Pundari: Ok Tedi mine a curse

 Hon. John Pundari, Minister for Environment & Conservation, Papua New Guinea

Source: The National, Tuesday 12th March, 2013

By SONIA KENU

MINISTER for Environment and Conservation John Pundari yesterday broke his silence on the Ok Tedi mining pollution issue, describing it as a “curse” on the Fly River people of Western. He says he plans a visit to all impacted areas along the Ok Tedi and Fly River areas and intends to take along a contingent of international and national media to see for themselves the scale of damage.

 “The mine has been operating in the country for some 27 years, and while it has made a significant contribution to the development of our country, it has also brought a curse upon the people of Western in terms of the enormous environmental damage caused to the Fly River system,” Pundari said.

“The Ok Tedi mine has been using the riverine disposal of waste rock and mine tailings and has caused considerable environmental degradation. “This has had a major impact on the lives and livelihood of the Fly River people. “The benefits to the people in the impacted area, in my view, are far less than the impact the operation of the mining has done to the health of the environment. “The damaged environment will remain long after the mine has shut down and continue to affect the lives and health of our people for many generations.”

Pundari said Ok Tedi mine had been operating under the Mining (Ok Tedi Agreement) Act of 1978, followed by various supplementary agreements, which were amended over the years until the recent one in 2001 -- the Mining (Ok Tedi Mine Continuation) Agreement Act 2001.

“These agreements give indemnity against prosecution to BHP, the original developer of the mine,” he said. “Excluding the mine from regulations under the Environment Act has prevented my department from taking an active role in its management.”

Pundari said BHP walked away from the mine and left PNG to deal with the damage caused to the environment, which would remain long after the mine was closed and would become a burden to the government. “Our people of the Fly River and Western have suffered in silence for a very long time in their own God-given land from activities of the mine and the wastes generated in it,” he said. “I, as the minister responsible for the environmental matters, and our government, would not be able to fix the wrong done by these large multi-national corporations to our environment and our people.

“It hurts me greatly to hear the cry of our people in the Fly River area about the irrepressible damage done to the environment and their lives.

“It even hurts me to go and talk about the kind of benefit the Ok Tedi mine has brought in, when their suffering outweighs the benefit the mine brings in.”

Barry Holloway: An affair to remember

By Mark Baker  (Bendigo Advertiser)

THEY buried him on Australia Day on a windswept hillside in north-eastern Tasmania, far from the land he fell in love with, that he helped transform and that came to adopt him as one of its own.

But Barry Holloway brought Papua New Guinea home with him to the little timber church with the peeling paint and rusting tin roof at Kimberley, near Sheffield. It was there in his children, in the readings in the pidgin and in the haunting strains of Rock of Ages sung in Motu, the language of the coast.

The journey had begun here, in the house across the valley where his mother was born and where she gave birth to him in 1934, and in the nearby school where a boy dreamed of a life of adventure far away.
That journey was to take 60 years and it would traverse the modern history of PNG - from colonial trust territory, to self-government and independence and beyond.

It began with a teenage cadet patrol officer trekking through the remote and untamed territory of New Guinea and ended with a distinguished political career, a knighthood and the deep affection of a generation of Papua New Guineans.

 

Barry Holloway with the Queen in 1974.

At each step, Barry Holloway made a special mark. He was, probably more than any other Australian, instrumental in the making of modern PNG, and his death closes a circle on Australia's engagement with PNG's coming of age.

He was one of the first expatriates to advocate independence for the Australian trust territory in the 1960s. He helped found Pangu, the country's first political party, and ran the numbers that saw a brash young journalist named Michael Somare become its first leader. He chaired the committee that drafted the constitution and, at independence in 1975, he was one of the first white men to take citizenship of the new nation, happily surrendering his Australian passport.

Barry Holloway with a UN Trusteeship Mission in 1956.

He became speaker of the first parliament after independence, then a senior minister in several governments. He was a reformer, a champion of the ordinary man and a campaigner against corruption, the issue that many believe drove him to an early death.

