Post Courier, Editorial

Parliament will resume next Tuesday. The Members of Parliament will have resumed after a six months holiday except for the one day sitting in February to elect the Governor General.

The Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABLs) over customary land has been the subject of much debate in recent months. On our part, we [Post Courier] have been investigating these land deals, and have done our part by exposing some of those fraudulent activities with the help of the affected landowners, non-government organisations and green groups, who have also been taking up the fight, on behalf of the village people who have lost their rights to their land in these dealings at the government and international levels.


Acting Prime Minister, the Hon. Sam Abal MP, has announced the government’s intention to set up a Commission of Inquiry into the issue of Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Leases.

The Commission will investigate the grant of Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Leases covering some 5.2 million hectares of customary land to ensure all legal requirements have been followed and that the leases are being used for the purposes intended in the legislation.

Papua New Guinea's Attorney General, Arnold Amet, has published an unreserved apology for his racial attack on MP Ken Fairweather at last week's Pacific Marine Industrial Zone forum.

Papua New Guinea's Lands Minister has come out in the media to strongly back the controversial Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Leases which have been heavily criticized by landholders, NGOs, scientists and academics in PNG and overseas.

The leases have been described as a huge land grab, but the Minister apparently sees nothing wrong.

By PMIZ Watcher

While government Ministers are pressing ahead with plans for the controversial Pacific Marine Industrial Zone, despite considerable opposition from local communities, official documents show there is complete confusion about how much money the project will cost.

By Paul Barker, Director of the Institute of National Affairs*

By Rosalyn Evara*

A heated racial slur exchange between Attorney-General Sir Arnold Amet and Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather [see video below] marred a public forum in Madang attended by senior national ministers to discuss the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone project with the local people.


From a Special Correspondent

When  three  senior  government ministers arrived at Alexishafen on Friday for a public forum on the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ),  they didn’t expect the kind of  anger they got from the Rempi and Kananam communities.  

Francis Gem, from the Kanamam area  took the stage in front of 300 people  and  in one swooping motion  said:

By Nancy Sullivan*

The Kananam Meeting on the proposed Pacific Marine Industrial Zone was called for this Friday because a spate of important government officials claimed to have never received their invitations to the first Rempi Forum.