Pacific Islands Monthly

Problems And Bitter Pills On Png's

Rocky Trail To Independence

From Percy Chatterton,

in Port Moresby.

Papua New Guinea’s Finance Minister, Julius Chan, sprang a well kept surprise on us by introducing a mini-budget in the June meeting of the House of Assembly.

It came at the end of the second week of the three-week long meet ing.

The main budget is not due till August, but Mr Chan has let one cat out of his bag—we’re not going to get as much in Australian aid in 1973/74 as we hoped we would. So there is foretaste of bitter pills to come.

A bit more revenue is to be squeezed out of those hardy annuals —liquor, tobacco and petrol. To these are added tea, coffee, fireworks and pet food.

Few will disagree with the impost on fireworks, designed not so much to produce revenue as to decrease the nuisance value of this com modity.

One suspects that the slug on pet food is based on emotional rather than financial considerations. It has been a sore point among Paguineans that affluent expatriates spend so much on feeding their pets, more, claim some, than they spend on feed ing their domestic servants.

I do not think that the revenue from this source is likely to build many roads and bridges, but if it soothes ruffled feelings I suppose it is worth it.

As far as this non-affluent expatri ate is concerned, I shall continue to keep my Siamese pussy supplied with her daily ration of ‘Whiskas’ even if it means cutting down on cigarettes.

I’ll probably have to do that anyway.

The increased duties on imported tea and coffee are, no doubt, intended to encourage consumption of the local product. Fair enough. I already drink local tea, and would gladly drink local coffee if someone would set up a factory for producing the “instant” variety. I am an avid but lazy coffee drinker.

Finance Minister Chan has also given notice that Papua New Guinea will have its own currency, but not till the end of next year. (See com merce section).

The June meeting was not a happy experience for Mr Michael Somare’s National Coalition Government. In deed, it was a frustrating one.

There were two reasons for this.

One was the Government’s failure to distribute to members copies of im pending legislation. The other was what appears to have been a break down in communication, not only between Government and Opposition front-benches, but also, and more seriously, between the Government and its own back-benchers.

Government failure to circulate copies of bills in time for members to study them adequately is an old story. In the first and second Houses it was a continuing complaint hurled by elected members at the official members who dominated the Gov ernment. It is ironic that the present elected Government, which includes some of the members who used to fire the bullets, now finds itself a target for bullets fired by the Opposi tion. Mr Somare is in an unfortunate position.

In addition to the normal flow of legislation there is a spate of largely machinery bills which have to be passed in order to regularise formal accession to self-government in December. The legal and clerical services needed to frame, cyclostyle and distribute this mass of legislation are evidently inadequate for the work load, but the Opposition is surely right in claiming that it is entitled to examine even routine bills before it passes them.

The cure for this condition is surely to increase, even if only tem porarily, the legal and clerical ser vices to make them adequate to cope with the work-load, rather than to complain about the “obstructive ness” of the Opposition. If personnel is hard to obtain, as it probably is, then the Commonwealth Govern ment might not unreasonably be asked to come to the party by seconding personnel on a temporary basis.

After all, it is the Australian Gov ernment rather than our own which is in such a hurry to bring on self government and independence.

Responsibility for the breakdown in communication must clearly be borne by the Chief Minister himself,