Milne Bay businesses oppose legislation

THE Milne Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry is petitioning the provincial government to repeal its Economic Facilitation Committee legislation (2017).
MBCCI president Owen Able told The National that its members were opposing the legislation through an online petition because it was adversely regulating businesses in the province.
The petition says: “The members of the Milne Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the business community wish to express their vehement opposition to this law. We were not given access and time to review the law prior to it being passed.
“We can now see why as this is a clearly a ploy to create a gravy train for the people who will be involved in this committee who obviously have no regard or concern for the long-term consequences of this sinister legislation.
“This law will effectively put existing businesses in a position of ongoing vulnerability, by forcing them to re-apply to stay in business each year where the decision will be made on the whim of a group of people who do not understand business.
“The Committee has given itself unlimited powers to reject businesses, with no oversight over their decisions. The intent of the original Committee was to monitor business intending to come and settle in the province so that some control could be exercised if necessary.”