After finishing secondary school, Holloway moved to Melbourne and was working as a labourer when he saw a newspaper advertisement seeking young men with ''initiative, imagination and courage'' to work as patrol officers in the UN-mandated Territory of Papua and New Guinea.
Between 1949 and 1974, more than 2000 Australians aged between 18 and 24 were recruited as patrol officers, or kiaps - pidgin for captain, from the German kapitan - and sent to bring the rule of white law to the often lawless outer reaches of the territories.

After six weeks' basic training, Holloway arrived in Port Moresby in April 1953, a lanky 18-year-old with a shock of curly red hair who was ready for adventure. After an initial posting with an experienced kiap on Bougainville island he was sent alone to a district in Madang province. Suddenly he was at once police chief, magistrate, medical chief, census officer and director of engineering for roads and airstrips.
On one of his first patrols into an uncontrolled area he had to defuse a clash between two warring tribes with the help of only a handful of native policemen.

''After three weeks, the whole crowd of about 600 to 700 would be massing around,'' he told the ABC in 2009. ''We demonstrated the power of the .303 by lining up about five shields, making a dum-dum out of a bullet, and showing how it would come out with a great gap on the other side. Because to these people these [rifles] were just sticks, and had no meaning until we demonstrated their power.'' That was the end of the tribal fight.

Holloway moved to the Eastern Highlands in 1958 and won election to the territory's first House of Assembly in 1964. He had a natural campaign advantage with his unruly red hair. Many of the tribes believed the gods had red hair.

He also had a unconventional but effective campaigning style. He would arrive at each village with a simple message: ''On election day just go the polling station and chant, 'Ollo-way, Ollo-way, Ollo-way'.'' And they did, in their thousands.

In Port Moresby, Holloway quickly befriended the first indigenous MPs and openly championed the case for independence in a parliament dominated by the colonial administration and conservative white planters.
In 1976 he and Tony Voutas, another kiap turned MP, helped found Pangu along with a clutch of others who would become legendary figures in the emerging nation - Albert Maori Kiki, John Guise, Ebia Olewale and Michael Somare.

Barry Holloway with Indonesian foreign minister Adam Malik and PNG chief minister Michael Somare

In the struggle to choose a party leader, Holloway was instrumental in securing the numbers for Somare to beat Guise, who later became governor-general. As Somare noted in a tribute sent to the Holloway family last week: ''I acknowledge his immense contribution and great support for my early political aspirations … He was among a handful of non-indigenous people who supported the principle that Papua New Guineans should be able to determine their own future.''

Somare went on to become chief minister when Australia granted self-government in late 1973 and the first prime minister at independence two years later. After serving as speaker of the first parliament, Holloway held a series of ministerial appointments, serving as finance minister under Somare and Julius Chan, who led the country's second government.

His love affair with PNG was both physical and spiritual. Nine of his 12 children were born to Papua New Guinean mothers. Friends say the unofficial count is 16.

His first wife Elizabeth, whom he met and married in Tasmania while on leave from PNG, moved back to Australia to raise their twin sons and daughter. The boys returned in 1975 to spend independence year at school in PNG.

Son Daniel recalls: ''He took Damien and me up to Goroka on one occasion. When we got there, one day he drove to his office and asked us to wait outside on the footpath. A little while later he came back with a skinny little boy and said to us, 'Meet Joe. He's your brother.' I think it was as much of a surprise to Joe as it was for us.''

Many other children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren were to follow. ''None of us quite knew when he was going to stop,'' Daniel says. ''It was a bit of a running joke. Each time another child was born, we told him, 'You can stop now'.''

Holloway married Ikini Yaboyang, a feisty young journalist, in 1974. He is survived by his last wife, Dr Fua Uyassi (Lady Holloway). Says Daniel: ''He cared very much for all his children … and despite his marriages unfortunately not working out, he also cared for his wives to the end.''

His large and unconventional family was just one of the ways in which his life matched that of many traditional ''big men'' in PNG society. His homes in Port Moresby and Kainantu were open houses to friends and colleagues, his vehicles were freely available and what money he had was shared with those in need. ''If he only had a dollar in his pocket and someone asked him for some money he would give it to them,'' Daniel says.
A lifetime of such generosity and a series of business ventures, including starting his own micro-finance scheme for villagers, left him with little at the end of his life.
''He was flat broke,'' said Ernie Lohberger, a fellow Tasmanian and long-time PNG resident. ''In the end he was living on a friend's boat because he couldn't afford the rents they charge in Port Moresby these days.''
Unlike many Australians who stayed after independence - and many more of the Papua New Guineans who succeeded them in positions of power - Holloway did not set out to enrich himself. He was appalled by those who did and, ultimately, it probably hastened his death.
Disturbed by a trend that now ranks PNG among the worst on Transparency International's global corruption index, Holloway decided to make a political comeback in last year's elections, standing for governor of Eastern Highlands Province.

