Minister told to look into airport land compensation demands

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has directed Minister for Civil Aviation (CAA) Alfred Manase to look into airport land compensation demands in the country.
O’Neill raised concerns about the land acquired by the State over many years now that landowners were claiming compensation.
He was responsing to Rabaul MP Dr Alan Marat’s question about a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed between a land group and the State on Nov 19, 2014, in relation to a piece of land at Jackson International Airport.
“I am not aware of the MOA that the member is referring to and it has certainly not been brought to the attention of Cabinet or NEC,” O’Neill said.
“This is quite a large sum of money for those agencies to go and sign the MOAs at free will.
“Nobody is authorised to make commitments on behalf of Government for such large sums of money. It has to be cleared properly at Treasury, Attorney-General’s Office and then Cabinet endorses it.
“These are MOAs that we can try our very best to honour but I will get the CCA and his department minister to look into the MOA the member is referring to.”
O’Neill said it was becoming a norm now that land acquitted by the State 50 to 60 years ago was facing new claims of compensation or payment.
He said those pieces of land were acquired at a fair value at that time.
After many years, of course, there have been some improvements on the land and the landowners come and ask for more money.
“There’s got to be a balance somewhere. While we are trying to make sure that the traditional landowners get a fair value, they have to also be reasonable,” O’Neill said. “These services are not for the benefit of one group of people. It is for the entire country; infrastructure that is going to serve our population for many generations and therefore a fair value is something that they need to be reasonable about.
“These continuous threats of taking matters into their own hands, again I urge that common sense prevails.
“Once you venture into these kinds of threats and blackmailing, you are taking the law into your own hands and the full force of the government and the law will take its own course.
“So let’s try to stop such confrontations and let’s work together. We will look into the MOA and make sure that if it’s not properly done, we’ll sit with the landowners and look at it.”