Six million people at risk, and the Prime Minister blames the provinces

by Michael J. Passingan

The 1997 El Niño affected about 40 per cent of PNG's population. East Sepik Governor Allan Bird told Parliament on 16 October that this one may be worse and is about 30 days from its peak. With a population of around 12 million, he said, up to six million people could be affected, during the drought and after the rains return next year.

He asked whether the Government had moved from business as usual to crisis management. He asked how seriously the Government, and "all of the experts that they are hiring", were planning not just to hand money to MPs to buy food but to prepare recovery. PNG is a rain-fed agricultural society, he said. Who is gathering and preparing the seed people will need to plant when the rain comes?

James Marape answered largely in Tok Pisin, and largely by blaming others. He told members to read and listen, said the minister responsible for disasters had outlined the response sessions earlier, and accused questioners of running around "with blinkers". Districts had received K2.5 million of a K5 million envelope, he said, governors had powers they could use without waiting for money, and provinces were sitting on more than K100 million.

Bird rose on a point of order. Those funds are tied, he said: DSIP and other grants come with conditions from the agencies that oversee them. The Prime Minister knows that, Bird said, and was using the figure to distract from the fact that the national Government must lead. He asked the Prime Minister to withdraw.

Marape partly withdrew, then repeated the substance. The money sits in provincial treasury operating accounts, he said, and the Finance Minister can issue financial instructions in an emergency. The national Government does not have "an endless pool of funds": it pays the fuel subsidy, DSIP, school fees and medicines. Provinces, he said, sit and cry "mama, mama" for the national Government.

That is the Prime Minister of a country facing what scientists describe as possibly one of the most serious El Niños on record, telling provinces to stop crying. If the Finance Minister can issue emergency instructions to release tied funds, the national Government should issue them now. Telling governors to spend money the law ties to other purposes is not leadership. It is deflection.

Marape's best example made Bird's case for him. Trobriand Islanders, he said, know to keep seed yams for the next planting, and they are now eating their seed. When people eat next season's seed, the next harvest fails. That is precisely the recovery problem Bird asked about. Marape's answer was that local and provincial governments understand their people and should handle it. A national seed and planting-material programme was not mentioned.

He praised Bird for being "so educated" and agreed PNG has neglected irrigation and hydroponics, as if the country's lack of irrigation after seven years of his Government were someone else's omission. He even appeared to offer to act as a salesman for a private supplier of desalination and water-purification equipment, promising to lobby for it.

He ended on unity: in times of disaster there is no opposition or government. That line would carry more weight from a leader who had not just spent several minutes blaming governors. Unity requires the national Government to lead, publish a plan and fund it. Six million people cannot eat a standby promise.

Parliament should ask for the drought response plan in writing: the national budget committed, the recovery and seed programme for 2027, and which agency is accountable for each. If that plan exists, the Prime Minister can table it. If it does not, his anger at the question explains why.