Parliament has ended for another term, shutting down ahead of the Aotearoa New Zealand election campaign with a debate where many focused on attacking their political opponents.

Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins warned New Zealanders: “We can continue to move forward under Labour, or we can face a coalition of cuts, chaos, and fear: A National/ACT/New Zealand First government that would be one of the most inexperienced and untested in our history.”

Parliament typically rises at the end of a term with an adjournment debate, and Thursday’s seemed to confirm the coming election on October 14 would be full of negative campaigning.

• READ MORE: Other NZ election reports

Here is a brief summary of the political leaders’ speeches:

Chris Hipkins (Labour):

Labour’s leader and incumbent Prime Minister Chris Hipkins launched into the closing adjournment debate reflecting on the eventful past six years. He said his own tenure in the role had not broken that mould, with the Auckland floods sweeping in just two days after he was sworn in, followed by Cyclone Gabrielle.

“Ours is a government that has been forged through fire. Every challenge that has been thrown our way, we have risen to that,” he said.

He said Labour had achieved a lot, but there was more to do — and much at stake in the coming election.

“We can continue to move forward under Labour, or we can face a coalition of cuts, chaos, and fear: A National/ACT/New Zealand First government that would be one of the most inexperienced and untested in our history, a government who want to wind the clock back on all of the progress that we are making.”

He praised Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s handling of the economy, highlighting a 6 percent larger economy than before the covid-19 pandemic, record low unemployment, and wages “growing faster under our government than inflation”.

He soon returned to attacking political opponents, however.

“Now is not the time to turn back. Now is not the time to stoke the inflationary fires with unfunded tax cuts as the members opposite promised, and it is not a time to turn our backs on talent by introducing a talent tax,” he said, referring to National’s plan to increase levies on visas.

“National wants to turn the clock backwards; we want to keep moving forward.”

He finished by saying Labour had a positive vision for New Zealand, before his final parting words: “and I wave goodbye to Michael Woodhouse, too, because he’s guaranteed not to be here after the election”.

Christopher Luxon (National):

The National leader said Hipkins’ speech should be one of apology, “to the parents and the kids who actually have been let down by an education system …to all the people who have waited for endless times and hours in hospital emergency departments … to all the victims of ram raids in dairies and superettes … to all the people that are lying awake at night worried about how they’re going to make their payments and keep their house.”

He continued with the requisite thanks such speeches so often sprinkle on officials, staff, supporters and workers before thanking the man he had been criticising.

“I do want to thank, in particular, the Prime Minister Chris Hipkins for his services to the National Party, because he rode in very triumphantly in February, and he announced that he was sweeping away everything that Jacinda Ardern stood for-especially kindness. But I have to say it turned out it was all words and no action, because, as we expected, he just carried on doing more of the same: Excessive, addicted government spending.

He turned to the slew of Labour personnel problems of the past year and more, likening the government to a car with the wheels falling off; the Greens were “in this rally too, they’re on their e-bikes, and they’re pedalling along the Wellington cycle lanes,” while Te Pāti Māori were “in their waka, but, sadly, they’re not the party of collaboration that they once were”.

“Then there are the ACT folk. They’re off in their pink van, and it’s been wonderful. They’re travelling the countryside, and David’s reading Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom, which is a good read, as you well know, Mr Speaker.”

He lavished praise on his own team, singling out deputy Nicola Willis, then closed by promising National was “ready to govern, we are sorted, we are united, we have the talent, we have the energy, we have the ideas, we have the diversity to take this country forward”.

David Seymour (ACT):

ACT’s leader also honed in on his political opponents, targeting Labour’s polling.

“It’s been a long three years in this Chamber and it has been characterised by one fact that lays bare what has happened, and that is the fact that the Labour Party, in Roy Morgan, polled 26 percent. That means that half the people who voted for Labour at the last election have abandoned voting for Labour in three years. The question that they must be asking themselves is why that is.”

“I think the reason that we have so much change and support-Labour have lost half of their supporters in the last three years because, frankly, never has so much been promised to so many and yet so little actually delivered … New Zealanders overwhelmingly say this country is going in the wrong direction, and they also will tell you that their number one concern is the cost of living. That is Grant Robertson’s epitaph.”

