parliament

He said within the time his government took office, it has been fine-tuning the project agreements to get more interest out for Papua New Guineans. As he put it, the government was “not in a rush” to get the operation started in the country.

The Prime Minister was discussing the gold refinery concept in Parliament in response to questions put to him by Leader of Opposition Joseph Lelang.

Chief Justice, Sir Gibbs Salika who administered the swearing in of the MPs, urged the MPs to use their mandate responsibly and serve the people of Papua New Guinea.

"The declaration that you're about to make and sign is a solemn promise to the people of Papua New Guinea,” he said.

"But it's not only to the people of PNG, but to the entire world at large and to God Almighty.

"God Almighty is our unseen visitor in our midst in this house.

"The Constitution says all making power of the people of Papua New Guinea is now going to be vested in you all.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, PNG, for the first time in 25 years (since the 1992 election), no females will make up the 111-member Parliament - despite more female candidates being nominated for elections in 2017 than ever before;167 of 3,332 were female candidates.

Dr Alphonse Gelu, Registrar of Political Parties said women need to have full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.

Flames were seen billowing from the building's roof on Monday, as firefighters tried to douse the blaze.

The fire first broke out on Sunday and completely destroyed the National Assembly, or lower chamber.

Police have arrested a suspect who will appear in court on Tuesday on charges of arson, housebreaking and theft.

The Prime Minister was responding to questions from Kairuku Hiri MP Peter Isoaimo.

"Kairuku Hiri is a huge electorate (with) a population of close to 200,000 people.

"Service delivery is lacking in my district because I cannot be doing everything given the huge land mass and population in my district.

"Now that the Boundaries Commission has completed their awareness, when will the Parliament deliberate on the report?

"Are we going to split the electorate in this term of Parliament?" Isoaimo asked.

Sir Puka said this would allow the parliament to discuss issues relating to this.

“Can the executive government be responsible to this country and the people of this country to inform through the leadership on the COVID situation in this country,” he said.

When responding, the Prime Minister assured the parliament that the Health Minister will make a public statement tomorrow if parliament resumes, and encouraged all citizens to access publicly available information through various channels.

The casket was laid in the grand hall for members of parliament and dignitaries to pay their respects.

Among them was Prime Minister James Marape and Leader of Opposition Belden Namah.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was a closed casket ceremony with no viewing of the body.

The casket was in parliament for an hour before it was taken back to the funeral home where it will spend the night before being flown to Kerema early tomorrow morning.

TIPNG Chairman Peter Aitsi has commended the Government on taking the first step towards breaking a trend of administrations evading public scrutiny that has plagued PNG emergency public procurement in recent years.  

“It is very encouraging to note that our Government has now made this commitment to table a fully audited COVID-19 SOE funding report at the earliest available opportunity. This demonstrates that they are taking the responsibility to set a better example in the way that emergency public procurement can be managed,” Aitsi said.

Namah said such actions taken by the Government fails to address the effects of COVID-19 on the struggling private sector and the people of PNG.

He explained that the passing of the Supplementary Budget will give effect to the recent announcement of the K5.6 billion stimulus package.

Namah said the Government plans to introduce its Fiscal Stimulus Package in the June session of Parliament.

He asked why prolong it for another two months, when they can intervene through the fiscal policy adjustment now.

This is to comply with the requirement of the national constitution, where Parliament is convened immediately, or at any time before the expiry of the national emergency.

The special sitting on April 2^nd is to fulfill the above requirement as well as allow for Parliament to: