Reports coming through from Parliament House that the O’Neill government has made good on its promise to repeal the Environment Act Amendments which have been unanimously dumped.
Thompson Haroqaveh, the Environment Minister, took the legislation to Parliament today and got the Amendment Act removed.
The Amendments were bulldozed through Parliament in May 2010 by the Somare regime as a response to landholder concerns about the marine dumping of toxic waste from the Ramu nickel mine. The amendments gave the government the power to approve any activities on customary land without consulting the landholders and exempted foreign companies from any liability for environmental damage.
The amendments were drafted by Australian law firm Allens Arthur Robinson at the behest of MCC, the Chinese state owned corporation that operates the Ramu mine, and pushed through the PNG Parliament in a single afternoon by the Somare government with no prior disclosure or debate.
PNG civil society, led by the on-line campaign organisation ACT NOW!, have fought against the amendments.
EXCELLENT! And congrats to all who worked on the campaign. Keep up the good work.
Philip Rondamin,I support your views;but I have to ask this question;wont the next Government repel or amend what is done by the Oneil Government now?
THANKS TO O’NIELL-NAMAH GOVERNMENT:
Within a sort period of time, the formation of government by Mangi Souths and Morobean Militia can do a lot of table turns. Thanks to you.
Almost 99% of Papua New Guineans depend entirely on our environments, but, when carelessly misused just for the sake of profit by companies, we are surely “murdered”. The former government conform to the developer companies’ wishes as they were bribed!
O’niell-Namah Combination Cabinet have shown PNGians that they’re really for the people of PNG and not for their own personal petty pocket gains.
It was such a ignorant amendment in the first place that none of the reputable mining companies took notice of it anyway.
Glad to see that its gone
Bill
Thats quite correct.
All responsible companies support clear environmental management practices.
The problem lays with the current dysfunctional institutional/regulatory elements within government in PNG.
It is always annoying to hear the Green Left bashing companies when the real prolem is lack of regulatory support from the PNG government who, it seems, want the benifits of mining without putting in place the necessary practices from their side.
PNG Politics at its best!
Yes, but its so rare.
Most of the time its “PNG politics” at its worst.
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