Category Archives: Papua New Guinea

Smiles and unity at the Pacific Islands Forum mask tough questions shelved for another day

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While leaders presented a picture of harmony, more vexing topics like Australia’s fossil fuel ambitions and China were kicked down the road

At the close of the Pacific Islands Forum the leaders emerged from their retreat smiling, cut a giant cake with a sword and then, in an impromptu moment of diplomatic bonhomie, posed for a selfie after Anthony Albanese whipped out his phone, Ellen DeGeneres style.

It was, quite literally, a picture of harmony.

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PNG prime minister denies connection to suitcase full of cash found as voting starts

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The prime minister’s son was arrested by police but released without charge, after police allegedly found a suitcase with AU$650,000 on another traveller

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape has denied any connection to a suitcase containing PGK1.56m (AU$650,000) in cash that police found in Hela province, just as voting in the country’s election was about to start.

Mospal Marape, the son of the prime minister, James Marape, was arrested after being found allegedly travelling with a man carrying a suitcase full of cash totalling PGK1.56m (AU$650,000) to Hela province, where voting in the country’s election kicked off this week.

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Papua New Guinea to head to polls amid election violence fears

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Election-related deaths plague lead-up to voting day in election closely watched by China and Australia

Papua New Guinea is heading to the polls on Monday and there are fears the vote could be more violent than the 2017 elections, in which more than 200 people died.

Violence has plagued the lead-up to the vote. Local media reports that through May and the campaign period, there have been 28 election-related deaths, several injuries, an assassination attempt on a possible candidate, the shooting of an election official and burning of five vehicles.

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Serious defects discovered in patrol boats Australia supplied to Pacific Islands

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Potentially serious faults in Guardian-class patrol boats may force some countries to pause use of vessels

Pacific island countries may halt the use of Australian-provided patrol boats after potentially serious defects were discovered, in a blow to a $2.1bn maritime security program.

The Australian government is now considering how to work with Pacific nations to close any gap in their maritime surveillance activities while the issues – including carbon monoxide entering part of the boat – are resolved.

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What makes a song sound happy? It depends on your culture, study finds

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The perception of music in major keys as happy and minor keys as sad is not universal, Australian researchers say

What makes a piece of music seem happy or sad? Whether it has been composed in a major or minor key is a significant factor. It’s part of what distinguishes the cheeriness of Walking on Sunshine from the pensiveness of Ain’t No Sunshine, for example.

But the perception of major keys as happy and minor keys as sad is not universal, according to Australian research that suggests the effect may result from the influence of western culture.

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China’s Wang Yi visits Papua New Guinea amid tensions over election

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Ex-PM Peter O’Neill criticises timing of foreign minister’s visit, saying no agreements should be signed with Beijing before poll

China’s top diplomat has begun his visit to Papua New Guinea in the midst of the island’s national election as Beijing races to salvage a controversial deal in a battle of influence with Australia and other western powers.

The visit of Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, came a few days after a proposed economic and security deal collapsed on Monday. But his visit has also been criticised by the former Papua New Guinea prime minister Peter O’Neill, who is campaigning to take back the top job, in a series of media interviews, during which he said no agreements should be signed with China before the national election.

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Car crash kills Papua New Guinea’s deputy PM, Sam Basil

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Leader of United Labour party was taken to hospital with three others and died despite efforts to revive him

Papua New Guinea’s deputy prime minister, Sam Basil, has died after a car crash, police have said.

Basil died in hospital while awaiting airlift to Port Moresby late on Wednesday after the crash, which took place in the Wau-Bulolo region, Morobe province.

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New clues shed light on ‘pivotal’ moment in the great Pacific migration

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Archaeologists say find of tools and bones changes our understanding of the Lapita people, the first to make landfall in Remote Oceania

The peopling of the Pacific is one of the most significant migrations in human history. And now an archaeological discovery on a small island in Papua New Guinea has recast the early scope of this settlement, in a finding archaeologists say could explain the migration east three millennia ago.

The unearthing of animal bones and tools on Brooker Island, 200km east of mainland Papua New Guinea, suggests that the migration of Lapita people throughout Papua New Guinea was far more extensive than previously thought.

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Telstra buyout of Digicel’s Pacific mobile networks threatened by ‘discriminatory’ new PNG tax

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The $100m tax on companies controlling more than 40% of market is ‘arbitrary’ and ‘perplexing’, says telco Digicel

Digicel Group says it is considering legal options after Papua New Guinea imposed a $100m tax that the telecoms firm said had potential “implications” for the planned AU$2.1bn ($1.57bn) sale of the Pacific’s biggest mobile network to Australia’s Telstra.

Telstra Corp Ltd said last October that it would buy the Pacific operations of Digicel in a deal largely funded by the Australian government, seen by observers as a way to block China’s rising influence in the region. The operations include 2.5m mobile phone subscribers across PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru.

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‘A blatant lie’: China and Taiwan fight for credit over rescue of sailors lost at sea for 29 days

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Both governments are claiming responsibility for rescue of nine Papua New Guinean nationals last month

Tensions between China and Taiwan have found an unlikely battleground – a fight over who rescued nine Papua New Guinean sailors who were lost at sea for nearly a month.

The dispute came after the rescue of the Papua New Guinean nationals in Solomon Island waters after 29 days lost at sea, late in February.

