Comments

Baseless. Not a valid conclusion and titles. No proper sampling

Well done, Dr Sivendra and congratulations on your appointment to the Distinguished Visiting Fellows Programme at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania.

You don't seem to have the remotest knowledge of the legal and political basis behind Bougainville’s Independence process. 1. Have you even read the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA)? 2. Do you even know the the 3 greatest pillars of the BPA are Weapons Disposal, Autonomy and a Referendum on Independence? 3. Do have the faintest idea at all that when the BPA was being negotiated, it was agreed by both the GoPNG and the ABG that there could be any number of agreed options on the Referendum ballot paper but only one at to be compulsory.......INDEPENDENCE? 4. Do you know that the definition of Independence that 97.7% of Bougainvilleans voted for was defined and provided by the PNG government, not the ABG? The definition in essence, was for Bougainville to be a separate Independent sovereign State Independent from PNG and with full legal and international personality. You don't seem to have knowledge of this. 5. Do you know that Part XIV of the PNG Constitution was inserted in 2002 by the PNG parliament by way of a constitutional amendment to cater for Bougainville only, no other province? The Bougainville Independence process is based on Part XIV of the PNG Constitution and is a legal process so the Referendum being a constitutionally-guaranteed vote. Your obvious ignorance of the whole Bougainville issue, legally, politically and historically, is delinquent at the very least and dangerous at best because it would appear you're developing a narrative that makes Bougainville out to be rogue province running a secessionist movement that has no legal basis. Before running such mischievous scholarly and academic surveys, it would be advisable that you provide as much context and perspective on the issue at hand to your subjects. It is just not good enough putting up such polls for ignorant or unknowledgable people to pass views on and in the process coming up with an outcome that seriously lacks cognitive and intuitive understanding of the bottom-line. Your survey result though is inconsequential to the 97.7% vote by Bougainvilleans for Independence so it's of no concern at all. What's of concern though is your obvious spin on the issue without giving your subjects the benefit of context and perspective. These are so-called university students you surveyed and their apparent and obvious lack of appreciation and understanding of the Bougainville issue is a clear indictment on the people who mentor them. Being an ANU/DFAT sponsored survey, there are no surprises with the outcome. Either way, it does not affect Bougainville's core Agenda

Good point, Patrick. The question is what makes for a good choice of base year? As Terence points out, early data is patchy.

In the survey, what were the reasons given for the different responses to Bouganville aspiration for Independence? I can not find that in your research report.

Not that important. The same is also true if you choose 2001 as your base year as per the chart in this post. However, the base year is important if you're the CEO, or an employee, of an NGO who's revenue has been falling steadily since 2016. That means job losses and project cuts. Not much consolation under those circumstances to know that things are better now than they were 50, or 25, years ago.

I calculated this according to constant dollars and %GDP over 50 years (see Kilby 2015 History of ACFID ANU Press p. 3 open access) and as a % of GDP has fallen since the 1970s but in constant dollars has tended to rise even accounting for the tsunami blip. As with all things the base year is important.

Hi Herman, This is a student opinion survey conducted at the University of PNG.

This is a very balanced tribute on a man that devoted his time for civic righteousness and social justice for the voiceless,mainly living by the day to see the next. Wages/Salary disparities are real and the effects are unavoidable.What is the appropriate minimum Wage and the elements of truth that constitute such in consideration of cost of living increases. We need to reignite the fire in that movement again.

I'm very interesting to join seasonal workers in Australia, please any updates on 2026 (SWP) seasonal worker program.

Thank you Bayarchimeg Budee for your comment. It's great to know that the information in the blog is of use to you. If you have time, please share information on gender aspects associated with agriculture in Mongolia.

Thanks, Simeon!