11 Apr 2012

PNG opposition alarmed at government antics

2:35 pm on 11 April 2012

The Papua New Guinea opposition leader, Dame Carol Kidu, says abuses of parliamentary process by the Peter O'Neill government are setting a dangerous precedent for PNG.

She says the government has far less respect for proper parliamentary process than any previous administration and one of the most recent examples is that two different versions of the Judicial Conduct Act are in circulation.

Dame Carol says alarm bells should be ringing for every educated citizen in PNG about the long-term dangers of too much power in the hands of politicians and the importance of doing things the right way.

"There are provisions in our constitution for all of these subsidiary laws that are being written and so we are creating a dreadful legal mess in my opinion. There are provisions in our constitution about deferring elections but we are going outside of those provisions and choosing other sections of the constitution to justify what we are doing. Now I am not saying that our constitution is set in stone. I believe that 36 years after independence it is certainly time for constitutional review. That should be done by proper processes."