Give our folk preferential treatment

 By JOHN PANGKATANA

THE Hela Gimbu Association believes that Australia should give Papua New Guineans preferential treatment to travel across the Coral Sea.

Spokesman Damien Arabagali said Papua New Guineans travelling to Australia should be given a similar treatment to that accorded to Fijians, Samoans, Tongans and New Zealanders.

Arabagali said if Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was supporting Australia’s plan to divert asylum seekers to the Manus for processing and possible resettlment in PNG, he should also ease the burden caused by the rising number of school leavers.

“PNG has over a million school leavers and I hope our prime minister has taken onboard as part of the boomerang aid with our Australian counterparts,” Arabagali said. 

“Something that is more tangible like employing semi-skilled Papua New Guineans for labour intensive jobs in  Australia would allow us to be aid-free and PNG would eventually become an aid giver in 10 years.”

Arabagali said PNG had been discriminated against for too long and it was about time our young people benefit from the efforts of their forefathers.