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Parliamentary services
By DERRICK KII REUBEN
Very few people in PNG are aware of
the existence of the Papua New Guinea Parliamentary Services at
the National Parliament in Waigani.
And Melanie Vari-Turia, an officer in this section wants to ensure
people know and appreciate the role they play in parliamentary
proceedings.
"Many in the public service and business sector are also not aware
of this very important institution of governance - they think that
parliament is all about MPs and politics, so if you say you work
for parliament, they automatically ask you which member you work
for."
"I believe the reason for this is that the PNGPS doesn't have a
public relations program to inform people of its duties and the
role it plays. A lot of people visit parliament during sitting
days and non-sitting days, but there are no information brochures
or magazines available," said Ms Turia.
"The PNGPS is like a government department, but bigger and better,
and has it's respective divisions, sections and committees, with
the Clerk of Parliament as its administrative head," Mrs Turia
said.
Mrs Turia, who works as a sub-editor with the Parliamentary
Reporting Division (PRD) will be leaving PNG in June to take up a
Master of Creative Arts (Communication and Cultural Studies)
Degree at the Curtin University of Technology in Western
Australia.
She is the first PNGPS officer to acquire an Australian
Development Scholarship through the Department of Personnel
Management's annual overseas study bids for public servants since
the introduction of the AusAID scholarships in the 80s.
Her boss, she says had a big part in ensuring this.
"My boss, Ms Sarufa Haro, who is the most senior female officer in
Parliament was the one who recommended and approved such training
for our division. She is very supportive of our academic pursuits
and welfare because she knows that our training and happy home
life will boost the quality and quantity of work output."
The PNGPS was established by an Act of Parliament to implement
section 132 of the PNG Constitution and its mission is to provide
a high level of administrative and chamber services to MPs so they
may better serve the democracy of this country.
It has an executive, chamber and administrative branches under
which come the various divisions and sections that maintain the
daily operations of the parliament, and the PRD that Ms Turia
works for is responsible for producing the Hansard, which is an
official verbatim record of the debates in parliament or what the
109 MPs are saying about social, economic and political issues and
the laws passed by parliament. It is also responsible for
transcription of events of the 39 parliamentary committees,
domestic and regional seminars and other forums.
With the recent appointment of a visionary Clerk of Parliament,
Don Pandan at the helm, the PNGPS was able to establish a training
office in its HR Section, set up a Training and Development
Committee and publish its first-ever Training Policy in 2006. This
enabled it to participate in the DPM's annual overseas study bids
for AusAID and NZAID.
Previously the PNGPS did not participate in overseas study bids.
"There are more than 240 people here who work so hard to make sure
that the welfare of our leaders are taken good care of so they can
make better decisions for this nation. You know these people are
permanent employees of the parliament unlike ministerial staff and
MPs' employees who come and go every time there's a change of
government, so they deserve such training opportunities," she
said.
Mrs Turia's major area of interest is in publishing practice and
she will be investigating questions like how can the PRD best
provide editing services to a multilingual parliament or how does
multilingual reporting (in English, Tok Pisin and Motu) affect the
content of parliamentary debates.
"I will be conducting research on issues like editing hansards for
multilingual societies in the context of our very own parliament.
There are actually three major languages spoken in the chamber and
I will investigate as to how the translation of these languages
affect the information that comes out of the chamber and how best
our hansard officers can address such situations," she said.
Mrs Turia from Saroa in Central province graduated from the
University of PNG with a Bachelor of Journalism Degree and a
Diploma in Media Studies in 1994.
She worked as a business reporter for The National and a research
officer and press officer in the Trade and Industry Ministry
before joining the PNGPS.
She attributes her successes to her mother, Falesoa Vari, who was
one of PNG's first female journalists.
"My three brothers and I were brought up by our mother who is a
single parent and we have all graduated with our diplomas and
degrees except our little brother who is in Year 11 at Gerehu
Secondary School. My mother is 55 years old and is still working
as a journalist with The Post-Courier and she is my role model.
She epitomizes the strength of Papua New Guinea women."
Her mother was one of the first Papua New Guineans to work for the
Australian Information Service and newspapers like the Sydney
Morning Herald, Canberra Times, the Pacific Islands Monthly and a
suburban paper at Randwick.
"She was also a pioneer with the Department of Information and
Extension Studies in 1969 and worked for some of our earliest
papers like Our News and its Motu version called Iseda Sivarai
with Evelyn Butle," she said.
Mrs Turia has three daughters praises her husband Eka for
supporting her throughout her career.
"You know I almost gave up during the application process because
there are so many requirements that you have to meet, but my
husband was always there encouraging me to go on."
The ADS assists in producing better skilled public servants, who
are able to return home and impart new knowledge to their
colleagues and thus satisfy PNG's quest for human resource
development for better government services and to boost
organisational efficiency.
"My encouragement to young men and women out there is to get a
good education, secure a job, find a good spouse who is willing to
support you in your career, and serve your country. I would like
to take this opportunity to also thank the wonderful staff at
PATTAF, especially Hiris, Molly, Naum, Ross and Nasain."
 
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