Papua New Guinea's prime minister says Australia and New Zealand must join his country in protecting Pacific islands from climate change impacts.
Papua New Guinea's prime minister says Australia and New Zealand must join his country in protecting Pacific islands from climate change impacts.
James Marape has returned home after his first official visit to Australia, a six day-visit in which he met a range of officials from the prime minister to state governments.
Mr Marape told the Guardian that Australia had a moral responsibility to the upkeep of the planet, particularly given the extreme effects climate change is having on smaller Pacific nations.
He said the voices of smaller island nations must be listened to.
According to Mr Marape, Australia, New Zealand and PNG must shoulder some responsibility for the displacement of communities from the smaller regional countries caused by climate change.
He said he believed the bigger regional countries should lead the Pacific as a "bloc" of nations reconfiguring their economies to handle resource productions in a more environmentally and socially sensitive way.
By Angus Grigg, Lisa Murray and Jonathan Shapiro - Financial Review
Papua New Guinea's Police Minister, Bryan Kramer, has pledged to investigate links between controversial security contractor Paladin and former prime minister Peter O'Neill, while calling out investment bank UBS for its "fishy" dealings in the Pacific nation.
The outspoken Mr Kramer, who was a surprise appointment to the cabinet of James Marape last month, said Mr O'Neill must be held accountable for corruption and decay during his seven years in power.
“That is what I want to establish, to see if there is any clear lead between Black Swan and Peter O’Neill," Mr Kramer told The Australian Financial Review during a visit to Sydney.
Black Swan has been continually forced to deny any links with the family of Mr O'Neill, even as it won lucrative government contracts, including being the main security provider at the APEC regional forum last year.
The security firm was set up by Australian Brian Kelly and a relative of Mr Kramer, PNG-Australian businessman Francis Kramer. Bryan Kramer was a director of the firm until 2012. Mr Kelly was listed as the sole owner when Paladin purchased the firm. Apart from the APEC contract, Black Swan has also worked for local company Remington Technology, which is part-owned by Mr O'Neill.
Paladin's purchase of Black Swan came less than a year after it was awarded federal government contracts now worth $532 million to provide refugee services on Manus Island in PNG. Paladin was awarded these contracts without an open tender, a deal that has been the subject of heated questioning in Senate Estimates, is being investigated by the Auditor-General and is the subject on an internal audit by Home Affairs.
"Now is the time to tackle the cancer of corruption that has taken hold, using the power of prosecution and all other means that we have at our disposal," Mr Marape told Lowy on Thursday evening in Sydney. Mr Kramer, as the newly installed Police Minister, is responsible for investigating corruption and has vowed to deliver some "real hits" within three months.
In addition he has pledged to run his own investigation into the so-called UBS loan affair, which saw PNG borrow $1.2 billion from the investment bank in March 2014 to purchase a 10 per cent stake in the ASX-listed Oil Search.
PNG is estimated to have lost around $420 million on the deal after Oil Search shares fell sharply on the back of a drop in oil prices. "The whole deal from day one was bad … you don’t borrow [money] to invest in the stock market,” Mr Kramer said.
PNG PM James Marape watched a rugby league game with Scott Morrison. AAP
He said UBS, which put the deal together, should have been wary about entering into a rushed transaction, which was not approved by Parliament and was rammed through cabinet.
“The likes of UBS, these international bankers, they should have the experience to understand something that appears like a red flag transaction,” he said. “Any ordinary person in the banking industry would say this smells fishy, this entire arrangement." At issue is whether UBS either ignored or failed to ask sufficient questions around the legality of the transaction.
The Ombudsman Commission of PNG found the state solicitor was given 28 volumes of documents at midnight on the eve of a special cabinet meeting convened to approve the loan.
It found this was insufficient time to “give legal clearance”. However the state solicitor did have time to rule that parliamentary approval was required for the loan, under section 209 of the Constitution. This was never sought, which has thrown into question the legality of the deal.
In its report, the Ombudsman noted 14 of cabinet’s 33 members were not present to approve the loan, while Treasurer Don Polye resigned before the meeting in protest. “So it will come down to what they ought to have known … what the lawyers ought to have known, what UBS ought to have known,” said Mr Kramer.
The UBS loan and the transactions which followed PNG's purchase of the Oil Search stake will be examined by a Commission of Inquiry, announced by Mr Marape soon after he came to office in late May.
Mr Kramer said he would run a "parallel" investigation to the Commission of Inquiry, which will have similar powers to a royal commission but is yet to be convened or have its terms of reference settled.
In an effort to ensure an independent Commission of Inquiry there is a push to appoint an Australian judge, with commercial expertise and PNG experience, to oversee the investigation. Mr Kramer said he was in favour of appointing an Australian judge, who could be seconded to PNG as part of Canberra's aid program.
"The perceived fairness of having someone from the outside would be a step in the right direction, the better option,” he said. "It would be the best way forward, assuming a foreign judge would take that position.”
By PISAI GUMAR- The National A WARLORD in Hela has given himself up to the security forces in response to a warning by Tari-Pori MP James Marape that he was coming after those involved in recent killings. Warlord Libe Koi from Pujaro village in Tagali, where more than 20 women and children were recently killed, apologised to the relatives of all those killed during the six years of fighting. He also said sorry to the government and members of the security forces. Koi urged the two other warlords still in hiding to come out before he exposed them. “I appeal to two other warlords in the recent massacre to surrender themselves and weapons because I will disclose their hideouts (if they fail to surrender),” he said. “If I can surrender myself, why don’t you two also come out for us to find an amicable solution to restore peace and harmony in Hela?” Libe said he fought hard against a landlord identified as Okiru in the last six years to protect his family from being wiped out. “A cease fire and peace mediation was held at Tari police station on July 24, 2017, between me and Okiru to compensate for the killings. However, no compensation was paid until 2018. Instead Okiru went ahead to kill another three people. “It incited me to retaliate in 2018,” he said. Soon after recent massacre in Tagali, the Government declared Tagali, Haiyapaga, South Koroba, Tebi and Pori as “fighting zone”. Libe was assisted by Pujaro chief Karoma Iripu in surrendering to Hela police commander Chief Inspector Teddy Agwi, military operations commander Lt-Col Major Anthony Mota and administrator William Bando last week.
