Government must recognise our war veterans

IT is now Christmas and the
children or beneficiaries for the PNG World War II servicemen are still waiting for the National Government to pay for their war service.
Most of the war veterans’ have died without receiving their legitimate benefit which was given by the Australian Government.
After the war in 1945 and independence in 1975, Australia and PNG made a mutual agreement for the Australian government to pay compensation to indigenous soldiers who served during the war.
The Australian government released around A$3 million (K7 million) to the PNG government to pay our war veterans.
However, our government has not paid any money to the war veterans and did the government assist them to claim their entitlements from the Australian government.
Since Independence, successive governments have failed to consider the sacrifice that our war veterans’ have devoted for the future of this nation.
Countries like Australia spend around A$400 million  annually to care for its war veterans’ and it has a government minister with a department responsible for veterans’ affairs.
In PNG, we have not seen a government that can recognise our war veterans’ and the government continued to ignore them with complete neglect.
This is a national disgrace to our war veterans’ and is also a shame to the rest of the world for a country such as PNG to turn a blind eye towards our local war heroes.
During the November Parliament sitting, the current government released a statement that it will recognise politicians for their services to the country’s development.
The war veterans must also be recognised and paid their legitimate entitlement from the K7 million that was paid by the Australian government.

Clancy Kei
Erave, SHP