High taxes, inflation triggered riots: Union

RECENT crimes, including looting and burning in some centres like Port Moresby and Lae were triggered by high inflation and tax rates affecting people’s livelihood, according to the PNG Trade Union Congress (TUC).
TUC acting general secretary Anton Sekum said the union condemned people who looted, destroyed and burned shops, with 24 reported deaths in Port Moresby, Lae and Goroka.
“The Government must set up an independent team free of political alignments to investigate the whole fracas instead of the NSC (National Security Council) recommending an administrative review to eliminate elements of doubt in the findings of the investigation. It must also consider subsidising the wages of workers who lost their jobs for a certain period of time until they find another job or their employer recall them to work,” Sekum said.
He however said the leaders (politician) had been abusing the constitutional and democratic process lately to pass laws at a breakneck speed with little due diligence and for political expediencies, more so than for the long-term interest of the economy and the people.
He said in PNG, when a bill was passed in Parliament, it became the law or an Act of Parliament.
“The expeditious manner in which bills are passed to become law, for instance, the amendment to section 55 of the Central Banking Act which took 48 hours, done at a jaw-dropping speed, ought to take out the top spot across the Commonwealth,” Sekum said.
The union in a statement condemned biased political spinsters on social media to stop seeking aggranisation from their political masters by spreading unsubstantiated claims of wrong-doing by the Police Association president Lowa Tambua.
“One thing that must be made very clear to these spinsters is, if there is indeed any wrong-doing on Tambua’s part, the formal investigations commissioned by the Government will establish the facts through its findings,” the association said.
“Your bias has blinded you to the fact that Tambua’s intervention has deterred the disgruntled police officers from directly causing mayhem themselves, the consequences of which will be of catastrophic proportions compared with the amount of damage and casualties caused by the actions of the civilian opportunists.”