MPs: Govt sending wrong message

 OPPOSITION leader Belden Namah says the Government is sending out the wrong messages by sacking its most senior ministers in the past two weeks.

Namah, flanked by opposition strongman and Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat, said that yesterday when commenting on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s sacking of Treasurer Don Polye and Labour and Industrial Relations Minister Mark Maipakai on Monday. Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma and Higher Education Minister David Arore were sacked from Cabinet two weeks ago.

He was particularly concerned about Polye being sacked at a time when he was chairman of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund boards.

“If O’Neill is talking like that, it’s a clinical and surgical way of sacking his important ministers,” Namah said.

“It will be of serious concern to the World Bank and the IMF. 

“We have seen that the kina is fast declining.

“We are concerned about more bank loans from overseas to fund shares in Oil Search. We have more debts than revenue. We have a budget that is not a balanced budget.

He said Duma was sacked while involved in talks over a second multi-billion LNG project.