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𝐎’𝐍𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥: 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞
𝐊𝟏 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐮𝐞𝐥 “𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐲” 𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦 9 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙 2026
𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐼𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒

Former Prime Minister and Member for Ialibu-Pangia, Hon. Peter O’Neill, CMG, MP, today slammed the Marape Government’s delayed and "dangerously vague" response to the national fuel crisis, labelling the proposed K1 billion relief package a disaster in the making.

𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞
Mr. O’Neill criticised the government for failing to act while the global fuel crisis hammered PNG households for the last eight weeks. "This government has sat idle while fuel, public transport, and food prices skyrocketed. To come out now—two months too late—with a billion-kina Band-Aid proves they have no plan and no grip on the economy," O’Neill stated.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐢𝐥 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥?
The Former Prime Minister demanded transparency regarding the massive revenue the State has collected during this crisis.

"While our people suffer, the Government has enjoyed a 𝐭𝐰𝐨-𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐬𝐤𝐲𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬. As a petroleum exporter, the PNG Treasury and Kumul Petroleum have seen their coffers swell while our families are bled dry at the pump. We want to know exactly how many hundreds of millions in 'extra' revenue this Government has made from the suffering of our people. Why is this windfall not being used openly to lower prices instead of being hidden in a K1 billion 'black box' for unknown importers?"

𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠
The Former PM warned that the Prime Minister’s promise to funnel K1 billion to "unnamed fuel importers" carries the stench of past corruption. “We are seeing the groundwork for another COVID-style scam. Throwing a billion kina of public money at mystery middlemen with zero transparency is not a solution—it is a payday for cronies while the grassroots suffer."

𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞
Mr. O’Neill expressed outrage at the Government’s attempt to pit PMV operators against the travelling public. "The Prime Minister is trying to make PMV drivers the villains to distract from his own failures.
PMV operators are struggling to survive; the public is struggling to commute. Both should stop looking at each other and start directing their anger squarely at the Government that caused this mess."

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲
Beyond the pump, Mr. O’Neill warned of a looming food security catastrophe.

"Fuel is just the beginning. The Middle East produces the bulk of the world’s agricultural fertilisers. This instability has already triggered massive fertiliser shortages that will impact the price of imported staples like rice for months to come.

“If we cannot afford fuel today, our families will not be able to afford food tomorrow. This Government has no strategy to protect our supply chains."

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞
"The irony of this situation is staggering. As James Marape was standing up to announce a K1 billion handout to unknown importers, 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝟏𝟓% 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐒/𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧," O’Neill concluded.

"The Marape regime is completely out of step with global affairs. While the rest of the world sees costs coming down due to international diplomacy, our Prime Minister is still trying to fix yesterday's problems with tomorrow’s debt. It is time to stop the handouts to 'ghost' importers and start providing real, transparent relief to the people of Papua New Guinea."

𝐇𝐨𝐧. 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐎’𝐍𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥, 𝐂𝐌𝐆, 𝐌𝐏
Member for Ialibu-Pangia
Leader of the People’s National Congress Party

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea . The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Keith Iduhu, MP, has today acknowledged Prime Minister James Marape’s decision to assume interim control of the Ministry of Defence following Dr. Billy Joseph’s announcement to "step aside." However, the Opposition maintains that these half-measures do not address the fundamental constitutional and ethical breaches at the heart of the PNGDF recruitment scandal.

The Opposition notes the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday afternoon that he will personally oversee the Defence portfolio while an investigation, led by the State Solicitor and supported by senior Australian Defence Force officials, is conducted into the 2026 recruitment intake. While we welcome the involvement of independent and international oversight, the Prime Minister’s actions validate our concerns that the Ministry’s leadership has completely collapsed under the weight of nepotism and corruption.

"The Prime Minister’s acceptance of Dr. Joseph ‘stepping aside’ is a constitutional farce," stated Hon. Keith Iduhu. "The PNG Constitution requires a Minister to either serve or resign; there is no provision for a temporary "stepping aside" from duties while holding the commission. If the Prime Minister truly wants a clean investigation, he must formally dismiss Dr. Joseph from his Ministerial appointment today."

The Opposition reiterates that Dr. Joseph lost the public’s trust when he misled Parliament regarding the age of recruits, claims that have been definitively debunked by public evidence. Most egregiously, when challenged by the Governor of Morobe, Hon. Rainbo Paita, to correct the record and apologise for these inaccuracies, Dr. Joseph mischeviously refused, claiming his statements were made in "good faith" based on departmental data.

While the Prime Minister has warned of upcoming changes at Murray Barracks, the Opposition finds it unacceptable that the PNGDF Commander remains in his post while his administration is under fire for the recruitment debacle. 