He targeted housing, debt, inflation, victimisation, and child poverty before targeting the government for taking “a divisive approach to almost every single issue”.

“If you take the example of vaccination. Now, I’m a person who says that vaccination was safe and effective, yet by using ostracism as a tool to try and increase vaccination levels this government has eroded social cohesion and divided New Zealanders when they didn’t need to,” he said.

“New Zealand have had enough of that style of politics. They’ve had enough of Chris Hipkins going negative. They’ve had enough of the misinformation.”

He finished by saying the choice for New Zealanders now was not between swapping “Chris for Chris and red for blue”, but “we’ll actually deliver what we promise, we’ll cut waste, we’ll end racial division, and we’ll get the politics out of the classroom. Those aren’t just policies, those are values that we all share.”

James Shaw (Greens):

The Green co-leader took his own opening shot at Seymour, as “the leader of ‘New New Zealand First'”.

“Mr Seymour must be feeling quite grumpy right now, because last term he worked so hard to get rid of Winston Peters so that this term he could become Winston Peters, and now Winston Peters is calling and he wants his Horcrux back because that blackened shard of a soul can only animate the body of one populist authoritarian at once.”

He turned the hose on both major parties in one statement, saying it was odd National was proposing more new taxes than Labour while the Greens were promising bigger tax cuts than National. He criticised National over its plan to spend the funds from the Emissions Trading Scheme, before turning to climate change overall as — unusually — a source of positivity.

“Our greenhouse gas emissions in Aotearoa are falling, and that is because — and it is only because — with the Green Party in government with Labour, we have prioritised that work every single day.”

But positivity did not last long.

“Under the last National government, one in 100 new cars sold in this country was an electric vehicle. Last June, it was one in two … and National want to cancel all of that so that they can have an election year bribe.”

Rawiri Waititi (Te Pāti Māori):

The Pāti Māori leader Rawiri Waititi began with a fairy tale.

“It seems like this side of the House can find a grain of salt in a sugar factory. I just wanted to say, as I heard the story about Goldilocks — Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Baby Bear — I tell you, it’s been very difficult to sit next to a polar bear and a gummy bear, and it’s been quite hard to contain the grizzly bear in me.”

He spoke in te reo Māori before giving a speech which — unlike the other leaders — focused exclusively on his own party’s promises.

“We are the only movement that will fight for our people,” he said.

“What does an Aotearoa hou look like? It looks like how we would treat you on the marae. We will welcome you. We will feed you. We will house you. We will protect you. We will educate you. We will care you. We will love you.”

“Te Pāti Māori is a movement that leaves no one behind, whether you are tangata whenua or a tangata Tiriti, tangata hauā, takatāpui, wāhine, tāne, rangatahi, mokopuna — you are whānau.”

He spoke of the need to reduce poverty and homelessness, before making the second of two references to his suspension from Parliament this week, then said it was time to “believe in ourselves to be proud, to be magic, and to believe in your mana”.

“I am proud of you all, I am proud of our movement, and I’m proud to head into this campaign, doing what we said we would do.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

In Fiji’s politically charged context, national elections are historically a risky period. Since the 2022 campaign period was declared open on April 26, the intensity has been increasing.

Moreover, with three governments toppled by coups after the 1987, 1999 and 2006 elections, concerns about a smooth transfer of power are part of the national conversation.

The frontrunners in the election, which must be held by January 2023 but is likely to be held later this year, are two former military strongmen — Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.

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Both men have been involved in Fijian coups in the past.  Rabuka took power through the 1987 coups in the name of Indigenous self-determination. He became the elected prime minister in 1992 but lost power in 1999 after forming a coalition with a largely Indo–Fijian party.

Bainimarama staged his 2006 coup in the name of good governance, multiracialism and eradicating corruption, before restoring electoral democracy and winning elections under the FijiFirst (FF) party banner in 2014 and 2018.

