for this years competition for all the divisions. The official request letter has been signed already by the AFL Commissioner Mr. Loi Bakani and once I get it back, I will send it over, said the president. Mr. Lai explained that the sponsorship and funding must be secured first before they can move on to the planning and organizing of the new season, which includes the drawing up of the match draws and the 2023 competition calendar. The Port Moresby AFL competition had a full on season last year with no disruptions compared to two years back when the COVID pandemic really put a strain on the competition, which saw the association having to cancel matches as a result of strict COVID measures. However, since 2022 the association is once again looking forward to running a smooth competition in 2023 as they also prepare for the upcoming International Cup, which is scheduled for next year.

The Headquarters of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) at Murray Barracks for 50 years through its administration, has greatly delivered and supported government and civic programs in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since its establishment in 1973. Speaking at the recent 50th Anniversary celebration at the Headquarters in Port Moresby city, Commander of Defence Force (CDF) Major General Mark Goina, highlighted the major achievements and operations that were executed by the PNGDF Headquarters. They included the success of the Vanuatu campaign in 1980 to restore stability and peace on Vanuatu, the restoration of peace and stability on Bougainville, contributing to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), contributing to the United Nation (UN) peace keeping and monitoring mission in Sudan and South Sudan, delivering infrastructure and supporting the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) on internal security operations in the highlands and other parts of the country. “I am proud of our headquarters to deliver many of these key events, these also include continued deployment of our forces along our land and maritime borders, delivering of infrastructure capabilities, exercise, operations and trainings in partnership with our defence partners, signing of status of force agreements, and defence cooperation agreements with our defence partners.” Other activities performed by the PNGDF in the last 50 years include supporting the delivery of national events such the APEC meeting in 2018 and the national general elections. Supporting and coordinating disaster relief operations and contributing to nation building through civic action programs. “As your chief of defence force, I will work closely with the minister for defence and the secretary for defence to ensure that the defence council supports the PNGDF to continue to perform these tasks in support of our government and our people,” said the CDF. Goina added that through this relationship between the PNGDF and the defence council, the defence force saw many achievements and successes, and faced and addressed many challenges over the years. He went on to say that these events that have occurred have shaped the size and structure of the headquarters of the PNGDF, as well as the defence force itself.

The Headquarters of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) at Murray Barracks for 50 years through its administration, has greatly delivered and supported government and civic programs in Papua New Guinea (PNG) since its establishment in 1973. Speaking at the recent 50th Anniversary celebration at the Headquarters in Port Moresby city, Commander of Defence Force (CDF) Major General Mark Goina, highlighted the major achievements and operations that were executed by the PNGDF Headquarters. They include the success of the Vanuatu campaign in 1980 to restore stability and peace on Vanuatu, the restoration of peace and stability on Bougainville, contributing to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), contributing to the United Nation (UN) peace keeping and monitoring mission in Sudan and South Sudan, delivering infrastructure and supporting the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) on internal security operations in the highlands and other parts of the country. “I am proud of our headquarters to deliver many of these key events, these also include continued deployment of our forces along our land and maritime borders, delivering of infrastructure capabilities, exercise, operations and trainings in partnership with our defence partners, signing of status of force agreements, and defence cooperation agreements with our defence partners.” Other activities performed by the PNGDF in the last 50 years include supporting the delivery of national events such the APEC meeting in 2018 and the national general elections. Supporting and coordinating disaster relief operations and contributing to nation building through civic action programs. “As your chief of defence force, I will work closely with the minister for defence and the secretary for defence to ensure that the defence council supports the PNGDF to continue to perform these tasks in support of our government and our people,” said the CDF. Goina added that through this relationship between the PNGDF and the defence council, the defence force saw many achievements and successes, and faced and addressed many challenges over the years. He went on to say that these events that have occurred have shaped the size and structure of the headquarters of the PNGDF, as well as the defence force itself.

The Headquarters of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force (PNGDF) at the Murray Barracks in Port Moresby marked its 50th Anniversary today where the Commander of Defense Force (CDF)stressed to his troops that it’s time for implementation of defence plans going forward into the next 50 years. CDF Major General Mark Goina told his troops at the 50th Anniversary parade this morning that 2023 is the year where the Headquarters carryout implementations of objectives to ensure personnel and their welfare and infrastructure are improved going forward under the CDF five-year plan from 2022 to 2026. “This year 2023 is the year of implementation where the following work must start, automation of personnel records and services, logistics systems from Force Support Battalion (FSB) to all PNGDF establishments, ICT connectivity to all PNGDF establishment and correspondence with inbuilt decisions and approval processes.” He added that all policies and accountable documents like the Defence White Paper, must be reviewed and rewritten, of which most will be contracted to the former members of the PNGDF. “The council (defence council) strongly believes that this is the only way we can set a strong foundation that we can ensure good governance, accountability, transparency and compliance to support future acquisition of capabilities such as uniforms, weapons, vehicles, ships and plans including construction of infrastructure and recruitment of personnel into the force.” “If you a tasked to deliver part or all our plans, do it professionally and within the time given. We all need to do our part to deliver on our plans from 2023 and onwards,” he added. On the operational front, the CDF said the PNGDF must continue to maintain its presence on the country’s land and maritime borders. “We will continue to maintain our presence in the highlands as our responsibility to assist the police maintaining good order, peace and security.” On discipline, the CDF stressed that it’s important that discipline is maintained to ensure command and control at all PNGDF establishments. “As we start the year, I want basic military routines to be enforced to install military culture, physical fitness and wellbeing, adherence of barracks standing orders and discipline. This is fundamental to any military organization, and it will start from Headquarters Papua New Guinea Defence Force at Murray Barracks.” Meanwhile, the celebrations today saw members of all unities of the PNGDF take part in the parade, and a new plague unveiled at the headquarters next to the first one that was put up back in 1973 when the headquarters was handed over to the PNGDF by the ADF. The event also saw a fly over conducted by the PNGDF Air Transport Wing (ATW) with two helicopters and a plan, and two F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) that flew in all the way from their base in Brisbane.

The Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) Association and all the clubs registered under it are looking forward to the day when work starts on the proposed new AFL stadium at the current Colts Oval at the Bisini Sports precinct. The Association President Mr. Douglas Lai confirmed as well that K10 million was allocated by the government towards the construction of this proposed new stadium. “At the moment we are waiting for formalities to take place before the actual construction starts at the oval,” said the president. The president said that so far, the team from AFL PNG and the team from the Sports Foundation and the ministry of sports visited the Colts oval, inspected it, and did some initial surveys before going away. At present there is no word yet on the official groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of the construction phase of the new stadium, but it is hoped that work will take place this year. The current status of the Colts oval is pretty much a plain area with no proper stands for fans to view matches and it does not even have a proper match officials box. However, with the new stadium the president said it should have all the proper facilities to host matches, something which they are looking forward to. Meanwhile, Sports Minister Don Polye said that the K10 million funding for the construction of the new stadium, was made available by the National Government through Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited, Papua New Guinea’s petroleum company.

Papua New Guineans wishing to work in Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme now can have that chance to do so because the Australian government is now supporting an increased number of workers from the country to work down south. This was made possible following the recent 4th Annual Bilateral Leaders Dialogue in Port Moresby city between the Australian Prime Minister (PM) Anthony Albanese and Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister, James Marape. The recent talks between the two leaders and their delegates saw a lot of progress and consensus reached, and one such progress was the skilled labour from PNG under the scheme. Australia PM Albanese said they support PM Marape’s intention to increase the number of skilled workers from PNG to 8, 000 compared to current 1, 000 plus workers in Australia. Albanese added that this time they will be looking at including PNG skilled labour in other sectors as well instead of just in the agriculture sector. “We spoke about that being not just in agriculture, but in the care sector as well. That is something that brings benefit to Australia by providing skilled labour and non- skilled labour in areas of need,” said Albanese. Meanwhile, the PALM scheme allows eligible Australian businesses to hire workers from 9 Pacific Island countries and Timor- Leste and with the agreement reached, this would be an opportunity for many Papua New Guineans now to work in Australia in the various sectors offered.

Sir Bob Dadae was re-elected as the Governor General of Papua New Guinea through as secret ballot at parliament today, making this now his second term in office. Initially, three candidates had stood for the election, they were Sir Bob Dadae, female candidate Winnie Anna Kiap and Steven Pokawin. Mr. Pokawin later fell out of the race when he was voted out in the elimination after receiving only 3 votes to Sir Dadae 69 votes and Kiap with 31 votes. The two remaining candidates were then taken through the last step of the voting process for the viceregal position. The final vote was conducted through secret ballot on the floor of parliament. The Speaker of Parliament, Job Pomat, then read the final vote where he announced that Sir Dadae received 69 votes to 31 votes for female candidate, Kiap. The Speaker then made the official announcement that Sir Bob Dadae from the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea, was now elected as Governor General by parliament, making it official.

Fone Haus brand ambassador and former NRL Telstra Premiership champion and North Queensland Cowboys star Jonathan Thurston is back in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for his second visit. This time during his stay here, Thurston will be helping the Fone Haus Emerging Leaders program and visit Family Sexual Violence (FSV) partners of NWTL company (Nambawan Trophy Limited)and showing support for the staff who help survivors of FSV. Thurston will leave Port Moresby for Lae city tomorrow, Wednesday 18th January where he will go around and meet up with Fone Haus staff in Lae city and at the same time visit Emerging Leadership program participants and the FSV partners. The Fone Haus Emerging Leaders program is an ongoing initiative where currently about 32 Fone Haus staff members are participating in the program to help develop them into better leaders in the workplace and their respective communities. “Got a whole week here, looking forward to go to Lae doing the emerging leaders’ program, it is great that Fone Haus as a company is investing in their staff to make their staff go to the next level for their company,” said Thurston. “I’m looking forward to doing all that as well, so whilst I’m here, if you see me out on the streets, come and say hello and take a photo. It should be fun.” While in Lae, Thurston will be also taking time out to play some game of footy with the locals. Meanwhile, Thurston’s first visit to PNG was back in May 2022, which was eight months ago. The theme for his visit this year is “Making Memories with JT”, and the public is urged to take pictures, videos if they see him in public.

The Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology and Sports, Don Polye wants to see greater cooperation and partnership between the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG)to further excel education at the tertiary level in the country. Minister Polye, who welcomed Australian Prime Minister (PM) Anthony Albanese to the University of Papua New Guinea School of Medicine and Health Sciences on Thursday 12th January, told Albanese that he looks forward to working with Australia in the area of excellence in education. “Excellence is very important in this contemporary time, we see Papua New Guinea and Australia and the rest of the world, working and partnering to drive excellence in education, especially in the universities and technical education, it’s very important,” said Minister Polye. Polye told PM Albanese that it would of great value when he and his Australian counterpart meet and talk about this matter and other matters relating to tertiary education. The other area which Polye would like to see both countries partner in, is the area of digital learning; that is, visual, online learning and teaching. He explained that the world is now moving into that space and PNG must migrate into that area too because it is vital for education and training of the country’s future generation. Another area of partnership Polye highlighted was the networking with some of the major institutions in Australia to share ideas, research, innovations, and technologies. “I am happy to seize the opportunity that your government is presenting and work with your ministers,” said Polye. Meanwhile, PM Albanese was at the School of Medicine in Port Moresby to see firsthand the projects funded by Australian government through the Incentive Fund to assist student learning in PNG. There he was met by the Chancellor for the University of Papua New Guinea Mr. Robert Igara and Minister Polye and the school’s Dean.

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrapped up his two days visit with a trip to Wewak in East Sepik Province as a mark of significance of the relationship Papua New Guinea and Australia have before and after independence. Speaking at the Moem Barracks when making his visit to inspect the guard, he told the people, soldiers and local leaders, including Governor Allan Bird that his trip to Wewak, apart from other engagements, was to pay tribute to the man who got PNG's independence from Australia in a peaceful way and then continued to maintain that relationship onwards. "We have flown in to Wewak to pay tribute to late Somare and this is significant because in a few years you will be celebrating 50 years of independence," he said. He said this relationship will continue as the future of the two nations are linked and therefore, trade and investment, exchange of workers, defense and security will continue to be strengthened. Much of that was discussed during the 4th Annual Bilateral Leaders Dialogue in Port Moresby on Thursday 12th January, which he believes should pave way for better trade, economic and security relations. PM Albanese was later given a guard of honor at Boram Airport by the Second Royal Pacific Islands Regiment to farewell him and his delegation back to Port Moresby and then back to Australia this evening.