Media Releases

February 18, 2011

PORT MORESBY:  The recent attacks on Australian aid workers is a shame for a country that relies on aid money from Australia.

While condemning the attacks, ACT NOW! a local advocacy group, says the Australian Government has been for a very long time confused on how to manage it’s relationship with Papua New Guinea.

Effrey Dademo, Program Manager, says, “…Australian citizens are suffering the consequences of their government’s own short-sightedness…”

6 December 2010

Community based campaign organization, ACT NOW!, has launched an email action against Harmony Gold and Newcrest Mining, owners of the Hidden Valley mine in Papua New Guinea.

ACT NOW! is asking the general public to send messages to the two companies through the ACT NOW! website, calling on them to ‘come clean’ about their acidification of the Watut river system.

25 November 2010

ACT NOW! community members were unable to deliver copies of more than 500 protest letters to mining company Highlands Pacific today because the company had closed its office.

“We are really disappointed,” said spokesperson Iona Reto, “members of the public are rightly concerned that Highlands Pacific wants to dump millions of tons of toxic waste into the sea, but the company doesn’t even have the decency to accept our protest letters.”

25 November 2010

Campaigners are taking their ‘no marine dumping’ message to the streets of Australia in the first of a series of planned protests against the environmental performance of foreign mining companies operating in Papua New Guinea.

“Our message is simple”, says spokesperson Iona Reto, “foreign companies operating in Papua New Guinea need to clean up their act and stop their double standards. If they can’t do it at home they shouldn’t do it in PNG.”