Transparency International has added its name to the list of organisations pushing for the government to make good on its promise of a Commission of Inquiry into the huge land grab which has seen over 5 million hectares of customary land locked away in Special Agriculture Leases. TI Chairperson, Lawrence Stephens says there is huge concern that the leases were improperly executed and will result in large scale logging without providing agricultural development.

By S. Gigi Aupong

Papua New Guinea is unashamedly dancing to the tune of multinational corporations. We are willing to break our own laws to make money for the rich. 

Sir Arnold Amet has a right to be angry at how colonizers tricked us in the past into giving up our resources for nothing. However, he fails to see that the same thing is still happening in PNG, this time through multinational corporations. 

Opposition leader, Belden Namah, was grilled yesterday (Thursday) on talk-back radio over his position on the government's Commission of Inquiry into Special Purpose Business and Agriculture leases.

Post Courier editorial

In the debate over the Special Agricultural and Business leases (SABLs), all the attention is focused on the Lands Department. This may have happened because the Lands Department, which is tasked to manage State and to some degree, customary land in Papua New Guinea, issues the SABLs.