Pruaitch urges PM to step down

OPPOSITION Leader Patrick Pruaitch has urged Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to step down because of the “lack of confidence” in his leadership by party members.
Pruaitch, who once served as Treasury Minister under O’Neill, claimed that there had been “discontentment among many of Papua New Guinea’s leaders over a significant period of time” against this Government.
“I commend the Government MPs on your move against the government,” he said.
“I acknowledge in particular the courageous and admirable actions of James Marape and Sir Mekere Morauta who fought honourable battles and defended their people’s interest beyond their own self-interests.”
Pruaitch said “a prime minister without a regional base is no prime minister at all”.
“The once powerful O’Neill has now fallen out of favour of those mandated by the majority of the people of the Highlands region,” he said.
He said the resignation of Tari-Pori MP Marape was a good example.
“The O’Neill regime has denied the Hela people what was rightfully due to them from the project for far too long. Sadly, what they reasonably secured through a negotiated process in Kokopo in May 2009 under a Somare Government – the direct equity interest of 4.27 per cent in the PNG LNG Project, together with all other project benefits, is only being drip-fed to them for no apparent reason,” Pruaitch said.
“The negotiations on the PNG LNG project took us a record 18 months to conclude. So there is no reason that only a component of the overall work programme for the PNG LNG being the clan vetting process should have taken the O’Neill government 10 years to conclude as the framework for the CVP work was fully developed back in 2010.”