Visit disappointing: O’Neill

FORMER Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says it is disappointing to see the Government pushing the “China” agenda during Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to gain more support from China.
Ialibu-Pangia MP O’Neill pointed out that “best friends are not supposed to be playing funny games with each other”.
“We are known for standing together in good and tough times,” he said.
“We welcome the visit of the prime minister of Australia to our country.
“PNG has some real challenges, including the economy heading towards a recession, very high inflation and interest and unemployment rates rising, adding to the already low business confidence and massive unbudgeted government spending riddled with corruption.
“These are all huge concerns to Papua New Guineans.”
He said it was also disappointing that Albanese “chose to disregard the fraudulent elections that took place in PNG over five months ago”.
“Now close to 100 seats out of 118 are in dispute before the courts.
“It was observed independently that about 50 per cent of the voting population did not vote.
“It appears that the Australian government continues to support a fake Government in PNG with direct budget support rather than divert funding to improve governance and security in the country. All we seem to be getting is superficial projects like labour mobility (seen as new form of black birding) and rugby.”