FijiFirst was formed by the leaders and supporters of the 2006 coup during the transition back to democratic government via the 2014 election. Many of the FF leaders were part of the post-coup interim government that created the 2013 constitution, which delivered substantial changes to Fiji’s electoral system.

These changes included the elimination of seats reserved for specific ethnicities, replaced by a single multi-member constituency covering the whole country, and the creation of a single national electoral roll. Seat distribution is proportional, meaning each of the eight competing parties will need to get five percent of the vote to win one of the 55 seats up for grabs this year.

Popularity a key factor
As votes for a particular candidate are distributed to those lower down their parties’ ticket once they cross the five percent threshold, the popularity of single candidates can make or break a party’s electoral hopes.

For example, Bainimarama individually garnered 69 percent of FF’s total votes in 2014 and 73.81 percent in 2018, demonstrating the extent to which his party’s fortunes rest on his personal brand.

This will be crucial as FF’s majority rests on a razor thin margin, having won in 2018 with only 50.02 percent of the vote, compared to its 59.14 percent in 2014.

As for his major rival Rabuka, following his split with the major Indigenous Fijian party, Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), he formed and now heads the People’s Alliance Party (PAP).

The split came after Rabuka lost a leadership tussle with SODELPA stalwart Viliame Gavoka. Rabuka’s departure is seen as a setback for SODELPA, given that he attracted 77,040, or 42.55 percent, of the total SODELPA votes in 2018.

When it comes to issues, the state of the economy, including cost of living and national debt, are expected to be at the top of most voters’ minds. Covid-19 brought a sudden halt to tourism — which before the pandemic made up 39 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) — putting 115,000 people out of work.

As a result, the government borrowed heavily during this period, which according to the Ministry of Economy saw the “debt-to-GDP ratio increase to over 80 percent at the end of March 2022 compared to around 48 per cent pre-pandemic”.

Poverty ‘undercounted’
The government stated that it borrowed to prevent economic collapse, while the opposition accused it of reckless spending. The World Bank put the poverty level at 24.1 percent in April 2022, but opposition politicians have claimed this is an undercount.

For example, the leader of the National Federation Party (NFP) Professor Biman Prasad has claimed the real level of unemployment is more than 50 percent.

Adding to this pressure is inflation, which reached 4.7 percent in April — up from 1.9 percent in February — and while the government blames price increases in wheat, fuel, and other staples on the war in Ukraine, the opposition attributes it to poor economic fundamentals.

Another factor which could define the election outcome was the pre-election announcement of a coalition between the PAP and NFP. By combining the two largest opposition parties, there is clearly a hope to form a viable multiethnic alternative to FF.

This strategy, however, is not without risks in the country’s complex political milieu. In the 1999 election, the coalition between Rabuka’s ruling Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei Party and NFP failed when Rabuka’s 1987 coup history was highlighted during campaigning.

This saw NFP’s Fijian supporters of Indian descent desert the party.

Whether history will repeat itself is one of the intriguing questions in this election. According to some estimates, FF received 71 percent of Indo-Fijian votes in 2014, and capturing this support base is crucial for the opposition’s chances.

Transfer of power concerns
Against the background of pressing economic and social issues loom concerns about a smooth transfer of power. Besides Fiji’s coup culture, such anxieties are fuelled by a constitutional provision seen to give the military carte blanche to intervene in national politics.

Section 131(2) of the 2013 Fijian constitution states: ‘It shall be the overall responsibility of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces to ensure at all times the security, defence and well-being of Fiji and all Fijians’.

This has concerned many opposition leaders, such as NFP president Pio Tikoduadua, who has called for the country to rethink how this aspect of the constitution should be understood.

These concerns are likely to increase by the prospect of a close or hung election. As demonstrated after last year’s Samoan general election, the risk of a protracted dispute over the results could have adverse implications for a stable outcome.

As such, it is essential that all candidates immediately commit to respect the final result of the election whatever it may be and lay the foundations for a peaceful transition of power. In the longer-term interest, however, it will be necessary for Fiji to clarify the potential domestic power of the military implied by the constitution to put all undue speculation to rest. 

