O’Neill: Legacy continues

By HELEN TARAWA
PEOPLES’ National Congress (PNC) party leader and former prime minister Peter O’Neill says his party will remain part of any government that continues the work that he initiated.
O’Neill said his party would support the Marape Government to put more young people in schools, technical colleges, universities and to improve the quality of education.
“Our government’s legacy is our track record,” he said. “We have been a government that was tried and tested, and when you look around our country today, we all see the great change that has taken place since we first came to office in 2011, and were re-elected in 2012 and 2017.
“As prime minister, I always had an open-door policy for all members to discuss issues.
“It should not matter if a member sits on the Government or Opposition benches, leaders should always be open to hear all views and look at how to work together.
“We must all work to continue to improve healthcare, particularly for our remote and rural communities.
“We must continue to enhance law and order and make our communities safer.
“We must continue to expand infrastructure right around the country so that our people have better access to electricity, better roads, more airports and wharves.”
O’Neill said the Government needed to continue to grow the economy, attract more investment, create more jobs and improve the living standards of the people while ensuring landowners got a fair deal from the development of their resources.
“Leading a government takes commitment, stamina and belief that we can achieve what we said we would do, and very importantly, have to have real plans of action,” he said.
“Our country needs decisiveness by the end of 2020.”