By Patrick Seleng 

The opposition has sought the Supreme court's interpretation on the number of sitting days after the speaker gagged the Parliament. About 1 year ago I wrote that the opposition's attempt to take this matter to Supreme court was a waste of time and money as Somare has outsmarted and outwitted Mekere and his opposition team. Up to now, there is no mention of this in the mainstream media, infact, this matter is given the hugest hiding. 

Lands and Physical Planning Minister, Lucas Dekena, has confirmed the government has handed out 99-year leases covering more than than 5 million hectares of customary land and revealed that the government intends to double the number of leases so they cover 20% of Papua New Guinea's land mass.

The Minister has rejected the widespread criticism of the Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) and said the state had no choice as it wanted to free up land for development because more than 95% of the land was owned by the customary landowners.


In a conference last Wednesday, the Lands Department vowed to take action on land deals in Papua New Guinea - deals in which control of more than 5 million hectares of land, 10% of PNGs land mass, has been taken away from local people and given to corporations.

While Acting Lands Secretary, Romilly Kila Pat, might have been personally sincere in his call to address the issues, he also said it was going to be a “long process”.

By Jeremy Hance