Two weeks before campaigning was due to begin in the midyear poll, he suffered a stroke that temporarily blinded him, according to a close friend. He refused to go to hospital because his opponents had argued that, at 78, he was too old for politics and he feared they would use the news to wreck his campaign.
Despite the pleas of family and friends, he threw himself into the campaign, travelling by road and air and often on foot to visit as many of the scattered and remote villages in the province as he could. In the end, he lost, but only by a few hundred votes.
''He got more than 100,000 votes. It was testament to the strength of his following and his standing in the Eastern Highlands,'' Peter Donigi, a long-time friend and PNG's former ambassador to the United Nations told the mourners in Kimberley.

Supporters wanted Holloway to call for a recount, which they believed would see the result overturned, but he refused. Instead, he was one of the first to send a message of congratulation to the new provincial governor.
Some say he never recovered from the exhausting campaign, his health issues compounded by prostate cancer.

''Barry never saw himself as merely a catalyst for change,'' says Tony Voutas, who left PNG on the eve of independence. ''For him, it was his country. He was one of the few in those colonial days who looked at Papua New Guineans as equal human beings. The planters called them bush kanakas and some right-wingers regarded them as a different evolutionary stream.
''But Barry was one of those people who did not see race. And the Papua New Guineans regarded him as one of them. And once you are accepted into their society it is as if you were born into their society.''
After his death at a Brisbane hospital on January 16, the leaders of Kainantu wanted him brought back to be buried there, but Barry Holloway's last wish was to be laid to rest beside his mother and father in the church yard at Kimberley.

As men wept and women wailed on Saturday afternoon, a daughter stepped forward and sprinkled a sachet of his favourite Goroka coffee into the red clay of the grave. For a moment the aroma of the New Guinea highlands mingled with the scents of the Tasmanian bush.

''They will never see anything like this in Kimberley again,'' said Geoff Pedley, an old schoolmate.
They won't. We won't.


Mark Baker is editor-at-large. He is a former PNG correspondent for Fairfax.

 

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PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S ENERGY SECTORS FUTURE IS BURNING BRIGHT – BUT FOR WHO?

By Honourable Gary Juffa – Governor Oro Province, Papua New Guinea

In December from the 03rd -05th, 2012, the 12th PNG – Australia Gas and Petroleum Conference will be held in Sydney, NSW, Australia, organized by the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum. It will be held at the prestigious Sydney Hilton and once more all manner of people involved in the gas and petroleum industry in Papua New

Guinea, either directly or indirectly will be there networking, hoping to impress one another with what they know, or who they are or who they know.

There will be many current and ex politicians from PNG and Australia even, experts, gurus on this and that and econometricians, geologists, engineers, lawyers and accountants and so forth. There will be middlemen and agents, those who actually mine and those who mine the stock exchanges around the world, boosting their shares up with great news from the last frontier. In fact there will also be many experts on PNG, some who have actually lived there, some are even Papua New Guinean.

Again, there will be much to discuss and much is at stake – for instance PNG’s future economic prospects and the future profits of the investors in this industry. The two significant questions that come from both these areas of concern are: how does PNG benefit and, how do the investors benefit?

Of course, the investors care very little how much PNG benefits as long as PNG allows access to its resources, grant all manner of Tax and Customs exemptions and allows the Mobile Squad to stand guard at project sites to counter irritating landowners. All the while, PNG is supposed to feel very grateful for a pittance of a stake of some sort in such projects. Clever schemes set up by lawyers and accountants force the PNG Government to excessively fund costs associated with being a stakeholder of some sort and undertake to handle all landowner issues an example of which was witnessed by Papua New Guinea and the rest of the world in Bougainville with the loss of 20,000 lives from 1988 to 1998 and the destruction of a province and a people who are still recovering to this day.

