Leaders continued to mislead money as a catalyst to address issues, Parliament told.

Parliament was told that leaders continued to mislead themselves with a perception that money was a catalyst for addressing issues the resource owners had been advocating for.

Opposition Leader Don Polye today in Parliament debated it otherwise when arguing on a paper presented by the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill on increasing equity share for resource owners, especially in the Bougainville Copper Mine Limited.

Mr Polye has called on the Prime Minister and his government to learn about the real issues the resource owners have been fighting for.

“They never ask for money. They were talking about their environment and livelihood. Let us learn from the history and guide the future.

“Because President John Momis has come out against the equity share so are we quickly coming up with equity thing here to make him and his people happy? This is not the issue. They are talking about their economy, integral human development and livelihood,” he said.

Even if their resource ownership equity share is increased, he said, integral human development issues will still be outstanding.

“Have we delivered the MOU funds of K100 million annually to the people of Autonomous Region of Bougainville? Let the ABG run and manage its own affairs. Don’t use them like robots from Waigani. Let us talk about their MOU grands which have not been committed to them before talking about equity.

“Let us not do it for them. Let them do it themselves. I don’t see a unity among the ABG MPs in PNG Parliament and the ABG government as the Prime Minister has only resourced the MPs the latter at the expense of the ABG,” said Polye.

Meanwhile, Mr Polye said the resource owners in Hela and Western provinces have not also advocated for the release of their royalties or their equity share.

“No, they haven’t. Money is always there. It is not an issue. They have been fighting about their environment destruction. There is more to it than meets the eyes.

“If we continue to mislead ourselves with money being the solution to all the issues, later we will find out that the problems which we thought we have solved already, are still there,” he said.

He said the future leaders would learn that their leaders today had not solved the real issues but they had only created additional ones for them.

“When we strive for empowerment of our people through resource ownership, we must also address their issues customarily, environmentally and economically. This is the way forward,” he said.

Opposition Leader Don Polye.

Source: Media Release / PNG Opposition Team / 2016

Student calls on the Government to establish a Food Quality Control Laboratory: To test food imports and exports

A PNG Master’s student studying Food Technology abroad has called on the PNG Government to be more affluent and well versed with its inspection of food quality control in importing and exporting.

Ms. Esther Paiela studying food technology (engineering) at Sardar Patel University in India has said PNG does not have a national food quality control laboratory that can test to standard foods to import and export.

“PNG is rich with natural food products. We can make new food products out of them and we can export them overseas. Its one main source of boosting our country's falling economy and a better way of creating a lot of job opportunities,” she said. It's better for the government to sit back and emphasize on such tangible development strategies to bring to fruition the vision 2050.

“The government should decide now to build a National Food Quality Control laboratory, a lot of food engineering students are stuck in those food manufacturing companies. Make use of them and they can help achieve the country's productivity goals in terms of food products,” Ms Paiela said.

“From a simple food engineer's view point, I would like to propose to the Government of the day if PNG can establish a National Food Quality Control Laboratory to work along with other existing statutory bodies to conduct quality check of imports and exports,” he said.

 She said latest speculations about Fiji's restrictions on PNG made goods especially food products is simply because PNG does not have a proper quality control by the Government. Most of the manufacturing companies operating in PNG are profit-oriented and they can at times cheat. They only do tests on very good products and keep records for later as evidences for auditing purposes.

“Countries like Fiji and other Western countries are very strict with food rules and laws. If our food products fail to meet the ISO standards, soon our food products will be rejected and we will become an unproductive country. These countries have very strict quarantine system to stringently screen goods and food products. If they find bacterial or physical or chemical contamination while doing quality analysis in their own country, they will put an end from buying PNG made food products,” she added.

Esther hails from Aipus village in Enga Province and she went to study in Anand Gujarat, India on an Indian Council of Cultural Relations Scholarship (ICCR).  

Esther Paiela

Esther Paiela

Esther Paiela

Photos: Esther Paiela/Supplied/2016.