Milne Bay

Major crimes like sea piracy and armed robbery have been on the rise since.

The infamous Tommy Baker escaped from the Giligili correctional holding cell in 2016 and since then, criminal elements believed to be part of his gang have been terrorising the quiet province of Milne Bay.

“Tommy Baker has connections both within and outside of the province, and he has been constantly doing these things and we know very well his activities cover Oro (Northern) and Morobe Province, and also in NCD and Central Province,” said acting provincial police commander, George Bayagau.

The 40 metres Haumu bridge was constructed at a cost of K700,000.

Minister Nali when addressing the people at the opening urged the people to take care of such infrastructures and take responsibility to own it.

"The Government will always provide services but all it is asking for is for people to take ownership and look after it."

Speaking as the Alotau MP, Mr Abel said such infrastructures are important for the Government as it opens up opportunities for people to take part in doing business and other commercial activities.

Milne Bay Acting Provincial Police Commander, Chief Inspector George Baiyagau, said the robbers targeted the estate’s BSP ATM machine and made away with cash in the ATM.

Chief Inspector Baiyagau said the robbery took place at 3am.

He said the seven fully armed suspects used a chainsaw to cut through the estate’s wooden fence to gain access, then held up the security guards and proceeded to use the chainsaw to cut open a shop’s door.

They then used the chainsaw again to cut around the wall that was holding the BSP ATM, which was in the store.

Today, the hotel features the province in a cultural day dedicated to products from the area.

Entertainment, art and craft, all from the Milne Bay province are being showcased.

This is a small tourism promotion initiative by the local hotel itself.  

A special guest making an appearance also is the commonly known Uncle Tony from the local cook show Haus Cook.

Uncle Tony is bringing into the kitchen his special touch of clay pot cooking and more awesome seafood. 

Provincial commerce advisor Didimas Epo said many public servants retire without proper knowledge of sustaining their retirement pay.

Therefore, he said the provincial administration, through its commerce division, wanted to create a pathway for its retiring public servants.

“From experience, we found out that a lot of public servants leave without being given a proper pathway and at the end, they find out that they lost all their money because of bad or poor investments,” he said

Formalities were carried out in alphabetical order by district as each member was sworn in by the Alotau District Court Magistrate Leonard Mesmin.

In a ceremony witnessed by Milne Bay public servants and the general public, the five MPs sworn in vowed to work together.

The first to be sworn in was Milne Bay Governor Sir John Luke Critten, who assumed the Speaker’s seat from Wilfred Giarua.

Alotau Open MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel was then sworn in, followed by Esa’ala Open MP and Minister for Justice and Attorney General Davis Steven.

A road block has been set up at and vehicles coming in from Gurney airport and also from the town area have been blocked from travelling.

Waima village Chief Arthur Perua in an interview told Loop PNG that the government had not met their compensation demand of K20 million for his deceased sister.

The deceased, Claire Perua was killed instantly by a police vehicle on July 30, 2015.

"We have been waiting for the government to pay go the compensation demand for the past three years now.

Sun Princess, which departed Freemantle in Melbourne four days ago berthed at the Milne Bay wharf in the early hours of this morning.

The cruise ship with more than 2,000 tourists from Australia didn't waste time but went straight into business of visiting various tourist destinations around the province.

Loop PNG interviewed one of the tourist Karen Huen from Perth.

Huen was a first timer to travel to PNG and was amazed how friendly the people were making a commitment to return later.

Mine operators Geopacific Resources Limited announced in a statement that many technical aspects of the mine have been investigated in detail and consequently, work is centered on assessing optimisation opportunities.

They include modular construction techniques; refining the processing plant flow sheet and technology.

Geopacific says considerable effort is being applied to optimising mining with areas of interest, including optimal mine design, refining grade-scheduling to shorten the capital paycheck period and equipment selection.