But they can’t say that, at least not in public, survival is their focus, profit is their agenda.

A test of care would be to measure the stake Papua New Guinea owns in any mineral resource project – less then 10% in many instances and this often very reluctantly from the investor.

Meanwhile, Papua New Guineans are always being told in overt or covert manner by investors how grateful they should be for the developments taking place in their country. Expert spin Doctors paid oodles of money arrive on PNG shores literally every day with brand new ideas on how to convince the people to not only accept but to demand and ask and even pay for investments in their country, for their own resources. These magicians who write and talk up a great and convincing hype arrive heeding the call by the industries major players who are willing to pay buckets of money so that they do not have to pay what is rightfully due to the resource owners, that is the people of PNG.

As for the keepers of the gate of the economy, the Government, well they are usually the first to sell out. At least that has been the case and has become the tradition since the first missionaries were sent to urge Papua New Guinea to help the people turn a collective cheek so that the administration that followed could plunder at will and whim and “civilize” the people, often brutally and in condescending and discriminatory fashion until their independence, where by they could now be geographically and politically independent but remain economically manipulated for as long as possible.

So, while the spin doctors churn out propaganda products galore, referred to by the corporate world as “marketing tools” or “community affairs promotion efforts” that are designed to pacify the people and assure the developers that their conscience is clear, the reality is just the opposite for the average Papua New Guinean who has to cope with the burgeoning cost of living, food and accommodation costs ever more while salaries and wages remain ever low with increasingly less accessible government services and increasing crime and fewer opportunities for employment or business. As for the landowner, few genuine landowners benefit, most often miss out. It is usually those who are educated to some degree and in the right place at the right time that end up benefiting. For many, benefiting means they are a conduit for funds from the investor in the form of royalties paid to a plethora of service providers such as prostitutes, loan sharks, pokies outlets and so forth – all in Port Moresby and Lae and increasingly Suva and Nadi and Cairns. Their actual homes remain largely unaffected in any positive way, many have abandoned their wives and children and live their new lives in Port Moresby or Lae.

Now let us look at the national scene in so far as development is concerned. Let us just look at Education and Health as examples. One always hears about the law and order situation and how Port Moresby is in the top 10 list of most dangerous cities in the world and where rape and murder are but daily events throughout much of PNG where many crimes go unreported and unpunished and where ethnic tribal fights are now modernized into raging gun battles that run for days and where many are killed – often unreported.

One can measure how a country is actually progressing by glancing at the indicators in these two areas of development – Health and Education. Papua New Guinea boasts of the worst indicators in the region in so far as Health and Education are concerned. Illiteracy is making a huge comeback and ignorance is his dear friend. Schools are overcrowded with classrooms of 80 – 100 children common and children sit on dirt floors listening to exhausted teachers. Every year almost 80,000 school leavers are ejected from Papua New Guineans education system with only 10,000 finding meaningful employment, the rest experience lives turmoil and challenges witness their dreams evaporate and are forced to downscale them to accommodate reality. Meanwhile the education system itself is a disaster with outdated curriculum and poor administration forcing teachers to leave for other vocations or even depart for positions in smaller pacific island countries where safety is guaranteed and benefits are far more reasonable.

As for the Health Sector, it is unhealthy and hospitals are crammed full with those seeking medical treatment, dying on emergency floors, mothers literally bleeding from childbirth, ordinary people of severe wounds from growing violent crime or ethnic tension in Port Moresby, the cities capital. Doctors are scarce and the Doctor to patient ratio is alarmingly well below UN recommended figures - in one province it is an atrocious ratio of 1 Doctor for 30,000 people. Health indictors paint a gloomy and depressive picture, the specter of Death is very much visible here, gliding over the vulnerable, the very young, expectant mothers and the elderly, picking at what seems to be will and whim, where he so pleases. All the while the nation is reeling from AIDS, TB and malnutrition while the population growth is the highest in the region at 2% and one of the highest in the world and there seems to be no effort to check its growth.