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Papua New Guinean MP charged with murder over shooting death in restaurant

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First-term government MP Lohia Boe Samuel has been charged with murder over the death of Robert Jerry last week

A Papua New Guinean MP has been charged with murder, after the shooting death of a man at a restaurant in the capital of Port Moresby last week.

Police will allege that Lohia Boe Samuel, the MP for Moresby North-West, was having dinner with Robert Jerry and another man at Fushion 2 restaurant on Friday 11 March when a firearm was discharged, killing Jerry.

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Panguna mine at centre of bloody Bougainville conflict set to reopen after 30 years

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Local government hopes reopening of mine – once world’s most profitable – will support bid for independence from Papua New Guinea

The mine at the centre of the decade-long civil war between rebels in Bougainville and Papua New Guinea security forces is set to reopen 30 years after it was forced to close, following an agreement between local landowners.

Panguna was once one of the world’s largest and most profitable copper and goldmines and still contains an estimated 5.3m tons of copper and 19.3m ounces of gold, which would make the reserves worth about $60bn at today’s prices.

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I had death threats and my tires slashed for my reporting. Many journalists in the Pacific face huge dangers | Joyce McClure

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Freedom of the press might be included in some constitutions of Pacific countries, but it often only works in theory

I spent five years as the lone journalist on the remote Pacific island of Yap. During that time I was harassed, spat at, threatened with assassination and warned that I was being followed. The tyres on my car were slashed late one night.

There was also pressure on the political level. The chiefs of the traditional Council of Pilung (COP) asked the state legislature to throw me out of the country as a “persona non grata” claiming that my journalism “may be disruptive to the state environment and/or to the safety and security of the state”.

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Experts warn Papua New Guinea is potential breeding ground for new Covid variants

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PNG, where less than 5% of the adult population is vaccinated, is creating opportunities for the virus to spread and mutate, epidemiologists say

Experts have warned that the next variant of Covid-19 to sweep the world could emerge on Australia’s doorstep, due to incredibly low rates of vaccination rates in Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is Australia’s closest neighbour, and at its nearest point is just 4km from Australian territory in the Torres Strait. At various points in the pandemic there have been fears that travellers from PNG could bring the virus to Australia.

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One-third of people in Pacific paid a bribe in the last year, says corruption report

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Survey of more than 6,000 people by Transparency International is the most comprehensive look at corruption in the region to date

One in three people across the Pacific Islands region have paid a bribe when using a public service in the last year, while a quarter of people have been offered a bribe for their vote in the last five years, according to a report by Transparency International.

The findings for the watchdog group are based on a survey of more than 6,000 people in 10 countries and territories, and is the most comprehensive look at corruption ever carried out in the region.

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PNG residents evicted a decade ago for casino development face violence and poverty: report

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Former residents of the Paga Hill settlement in Port Moresby say their displacement has led to a range of problems

Many former residents of a settlement in Papua New Guinea who claim they were forcibly evicted nearly a decade ago say they are living without access to sanitation, electricity and water and some have faced homelessness, violence and community tension as a result of the move, according to a new report.

In 2012 the Paga Hill Development Company (PHDC), a PNG registered company with significant ties to Australia, announced its plan to create the Paga Hill Estate, which would include a resort, casino, and an aquarium. In 2012 police, backed by bulldozers, began moving into the settlement of Paga Hill in Port Moresby, to clear the area.

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‘It was a nice break from everything’: two men rescued after 29 days lost at sea

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Surviving on oranges they’d packed, coconuts from the sea and rainwater they collected, they floated about 400km in the Solomon Sea before being rescued

Two men from Solomon Islands who spent 29 days lost at sea after their GPS tracker stopped working have been rescued off the coast of Papua New Guinea – 400 kilometres away from where their journey began.

Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni set out from Mono Island, in Western province, Solomon Islands, on the morning of the 3 September in a small, single 60 horsepower motorboat.

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‘Crisis unfolding’ as Papua New Guinea hospitals hit by worst Covid wave yet

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Health authorities have been forced to turn a stadium into a makeshift hospital while elsewhere essential services are closing

Hospitals in Papua New Guinea are being pushed to the brink and morgues are overflowing, as the country suffers what health authorities say is the worst surge in Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.

The country’s health care system has long been plagued by shortages of drugs, funding, an ailing infrastructure and a severe lack of health workers.

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PNG must act now to stop the epidemic of violence against women and girls | Stephanie McLennan

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Last year 15,444 cases of domestic violence were reported but only 250 people were prosecuted and 100 convicted. Victims deserve better

A woman is beaten every 30 seconds in Papua New Guinea, and more than 1.5 million people experience gender-based violence in the country each year.

On 3 September in Mt Hagen, one of the country’s largest cities, three men were released from prison after being accused of murdering a 31-year-old woman, Imelda Tupi Tiamanda. One of the men was her husband.

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‘The sharks are hiding’: locals claim deep-sea mining off Papua New Guinea has stirred up trouble

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‘Shark calling’, an ancient custom of hunters singing to sharks then catching them by hand, is under threat and locals blame deep-sea disturbances

More in this series
• Race to the bottom: the disastrous, blindfolded rush to mine the deep sea
• ‘False choice’ – is deep sea mining required for an electric vehicle revolution?
• Covid tests and superbug killers: how the deep sea is key to fighting pandemics

To catch a shark in the waters off Papua New Guinea, first the men sing.

They sing the names of their ancestors and their respects to the shark. They shake a coconut rattle into the sea, luring the animals from the deep, and then catch them by hand.

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