Transcript
The government has not been deaf to the many complaints during the election campaign about corruption in public office.
On this note, the new Lands Minister Justin Tkatchenko has declared it his mission to clean up entrenched corruption in the Lands Department.
"Land is a scarce commodity in our country, especially in our city areas, our urban areas where we're finding selfish, greedy individuals are bribing and corrupting land department officials to get portions and allotments of land that they're not entitled to, and stealing public places. Land is a quick way of making money."
The new Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel admits that corruption, including issues around procurement of public contracts, needs to be addressed.
He says the government is committed to establishing an Independent Commission against Corruption, although this was oddly absent among policies laid out by Mr O'Neill in his opening speech in the new parliament last week.
But with Treasury this month releasing a Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook that revealed a budget blowout of more than a billion kina [$US309 million], Mr Abel admits some changes in government direction are necessary to manage an economy under huge strain.
"There are concerns around our revenue streams, and there are concerns about fulfilling the existing budget and the status of our deficit and so on. There's certainly some challenging times ahead, but we intend, as the incoming government, to put the issues around managing the economy first and foremost on the list."
Mr Abel has also unveiled a plan to redevelop the main hospital in each of the country's 22 provinces, to the tune of US$620 million.
It's welcome news to a public health sector which has been drastically under-resourced in recent times.
Health workers have felt compelled to speak out about frequent shortages of drugs and basic supplies at PNG's hospitals.
The secretary of the National Doctor's Association, Sam Yockopua says he will not be silenced by the new Health Minister Sir Puka Temu's move to gag health professionals and hospital staff from making public statements.
"I must make it very, very clear, that if we run short of medicines, we will continue making noise, irrespective of the ministerial orders in place. It will not stop us because if we wait for them (the government) it's going to take years and years and the patients will die. We will not wait for them. we will continue to make noise. we will continue to talk."
Meanwhile, the opposition grouping, led by Patrick Pruaitch of the National Alliance, has unveiled its shadow cabinet which declared arresting the ongoing decline of PNG's economy as a top priority.
Mr O'Neill only won the prime minister vote by 60 votes to 46, leaving a more balanced parliament than has been seen for years.
Mr Pruaitch says the opposition has the numerical strength, depth of experience and quality of leadership to engage in robust debate in parliament to keep the government in check.