Papua New Guinean (PNG) Prime Minister Peter O’Neill resigned yesterday following a string of high-profile political defections that threatened his leadership.
O’Neill — who had been in power since 2011 — handed over the reins to veteran politician Julius Chan, who has twice been prime minister.
“We have agreed for a change of direction, that leadership of the government will be now handed over to Sir Julius Chan, who is a veteran leader and one of the founding fathers of our nation,” O’Neill told reporters in the capital, Port Moresby.
Photo: AFP
Chan, 79, who was prime minister from 1980 to 1982 and 1994 to 1997, said his government would not be a lame-duck administration.
“We are not just going to be a caretaker government, we will work. The transformation of PNG. I don’t intend to be a lame duck. We will move this country forward,” he told reporters.
O’Neill, 54, survived a vote of no confidence earlier this month after the defections of his defense, health and forest ministers. His government on May 7 adjourned parliament until tomorrow, averting the immediate threat of another no-confidence vote.
His People’s National Congress Party had a small majority in parliament and he faced repeated closed-door requests from party allies to step down.
O’Neill was under pressure following the signing of a multibillion-dollar deal for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project with France’s Total and US firm ExxonMobil earlier this year. The LNG project would almost double PNG’s gas exports.
However, it followed criticism from the World Bank and IMF that the country’s original LNG project delivered its people only limited benefits.
It also sparked the resignation of Papua New Guinean minister of finance James Marape, who had led the government in parliament, who citing the failure of the government to ensure national firms and locals benefit from the contract.
Local communities had complained bitterly about not benefiting from similar deals in the past.
One of the companies involved in the project was Australia’s Oil Search.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his nation had a “special relationship” with PNG, and he thanked O’Neill for being a “passionate servant” of his country.
“PNG is our closest friend and neighbor, there is just a small body of water that is between us and PNG,” he told reporters in Canberra. “And I will look forward to working with the prime minister of PNG in the same way I have enjoyed such a strong friendship and relationship with Peter O’Neill.”
O’Neill’s long tenure in office had brought unusual stability to the nation’s fractious politics, yet it was also marred by rampant corruption, high levels of crime and large-scale investments that ran up public debt but showed little benefit for ordinary Papua New Guineans.
The country has one of the highest poverty rates in the world, and a little over one in 10 Papua New Guineans have access to reliable electricity.
O’Neill was accused of micromanaging and of looking out for his own interests.
“Peter O’Neill looks to be striving to keep his coalition in power with the move to cede leadership to Sir Julius Chan,” said Shane McLeod, a researcher who specializes in PNG at the Lowy Institute. “By offering up the PM’s post he is targeting high-profile provincial governors (who were formerly in the government) and challenging them to vote for the government’s candidate.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese