Assembly's Last 'Colonial' Session

Power Transfer Main Dish In Png

From a Port Moresby correspondent

The November meeting of PNG’s House of Assembly was its last be fore self-government, and during its 10 sitting days it despatched a var ied menu of bills, motions and reports.

A group of three liquor bills, based on the recommendations of a Com mission of Inquiry, were passed. One of them, the major one of the three, underwent a certain amount of amendment during the committee stage, but its basic “tough” provis ions were unchanged. The mood of the government, and of the nation, is undoubtedly one of toughness towards the abuse of liquor.

The second major measure enacted, the Village Courts Bill, also meets a widespread public demand for bet ter, quicker and more “melanesian” justice at the village level. Enthus iasm for the basic idea may have re sulted in a close look at the details, particularly those relating to appeals, than might have been desirable. Time alone will show whether these courts will live up to the high expectations entertained for them, or whether disillusion will set in.

Most of the remaining bills were concerned with the transfer of powers from Canberra to Port Moresby in preparation for Self-government Day on December 1. The Opposition made disapproving noises about the inadequate time allowed for their examination, but did not obstruct their passage.

The Minister for Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries, Mr lambakey Okuk, was not so lucky when he sought leave to bring down a group of five bills relating to fisheries and desig ned to ensure that after December 1 the PNG Government should control PNG’s coastal waters as well as its land masses. After an exchange of heated personalities with United Party’s Anton Parao, a fellow High lander, Mr Okuk was refused leave to present the bills.

Two very important reports were tabled on this occasion—the second interim report of the Constitutional Planning Committee and the final report of the Committee of Inquiry into Land Matters.

The Constitutional Planning Com mittee’s Report sprang no surprises but followed expected lines. It re commends the establishment of mid

die tier government at district rather than regional level, but proposes to rename the districts as “provinces”, in order, as the report puts it, “to signify a break from the colonial connotations, for this country, of the term district”.

The report recommends the estab lishment of provincial assemblies of between 15 and 30 members, accord ing to the population of the district, for each of the 19 districts in Papua New Guinea, with executives to be called provincial councils and with heads of government to be called premiers.

At one point the committee refers to the need “to keep expense at a moderate level”, but one cannot help wondering whether it has really worked out the likely cost of bring ing into existence a body of approx imately 300 provincial parliamen tarians in addition to the 100 national parliamentarians we already have.

If so, it hasn’t shared its findings with us.

Other important recommendations propose that there shall be no dual citizenship, and that elections for the national, and presumably for the pro vincial, assemblies shall be conduc ted on the “first past the post” rather than the present “optional preference” system.

The committee’s final report and,

hopefully, a draft Constitution basedt on it are due in February.

The Report on Land Matters is as tome of 180 pages with 132 recom mendations. It recommends that land reform should develop from a cus-. tomary base, that it must avoid col lective and individual extremes, must, keep inequalities to a minimum ancb restrain landlordism, and must favour those who are willing and able tc make use of the land. It does not* favour patching up existing legisla-j tion, which it considers should be repealed in toto and replaced by s completely new set of land laws — an exercise which may be expecteo to take some time.

An interesting current development in Papua New Guinea is for the tent dency to exclude professional lawyer from certain fields, for example, from village courts and from those dis pute settling bodies which the Comt mission on Land Matters propose: should replace the present Lam Titles Commission.

Motions included one recommend ing that the name of the nations airline should be changed from Air Niugini to Airlines of Papua Nev Guinea. This motion was carried am now goes to cabinet, which has hen so very thin ice to skate on.

On the other hand, the Govern ment survived by 46 votes to 28 censure motion touched off by th Chief Minister’s decision to includ all his ministers in Cabinet, and r consequence to increase the salan© of those who were formerly jumo ministers, from $6,000 to S7,OG p.a. Predictably this led to an n quiry as to whether the salaries o rank-and-file members were to If raised too, a question M Somare answered with a firm “nor Once again death cast a shador over proceedings of the House.

Within a few days of the attaLi ment of the self-government whio he had helped to plan and the comm into operation of the National Broai casting Commission which he h£ fathered, Mr Paulus Arek, Ministl for Information and Extension se vices, succumbed to a protracted n ness. It was sad indeed that he df not survive to see the accomplishme; of that for which he had worked hard.