Government: We shall not be moved

THREE influential party leaders in government yesterday described the opposition’s move for a possible motion of no-confidence as “irresponsible” and the work of a “desperate hunting pack” concerned with obtaining power than providing “credible alternative government”, The National reports.

The comments came from Treasurer and Finance Minister and leader of People’s National Congress Peter O’Neill, governor of Southern Highlands and United Resources Party founder Anderson Agiru and former New Guinea Islands deputy Leader of National Alliance and National Planning and District Development Minister Paul Tiensten.

The leaders said, among other things, that:

• The Somare government stood as the most successful since independence, having grown the economy for eight straight years;
• The government had a comprehensive set of vision, mission statements and practical plans and programmes to achieve them;
• It had directed the biggest development budget of K4 billion at critical areas such as education, infrastructure and health; and
• The opposition had no alternate policies or plans and no demonstrated history of successful economic management.

O’Neill, Agiru and Tiensten said small coalition parties had closed ranks last year to withstand a sustained attack against the government from within when former deputy prime minister Sir Puka Temu led a walkout of the ruling National Alliance with his Southern bloc.

They said they would do the same again if a possible motion of no-confidence was entertained by the acting speaker.

The opposition, which had been agitating to make such a move this week, nominated deputy leader National Alliance (highlands) Don Pomb Polye as its candidate for the prime minister’s post.

Polye was thought to be a vulnerable candidate for the move following his sacking as deputy prime minister and works minister, which he had wanted to keep even if he lost the DPM.

Polye refused to comment yesterday when contacted, saying he would make his own statement today.

However, he only said Sir Puka had nominated him without prior consultation.

Sir Puka was singled out for personal attack yesterday by the leaders.

Agiru accused him of weak leadership and incompetence, saying: “Here is a man who is prepared to sell PNG.

“He thumped the table and wanted to change the laws of PNG to give 5% corporate tax away in the LNG project. That would have come to K20 billion lost to PNG.

“I will not gamble my political future on a man who did not have sound judgment when judgment was needed. Loss of K20 billion is incredible.

“There are credible leaders like Sir Mek (Mekere Morauta) and Sir Julius (Chan) in the opposition who should not be lied to by Sir Puka.”

Tiensten, who is also leader of government business, said: “This sitting on the 11th (on Tuesday) is to elect the governor-general. That is the only agenda. The government has no other agenda.

“The private business committee will have to decide whether it (motion of no-confidence) is a matter of national importance or of a parochial nature.”

O’Neill added: “We (PNC) are small but we are stable. We are not in the business of promoting instability. We will continue to maintain political stability in this government.”

 

 

Treasurer lauds achievements

TREASURER and Finance Minister Peter O’Neill said the country continues to enjoy economic growth and stability and that his People’s National Congress will support the government in its work, The National reports.

Now in the economic driver’s position himself, O’Neill said following eight years of economic growth, it was forecasted that the economy would grow by 8% this year.

He said support must be given because there was US$3 billion in foreign reserves today, enough to cover imports for up to 16 months.

“This compares with reserves in 2002 which were sufficient to cover imports for only two months, a rather desperate situation back then.”

O’Neill said under this government’s watch, interest rates had dropped from unsustainable highs of 27-28% down to a manageable 7%.

“Foreign debt had been reduced from about 70% of gross domestic product down to less than 25%.”

He said the opposition could use its democratic rights to move a motion of no-confidence, but it had no alternate policies.

“As far as we are concerned, the only government that has come up with credible policies has also put in place plans that are deliverable.

“This year, we will channel K4 billion in the development budget for the first time to drive the economy of PNG.

“We have invested heavily in key infrastructures such as roads that will drive the development of this country.

“We have invested in education. We have invested in health.” 

Planning and District Development Minister Paul Tiensten said aside from economic growth and a comprehensive set of plans, the Somare government had delivered the liquefied natural gas project.

He said without prior experience, the government had stitched together, in record time, a development agreement, a marketing and sales agreement and a top-notch financing plan for about K1.4 billion of the state’s portion.

He said the project would earn the country about K60 billion over its life and triple the budget.

“This country is banking on the LNG project. We do not want to give the wrong signals to the investors,” Tiensten said.

Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru added: “No responsible leader will want to change government when the country is experiencing sustained growth.”

 

Kalaut: Report on trade is for safety

By EVAH KUAMIN

 

EAST New Britain’s top cop Supt Sylvester Kalaut has qualified statements he made in The National on Monday concerning local women in Rabaul boarding fishing vessels, The National reports.

