Abel: Review for grace period

By CALDRON LAEPA
NATIONAL Planning Minister Charles Abel says the 18-month grace period is an issue the government will look into and review to maintain a stable government.
He made the comment during a development forum in Port Moresby on Wednesday.
“There are legislations that we want to review to improve service delivery to the people. One of this is the 18-month grace period,” he said.
The 18-month grace period was changed in 2002 when Sir Michael Somare was prime minister. Prior to that, a six-month parliamentary grace period was enforced during which there could not be a vote of no-confidence.
The 18-month grace period has remained in force until now.
“The 18-month grace period seems to drive MPs and government away from delivering service and makes them concentrate on trying to manage their politics,” he said.
“This is bad because it affects government planning and policy as well as brings instability to the government. Therefore we would like to look into this,” Abel said.
He said government instability affected economic stability because policies and direction changed.
He said this meant that public servants would have to redirect their attention.
“The government is looking addressing this as part of the legislative reviews that would be taken on board,” Abel said.
He said he was confident that the government would provide the leadership this country needed.
He said new ministers wanted to see change in the life of Papua New Guineans.