Sir Julius votes against SOE due to no rapid spread of virus

The National National

NEW Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan says he voted against the two-week extension of the state of emergency (SOE) due to the lack of evidence of the rapid spread of the Covid-19 in the country.
Sir Julius was one of two MPs in parliament on Tuesday who voted against the extension, 80 voted in favour of it.
“The situation reports that I have been receiving every day from the Covid-19 taskforce in New Ireland clearly shows there is nothing new happening,” he said. “It is becoming boring reading the same reports. I prefer to spend public money on existing diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, improving health infrastructure or learning about the birth rates.”
But Sir Julius said he would not have any objection if the SOE was placed on selected vulnerable border provinces like Western and West Sepik.
“I want to see the governors of these provinces speak up and more decisive action being made for these provinces, otherwise we are wasting public money that should be used to improve health facilities and the overall services in the country,” he said. “A prolonged SOE also breeds an ideal environment for the squandering of public monies.” Sir Julius said he did not want public servants to take any more holidays on full pay while the less fortunate suffered.
He said it was unfair that public servants were getting extra allowance on top of their normal pay to carry out Covid-19 duties.

2 comments

  • I fully concur with Sir J. The SOE extension was not warranted but has been pushed by MPs because they failed to put in place alternative measures to be able to transition into the new normal in being covid-19 conversant. Parliament failed to plan ahead for this eventuality and should have sat a week or two before expiration of the last SOE to be able to facilitate this transition. Now everyone has been victimized including businesses simply due to lack of vision and planning by the Government. Shame, shame, shame!!!

  • Fully yes to Sir Julius but a proven scientific medical report should come out from PNG to assure us all that the virus does not have any effect to us. For some reason we are free from the attack, only God know the answer!

    Some public servants have benefited, for some nothing, so Sir J something is wrong.

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