By GORETHY KENNETH

SPEAKER Jeffrey Nape has certified the Judicial Conduct Act 2012. 
It is now law. This is despite assurances by the Government that the law would be subjected to a wider consultation throughout Papua New Guinea by the instituted Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC) before a final outcome is expected.


Mr Nape signed the law into effect on March 30, 2012. This was also certified by the Clerk of Parliament Don Pandan on the same day. 
Last night, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill also confirmed that the law was certified by the Speaker and the Clerk of Parliament last Friday. However, he said that the Speaker and the Clerk

“did what they did to certify the law and that was the process for the legislature”.

But he added that as the head of the Executive Government, he allowed for the implementation of the Judicial Conduct Bill to be deferred and the Bill to be referred to the CLRC for awareness and wider consultation for nine months under the chairmanship of Mr Gabriel Kapris. 
A spokesman for the PM last night also defended the PM saying that Mr O’Neill made no two ways about the law. 


“He undertook to defer the implementation of the Act. He did not mislead anyone nor did he lie to the nation,” the spokesman said last night.

“Yes, the Speaker certified the Bill but that was the process he had to make as a legislature. It was conditional.”


The Post-Courier believes that the Bill would have been repealed on condition and or only if the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia stepped aside on the cases involving the Government.


This is the law that has caused the nation to react negatively to it – the University of Papua new Guinea students boycotting classes and petitioning the Government to repeal the Act. The PNG Chamber of Commerce had also called for it to be repealed as they claimed it would infringe on the major business activities of the country. The Civil Society and the NGOs, including Transparency International had also called for the same.

The Government later announced the set up of the CLRC, to be chaired by Mr Kapris and allocating K1 million to carry out investigations and wider consultation throughout the country for nine months.