Kulang: Asylum deal may do PNG more harm

 THE new asylum seekers deal between Australia and PNG will do more harm than good in the long term, the Opposition says.

Spokesman and Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang said they was concerned about the negative implications of the agreement signed recently by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd.

“No amount of development assistance package that will be offered by Australia through this deal can measure up to the socio economic dislocation that will be caused by such an abrupt arrangement in the long term for PNG,” Kulang said.

“The lack of foresight or the deliberate plot and execution of such a scheme by the leader of the nation can be read as a form of invasion of this sovereign nation and therefore is very dangerous.  

“Sometimes it may not be the invader but those among us who leave the gates open are the greatest threat.  

“PNG is a Melanesian society where we consult, evaluate and collective consensus are reached before we act.  For the prime minister to run around executing internationals deals that binds the current and future generations of this country without consultation is madness and un-Melanesian and must be condemned with the strongest language.”