Kalaut said he came out in the media as the legitimate law and order authority in the province.

His rationale in raising the concerns were done for the public’s safety reasons as well as a means of being proactive in reducing crimes, which he added had been of paramount concern to him as the senior police officer in the province.

Kalaut said from police reports that had been gathered in the province there had been cases that were found to be related to pornographic materials being exchanged for items by locals.

Kalaut confirmed there were also cases where women had been removed from the vessels, piracy in which locals who went into fishing vessels exchanged items with the crew and made away with K5, 000 cash, stolen from the crew of one of the vessels.

 This incident he said occurred last month.

“Police cannot just sit back and watch as we have had a high number of guns that have entered the country through illegal means,” Kalaut said.

He said recently they confiscated an automatic shot gun capable of firing 12 shot gun rounds.

Kalaut explained that he had also raised the concern because of the likely law and order issues that could arise when the locals were conducting such illegal trading with the crews of the vessels.

He said though he understood the fact that what they had been doing was to help sustain themselves but the other side should not be ignored.

What needed to be understood was the safety of the public trading with the crews of the fishing vessels could not be guaranteed safe, he said.

Kalaut questioned that people’s safety, especially the locals were at risk because accidents could occur and sometimes cases could be fatal.

On Wednesday he had gone to Simpson Harbour and saw the locals conducting their usual trade with the locals.

He asked who had authorised them to board the fishing vessels and whether it was the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) or Customs officers.

Kalaut said the locals must respect the law of the country.

He said if they needed to trade with the crews of the vessels, then it ought to be through the agents of the fishing vessels and not through direct means.

 

 

Rains at peak, says weather office

By ALISON ANIS

 

THE worst of the wet season for Papua New Guinea is not over, the National Weather Service (NWS) in Port Moresby indicated yesterday, The National reports.

NWS’ forecasting and warning office acting director Jimmy Gomoga said the wet season peaks around February and March.

“At this time, it is most likely that most parts of the country will receive above normal rainfall and flooding is likely to occur,” Gomoga said in response to questions sent via email.

He also confirmed that flash floods that were currently experienced in Central and other parts of the southern coast were a result of Cylone Tasha in Queensland, coupled with favourable atmospheric temperatures and the La Nina conditions.

Gomoga said the condition appeared to be persistent until the end of the first quarter of this year.

“We are well into the wet season and northwest monsoon is now well established across the country. With current conditions La Nina continues to remain firm across the tropical Pacific, though the majority of long-range models surveyed by NWS suggest this event may be near its peak,” Gomoga said.

He said while gradual decline was likely, it was expected that the current La Nina event would persist through the first quarter of the year.

He said that sea surface temperatures had been 4°C cooler than normal compared to the La Nina event of 1988.

Gomoga explained that La Nina periods were generally associated with warmer than normal night time temperatures.

The weather office also warned that a likely occurrence of a tropical cyclone for the Solomon and Coral seas was typically higher than expected during the cyclone season (November-May) with an average rainfall across the country.

Gomoga said the total rainfall recorded for Port Moresby for the month of December was 156.8mm with 14.8mm on Christmas Eve.

A total of 53.2mm of rainfall was recorded on New Year.

Gomoga said, so far 93mm of rain was recorded for January in Port Moresby,” he said.

 

 

Climate change agreements at Cancun talks

By JAMES LARAKI of NARI


A water harvesting model suitable for rural PNG conditions. This model is among many simple techniques developed by NARI to assist rural people to mitigate the impacts of climate change

