PNG must fix its own problems on visas first

 TONY Abbott was spot on over the PNG government’s demand for Australia to issue visas on arrival for Papua New Guineans.
The Australian prime minister said they would now try to ensure that the PNG system and the Australian system “can interoperate as it were, so we can have the level of information sharing that exists between Australia and New Zealand and which facilitates what is effectively visas on arrival for people from New Zealand”.
This simply means that the PNG government needs to step up its efforts and establish an effective central database system on the identities and backgrounds of every Papua New Guinean.
The office of the civil registry is so far doing a good job but it needs the support of other important agencies such as police, health, immigration, provincial and local level government, labour and employment, and other important state institutions to jointly compile and share information and establish an effective and centralised database system.
Australia has always been cautious in its approach to issue visas on arrivals to PNG citizens because we do not have an effective database system to track our individuals back to their homes and families.
Therefore, we need to fix our own backyard first before demanding Australia to give easy access to us.
If we can fix this problem, then we will be able to travel to Australia easily in the near future.
Remember that Australia is a multi-cultural nation with a much larger population size and land mass than PNG and therefore, relies heavily on such information to monitor activities of individuals, including its own citizens, to make it a safe society.

Freddy Gigmai
Brisbane