ABC News 24, Afternoon Live
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Subjects: Papua New Guinea
E&OE…
JOURNALIST To discuss the situation in PNG I am joined from Perth by the Opposition’s Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop. Julie Bishop, thank you for joining us on Afternoon Live.JULIE BISHOP Good afternoon.
JOURNALIST Now, Yaura Sasa says this is a procedural handover of power, that it is not a military coup. It certainly doesn’t seem that way though does it?
JULIE BISHOP I have been talking to people in Port Moresby today and they tell me that out on the streets, out on the ground, you wouldn’t know that anything had happened. But evidently overnight a small group of soldiers have placed the military chief under house arrest at Murray Barracks. Now the situation is calm but it is unpredictable. We don’t know if this is an isolated group or whether it is part of a broader tactic.
I would urge the soldiers to release the military chief, to return to their barracks and to allow the political stand off between Prime Minister O’Neill and Sir Michael Somare to be resolved through the Parliament, through the courts if necessary, but ultimately at the ballot box.
JOURNALIST The Parliament has taken steps to try and resolve the situation by several times voting for Peter O’Neill to keep the Prime Ministership. Where do you see things going from here?
JULIE BISHOP There will be an election mid-year, that has been scheduled for some time, and I understand it will take some time for the country to get itself prepared for an election. So, I urge the soldiers and anyone else who is thinking or planning some kind of action to allow this political stand-off to be resolved through the Parliament, the courts and ultimately at an election through the ballot box where the people have their say.
JOURNALIST PNG, as you know, is on the cusp of a massive natural resources boom, in fact many projects worth billions of dollars are underway. To what degree does this dispute put all that at risk?
JULIE BISHOP PNG is facing a very bright future if it is able to restore peace and stability. The LNG plants in the Southern Highlands have the potential to provide a great deal of foreign capital to PNG to help them address many of their economic and social issues. But as your news report has just shown there has been a tragic event in the Southern Highlands, near one of the LNG plants. Lives have been lost and then added to that there is this political instability. That is why it is so important that we focus our efforts in Australia on supporting Papua New Guinea so that it can return to a level of peace and stability and prosperity.
JOURNALIST To what degree is there a necessity, either now or in the future, for some sort of foreign intervention if this doesn’t get resolved in the next seven days?
JULIE BISHOP At this stage we should be calling for calm and I understand that the Government believes that it has the situation under control, that is the PNG Government. But the Australian Government should continue to focus its efforts on Papua New Guinea. I have been urging Kevin Rudd to spend more time and effort on our region, particularly PNG. It is certainly not in Australia’s national interest to neglect Papua New Guinea.
JOURNALIST Alright, Julie Bishop from our Perth news room, thank you.
JULIE BISHOP My pleasure.
