Western Australia protest against offshore detention in PNG

AAP

A small but vocal group of about 70 people have gathered in Perth's CBD to protest against the federal government's decision to reopen offshore detention facilities on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

Organised by the Refugee Rights Action Network and supported by other activist groups, today's event included an impassioned address from Aboriginal activist Marianne Mackay, who criticised the government for its treatment of asylum seekers.

Network spokesman Robert Callam said asylum seekers were set for greater suffering under the new government framework.
"If the government was genuine about wanting to save refugees from a perilous boat journey, they would organise to ferry refugees to Australia themselves," he said.
"This would both save lives and cost a fraction of the projected costs of setting up and running the new facilities on Manus Island and Nauru."
The protest was mostly peaceful, with the only incident being police confiscating a poster with offending language from one protester.
Last week, Curtin University lecturer on human rights Caroline Fleay said many asylum seekers did not know how long they were going to be in detention, which added to their stress and anxiety.
"The main problem with Nauru, as with all detention centres, is that in the long term it's going to lead to mental health problems. It's been shown time and again," she said.
Offshore processing began on Nauru in 2001 under the Howard government, continuing until the Rudd government closed it in 2008.
The Gillard government reopened it in August this year.
More than 200 asylum seekers have been sent to Nauru since the reopening of the facilities, which will eventually have capacity for 1500 people.

In Port Moresby today

It's only on hot days like today in Port Moresby that we realise the value of our neem trees. But some psychos make it a habit of chopping down these trees around the city!-All pictures by MALUM NALU

Hot, sunny day in Port Moresby today. This is traffic along Wards Road, Hohola, today.

Kunai Street, Hohola

Kunai Street, Hohola

National Forests Authority headquarters, Hohola

Frangipani in full bloom at National Forests Authority headquarters, Hohola

Frangipani in full bloom at National Forests Authority headquarters, Hohola.

Mango season is upon us again, as shown by this tree at The National office, Waigani Drive

Neem trees along the freeway

Cruising up the freeway today!

Cruising up the freeway today!

I always admire this part of the freeway because it's so clean as compared to the rest of Port Moresby. Reason: No buai pekpek dealers!

Always take care when you're on the freeway!

Crusing down the freeway today on another beautiful (but very hot) day in Port Moresby

The lofty heights of Touaguba Hill as seen from Konedobu today.

Evening in Port Moresby today

Evening scenes in Port Moresby today as I was walking home to Hohola from my office along Waigani Drive.

A vehicle is washed in sunshine along Waigani Drive.-All pictures by MALUM NALU

Vehicles along Wards Road, Hohola

Sunset over the Hohola hills

Banana Club, Hohola

Take my breath away!

Hohola sunset!

Wow!

Sunset and trees in my neighbourhood!

In Port Moresby today

Another impressive new building going up in Port Moresby is the Chin H Meen Building at Gordon

 

Another reminder to Bishop Brothers that you don't own this public walkway along Wards Road that you are forever blocking!

Nice big coral trout for lunch at Plaza Restaurant, Gordon.

Nice big tiger prawns for lunch at Plaza Restaurant, Gordon.

Thank you Taiwan!

By MALUM NALU

Thank you to members of the Taiwan Mobile Medical Mission, who leave for home today after carrying out 36 cataract operations in just five days in Lae, which brought back sight to these people. I just had lunch with them, members of the Taiwan Trade Mission, and Health Secretary Pascoe Kase at the Plaza Restaurant, Gordon.

Members of the team are standing (from left) Chang Ching Tsung (biomedical engineer), Liu Yun Fu (optometrist), Chiong Teu-Yi (nurse), Chen Yan-Ting (opthamologist), and Kao Geng-Hui (administrator). In front (from left) are team leader Professor Lin Chang Ping, trade mission representative Danie Hu, Kase, and Taiwanese in PNG leader Fu-Tsai Wu.

Taiwan Trade Mission representative Danie Hu, Health Secretary Pascoe Kase, and Taiwan Mobile Medical Mission team leader Professor Lin Chang Ping in discussion over lunch at Plaza Restaurant.

Horizon Oil eyes LNG after doubling PNG's Elevala, Ketu gas resource

Platts

Australia-listed Horizon Oil will begin planning for the development of its Elevala and Ketu gas and condensate fields in Papua New Guinea's Western province, including looking at the potential for LNG, after recent appraisal drilling resulted in a doubling of the certified resources in the permit area, the company said yesterday.

