Dear ACT NOW! member,

As well as defending Papua New Guinea's Constitution¹, ACT NOW! also campaigns to stop the stealing of public money - stealing which deprives people of decent health and education services.²

There has been some interesting commentary on this issue this week.

Institute of National Affairs Director, Paul Barker, has written about the massive misappropriation at a political and bureaucratic level and its impact on government services.³ He has also highlighted that the huge $18 billion LNG project will worsen, not improve, the situation unless there is much greater transparency and accountability.

NASFUND CEO, Rod Mitchell, has also spoken out on the failure of our political and administrative elite to deal with the problem of corruption and highlighted the many scandals that have come and gone without any meaningful action being taken.⁴

Mitchell also links the failure to deal with the theft of public money with the issue of the government attacks on democracy. The frequent adjournment's of Parliament, the stifling of debate, the farcical reappointment of the Governor General and the failure to meet the required number of sitting days are all symptoms of a general lack of accountability. 

There is, however, an idea from Brazil that could help to address this lack of accountability and the political failure to stop the stealing of public money.

Brazil has recently passed a "Clean-Slate" law that says anyone convicted or accused of stealing cannot stand for election to public office.⁵

In PNG this could mean:

• all those people recommended for investigation in Commission's of Inquiry, but who have never been prosecuted, could not stand for election.
• all those MPs facing Leadership Tribunals but who use the courts and endless appeals to avoid justice could not stand for election.
• all those who get injunctions to stop prosecutions or the publication of evidence could not stand for election.

If we really want to see an end to the continuos stream of stories about the theft of public money⁶ and want to reclaim our democracy then ordinary people are going to have to demand something like Brazil's Clean-Slate law.

Your ACT NOW! team