Don’t forget Panguna issues: MP

THE Government has a forgotten agenda in Panguna, which has never been given a formal closure, says a government representative of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
Ioro constituency MP Theonila Roka Matbob, the Autonomous Bougainville Government community government minister, told the community affairs and national content conference and expo in Lae yesterday that while the Government wanted Bougainville economised to gain independence, it still overlooked the fact that Bougainville needed the mine to do so.
“While there are laws surrounding ownership, only a proper closure of the mine’s last operations will give the ownership back to Bougainville,” she said.
“We need to put a closure before we start a new agenda.
“That is governance.
“I don’t want to blame PNG for what happened in Bougainville, only because Panguna was a trial and error for all but it came at a cost that we cannot continue to suppress the truth.”
Matbob said during her years of activism to raise the people’s voice, she found that the legal system lacked space for landowners to complain about project issues.
“We had to go through Australia and secure a pro bono law firm through the human rights law center, to be able to bring the developer, Rio Tinto and the Government to a roundtable to properly address issues.”
She said since 2020, a process launched by the president, sanctioned through the Bougainville executive council, established a committee to see through the internationally recognised Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment (PMLIA) process to address those issues.
“Unfortunately, the PNG government has not had representation on this committee,” she said.
“The PMLIA structure agrees principally to assess its physical, chemical, social and environmental impacts.”
“By June 2024, we should have the report of this assessment ready to bring evidence to the table and get PNG and Bougainville to find lasting solutions – we thank Rio Tinto for agreeing to fund this process.
“We call on the PNG Government which enjoyed 20 per cent shareholder benefits of Panguna to also put money into this basket to complete this process and get answers.”