The fields are located in Petroleum Retention Licence (PRL) 21, where proven and probable contingent resources are now put at 795 Bcf gas, 40 million barrels of condensate and the equivalent of 26 million barrels of LPG contained in the gas.

Horizon has also identified significant upside in the permit's Tingu prospect, which may be joined to Elevala field.

"This outcome, which represents a doubling of the certified resource size estimate before the drilling of the Elevala-2 and Ketu-2 appraisal wells, provides the incentive for detailed development planning," Horizon CEO Brent Emmett said in a statement.

"Firstly, we will be using the experience gained in the design of the Stanley field development in PRL 4 to fast track development plans and early production of the liquids in PRL 21 by way of gas stripping," Emmett said.

 "And secondly, the increased gas volume - around 1.2 Tcf in PRLs 4 and 21 combined - is approaching the scale required for a mid-scale LNG project and we are advanced in our prefeasibilty studies of this opportunity."

Horizon's Stanley project, in its 50%-held PRL 4, was approved in January and is targeted for startup in late 2013. The $300 million development, involves the production of 140,000 Mcf/day of wet gas, from which initially 4,000 b/d of condensate will be recovered.

Horizon holds 45% of PRL 21, alongside partners Talisman Energy Niugini (32.5%), Kina Petroleum (15%) and Diamond Gas Niugini (7.5%).

Papua New Guinea is an emerging LNG province, with US major ExxonMobil currently constructing a 6.6 million mt/year project, scheduled to start up in 2014.

A second project in the country is being pursued by US-based InterOil.

Newcrest releases Wafi-Golpu technical report

Canada Newswire

 Newcrest Mining Ltd yesterday released the technical report on the Wafi-Golpu Property in Morobe province, Papua New Guinea, prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian National Instrument 43-101. 

Release of the report follows completion of the Golpu technical pre-feasibility study and the announcement to the market of a significant upgrade to the Golpu ore reserve estimate on August 29,  2012.

The Golpu deposit forms part of the Wafi-Golpu Project (the Project) located approximately 65km west of Lae, in the Morobe province of PNG. 

Newcrest and Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd (Harmony) each have a 50% interest in the Project.  

The Wafi-Golpu Project remains a highly prospective exploration area, and exploration drilling on multiple targets continues.

The Golpu pre-feasibility study confirmed Golpu as a world-class deposit with an expected mine life in excess of 25 years and projected unit cash costs at the bottom of the industry cost curve.  

The pre-feasibility study also identified several factors with the potential to improve production, grade and metal recoveries for a Golpu development beyond that assumed and already modelled, including the potential for higher grade and recovery in Lift 1, improved overall gold recoveries, accelerated production ramp up and higher mining and processing rates, and the potential for an additional mining lift based on high grade drill intercepts recorded below the existing ore reserve.

The joint venture participants are currently engaging with key stakeholders, including government and landowner representatives, to ensure alignment on the planned project development and key elements of the next phase of work, and anticipate commencing the feasibility study in the first half of 2013.

A copy of the report can be found on Newcrest's website: www.newcrest.com.au;  and on SEDAR: www.sedar.com.

PNG rejects UNHCR concern over Manus detention centre

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

PAPUA New Guinea's attorney general says his country's legal system is equipped to deal with refugee processing and human rights issues, in the wake of a tough assessment by the United Nations.

Attorney-General Kerenga Kua on Friday dismissed an assessment by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, that PNG lacks "any national capacity" to implement its international refugee obligations.
Australia is preparing to send refugees to a facility on Manus Island within weeks following negotiations with the government of Peter O'Neill.
"I refute that totally," Mr Kua told AAP.
"I don't see how one could possibly say that PNG has inadequate regulatory or legal framework to deal with the issues when we have one of the best constitutions in the world in as far as protection of human rights is concerned.
"You cannot find a codified set of human rights in Australia, whereas we do. It is part of our constitution."

