Comments

Hi I have been working with a group in Lao developing a dictionary khmua to Lao Chinese English Thai. In practical terms where can we apply to for funding $1600 USD to publish. An important step in preservation of the language. Thank you.

I concur with John I Tambiabu’s analysis which I believe is substantially correct. I would like to add some further comments on the basic issues and how this mess came about. The common law doctrine of landownership as the holding of an “estate” does not apply in PNG to customary landownership. The State, it may be said, holds bare radical title to the customary-owned lands of PNG. Customary landowners hold their land, in accordance with their customs, without encumbrances from the State. Except that the State by Oil & Gas Act asserts the ownership of petroleum. The issuance of a development licence by the State to a developer for the purpose of extracting petroleum from customary-owned land and the consequent creation of a title, or property right, to this uplifted petroleum is only made good after identifying the customary landowners, securing their agreement to the development, and granting, by statute, the benefit of royalty to the identified landowners. This is a compensation for the State’s taking which is guaranteed under the Constitution and made effective by statute. It is important to note that the legislation establishing the PNG Land Court gives it both a narrow procedural character and a wide processual ambit. There are no legal presumptions in action as to the concept of ‘property’ and ‘ownership’. Instead the Court is under a duty to elicit from the parties whatever conceptions that the parties consider relevant to an issue. For petroleum project landowners (usually those who satisfy the ‘earmarks of ownership’ test within a petroleum ‘block’) the specific issue is the joining of a statutorily conferred benefit to a customary law-based right. The PNG legislative and juridical approach to the joining of state law and customary law is, in my opinion, highly original and well-deserving of close study by legal scholars and social scientists interested in legal pluralism and customary law. In the 1990s the developers OSL and Chevron (and later ExxonMobil) decided for odd reasons to disregard the laws of PNG and not disclose the personal identity of petroleum ‘block’ customary landowners to the Department of Petroleum and Energy (DPE). Additionally, OSL and Chevron (and later ExxonMobil) continued to submit to the DPE SMLIS reports that described customary landownership in terms that were both unanchored in PNG law and adverse to PNG law. In response the DPE proposed an SMLIS regulation that was intended to rectify the obvious shortcomings of the developer submitted SMLIS reports. OSL (and the PNG Chamber of Mining and Petroleum) opposed the making of this SMLIS regulation. I believe that the Clan Vetting Process was devised by the DPE in order to overcome the obvious shortcomings caused by the developers refusal to comply with the statutory requirement for landowner identification studies in a manner consonant with and cognizant of the laws of PNG. Looking at the contemporary situation there should be no surprise that Justice Kandakasi chose scathing terms to describe the shortcomings of the SMLIS statements that were tendered to the Court in the P’nyang Case. It is also unsurprising that his Honour concluded that without the basic PNG legislative requirement for full-scale SMLISs being satisfied the developer has neither met the development licence issuance requirements nor gained a ‘social licence to operate’ by way of the ‘prior and informed consent’ of legally identified project affected landowners. Accordingly, the developer (and the Australian-based consultants who prepared the reports that were tendered in the P’nyang Case) may be described as having insufficient respect for the laws of PNG. It may also be the case that the developer is in breach of World Bank/IFC and Exim-Bank loan conditions which require compliance with the laws of PNG. The fact that the DPE received the defective SMLIS reports does not absolve the developer from all responsibility in this mess. In my opinion it would be unconscionable for ExxonMobil to now claim that they have played the game without fault on their part. I note that ExxonMobil has publicly signalled its support for the ADR process initiated by Justice Kandakasi. As it must.

Yes, totally agree that people should be able to choose to bring their families. Those on Australia Awards scholarships have the choice to bring their families and have to support them on their own, why should it be different for those doing unskilled labour? This could also make the program more accessible to women, who may be more reluctant to leave family behind, or may have more freedom to travel if they are able to bring their spouse. I reckon there's a lot of rural and regional towns that would really welcome an injection of kids into their primary schools etc as well. A former colleague of mine bought her family out with her to do Australia Award study in Armadale (not that small a place I know) and it was a very positive experience, the community was very supportive.

The Pacific Labour Scheme is one of the best things going in the region. It seems to be growing from strength-to-strength, reasons being that measures are implemented to improve and enhance the project by ironing out problems and introducing new and better initiatives, based on past experience. Making the program more flexible and family-friendly will add more value to the program. It could improve workers' quality of life and subsequently boost their productivity. Besides good soft diplomacy to counter China, there are multiple other benefits, such as the exposure to good education for the workers' children. Australia and the Pacific are one, and these are important steps towards stronger and deeper integration—social, cultural and economic— and perhaps one day in the future, visa-free travel and entry for the Pacific.

A great post with important points made. However, I don't think discussion about vernacular language policies in the Pacific can ignore the failure of policymakers to convince politicians and the wider community in PNG of the importance of learning in a mother tongue. Hopefully Vanuatu has learned some lessons from PNG!

Hi Richard, APTC stage 3, as identified by the non too subtle name change to Australia Pacific Training Coalition, suggests a deeper integration between national providers and donor agency. However, until meaningful partnerships are forged between industry and providers, industry will not support TVET and student numbers will decline, especially if scholarships are reduced. Australian based curriculum is not appropriate for Pacific learners and must be contextualized, with national industry input, to support local industry need. Stage 1 of APTC design had trainers working with students and employers in the field, which provided educational outcomes directly related to their work and fostered deep relationships between trainers, employers and students. National RTO's in the Pacific Islands will require significant capital investment to upgrade curriculum and physical resources commensurate with international educational standards. It will be interesting to see how the different quality assurance mechanisms in campus countries will be reconciled with the stated graduate outcomes. Regards, Michael

Thanks Dr. Amanda, for your analysis of sim registration, which is commendable. I write to express dissatification over fees being collected by the service provides- when people go there to register their SIM. It seems a common occurrence in towns and cities where people are alluded to pay certain fees in order to register their SIM with the service providers. I wonder the fees goes to the service providers for rendering the services to the customers- or government? It is unclear, whether the directive is from the government to allow vendors to collect fees. If not, responsible authorities should step up and correct this misfortune. Thank you!

I am quite taken aback that Hon. Abel thinks that African countries have something to teach PNG about handling mining income better to enable more equitable development. In almost all (if not all) countries the situation has been the exact opposite. Of course such situations are not just due to corruption at high levels and political favouritism/tribalism, which are prevalent, but also because of factors such as natural population growth and mine area influxes which create urgent new demands for services and housing which quickly outstrip any plans there may be. But another factor is diversion of funds to excessive levels of policing and militarism, in order to maintain positions of political power (and to keep their hands in the till) to the significant detriment of social service budgets.

Hi Amanda, PNG is experiencing similar problems Uganda faced when it embarked on compulsory Sim registration. At deadline date, millions of sim-cards were yet to be registered. In fact, the matter ended in court and the government subsequently extended the registration period by six months.

How long before we are able to banish that dread disease: 'white saviour syndrome'? Great article. I like this personal historical approach.

Congratulations Shamima Ali and the hard-working team at FWCC for a well-deserved award and recognition for your outstanding work in the region.

Paul, I welcome the PNG Treasurer's remarks, which I had not seen. The hard choices governments need to make to maximize and distribute the benefits of mining are the very reason we should be prepared to assist. If they choose to leave it in the ground that is their right, but if they allow mining then we can help if they want the assistance. Bob