Comments

Hi John, I think it is very important that everyone say very clearly that the earthquakes are not the result of human activity. Regards, Stephen

Hi Vailala, Your comment relating to Rimbunan Hijau is as below: PAPUA NEW GUINEA [IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE] SCA 126 OF 2011 BETWEEN: RIMBUNAN HIJAU (PNG) LIMITED Appellant AND: INA ENEI on his behalf and on behalf of Moga clan of Loupom Island, Abau District, Central Province First Respondent AND: PUBLIC CURATOR OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF IBI ENEI (Deceased) Second Respondent Waigani: Salika DCJ, Kandakasi & Toliken JJ. 30. Kandakasi J., in his decision in the P’Nyang and Kanga Kawira cases correctly calls them “fraudsters and thieves.”[27] As was noted by his honour in his judgments, the PNG LNG project presents a clear case on point. In this project, despite s. 47 of the Oil and Gas Act, both the State and the developers have failed to properly identify the true and correct landowners, properly organising them into ILGs, enable the landowners to fairly and meaningfully enter into negotiations with the developers and the State and for the developers and the State to seek and secure from the true and correct landowners through their duly elected or appointed leaders the landowners free and informed consent and approval and ultimately, their social license to operate. The contracts or agreements and the deals the State and developers enter into with persons not properly identified and appointed by the landowning clans, or groups, remain null and void ab initio or void and of no effect from the very beginning. Given that, when the true and correct owners eventually assert their ownership rights and exercise their rights, challenging the contracts or deals with the fraudsters and or thieves, they must give way. Such contracts do not bind the true and correct landowners. If need be, the State and or the developer concerned need to enter into completely new contracts with the true and correct landowners on terms that are fair and reasonable with reasonable compensation being paid for the earlier illegal entry, occupation and conduct of their businesses. ...................................................... The above supreme Court ruling refers to Section 47 of the Oil & Gas Act, PNG LNG case before the ADR/Mediation is leading toward the ruling in above case. regards

Advocacy is nice from an Aus point of view but on the ground where I am in the Solomons, the Australian foreign aid agenda has a poor reputation of suiting Australia more than Solomons (boomerang aid). From some of the programs I interact with, the impact is low and the overheads are high - more money on consultant salaries and other expenses than on partnerships. Not with all cases. Putting more money into a bad model doesn't have my support. Better advocacy is just putting lipstick on the pig. Fix the real issues.

I strongly endorse this. I would contribute 0.5% of the funding I received. The mining industry was able to do so much (damage) with their $20m televised advocacy program a few years ago. We could do quite a bit (of good) with $9m!

Hi Hillary. Thanks so much for the comment and for sharing the open knowledge maps resource. I love how it categorizes material in a simple and visually-appealing way - a big tick for my visual-thinking self! Though I did find that it linked to some non-open-access articles, like <a href="http://access.portico.org/Portico/#!journalAUSimpleView/tab=PDF?cs=ISSN_17459656?ct=E-Journal%20Content?auId=ark:/27927/phx64r6gfj0" rel="nofollow">this sweet potato article</a> that I clicked through to which even the ANU doesn't subscribe to, it seems. Nonetheless, it is very cool. I'll add it to the toolkit and can definitely see myself (and I'm sure others too) using it going forward. Thanks!

Foreign aid seems to be a matter that the public is broadly indifferent, neither strongly supportive, nor strongly opposed. It is therefore up to government to lead the way, and not feel constrained by public opinion. There is a role for leadership and moral reflection about what goals and commitments are valuable, whether valued intrinsically or valued instrumentally. Both types of value are relevant.

Hi Stephen and Vailala, We now have big earthquake in Hela and Southern Highlands province now. It is sad how all this will come to end but many believes that it is a man made earth quake. Lot of challenges now for the developer and all stakeholders of the project. regards

Thank you for highlighting this important issue about family separation. Being away from home for long periods triggers a myriad of issues for any family anywhere really - and is no different for developing Countries. Pacific household units also are integral to broader community and cultural cohesion. Welcome this article and the broader implications.

After giving this presentation and following the 39th Battalion's motto of "Factis Non Verbis", I have just now started a community service facebook page for the people of PNG who want basic information about the signs and symptoms of mouth cancer. The idea for an educational facebook page which has free mobile phone access for PNG people (instead of a website) came from Amanda Watson of ANU during the conference. Thanks greatly Amanda! The site is very basic as I have just started it and I will add to it over time. Also I will have the page translated into Tok Pisin when I get some help for this. The facebook page is called "Maus Dokta" Perhaps facebook community service pages could be used for other health topics information dissemination in PNG. Best wishes to all Barry Reed

Excellent article, raising an important set of issues for Pacific islands. Sustainable development seems likely to proceed only if the overvalued exchange rates can be lowered. And that seems only likely under a market-based approach to be achieved in the long run if the islands invest in financial system and institutional developments that allow nominal exchange rate flexibility and work assiduously to keep real wages low. Not an easy course, but perhaps better than the alternatives.

Thanks Kerry McCarthy for your response. Another experience we encounter during our work here is that we have too many public holidays. We want the Department to know that we not here for a holiday, or don't take us like the backpackers. We shouldn't be called holiday workers. We are here to work for short periods of time. We have only a very limited time to make money. But when we have so many public holidays or days off, we don't make enough money to take home. The people who bring us here are making money while we workers we're not happy. However, thank you to the Australian government and Australian farmers. And Australia thanks for your kindness. Nice people. Love Australia talofa.

How does New Caledonia and French Polynesia rate? Are French colonies more expensive that independent states?