Adjournment lambasted

 By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
THE Opposition expressed its disappointment yesterday at the adjournment of Parliament, claiming the prime minister found an excuse to avoid a vote of no confidence.
Opposition Leader Don Polye told a press conference, after the adjournment to August 2, that the Government deliberately adjourned Parliament to a period when such a move could not be catered for until the general election next year.
“Yesterday, deputy Opposition leader Sam Basil and Lae MP Loujaya Kouza gave the notice to the acting Speaker Aide Ganasi to move a vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill,” he said.
Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat said that Government MPs insisted that a change of the prime minister should come from Parliament or at the polls.
“They have just adjourned to August. Now that   option (vote of no confidence) is no longer available. The notice has gone dead and we will not be allowed to bring it up again within 12 months (of the election),” he said
“We have adjourned into the 12 month grace period.”
National Party Leader Kerenga Kua claimed the adjournment to avoid the no-confidence vote was one of the methods that the Government used to suppress the systems of accountability.
“The adjournment of Parliament is one way of the continuous suppression of all the system of accountability that we have in place,” he said.
“Suppression  at the Ombudsman Committee through the deliberate failure  to appoint a Chief Ombudsman, personalisation of the police force in neutralising its independence and impartiality  and the use of Parliament to suppress the numerous notices of vote of no confidence for unknown reason and now an adjournment prematurely of the Parliament in order to stay in office.”
Kua said Parliament was the top authority for governance in PNG.
“You have to keep the doors open, especially in the climate where you have the students’ riot and the turn down situation of the national economy,” he said.
“In these instances, you have to keep the Parliament open to disperse pressure points.
“So when you use numerical strength to continue suppressing the democratic process, what do you expect people to do?
“In my view, the Government is mismanaging this country and people don’t risk their lives  unless there is something compelling,” Kua said.