What of the remote parts of PNG, inaccessible by road? Well, if you get sick, you die. It’s that simple. A terrible story is increasingly told in PNG’s media, the papers, radio and television, sad reports of mothers who die from birth complications, of village children often from snakebites or dysentery or other easily treatable (anywhere – else – in - the world ailments) almost daily throughout Papua New Guineans rural areas where 85% of the people live. Health Stations and Aidposts that once covered PNG providing basic medical services are disappearing, slow agonizing deaths where nurses and doctors do not replace those who retire or die, and how can they when any supporting infrastructure in these areas such as electricity, Police, banks, post offices, bridges and road even deteriorates in direct correspondence.

Entire district stations, built during the colonial period and unmaintained since are now dilapidated and decaying, most have closed down. The Churches are increasingly the only providers in these areas where Government services are but whimsical yearnings for yesteryear by those who can still remember what a Health Extension Officer was. But even they are abandoned increasingly, as foreign interest is turned over to the local priests and pastors and funds that once flowed dry up. Here, Christian spirit is truly tested.

These snapshots of Papua New Guinea’s state of national health and education do not suggest a nation progressing. But can corporate entities be blamed for this?

Of course not! They are corporate entities and their primary function is to turn over a profit and minimize overheads and heed their boards and or shareholders. The parameters of what they can and cannot do in so far as business is concerned, what they must and should pay and their responsibilities to an economy, a people and the environment have to be clearly drawn by the Government on behalf of its people and then, enforced and administrated effectively and with much resilience and constant review to improve by the Government. So no, the corporate sector is not to blame at all because they are doing exactly what they must.

This is where the PNG Government has failed for the last 37 years. They have not exactly done what they should have.

What is the hope in PNG? There is light at the end of the tunnel of doom and gloom for PNG.

The light is a growing middle-income class. A more educated and concerned Papua New Guinea that are communicating and coordinating their concerns, gathering and applying pressure on their government to be more proactive and protective of PNG interests, the hope is the emergence of politicians who are not intimidated by foreign influence and are able to speak their mind out, think long term and be more conscious of the situation their young nation is in. This growing group of Papua New Guineans is finding means and ways to become increasingly involved in business, either as partners or as sole proprietors. They are becoming confident, adventurous and financially prudent. Internet has opened new doors and developed opportunities for greater communication, debate, learning, commerce, networking and coordination of common concern. From everywhere and virtually anywhere, Papua New Guineans are communicating in real time and about real issues that confront their country and they are finding ways to have their say and be heard and they have a lot to say. Social media has become a platform to launch almost radical movements for common causes and the educated Papua New Guinean can now carryout their role in ensuring that the elected leaders, elected by the largely uneducated and innocently ignorant masses, can be held to account.

In what appears to be direct tandem, the greater masses are now being greatly influenced by the middle class, by the educated that are now informing and influencing voting patterns and therefore outcomes. As a result, a greater number of more responsible, more outspoken and more conscious politicians are being elected into parliament. The 9th parliament of 2012 is a testament to this and the next elections will no doubt see an increase in leaders who are not willing to be just politicians but agents of change, actually leading in every sense of the word, critical of the direction PNG is taken and no longer silently ignorant or negligently so of the efforts of foreign powers and multinational corporations.

Perhaps we will see a government that actually reviews the state of our economy and scan the deplorable and despairing state of our rural communities and do something about it. Already there appears to be greater funding opportunities but that can only work with greater financial controls. The Government has claimed that it is reviewing the audit and financial management mechanisms in place to ensure improved effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of goods and services. The Government has also borrowed substantially from CHINA – K6 Billion to be exact – for much needed infrastructural development purposes.

Hopefully this will be managed prudently, otherwise, as is the usual formula for any funds available for development of any sort, 40% will be soaked up in consultants fees, overstated contracts and dished out to cronies and friends unless the national procurement system is overhauled and stringently applied to ensure proper application of the borrowed funds. And what of the fine print? The media has not yet informed the people that CHINA has insisted that 50% of all projects to be funded by the loan MUST go to Chinese companies. Will this sacrifice be worth it for the progress of Papua New Guinea? Perhaps. Only time hold’s the answers.

Meanwhile, the Opposition of the 9th Parliament looks formidable and is strategizing to demonstrate that it will not oppose for the sake of opposing but be critical and hold the Government to account. This was evident in parliament when the Opposition leader stood up and made a speech supporting the budget and the extension of the 18 month grace period to 30 months to allow the Government more time to prove what it has been preaching.

