Govt will not dishonour legitimate court order, says PM

PRIME Minister James Marape says his Government will not dishonour a legitimate court order in place.
He also maintains that any security business in the country should be reserved for nationals.
Responding to Vanimo Green MP Belden Namah, who said there was a Supreme Court order nullifying the asylum seekers processing and detention centre on Manus in 2016 and wanted the government to explain why the court orders were disobeyed.
Namah said in 2013, when he was the Opposition leader, he took the issue of Manus asylum detention centre to the Supreme Court.
He said the events of the asylum seekers was that there was a memorandum of agreement signed by the foreign ministers of Australia and PNG, and based on that, PNG compromised PNG’s national interest and sovereignty and allowed foreign interest to institute a centre which had affected the lives of innocent people.
Namah said, however, he had resolved the issue for all the people of Manus and PNG, when a five-men Supreme Court bench declared the centre illegal on April 26, 2016, and ordered the centre to close. He said the court gave seven specific orders based on human rights laws as stipulated in the Constitutional.
Namah said the government failed to obey the Court decisions.
He said the former foreign affairs minister and the prime minister had failed to take heed of the decision of the court that ordered the immediate closure of the centre.
Namah asked Marape what he would do to adhere to the court orders on the illegal and unconstitutional centre because the Paladin Security contract was related to the centre.
Marape said his government would not dishonour a legitimate court order.
He said he was not privy to the full report on what had transpired.