And Offers To Sell His Car

Make Sacrifices' Says Mr. Somare

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Mr Michael Somare, has appealed to his people for sacrifices and for restraint over wage claims and spending to help the country weather l h hnlTX?,T/ , .° rm a As he % ay - , b n°™\ • • must start at the As a first step.

I have decided to offer my official Daimler car or sale as a means of saving the government money”. PIM reports his statement in full.

As you are all aware, PNG faces a great challenge in the years imme diately ahead. For the past two or three years we have been lucky enough to have quite a large amount of money because of the state of the world economy and the prices we have received for the goods that we sell to other countries.

Now that has all changed, and it has changed for reasons which are not our fault and which we have no way of doing anything about. We are now in a situation where we are very short of money and next year, so far as we can see, we will have even less money. The world economy is in a very poor state and there is no chance that it will recover for some time to come.

The situation requires us all to adjust our thinking and to accept that we must all exercise restraint.

When a country is poor, if some members of that country get more for themselves, then it means that some other members will get less. It is the government’s job to make sure that in a time of hardship everyone gets their fair share and nobody is allowed to benefit at the expense of their fellow citizens.

For my own part, I accept that restraint and sacrifice must start at the top. As a first step, I have de cided to offer my official Daimler car for sale as a means of saving the government money. The government will also be selling its five Mercedes cars which were bought for the pur pose of entertaining distinguished guests at the time of our indepen dence. This is only a small thing, but I think it is essential to show clearly that we mean what we are saying when we talk about restraint. I will also make sure that from now on there will be strict economy in minis terial expenses for travel and enter tainment. Further economy measures are being investigated urgently and I hope to announce them shortly.

At its last meeting for the year, the national executive council con sidered the question of incomes policy and wages policy from the point of view of fair distribution in line with our eight-point plan and our com

mitment to putting the interests of rural people first.

There has been a good deal of confusion on the subject of wages, particularly public servants’ wages and question of indexation. I have recently received some figures which put the matter in a clear light.

In the past two years, the total money available to the government in the Budget has increased by KB7 million. This comes from all the many difficult and unpopular things we have done in that period, includ ing the renegotiation of the Bougain ville copper agreement, the raising of unpopular new taxes, putting up the price of cigarettes and other tough measures.

Of this total amount of KB7 mil lion, no less than K 38.6 million has

gone on paying higher salaries to national public servants. This is 44 per cent of the total amount. In other words, during these two years each national public servant has received on average an additional K7BB. All the rest of the money is what is left for the whole of the population not including public servants, and this means that on average every Papua New Guinean, except for public ser vants, has received Kl 9 in the form of additional benefits.

Let me repeat those figures. In the past two years each national pub lic servant has received an average of K7BB extra. Everyone else has received an average of Kl 9 extra. In other words, public servants have re ceived 40 times, I repeat that, 40 times more than the rest of the popu lation.

I am sure that if the public under stands these figures they will agree with me that there has to be res traint in further wage increases for public servants. In the next year or two we will not have more money than we have now and if we give more to public servants than there will be less for others. The rural people will receive fewer services, fewer roads will be built, etc, etc.

As the National Government com mitted to the welfare of the rural people we would be failing in our duty if we allowed that situation to occur. What the national executive council decided today, therefore, was to set up machinery which will re sult in a genuine and full national incomes policy. However, it will re quire time to set up this machinery, because many laws will have to be changed and new ones passed by parliament.

In the meantime, all the various conciliation and arbitration pro cedures, wage boards and tribunals will continue to exist. It will still be possible for all trade unions to put their case to these tribunals and boards. It is in these bodies that the arguments if any, should take place.

From now on the government will put its own case through the proper channels.

The National Executive Council

today decided that in future the government will also put its case to These tribunals and boards. The government’s case will be based on what the economy can afford, and as a general guideline the index ation base of K5OO will be used as the starting point for the govern ment’s case.

This applies not only to public servants but to everyone.

I must make it clear that this K5OO indexation base still means that public servants and other organised workers will be getting more money.

They will not be having their wages cut. It is simply, that if the govern ment’s case is accepted, they will be getting smaller increases than they would otherwise have got. This is only fair at a time when the country has no extra money to give out.

The Minister for Labour, Com merce and Industry has informed me that he will be appointing a new Minimum Urban Wages Board to review the automatic indexation granted by the last Minimum Urban Wages Board in 1974. This again is only fair, because if we all have to accept restraint then that must in clude urban workers as well as pub lic servants and others.

The government has been accused of breaking agreements and other things, mainly by the Public Service Association. We are not doing that.

We are faced with a national crisis and we would be completely failing in our duty as national leaders if we did not do everything we can to try and make sure that at this time of crisis the burden of restraint is fairly shared throughout the community.

I appeal to all of you to accept the need for restraint. Before you start demanding higher wages and benefits, think to yourselves that this can only be at the expense of your fellow Papua New Guineans.

I am speaking now to ministers as well as to public servants, workers and all other citizens. • Meanwhile, Mr Somare has re shuffled his government in pre paration for a restructuring of the public service. Some ministries have been dropped, new ones introduced and others amalga mated. No ministers have been dropped but the changes have caused a row behind the scenes which has disturbed the three party coalition. All 19 ministers will be members of the National Executive and there will be no return to the system of senior and junior ministers.

Several portfolios have been swap ped. Mr Julius Chan remains as Finance Minister.