Brown to Carr: drop the threats and offer assistance

NINE NEWS

AUSTRALIAN GREENS LEADER Bob Brown believes Australia should be offering Papua New Guinea greater assistance in having a fair election, rather than threatening it with isolation.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said this week that failure by PNG to hold its planned mid-year elections would be a "shocking model" for the Pacific.

He threatened a sharp Australian response if PNG prime minister Peter O'Neill heeded internal calls to put off mid-year elections.

"We'd have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea," the senator told Sky News.

"We'd be in a position of having to consider sanctions."

Senator Carr on Friday issued a statement saying his comments had been "misunderstood and used out of context".

Senator Brown said Australia should support PNG.

"Instead of making the statement Bob Carr made, we should be offering PNG even greater assistance to make sure the election ... is fair, above board and not corrupted," Senator Brown told reporters in Canberra yesterday.

Senator Brown said while PNG has a large resource base, it does mean "there is potential for money to flow to outside interests, including Australian corporations, at the expense of local people".

There is also the problem of the takeover of land by foreign companies.

"This election is an opportunity for the people of PNG to assert their own control over their own land," Senator Brown said.

"If their politicians are doing the wrong thing, then throw them out."

Comments

[Phil Fitzpatrick]

I often wondered why he never entered politics Robin. Although I suppose he did in a roundabout way. What, with that extra 'e' he would have been perfect. I wonder whether Grassroots and Isuzu Lu are interested, although I suppose they've gone with him. Can't wait for St Peter to get onto Facebook.

[Robin Mead]

Bob Browne, Phil? As in Grass Roots and Isuzu Lu?

I'm sure he'd have a lot to say but I think you might have to get out the ouija board, mate.. ! :)

[Phil Fitzpatrick]

I think Colin's reaction to your suggestion has sealed the case Tavurvur - the Greens are the only current viable option for a third, ideology-driven force in PNG politics.

If they can evoke such a response from a humble PNG Attitude reader think what they could do in the national parliament!

The Post Courier and especially The National would have a field day. The Greens could occupy the front pages for days on end.

I suspect the PNG Greens would be a more moderate force than their Australian counterpart. They would also have some bigger hills to climb with the rampant disregard for environment and people current in PNG politics.

[Mrs Barbara Short]

PNG already has a Greens Party. This group may have had some training elsewhere.

They don't have to be based on the Australian Greens Party model. They should be able to devise their own ideological platform.

For a country where a very high percentage of the population still rely to a great extent on subsistence agriculture there is a great need for a group to work to protect them.

If PNG is so rich in minerals and oil and gas, and the rest of the world is hungry for these goods and will do anything to get them as cheaply as possible, then they need members of parliament who will stand up to them.

In the past it would appear that the members of parliament have done everything they possibly could do to get these mining companies to invest in PNG and hang the environmental pollution.

But over the past 35 years people in both PNG and Australia have started to fight back against all the wrong things that have been done by the mining companies. This fight must surely gain in strength for the huge oil and gas projects in the pipeline.

[Colin Huggins]

Just having looked at all former Australian Ministers of External Affairs before the name change to Foreign Minister, I would believe that not one of them would take one iota of notice of what Senator Bob Brown would advise or suggest. Foreign Minister, the Hon. Bob Carr would be no exception and nor would Shadow Foreign Affairs spokesperson, the Hon. Julie Bishop.
I am not trying to be sanctimonious or such, but not one of the present Green Party members as Phil has pointed out has probably ever been into a church/mosque or temple!
They certainly are non-religious, just look them up, on "Google"!
However, they might make it interesting in PNG, if they could all be exported to parlimentary positions up there!

[Tavurvur]

Taking RL's comments on board, let's strip back the discussion to fundamentals.

I think it is vital, as Phil and Barbara have stated, that a third force in PNG politics is needed. I argue that this force needs to be ideologically-driven in order to balance what is now a political horse-trading scheme based on money, power and influence.

If we accept that such a third force is needed in PNG, the question then is what should that force be?

Whether you agree or not, one possibility is the Greens.

If not the Greens, who else? Any suggestions?

[Phil Fitzpatrick]

I agree with Tavurvur. A third force in PNG politics is sorely needed.

In Australia it was provided by the Democrats but since their demise the Greens have taken up the baton. The Greens hard line on many issues is difficult to take by some people, particularly the money movers, but that is part of their charm.

They tell it like it is and as far as I know they are in no one's pocket. For tree-huggers I think they take a very moderate line.

I don't think they are part of any globalisation conspiracy; in fact, I think they are in opposition to it.

Many anti-globalists are propelled by biblical doctrine and since the Greens are largely non-religious they are seen as part of the forces of the antichrist and are consequently the enemy.

Perhaps Bob Browne could clarify their position.

[Robin Lillicrapp]

Ideology and the Green movement is behind much of the present impasse in global politics.

The results are often more destructive than the players imagine.

I fear the Greens are the spoilers of status quo.

If PNGeans are resistant to neocolonialism... then keep the Greens far away from your speculative consideration.

The colonialism of the 21st Century is not "oppressive- Australia" but global corporatism asserting provenance over territories and resources, and are aided by compliant government in bed with the International Banking crowd.

Restructure programs are enforced upon borrower nations to further tie them to oppressive oversight regimes.

Look at Europe with most of the near-default nations now headed by puppet governors who are former heads of global banking institutions that preside over the debt-trap we are all acquainted with.

[Tavurvur]

Good on Bob Brown. On the issue of the Greens, I would like to see more collaboration between the Australian Greens and the PNG Greens.

As Barbara has noted a number of times on PNG Attitude, the Greens could present the solution to what I term the missing ingredient in PNG politics, i.e ideology:

http://garamut.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/ideology-the-missing-ingredient-in-png-politics/

Even a collaboration between the PNG Greens and the NZ Greens would be helpful.