Dr Shailendra Singh is coordinator of the University of the South Pacific journalism programme. This article is based on a paper published by ANU Department of Pacific Affairs (DPA) as part of its “In brief” series. The original paper can be found here. It was first published at Policy Forum, Asia and the Pacific’s platform for public policy analysis and opinion. Republished with the permission of the author.

Cook Island businesses holding out for much needed tourists have now got a reprieve with a travel bubble with New Zealand less than two weeks away.

It will start on May 17, with Air New Zealand offering flights from May 18.

During yesterday’s announcement, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said there had been enormous sacrifices made to keep covid-19 out and communities safe.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: – ‘We know it’s not the magic wand but it’s heading in the right direction of normality, some sense of recovery’ – Cook Islands Tourism Industry Council president Liana Scott (Duration 5′:08″)

“Our economy has been devastated, today we start our journey of recovery. Today, we get back into business and today, we start to rebuild,” he said.

Cook Islands Tourism Industry Council president Liana Scott said the bubble announcement was a relief as the wait had been dire for many businesses and financial support from the government due to run out next month.

“Some of them have mentioned to me, if it takes longer than May, they don’t think they can hang in any longer,” she said.

“We have been lucky enough to have the government support through a wage subsidy and, without that, business would not have been able to continue.”

Businesses begin preparations
Scott said businesses had already begun to prepare for overseas guests.

“Some properties have been in hibernation, so they have been closed completely and I’ve already seen on Facebook they’ve been having staff doing some rotational shifts, getting into the rooms, servicing aircons and those sorts of things,” she said.

She said some hotels have even been making their own jam while they waited for shipments of individual breakfast spreads to come in for guests

But she said some business had lost workers to New Zealand as the wage subsidy was only enough to survive on let alone pay the mortgage and other bills.

When the one way bubble was announced in January, 304 Cook Island residents left either for a short term stay or permanently.

“A lot of that young working population has moved to New Zealand to do some seasonal and permanent roles and I think filling those roles will be quite difficult,” she said.

Three flights a week
Once the bubble is up and running Air New Zealand will fly to the Cook Islands two or three times a week.

The airline expects to step that up to daily from July in time for the school holidays.

However, National Party leader Judith Collins said the government had not been moving fast enough to reconnect with other Pacific countries.

“The fact is these countries have almost no other income other than remittances, it is simply deplorable that the government has not moved faster on this.

“It shouldn’t be hard when there’s no cases in these other countries,” she said.

In the past, Samoa’s Prime Minster has been reluctant to open up the borders following the measles outbreak and Tonga’s Prime Minister has said a vaccination programme needs to be done first.

Nuie’s Premier Dalton Tagelagi is waiting to see how successful the Cook Islands bubble is before lobbying for one of its own.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it makes the most sense for realm countries to be the next countries in line for a bubble, but the decision is “in the hands of those countries.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

For many Papua New Guineans, Sir Mekere Morauta will be remembered as the straight shooting politician and the reformist Prime Minister, whose work came to be appreciated more than a decade later.

Up until the 1990s, Mekere Morauta’s public life was rather low key.

He thrived behind the scenes, helping to develop, shape and implement important government policies.

• READ MORE: Loss of an outstanding leader – Sir Mek dies at 74

He was the first graduate in economics from the University of Papua New Guinea and with it came important responsibilities, both for his people and the country.

In 1971, he began a career in the public service as a research officer with the department of Labour. A year later, he took up a job as economist in the Office of Economic advisor.

When Papua New Guinea became  self-governing in 1973, the government of Chief Minister Michael Somare sought out its best and brightest to help run the young democracy.

At 27, Mekere Morauta was thrust into a position of power and responsibility with his appointment as Secretary for Finance – a post he held for nine years.

Important influencer
He was always an important influencer in the banking and financial sector of Papua New Guinea.

In 1983, he was appointed managing director of the Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation.  He held the position for another 9 years until his upward transition to a new job as the Governor of the Bank of Papua New Guinea.

It was during this short stint as the central bank Governor that he shot to prominence as an outspoken enemy of the corruption that was infecting PNG government institutions.

