PNG police to train in Queensland

 PAPUA New Guinea policemen will be training in Queensland by the end of the year even as police personnel from the Australian state are patrolling the streets of Port Moresby and other towns.

Visiting Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and Prime Minister Peter O’Neill signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday paving the way for close cooperation, mainly in the areas of law and order, health, infrastructure development, and public service capacity building.

O’Neill said he hoped this cooperation with Queensland would be more “practical and hands on” than the existing relationship with Canberra (federal government).

Newman said the deployment of 150 Queensland police officers could happen sooner than the other projects and areas of cooperation.

Under the agreement, the same number of PNG police officers will be sent to Queensland to be up-skilled and to get a feel of how police address daily law and order issues in Queensland towns and cities.

Officials from PNG and Queensland will meet in the coming weeks to work out the details of this arrangement.

“Law and order is one of our priority areas, and I’m delighted your government has been able to respond quickly to our request,” O’Neill told Newman during their meeting.

Under the agreement, the PNG Government would also be seeking the assistance and expertise of the Queensland Government to build a hospital for Daru in Western.

This will address concerns about Daru and Torres Strait Islanders crossing the border to seek treatment for diseases such as TB in Queensland hospitals.

“We have huge funds sitting in Trusts abroad that can be utilised to build such health facilities for the people of Western. Your experience will be necessary to help us design a hospital that can cater for our needs,” O’Neill said.

Engineers from Queensland will be seconded to PNG to help design roads in the country. 

Queensland engineers were used in the past to design and cost the upgrade of the Highlands Highway, and that report was presented to the prime minister yesterday.

Newman agreed to second experts currently involved in organising the powerful G20 meeting in Brisbane next year to help with PNG’s bid to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2018.