Sir Julius condemns seabed mining

NEW Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan yesterday said New Ireland did not agree to the national government’s timetable to fast track seabed mining in the Bismarck Sea.
He said the main reason was because of the absence of an independent environment impact assessment and the K400 million outstanding Lihir memorandum of agreement (MoA) arrears.
Sir Julius, during a one-day provincial executive council (PEC) meeting on Wednesday, said the days of bullying New Irelanders were over and that the people would stand for their rights.
He said the catastrophic oil spill disaster and the environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrated the inability of rich resourced companies in preventing the destruction of marine and wildlife.
Sir Julius said the possibilities of a similar scenario could occur in the province as there were no proven records of environment safeguards.
He said the statement by Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat was critical in terms of the attitude of Nautilus Minerals and the national government to push for the seabed mining project.
Sir Julius reiterated the need for a far better display of cooperation and consultation from all relevant stakeholders in the New Guinea Islands region.
“Resource landowners had up to now been treated as underdogs in all multi-national development projects and New Ireland’s push for greater benefits sharing agreements signalled clear recognition of the traditional heritage of simple people to their God-given resources,” he said.
Sir Juilius added that even the national government had defaulted on its commitment under the Lihir MoA to give the simple people what had been promised to them under the legally binding agreement.
He questioned how the government and state agencies expected people to put their trust in them and yet surrender more of their mineral wealth, when the people had been defaulted over 14 successive years to be paid of outstanding arrears.