PPP grateful for portfolios

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THE People’s Progress Party has thanked Prime Minister Peter O’Neill for allocating three ministries to the party.
Deputy party leader and Mining Minister Johnson Tuke said this after the swearing-in of new ministers at Government House.
Tuke, the Kainantu MP, was given the mining ministry after former minister and PPP member Byron Chan lost the Namatanai seat to his cousin and National Alliance Party president Walter Schnaubelt.
Other PPP members in Cabinet are Wewak MP Kevin Isifu, who is the inter-government relations minister, and Kokopo MP Emil Tamur as the culture and tourism minister.
“We’d like to thank the prime minister for acknowledging us (PPP),” Tuke told The National.
“Most importantly, we’d like to thank Sir Julius Chan for negotiating the three ministries for us.
“All in all, we’d like to thank People’s National Congress for acknowledging us with three ministries.”
In the Cabinet appointed by O’Neill after the 2012 general election, PPP members Sir Leo Dion was deputy PM and minister for inter-government relations, while party leader Ben Micah was public enterprise and state investment minister.