Parliament passes K10.5bil budget, adjourns to January

By JEFFREY ELAPA
PARLIAMENT passed the 2012 national budget yesterday before it adjourned next month.
The K10.5 billion budget was handed down two weeks ago by Treasurer Don Polye. It was delayed due to the current political stand-off.
Yesterday, the government used its numbers to pass the budget by voice.
Polye said any government would be measured by how well its people lived and the opportunities available to them.
These measurements included the opportunity to work, raise a family, educating children and providing a society free of poverty, diseases and all forms of threats and intimidation.
“This is the challenge for the O’Neill-Namah government and for PNG and its people,’ he said.
He said the government was proud of its achievements in the past three months.
Polye said the 2012 budget showed how the nation would be put back on track by providing free education for children, subsidising tuition frees and paying pocket allowances for tertiary students.
However, he said free education was of little value if the quality of education was not up to standard.
“The next challenge is to lift the standard of education from primary school to university and upgrade the qualification levels to international standard.”