MINING MINISTER: THERE ARE NO CUSTOMARY RIGHTS OVER SEAS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND THE LANDOWNERS WILL NOT BENEFIT FROM THE SOLAWARA 1 PROJECT

Unitech New Ireland Students addressing the ministers about Seabed Mining, Lae

At a meeting of the People’s Progress Party (PPP) at the Forest Research Institute in Lae, on 1st August, 2014 to introduce to the New Ireland residents of Lae, the change of party leadership and to pitch the need for an autonomous New Ireland, Mining Minister and Member for Namatanai, Byron Chan urged New Irelanders to support the controversial Experimental Seabed Mining yet confirmed, there are no customary owners of the sea and that only the National Government will benefit from the Solwara 1 Project. The New Ireland Students of the University of Technology (Unitech), as well as other New Ireland Residents of Lae, had a barrage of questions and concerns on seabed mining directed at the Minister during that meeting. New Ireland MPs present also included New Ireland Governor, Sir Julius Chan, and Member for Kavieng, Ben Micah. Unitech students filled the room with placard messages against the mining venture including their concerns and questions directed at their MPs, relating to social and environmental impacts of experimental seabed mining.

A senior lecturer in Communication in Development at the Unitech, Dr Rachel Orake, questioned Byron Chan on how much he knows about 1600km deep into the oceans floor, and also asked if the big machines that will be used by Nautilus for drilling will not cause any harm to the marine environment as many New Irelanders depend entirely on the sea for survival. The Mining Minister responded that there are no monetary benefits to go to local people because local people do not have customary rights over the seas in their territorial waters. Everything in and under the sea belongs to the State and therefore the benefits will go directly to the National Government. The main purpose of their visit to Lae, was to promote Autonomy, for New Ireland. However discussions on autonomy took the back stage, when the audience directed the focus of the meeting at seabed mining. No prior informed consent of local people was obtained before granting the permit AND no such gatherings were organised in the past to gauge the views of New Irelanders in the lead up to the granting of the permit. This PPP event was taken as an opportunity for the New Irelanders in Lae as well as students and some concerned Unitech Lecturers to air their concerns and questions, which sadly weren’t satisfactorily handled by the New Ireland MPs. The 3 MPs seemed determined that the Somare Government had made the decision on the Solwara 1 Permit and that the O’Neil Government had no power to reverse that decision – an extremely shallow justification as the Government of the day has every right to review it’s own (pr previous government decisions) based on genuine concerns of any nature, including social and environmental concerns.

The New Ireland students of Unitech conducted a social research during the 2013 Christmas break to ascertain how many of their people back home knew abut seabed mining. And contrary to Mr. Micah’s statements that awareness has been undertaken in New Ireland, the students established through survey-type questionnaires, used in their patrols that local villagers along the project impact areas are not aware of the impacts of the project, while most do not know what seabed mining is or have give their consent to the commencement of the project. Furthermore, In October 2012, a petition of 24,000 signatures was presented to Minister Byron Chan that remains ignored to this very day. Instead, the Minister urged New Ireland students to “…mobilise and take their concerns to the Government...” How many times will the people of PNG and New Ireland speak out? Isn’t a people’s petition enough to indicate widely shared concerns of the harm?

Placards presented during the meet with Miniing minister, Byron Chan