Sir Julius Chan was Prime Minister then and in a foreign documentary about corruption in Papua New Guinea, Mekere Morouta spoke out describing the rampant corruption and “systemic and systematic.”

He was removed one year into the job.

Scott Waide reflects on his association with Sir Mekere Morauta, former #PNG prime minister who died earlier this week. “The ease with which Sir Mek explained economic theory brought it to life. He was a guru, a brilliantly articulate economist politician” https://t.co/XAhDvtyTdM

— Keith Jackson AM (@PNGAttitude) December 25, 2020

The period from 1994 to 1997 was politically turbulent.

The international attention on government institutions and the corruption highlighted by key figures in Papua New Guinea, including Sir Mekere, caused many Papua New Guineans to demand a change in leadership and management.

The seeds had already been planted.

South African mercenaries
In 1997, when the government of Sir Julius Chan opted to bring in South African mercenaries to end the Bougainville crisis, PNGDF commander Brigadier-General Jerry Singirok called for the prime minister to step down and riots broke out.

It was months before the elections and when Sir Julius was voted out of office, a new group of political leaders, including Sir Mekere Morouta  were voted in.

For the next three years, the country faced deep economic trouble.

The decade long closure of the Bougainville mine, a severe drought and high unemployment and government institutions in desperate need for reform… this was the scenario in 1999 when Sir Mekere took over from Bill Skate as prime minister.

In the next three years, Sir Mekere had the most impact on Papua New Guinea’s political and economic future.

In 2000, the Mekere government introduced sweeping reforms in the finance and banking sector.  He introduced legislative reforms that strengthened the superannuation funds and banks, effectively eliminating much of the political interference that these institutions had long been burdened with.

Through the reforms, Nasfund and other superfunds which were  on the brink of collapse, were revived and strengthened

In the political sphere, constitutional changes were made to strengthen political parties and other institutions of state.

As Papua New Guineans come to grips with the void left by Sir Mekere’s passing on December 19, the impact of his decisions at the turn of this century will continue to be felt decades into the future.

Scott Waide is a leading Papua New Guinean journalist and a senior editor with a national television network. He writes a personal blog, My Land, My Country. Asia Pacific Report republishes his articles with permission.

Papua New Guinea’s opposition has called on the government to explain the paralysing martial law type restrictions that has crippled the economy and will take years to return to normal, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Opposition Leader Belden Namah said blaming covid-19 was not good enough and has called for an immediate halt to all restrictions.

“There are no hospitals full of covid-19 patients,” he said.

• READ MORE: PNG faces ‘disastrous’ economic hardship due to covid-19

“There has virtually been no covid-19 death.”

However, his statement came as PNG health authorities reported a further covid case of infection with a 21-year-old woman from the Gerehu suburb in the North West electorate.

Worldometer reports 532 covid-19 cases, including the Gerehu woman, and seven deaths in Papua New Guinea.

Namah said the few covid-19 deaths that had been declared were only those involving pre-existing conditions.

Thousands without work
“Yet thousands of our people are without work,” he said.

“The education of our children has been disrupted beyond possible correction this year. Businesses have been disrupted and many have closed operations.

“The restrictions imposed on our people are causing serious impacts and disrupting activities across the country.”

Namah said the revised gross domestic product (GDP) had fallen to K11 billion (NZ$4.4 billion) in 2020 compared to the 2020 budget projections.

The fiscal deficit had increased by K2 billion and the economy had gone into negative growth.

“Revenue has fallen by K3.7 billion and yet the government has not done enough to reduce expenditure, thus increasing the deficit to an unprecedented K6.6 billion equivalent to 8.1 percent of GDP.”

This increased the pressure to borrow more or print more money – “both of which carry their own short term and long term negative consequences”.

Gold mine closed
“One operating gold mine had been forced to close and new resources development projects are on hold,” he added.

Namah said the only person announcing new projects would come on stream was Prime Minister James Marape, but he has absolutely no control over or say on investment decisions.

“Under the Marape regime, foreign investors are keeping away.

All he had to do is talk to the MRA and see the significant fall in exploration activities.

Namah said Prime Minister Marape must realise it was his words and actions that were to be blamed for the current state of affairs.