PNG's 37-year-old constitution codifies most of the rights contained in the the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
In his October 9 letter to Mr Bowen, Mr Guterres said the UN agency was concerned about the Pacific nation's failure to sign treaties against torture, as well as the lack of procedures for the determination of refugee status.
"We recognise that efforts are presently being made to identify and train a small cadre of officers in asylum and refugee issues," Mr Guterres was quoted as saying in PNG and Australian media.
"Over time, capacity will improve but, depending on the scale and complexity of the task and processing cases and protecting refugees under the bilateral arrangements, it will likely remain insufficient for an important period of time."
The Manus facility, located at a naval base on the tiny island, is currently being rebuilt by Australian defence force personnel to house as many as 600 refugees.
Mr Kua said PNG was ready and able to handle the intake.
"Where detailed work is required, that will be developed and is being developed and will initially take the form of an administrative management agreement between Australia and PNG to set out the functional details," he said.
Australia has entered a similar agreement with Nauru.
Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has just returned from a UN fact-finding mission on Christmas Island and says refugees there are concerned about being sent to Nauru.
"We asked a lot of questions. Obviously I'm there to look at the human rights standards and the 150 or so people I talked to either in groups or individually almost invariably were very grateful for the facilities and their treatment," she told the ABC on Friday.
"But their enormous mental anxiety lay with the fear that they would be transferred to Nauru, that their assessment would not take place for some months and would not be over for many years."
She said facilities on Christmas Island were nearing capacity and overcrowding was becoming an issue.
"I think the facilities for a relatively short period of four to six weeks' transfer assessment are adequate for modest numbers," she said.
"The great difficulty is that the numbers are rising and numbers of families are rising, and that is where what would appear to be appropriate facilities become crammed and overcrowded facilities."
Meanwhile, Australian authorities have intercepted a boat carrying 70 people off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
It's the fourth boat arrival in two days, taking the total number of people who have been picked up since Tuesday to 334.
The new arrivals will be taken to a detention centre on Christmas Island for security and health check

Australia defends PNG plan for refugees

AFP/Sydney

Australia said yesterday that it was on track to send asylum-seekers to impoverished Papua New Guinea (PNG) despite the United Nations raising concerns about the country’s ability to handle refugees.
In a letter to Canberra, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said it was not clear to his agency that the transfer of boatpeople to Papua New Guinea was “fully appropriate”.
It was the UNHCR’s assessment that PNG “does not have the legal safeguards nor the competence or capacity to shoulder alone the responsibility of protecting and processing asylum-seekers transferred by Australia”, he wrote.
But a spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said that asylum-seekers were set to arrive on PNG’s Manus Island within weeks.
“We have consulted with and tabled correspondence by the UNHCR – and as always, we take on board issues they have raised,” the spokesman said.
“We continue to work with the PNG government on implementation and expect the first transfers... occurring in coming weeks,” he added.
Australia announced a tough new policy for boatpeople in August under which they will be sent to the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru or Manus Island in PNG while their claims for refugee status are assessed.
The policy is designed to deter people from making the dangerous boat journey to Australia after scores of deaths en route, but has so far failed to stem the record flow of arrivals this year.
More than 4,000 boatpeople have turned up since the policy was announced, with vessels arriving most days, the last bringing 53 people yesterday.
Australia’s Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs said asylum-seekers she spoke to said the policy would not have deterred them from coming to Australia, but they were worried about what happened after arriving.
Triggs recently returned from Christmas Island, Australia’s remote Indian Ocean immigration processing centre, and said most of the people she spoke to were grateful for the facilities and their treatment.
“But their enormous mental anxiety lay with the fear that they would be transferred to Nauru, that their assessment would not take place for some months and would not be over for many years,” she told ABC radio.
The new policy was introduced after a flood of boatpeople to Australia this year – with more than 11,736 arriving so far – many of them Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians who have paid people-smugglers to ferry them from Indonesia