Meanwhile a new political development is emerging. Here there are a few who sit neither right nor left, neither in Government of Opposition. But they claim to heed the voice of their people and project that voice, those views and thoughts and consideration on the floor of parliament.

Perhaps, all these efforts from all these changes...can collectively exert greater effort into determining their own destiny and demand greater participation in the development of their resources, including and perhaps especially the energy resources… Perhaps they can then ensure that conferences such as the PNG Mining and Petroleum Investment Conference can be held in PNG…where the resources being determined for sale are actually found….

Papua New Guinea looks North

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Niell

By BLAISE NANGOI in Sydney (Post Courier, November30 2012)

PAPUA New Guinea will not apologise for its growing ties with the People’s Republic of China.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said this yesterday when addressing the influential Australian think tank, the Lowy Institute for International Policy on his second day of a six-day visit to Australia.
Speaking to a packed audience comprising government, business and NGO representatives, Mr O’Neill said China, as an emerging world economic power, was attracting interest from all over the world including the two Pacific giants, Australia and New Zealand.
The trans-Tasman neighbours were engaged in various relations with China to progress their own economic agendas. And it was no different for PNG, whose sole interest in China was trade and investment opportunities.
“Our fastest growing relationship is with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC is today a major trading partner and a growing one,” Prime Minister O’Neill said.
“There is also PRC investment in our resources sector and in construction. The Ramu Nickel project, a partner (sic) between a major PRC corporation and an Australian mining house, will be in production in 2013.
“We also benefit from donor and concessional funding support from PRC, and I make no apology for encouraging and embracing it,’’ Mr O’Neill said.
Mr O’Neill reiterated that while PNG was looking to building a stronger relationship with Asian power-house economies, it was and would not be at the expense of its traditional allies including Australia and the US.
He noted that while China was now the second largest investor in PNG after Australia, Australia and the US remained the biggest single contributors to project funding in PNG.
“Our relationship with Australia is special and it will never be replaced, but we cannot keep on taking it for granted,’’ Mr O’Neill said.
He echoed similar sentiments at his National Press Club address in Canberra on Tuesday. And he is likely to repeat it several times more as he speaks at several engagements in the next five days.
It is Mr O’Neill reassuring Australia and its other Western allies that PNG is not selling out to China for its support.
It is clear that the US and Australia are concerned about PNG’s increased involvement with China. They see the association as China strategically staking a position in the Pacific for military purposes.
Mr O’Neill picked on that and told his Lowy Institute audience that PNG had no military interest in its relationship with China. It was purely trade and investment.
“Our engagement with Asia pre-dates our independence. But since independence, it has been a priority of every government and every prime minister.
“We share a common border with Indonesia, so our relations with Indonesia have always been given a high priority. They are based on mutual trust and respect. We respect Indonesia’s territorial integrity and Indonesia respects ours. We have strong relations with Malaysia and Singapore, founded on trade and investment and good people to people links as well.
“Our relations with Philippines are also strong and date right back to independence.
“Japan has always been a major trading and investment partner, and we have benefitted from concessional loans and grants and a strong presence in our economy of Japanese companies – now including in the LNG sector.
“We also have good links with South Korea, again through trade and investment.
“We are also developing our links with India and Russia as part of our comprehensive regional and international engagement.’’
Mr O’Neill used as an example the latest PNG-PRC loan arrangement to illustrate the kind of engagement it was seeking in its Look North policy – that is PNG securing aid for impact or priority projects, which it cannot fund under current aid arrangements with its traditional allies including Australia. The funding would be used to finance the rebuilding of core infrastructure to improve the lives of rural Papua New Guineans.
Referring to the proposed K6 billion loan from the Exim Bank of China, Mr O’Neill said it would fund impact projects his Government needed to put in place to drive market accessibility for Papua New Guineans as well as rebuild deteriorating infrastructure.
He explained that while the loan value was K6 billion, PNG did not have to draw down the total value of the loan over the next five years.
“We may not need to. We will only draw down only what we need.’’
Meanwhile, O’Neill is set on getting Australia to align its aid program with the PNG Government’s priority areas.