Comments

The PNG Government is spending too much time on mineral resource development, empire building and preventing competition in governance and neglecting social issues hinging on destroying the fabrics of family life and nation building. The PNG Government should take the initiative in trying to minimize and eradicate this type of (rape) gender based violence if possible. Australia is partly to blame for this sad events because it intimidated PNG to accepting the asylum seekers in the first place who are now compounding this type of violence on Manus Island.

Thanks Michelle for this article Totally agree that all parties should come together and sort this mess out. Mi mangi Mwanus too and not happy with this effecting the local girls. Calling all parties to get their acts together for safety of both the refugees and the local community.

Such an important article. Thank you. It challenges us to think across all the implications, in regard the detention centre, and what it means both in the lives of those detained and for Manus Islanders. Where to now?

Thanks a lot for this suggestion. We do have a time series of DSIP and similar schemes over time, and we can load this. As you suggest though, it seems to be impossible to get a series of actual expenditures as against budget amounts. - Stephen Howes.

It was great interest that i read the and came to know about the PNG Budget Information Database in this article. I appreciate and thank the effort of Rohan Fox and the team. This budgetary information provides a compressed and intuitive information on the budget since 1989 which can be accessed very easily by anyone. This initiative somewhat paves the way for serious consideration by the government of PNG to consider government open data in order to have public participatory in budget allocation and expenditure, and transparency. In addition to budget data, as suggestion, if possible, it would be of greater interest to the PNG citizens if DSIP and PSIP acquittals are also published. It is a known fact that the Department of Planning (DoP) has been slack due to various reasons over years in effectively monitoring and evaluating DSIP and PSIP projects. The public, on availability of the acquittal data, can keep the MP's accountable where DoP cannot do so. It is also a known fact that DSIP and PSIP grants are the most misused and misappropriated grants by the Members of Parliament. It's time that the citizens participate in budget allocations and expenditure as they know what they really need in their communities better then the MP's.

there is enough usd in the PNG economy for imports, the problem is that a few large companies brought usd onshore in 2008 to 2012 at time when the kina was very strong. in 2012 they only got 2 kina for a usd they were ramping up for the expectation of the LNG boom enriching PNG consumers. now they are repatriating there dividends which has put pressure on the supply of FX while Exxon has a clear path to recoup it's investment because it exports gas and gets paid overseas. Digicel, Toyota etc have a lot of Kina but can't buy the usd to pay back there investment

Very interesting, thanks.

The author correctly identified the failings of the INGO sector (e.g. accountability, duplication, etc.) and I would suggest those are valid concerns in an era when few western countries (i.e. traditional sources of INGO funds) appear to be awash with cash. Overall, I enjoyed the article, although I disagree with the claimed link to xenophobia. Shape up or ship out. That's an attitude that can be addressed by some of the article's suggestions. Xenophobia is an irrelevant consideration in my opinion.

Thanks Tony I will try and come along to the Melbourne event. Did you test a 'common interest' message (i.e. what is in it for all of us)? It seems to me that is not quite the same as a national interest argument (i.e. what is in it for 'us' and 'them')

Just a warning for readers that opening the snakebite article will put a terrifying huge picture of a snake on your screen! The article is interesting though, I just really hate snakes!

Thanks Marcus, Good point. For what it's worth I think (as Tony points out below) that the moral sell (for want of a better term) is probably the most effective one for the wavering and pro-aid parts of the electorate. But I think you're right that for a particular audience the enlightened-national interest argument may work best (if there are any arguments that work at all -- some people aren't likely to like aid no matter what you have to say about it). However, the segment of the population likely to be swayed by enlightened-national interest arguments is a minority, which I think means it would be it a mistake on the government's behalf to talk about benefits to Australia too much. (After all there's a sort of person likely to be put off by this argument too.) cheers Terence

Thanks Tony - and sorry I missed the Canberra presentation (I was overseas). I'm definitely looking forwards to talking more about your findings.