PNG politician calls on government to cap population

Transcript

A Papua New Guinea politician is calling on the government to limit the number of births in the country to stem rapid population growth.  

The Member of Parliament for Sumkar District in Madang Province, Ken Fairweather, says population growth in PNG is faster than western nations and in his electorate alone, the population rose by about 6 percent in 2010.

He told Beverley Tse the country's essential services such as education, health and infrastructure cannot keep up.

KEN FAIRWEATHER: I'm saying we need to have a cap on the population of around eight million, which is probably what we have now. to try and limit the birth rate to a sustainable level of one or two percent, which is not sustainable at the moment and that's the whole point we're making.

BEVERLEY TSE: But how exactly can that be achieved?

KF: In my electorate I'm spending about NZ$300,000 on implants in the arm which last for five years. It was about 20 women a day. It's about to about 30, 35 women a day now. So I'm hoping over four or five years to do about 15,000 of them. If I can achieve that the population will drop back to a more western standard of population increase.

BT: But isn't that telling women that they can't have children?

KF: Absolutely.

BT: So are you saying that the government should control how many babies are born and therefore taking away the decision from the women to have a child?

KF: Absolutely.

BT: Well, that wouldn't be very well received by people who are pro-birth, would it?

KF: I don't care what they perceive. They don't have to put up with providing service to the people, do they? They're just a bunch of good-intentioned people who have no practicality in life. That's all they are. You do it with cows and you do it with sheep and stuff, don't you? In Australia they should be wiping out the kangaroos, too. There's too many of them. The world has got to wake up to the fact that everything is not sweetness and light. In fact, most of the world is bloody awful.

BT: But we are talking about people...

KF: You're talking about western people who have got everything. I'm talking about undeveloped people who have nothing. There's a great difference in what we're talking about.        

BT: So are you saying that the government needs to invest money in providing contraception across the country?

KF: Absolutely.

BT: How much money do you think it's going to take?

KF: I'd say half a billion a year would do it, across the country.

BT: Is there any other solution? If people are wanting to have children is there any way that the government can spend more money...?

KF: People are stupid. They don't realise what it means. They're not educated people.

BT: Do your constituents understand where you're coming from?

KF: Absolutely. My point is they voted me in on it, didn't they, again. They re-elected me on it. I got a mandate to do it.

Ken Fairweather says a parliamentary committee has been established to start addressing PNG's birth control problem.