“They never listened to us when the opposition first called for a closure of our international borders, for strict controls on international travels and to declare international ports and provinces sharing international border hot-spots.

“They gave us a nationwide state-of-emergency and ran it like a martial law crackdown for civil unrest and not a health emergency as it was.

No verification
“Then seeing no alarming numbers to justify their actions, the government started cooking up the numbers of those infected or deaths with absolutely no verification announced and confirmed cases turned out to be negative.

“In between all this, Prime Minister Marape has allowed international flights for a few select foreigners without adequate checks.”

He did not release promised money to Western and Sandaun provinces which shared the common border with Indonesia, with the result that most confirmed cases were in Western Province and the OK Tedi mine was forced to close.

“Now the Prime Minister has announced a relaxation on restrictions to international flights,” Namah said.

“We call on the Prime Minister to provide adequate explanations for all these decisions that have caused the country so much hardship and endangering the lives of our people.”

Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders are returning to work today under eased level 3 restrictions – and some are queuing in long lines for takeaways on the way.

New Zealand has moved to alert level 3 after five weeks of level 4 coronavirus lockdown, reducing restrictions on businesses and schooling.

An estimated 400,000 people are returning to work today.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Confirmed cases top 3 million worldwide

More than 1000 road and rail workers are back at work.

KiwiRail is re-starting work on most of its projects, including the Kaikōura rebuild and Wellington metro upgrades. Work on Auckland’s City Rail Link underground is also re-starting.

There were were long queues this morning for the first takeaways in weeks.

• This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.
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The $5 billion foreign student industry is facing a massive downturn with as many as half of this year’s enrolments now in doubt.

Immigration New Zealand figures show that of 76,203 valid study visas at 15 March, 60,348 were in New Zealand, and 15,855 were not.

Immigration New Zealand said the figures included an unknown number of students who completed their studies last year and had visas that would expire on March 31.

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However, the numbers showed New Zealand institutions were well short of the roughly 120,000 enrolments they could expect during the course of a normal year.

Education leaders said they doubted those enrolments would happen, especially in the school sector.

Universities New Zealand director Chris Whelan said universities usually enrolled about 4000 to 4500 students in the middle of the year and they were hoping those students would still come.

“It’s impossible to say at this stage,” he said.

No early write off
“We know that it’s going to be unlikely that international travel restrictions are going to be released any time soon, but we don’t want to write it off this early.”

He said universities were still hoping that the 6500 Chinese students who were due to enrol at the start of the year but were still in China might be able to travel to New Zealand in time for the second half of the year.

“We haven’t given up on them. We are in continual contact with them and these students are still hopeful of coming here in most cases. We’ve actually lost surprisingly few of those students,” he said.

Auckland Secondary Principals Association president Richard Dykes said many schools enrolled foreign students in the middle of the year who then stayed for a further year or two.

He said that was looking unlikely this year.

“At this stage you’d have to be pessimistic and say that they’re probably not going to come.

“There’s going to be quite a big impact on schools.”

Repatriation flights
Some foreign students were taking repatriation flights home but most were staying and intending to return next year.

English New Zealand chairperson Wayne Dyer said its 22 member English language schools enrolled about 17,000 students a year and were currently teaching about 3264.

Most schools had courses starting every Monday, but the flow of new students had stopped.

“You’re looking at about 1400 to 1500 a month who won’t be coming this month and quite likely won’t be coming next month,” he said.

“There’ll be students waiting to come, but it’s not just the pandemic. There’s the corresponding financial crisis that is happening at the same time so it might well be that students who are in a less fortunate financial position than they were a month ago and that may affect some people’s study plans.”

Foreign students were the only source of income for language schools and without government help they would have to start laying teachers off, Dyer said.

The schools would approach the government for extra support beyond existing packages for businesses.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.

Papua New Guinea’s opposition has declared it will fight a good fight to expose and oppose what it describes the 2018 state money plan as a “fake budget”, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

However, the rival daily newspaper, The National, quotes Prime Minister Peter O’Neill as decribing the K14.7 billion (NZ$6.6 billion) Budget as Papua New Guinea’s “best in 16 years”.