 The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Cancun, Mexico, reached important agreements, aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change.
The two-week long Cancun talks attended by more than 190 countries negotiated at length to reach agreements on the best possible ways to cut carbon emissions.
Such attempts made at the end of last year in Copenhagen ended in chaos and there were fears that the Cancun talks could failed again.
However, after two weeks of negotiating, rich and poor countries agreed a compromise that will see all countries committed to cutting emissions for the first time.
The outcome of the talks was an agreement which aims to limit global warming to less than 2 C above pre-industrial levels and calls on rich countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as pledged in the Copenhagen Accord and for developing countries to plan to reduce their emissions.
The agreements oblige rich countries to contribute $30 billion in new aid over the next three years, growing the fund to $100 billion a year by 2020, to a Green Climate Fund.
This fund would help developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change induced incidents such as floods, prolong dry periods and other factors that are likely affected livelihoods of the global poor.
While all nations are obliged to reduce emissions, how much will global emission be reduced and by when are some unanswered questions that negotiators continue to push them around.
And many commentators are of the view that the ambitions to keep the temperature raise at 2C may be nowhere near to prevent disasters that are likely to occur across the globe.
Important decisions on implementation of the cuts of emissions, how this burden will be shared between developed and developing countries, and how all this will be enforced have been once again pushed back by a year.
All these are likely to be considered at the next round of negotiations scheduled for December 2011 in Durban, South Africa.
Developing countries including Papua New Guinea are required under the agreement to device plans to reduce emissions and see best to benefit from the Green Climate Fund.
PNG, for example needs to understand how we fit into such agreements as the issue of climate change is of paramount to over 80% of the six million plus people.
We need to understand what would be done to achieve the required rate of reducing emission and whether the funding available could cater of the expected cuts.
While it is not clear what exactly rich countries are targeting by establishing this fund, reducing or minimising deforestation is obvious.
But deforestation may not work well for many developing nations including PNG who depend on it for income.
Many participants have cited the Cancun Agreements concerning REDD (Reductions in Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) as another cause for optimism.
After all, deforestation causes roughly as many emissions globally as transportation does, and the Agreements pledge to give developing countries financial incentives to leave forests standing. If that has to happen, the incentives should march the likely income that would have come from harvesting forest.
Developing countries need to make a realistic approach to this and work out whether their expected income from harvesting forest can be compensated from the Green Climate Fund.
Such realistic figures could form the basis of negotiations and should help development of guidelines on how the fund is managed and disbursed.
In PNG, for example, it important that all concerned parties including resource owners should come up with plans to address the issue on hand.
Arguably the most important question left dangling after Cancun is the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
The advantage of Kyoto from a scientific perspective is that it imposes mandatory rather than voluntary emissions reductions, at least on rich nations; developing nations are exempted on the grounds that overcoming poverty must be their first priority.
Of course, the mandatory nature of Kyoto is precisely why the United States—alone among rich industrial countries—has refused to ratify it.
In Cancun, other rich nations signaled that they've had enough.
First Japan and then Russia and Canada announced they would abandon the protocol if other big emitters, the United States and China remained outside its purview.
The Cancun Agreements, however, may have opened a door to resolving this dispute, for they oblige all nations to reduce future emissions.
The challenge between now and next December in Durban is to translate that general principle into specific, proportional, binding targets for rich and poor countries alike and, much harder, generate the political pressure to compel national leaders to accept those targets.
PNG and other developing nations need to have an established leadership on climate change that is seen to be negotiating on their behalf at global forums like the Cancun talks.
Such leaderships are required as we need to play an active role in such talks as it stands us affect us all.
National Agriculture Research Institute (including other state agencies) and NGOs have developed initiatives aimed at increasing awareness, generation and adaptation of appropriate technologies to climate change, and reduce emissions.
With support from the national government, NARI is taking the lead in mitigating the impact of climate change on agriculture and food security.
All these initiatives and those of others need to be supported.
All concerned agencies need to come together and prepare PNG well to participate at Durban negotiations come December as the climate change scenario looks to be extremely dangerous and negotiations cannot go on forever.
In fact we shouldn’t be waiting so long to get started.

Finschhafen community drives development

Finschhafen MP Theodore Zurenuoc (centre), representative of Community Development Scheme Tommy Polang (right), Judas Nalau, president of Yabim Mape LLG and a representative from Lutheran Development Services arriving at the opening of the new rice mill shed at Kangaruo last Thursday

Representative of AusAID's Community Development Initiative Tommy Polang (left) and rice farmers standing in front of the new rice mini rice milling shed which was opened last week at Kangaruo in Finschhafen