PNG not ready for refugee transfers: UNHCR

By Ehssan Veiszadeh of AAP 

The federal government has defended its plan to send asylum-seeker boat arrivals to Papua New Guinea after a warning from the United Nations the country is not yet ready for the transfers.
In a letter sent to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said PNG had neither the "legal safeguards nor the competence" to process transferred asylum seekers on Manus Island.
Mr Guterres said PNG was not yet party to the UN conventions on torture and statelessness and warned the nation lacked the necessary legal framework to address refugee issues.
There was also a risk of local PNG authorities sending asylum seekers back to their countries of origin, particularly given the "porous and often unregulated" nature of its borders.
He concluded the country did not have the "legal safeguards nor the competence or capacity to shoulder alone the responsibility of protecting and processing asylum seekers transferred by Australia".
"At best, we would see the transfers as a shared and joint legal responsibility under the Refugee Convention and other applicable human rights instruments," Mr Guterres said in the letter dated October 9.
A spokesperson for the minister said the government was still on track to send the first group of asylum seekers to Manus Island within weeks.
"As part of the designation process we have consulted with and tabled correspondence by the UNHCR - and as always, we take on board issues they have raised," the spokesperson said.
"We continue to work with the PNG government on implementation and expect the first transfers ... occurring in coming weeks, with further details to be announced in due course."
They added that PNG had assured the Australian government it would assess asylum claims in-line with the Refugee Convention.
Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused Mr Bowen of ignoring expert advice about its offshore processing regime.
"The letter has revealed just how inadequate the situation on PNG is, where there isn't even one person with the relevant experience and training that is required to process refugees," she said in a statement.
"Desperate and vulnerable people are still doing whatever they can to seek asylum and that obviously won't change until we give them safer pathways."
The government ultimately hopes to be able to send up to 600 asylum seekers to Manus Island, which the Rudd government closed in 2008.
Meanwhile, another 40 male asylum seekers were transferred to Nauru's offshore processing facility on Friday.
The 17 Iraqis and 23 Sri Lankans will now be settled into their accommodation at the temporary facility.
This takes the total number of people transferred to Nauru to 254

Welcome to Port Moresby!

A good picture is worth a thousand words. This picture of a sign at Waigani today tells you why Port Moresby is a buai pekpek (betelnut shit) city, and undoubtedly the filthiest capital city on earth!

mv Fly Warrior launched

Tabubil, PNG: The last of three ships procured by Ok Tedi Development Foundation (OTDF) on behalf of the Fly River communities, mv Fly Warrior, was launched from the Sarawak Slipways yard in Malaysia on September 22.

mv Fly Warrior before it was launched from the Saraway Slipways in Malaysia.

 The 65m bulk cargo/fuel carrier was blessed and then named before being launched by Toti Sapera, one of the women leaders from the South Fly region in Western Province, and Pakki Parker, wife of OTDF chairman Nigel Parker.

Present from PNG to witness the launching were Parker, OTDF CEO Ian Middleton, OTDF trust administrator Renagi Koiro, OTDF North Fly regional coordinator Belden Dasa and the trust chairmen of Tutute, Nupmo, Waitri, Middle Fly, Suki Fly Gogo, Manawete, Kiwai and Dudi. 

Representatives from OTML and OTDF together with the chairmen from the Trust regions and Sarawak Slipways management and staff with the mv Fly Warrior in the background.

Parker, who is also the managing director and CEO of Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML), said apart from the other two vessels OTDF had purchased for the benefit of its Fly River communities, the mv Fly Warrior was another a significant step forward into making sure the communities’ investment funds were put to good use.

“It is a real pleasure to stand here today to witness this launching knowing that investment funds belonging to the people are utilised in such investments so that your communities will receive greater value in return for their funds,” he said.

“Our vision is to see the lives of our community river partners improve so that they can be self-sustainable.”

Adding to Parker’s comments, Middleton said that mv Fly Warrior including its two sister ships mv Fly Hope and mv Fly Explorer would generate long-term development benefits for the 156 villages that currently benefited from the Ok Tedi Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA).

“The long term benefits that will come from these key investments will not happen overnight, but will gradually filter into the communities through development projects and programmes,” he said.

“OTDF now looks forward to facilitating further development into these communities, be it agriculture, health, education or transport infrastructure.”

mv Fly Warrior will be on dry hire to OTML and will be generating a minimum 8%  return per annum on a capital investment of US$8 million.

The vessel was designed by Shiptech in Singapore then constructed by Sarawak Slipways and will be operated by V Ships, the world’s largest shipping fleet manager. 

mv Fly Warrior will primarily service OTML’s operational requirements (carrying up to 72 containers and or 1.2 million litres of fuel) out of Port Moresby but has the capacity to call Australia when required.

mv Fly Warrior is expected to arrive in Western province and be welcomed up the Fly River in December.