The opposition’s Shadow Minister for Treasury and Finance Ian Ling-Stuckey presented the “alternative government” 2018 Budget response titled “Fake Revenues, Fake Loans and a Fake Budget”, the Post-Courier reported.

He said the 2018 Budget was filled with misguided spending priorities, failed plans for financing and yet another huge deficit that would burden “our children” with too much expensive debt.

“Put simply, when I look at the budget, I think of PNG as being similar to a very large and diverse company-PNG Government Limited,” Ling-Stuckey said.

“Is PNG Government Ltd broke? Our people are feeling the pain through a lack of jobs, a lack of incomes, a lack of foreign exchange and a lack of important government services.”

Ling Stuckey said that since 2011 debt had grown from K8 billion (NZ$3.6 billion) to more than K24 billion (NZ$10.8 billion) in just five years.

‘Fake revenue’
“The 2018 Budget has, at this early stage, some K2 billion in ‘fake revenue’. This is not the ‘building block’ that the Minister for Treasury promised. So where is this K2 billion in fake revenue?”

He said to assume that revenues were going to increase as much as 20 percent from K10.6 billion to K12.7 billion in 2017 was wrong.

He said the opposition supported the increase in health expenditure of K285 million but relative to the 2015 Budget, health had been cut by 16 percent in real terms.

“It’s no wonder our health services are declining. It is good that more funds are being provided for medical supplies. However, the underlying issue is a lack of transparent competitive tendering in the medical supply contract,” he said.

Ling Stuckey said the biggest winners in this budget were interest costs, administration, health and APEC.

“Are some of these really the right priorities at this time of severe economic pain and failing government services?

‘Bad signal’
However, The National’s Clifford Faiparik reported that Prime Minister O’Neill criticised the opposition budget response, calling on Ling-Stuckey to withdraw his “fake budget” remark.

“This is very disappointing as it will give a bad signal to our international investors. I’m calling on the Shadow Treasury Ian Ling- Stuckey to withdraw his statement,” he said.

“This is by far one of the best budgets that I have ever seen since I have been in this Parliament for 16 years now. That includes the budget that I have presented as well.”

O’Neill had served as a treasurer in the Sir Michael Somare-led government.

“I say this because this budget is now putting us on a course to make sure that this country’s economic base and growth will be such that it can be self-sustainable,” he said.

“So it is quite disappointing that some of the terminologies that he [Ling-Stuckey] used are unbecoming of leaders of this honourable House. We have to be careful of how we portray the image of our country, our parliament and ourselves.

“Sometimes for short political convenience and point-scoring we say things and do things that are not really in the best interest of our country. We have to be constructive.”

The Post-Courier and The National are Papua New Guinea’s only two daily newspapers.

Disaster risk reduction efforts need to be understood as investments to sustain development plans rather than mere budget expenditures, says Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

The agency is holding the 2017 Disaster Risk Reduction Month event in four areas of West Papua from today until Wednesday, the head of BNPB Willem Rampangilei announced.

Rampangilei added that the Nawacita (Nine Priorities) programme and the 2015-2019 National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) document emphasise disaster management, particularly disaster risk reduction into national to local development planning, reports Netral News.

“The objective of the plan is to protect the economic growth centers from the threat of disaster so as to ensure the sustainability of development,” Rampangilei said.

In the RPJMN document, the government set the priority of 136 regencies/municipalities as the center of high-risk economic growth.

Disaster risk reduction would increase resilience so that it did not significantly affect the development process, Rampangilei said.

One of the disaster risk reduction efforts was by lowering the risk index of disaster at the centres of economic growth.

In 2016, BNPB together with the government and other stakeholders, lowered the disaster risk index by 15.98 percent. In 2019, the disaster risk index is targeted to fall by 30 percent, according to the RPJMN.

Rampangilei said it was vital to strengthen government and community understanding of disaster risk reduction activities as an investment for resilience.

Expected investments include building of joint awareness, dialogue and networking among stakeholders involved in disaster risk reduction activities.

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