By SENIORL ANZU of NARI

The Kangaruo people in the Finschhafen district of Morobe have demonstrated that communities can achieve development themselves instead of waiting for politicians and the government all the time.
Last Thursday, they launched and celebrated a new permanent rice milling shed which was established through community initiative.
The new facility was built for housing an old Satake rice milling machine and storing of both harvested and milled rice.
Finschhafen MP Theodore Zurenuoc, who witnessed the launching programme, commended the villagers for driving the development process at village level using their own resources and available avenues instead of waiting for handouts.
The huge shed was built at the cost of K58, 000 of which AusAID’s Community Development Scheme (CDS) provided K48, 000 and the community contributed K10, 000 and mobilised and transported material on shoulder from Gagidu station to Kangaruo and eventually built the house themselves.
CDS supported the initiative after the community submitted a proposal.
Kangaruo is a remote village in the hinterland of Mape in the Yabim/Mape local level government (LLG) in Finschhafen.
As other parts of the district, this community of about 400 people has cultivated rice since its introduction in 1932 by early missionaries of the Lutheran Church at Simbang.
In 1988, former politician Utula Samana donated to the people the Satake machine after realising that the Kangaruo people were producing their own rice but using the tongtong technology which was laborious with limited output.
The milling machine was housed under a traditional shelter for 22 years, during which time the machine was operating non-stop with increased production every year.
The new shed was built only in 2007.
Huna Made, former project supervisor and current Yangpela Didiman Coordinator of Lutheran Development Services in Finschhafen, said the new shed was built because of increased production output by the machine every year which necessitated a better, bigger and secure house to keep the aging machine and store all the harvested and milled rice.
CDS representative Tommy Polang said the achievement was a show of commitment, ownership and co-operation displayed by the community.
Polang also encouraged everyone to work together for their own benefit in any other development efforts.
He further urged those present to change their minds and attitudes.
“We now celebrate the end of the establishment of this rice milling shed but we must also celebrate the start of change in Kangaruo,” Polang said.
Zurenuoc thanked CDS and AusAID on behalf of the people of Finschhafen for the different project supports towards the district.
He also congratulated the Kangaruo people for the community initiative and for initiating development themselves.
He said real development would happen when people were in the forefront with innovations towards community empowerment and improved livelihood.
Zurenuoc announced that in this year’s district budget, a central rice processing centre would be established in Gagidu for farmers to bring in their rice harvests together for processing and selling to possible markets outside of Finschhafen.
The process was already initiated with the set-up of a mini milling machine to sensitise the idea. He assured the people of Kangaruo that funding allocation was already in place for the rehabilitation of the abandoned road system into their village and to continue into the mountains.
Made said Samana donated a lot of machines to different parts of Finschhafen but almost all of them were out of operation presently and the one at Kangaruo seemed to be the only one operating.
He said with the new shed, its shelf life would be extended.
He said from 1988-98, their rice milling project was managed by a local business called Wasunga Business Group but the operation came under a new management team with board of directors from 1998 onwards.
“From 1999-2010, the total production output was 149, 881kg,” he said, “of which 20% of the total volume was sold for income and 80% was consumed by the growers themselves.”
This, he said, had achieved its purpose.
Made added that they achieved record production of 22, 340kg in 2003.
Among other guests who witnessed the occasion were Gemtasu Atusamu, LDS regional co-ordinator Fisika (Finschhafen, Siasi and Kabwum) region; Judas Nalau, Yabim Mape LLG president, leaders, and the Kangaruo community.

Finschhafen MP supports Lutheran programme

Finschhafen MP Theodore Zurenuoc cutting the ribbon to officially open the new rice mill shed at Kangaruo in Finschhafen, Morobe province, last Thursday

The 22-year-old Satake rice milling machine which was housed in a permanent shed last Thursday

By SENIORL ANZU of NARI

Finschhafen MP Theodore Zurenuoc has committed K100, 000 towards the Lutheran Development Services extension and training programme in the district in 2011.
Zurenuoc announced this last Thursday during the official launching of the Kangaruo mini rice mill permanent shed at Kangaruo village in the hinterland of Mape in the Yabim/Mape local level government (LLG) of Finschhafen.
He said this funding support came under the district’s second priority, which was economic improvement.
This programme is focused on the development of major crops such as coffee, cocoa and rice.
He commended LDS for a job well done in reaching out to all corners of Finschhafen in delivering agricultural extension services and training, something which this faith-cum-development agency of the Evanjelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea had done in many parts of PNG over many years.
“LDS is one of the top partners of development in Finschhafen,” Zurenuoc said.
“They are conducting useful extension and training programmes that the government cannot do, especially in rural areas.
“Thank you for your commitment and positive contributions towards the development of Finschhafen.”
Finschhafen district also provided K100, 000 to support the work of LDS in 2010.
Zurenuoc told the people at Kangaruo that transport infrastructure still remained top priority in Finschaffen.
He said K500, 000 was already committed towards road rehabilitation into Kangaruo from the coast and this would take effort this year, which he said would support the rice development initiative in the area.
Zurenuoc admitted law and order had become a hindrance to development and as such K1 million was committed to beef police operations in the district.
He announced that Finschhafen’s theme for year 2011 was “discipline and hard work for Finschhafen”.