O’Neill: Moving military bases a government decision

THE Government decided in 2012 to relocate the Defence Force’s Murray and Taurama barracks, the naval base at Lancron and the engineering battalion in Lae, says Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, pictured.
He said this in Parliament on Friday when tabling a report on the administrative inquiry into land acquisitions by the Department of Defence.
“In 2012, the Government made deliberate decisions to direct the defence organisation to relocate Murray and Taurama barracks, the naval base at Lancron, and relocate its engineering battalion from Lae to a new location up in the Highlands,” O’Neill said.
“The four land acquisitions were to be administered by the Department of Defence and these were undertaken at different times.
“Part of the implementation of the 2012 NEC decision to a number of Defence Force relocation areas was pointed by the administrative inquiry – that there is no issue with the Government decision to relocate the sites from their present locations, especially Murray barracks and the Lancron naval base, which are located in the heart of the city at the expense of the expansion of the city.
“The decision by the Government was clear at that time; it was to free up land so that the city’s development and expansion can continue.”