Parties told to settle disputes

By KARO JESSE
THE New Ireland government and the State have been ordered to provide consent orders for mediation to settle disputes arising from the distribution of royalties received from the Lihir gold mine.
New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan was aggrieved that the National Executive Council (NEC) directed the Mineral Resource Authority to distribute 50 per cent of royalties remitted to New Ireland government to be shared to the Namatanai and Kavieng district development authorities (20 per cent each).
Deputy Chief Justice Ambeng Kandakasi earlier stayed the proceedings and dissolved an interim injunction order of NEC’s decision obtained by Sir Julius.
Justice Kandakasi then ordered the parties to comply with relevant provisions under the clause 42 of the Lihir revised memorandum of agreement (MOA) 2007 and failing that, parties were to come back with orders to allow that process to take place.
On Friday, at the Waigani National Court, acting judge Gethrude Tamade issued orders for parties to hand up to court consent orders for mediation and any agreed way forward to settle the dispute.
Justice Tamade adjourned the case to Thursday (Sept 2) for further mention and presentation of the consent orders to the court.
Under the old memorandum of agreement, the royalties were paid to the provincial government and then distributed to the district development authorities.
Sir Julius claimed that the Lihir Gold Mine needed to continue to follow the royalty and arrangement of remitting the 50 per cent royalties directly to the New Ireland government in accordance with the royalty distribution mechanism that was agreed in the first place.