parliament

"The comments were in jest - light humour about sports and anyone listening would have heard the context in which I spoke which is common in sporting banter. The local ABC journalists like to sensationalise stories and make the country look bad.”

Mr Micah said the ABC tried to made parallels with the young New Zealand athlete who made cannibal comments and tried to suggest there was hypocrisy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party denies any wrongdoing by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj or the top elected leader of Rajasthan state, Vasundhararaje Scindia. 

The scandal, which relates to the investigation into the founder of India's Twenty20 cricket tournament, is the first to hit Modi's government since it came to power last year.

After three questions during the Questions without Notice this afternoon, leader of the Government Business James Marape adjourned the Parliament to 10am tomorrow.

Not all the MPs were in the chamber as well.

The public gallery was also not filled.

Nothing new is expected to be tabled tomorrow but government business includes the Organic Law on the Independent Commission against Corruption, the Organic Law on the Sovereign Wealth Fund and making a constitutional amendment to PNG’s ownership of hydrocarbon and mineral and commercialization of PNG businesses.

He said the changes to the National Anthem were done to suit the spirit of the Games.

However Pala said this incident will not be repeated as the government will be imposing tougher penalties in the future.

He said currently, the penalty for including or excluding the wordings of the national anthem was  K1000.

Pala was responding to Kundiawa Gembogl MP Tobias Kulang during the Question Time this afternoon.

The violence involved about 200 youths who hurled firebombs and rocks at riot police, and smashed office windows and set fire to trash bins.

Many of the mask-wearing protesters carried wooden bats and pieces of smashed paving stones, in the worst clashes seen since Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' left-wing government was formed six months ago.

The clashes died down as a debate got underway in parliament on a new austerity bill.