Greens leader Bob Brown believes Australia should be
offering Papua New Guinea greater assistance in having a fair election, rather
than threatening it with isolation.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr said last week that
failure by PNG to hold its planned mid-year elections would be a 'shocking
model' for the Pacific.
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| Foreign Minister Bob Carr |
Senator Carr on Wednesday threatened a sharp
Australian response if PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill heeded internal calls
to put off mid-year elections.
'We'd have no alternative but to organise the world
to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea,' the senator told Sky News.
'We'd be in a position of having to consider
sanctions.'
Senator Carr on Friday issued a statement saying his
comments had been 'misunderstood and used out of context'.
In any case, Senator Brown said Australia should
support PNG.
'Instead of making the statement Bob Carr made, we
should be offering PNG even greater assistance to make sure the election ... is
fair, above board and not corrupted,' Senator Brown told reporters in Canberra
on Friday.
PNG's Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah has
reversed his position on the general election, saying the mid-year poll will
now go ahead as scheduled.
Mr Namah inflamed speculation of a delayed poll two
weeks ago when he publicly called on Mr O'Neill to delay the poll for 12 months
to install anti-fraud election technology and because the electoral roll was
only 60 per cent complete.
Senator Brown said there were a lot of concerns
about PNG's election process, although he understood 30 observers were going to
the country.
He said Australia's nearest neighbour has big
problems - the world's second-worst maternal death rate and huge HIV aids
problems.
While it has a large resource base, it does mean
'there is potential for money to flow to outside interests, including
Australian corporations, at the expense of local people'.
There is also the problem of the takeover of land by
foreign companies.
'This election is an opportunity for the people of
Papua New Guinea to assert their own control over their own land,' Senator
Brown said.
'If their politicians are doing the wrong thing,
then throw them out.'
Senator Carr said Australia's approach to PNG is to
be supportive.
'PNG is a robust democracy with a proud history of
holding elections as provided for under its constitution,' he said
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