"You cannot investigate a house while the person in charge of it is still holding the keys," Iduhu added. "The Commander must be suspended immediately to ensure that recruitment officers and whistleblowers are not intimidated during the State Solicitor's probe. A failure to suspend the Commander suggests the government is more interested in managing the optics than finding the truth."

The Opposition remains committed to ensuring that the Papua New Guinea Defence Force remains a merit-based national institution, with a force that is recruited  evenly from all regions, that is free from  political interference.

xxx-ENDS-xxx

Media Statement

Sunday 22 March 2026

Approved for Immediate Release

Reports last week surfaced that the Marape government is considering a multi-billion USD support package—including massive tax incentives—to rescue the K62 billion Papua LNG project after its Final Investment Decision (FID) was once again pushed back.

“Prime Minister James Marape is ‘bending over backwards’ to global developers of the Papua LNG project while sacrificing billions in national revenue through unprecedented tax concessions.”

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨

“In 2019, James Marape stood before this nation and promised to ‘Take Back PNG.’ He promised to move us from being ‘tax collectors’ to ‘resource owners.’ Today, we see that manifesto is dead,” Mr. O’Neill said.

“By offering a rumoured US$3 billion in concessions to foreign developers, he is doing the exact opposite of what he promised. This latest pandering is the ultimate evidence that Marape has lost his grip and has abandoned the very principles he used to seize power.”

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬, 𝐄𝐠𝐨-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞

Mr. O’Neill pointed to a series of high-level international meetings in January as the catalyst for the current desperation. After meeting with the President of the IMF and announcing the political and egotistical claim that PNG would be "debt-free by 2033," the Prime Minister went on an international tour.

“This debt-free fantasy was quickly followed by meetings in Davos with Total Energies and ExxonMobil and more IMF bosses, before Marape dispatched his Minister for Petroleum and State negotiating team to Paris to confirm his government’s ‘bending over backwards’ approach.

He has backed himself into a corner where he must secure this project at any cost to protect his own political ego and pandering to the Economic Masters of PNG, the IMF.”

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐔𝐒$𝟑 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐊𝟏𝟐 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧) 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞

Mr. O’Neill urged the public to understand the scale of the "tax concessions" being handed to developers.

“To put this in perspective, US$3 billion is roughly K12 billion. That K12 billion could have funded:

•⁠  ⁠A decade of Free Education for every child from Prep to Grade 12; or

•⁠  ⁠15 brand new Specialist Hospitals like Wabag, Wewak, ANGAU, Goroka; or

•⁠  ⁠Over 10,000 new modern classroom blocks; or

•⁠  ⁠A fully equipped and housed Police Force to finally bring law and order. Instead, Marape is choosing to fund the profit margins of foreign giants while our own hospitals and schools lack basic medicine and classrooms.”

𝐀 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐭𝐲

Mr. O’Neill highlighted the contrast between his government’s 2019 domestic negotiations and the current administration’s ‘cap-in-hand’ diplomacy.

“In 2019, when my government signed the Papua LNG agreement with TotalEnergies, we did it right here in Port Moresby. We sat on our own soil and negotiated a deal that was fair to our people.”

“Why is James Marape now running around the world—from Washington DC to Davos and Paris—pandering to the IMF and the developers?”

“We are the owners of the resource; they should be coming to us, not the other way around.”

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞’𝐬 “𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐏𝐍𝐆” 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬

“Terrible deals like Porgera, where we are paying billions to be shareholders in an existing mine when it should by now be 100% ours.”

“The original investment of the Porgera mine developers has been fully recouped, and this mine should ours. Like Ok Tedi, Porgera should now be 100% owned by the people of Papua New Guinea.”

“Instead Marape shut it down, promising 100% local ownership and years later, delivered a deal of part ownership where the shares will take us at least a decade to pay for. What good deal?”

𝐀 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞

In 2013, 100% ownership of Ok Tedi transferred to the people of PNG. Sadly, since 2019, Ok Tedi has become a cash cow for the political inner circle and relatives of Marape. Marape, through his close Chinese business associates, have taken control of much of Ok Tedi’s risk free cash flows by forcing the supply of XCMG PNG machinery, a company owned and controlled by close Marape cronies.

“In late 2023, Marape in Hong Kong promised XCMG huge tax concessions to set up manufacturing in PNG. Three years later no manufacturing, none of the promised factory jobs but plenty of business flowing XCMG way.”

In addition, Ok Tedi has been used to give massive tax credit projects to Marape relatives including the controversial road contracts of K240 plus million awarded to Ipwenz Construction Limited.

“Meanwhile, life expectancy of our people is reversing; literacy rates are declining while a mine that should be benefitting our people is filling the pockets Marape cronies instead. It is just not right.”

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐩 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢-𝐏𝐍𝐆 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬

The reality is the actions of Marape have consistently benefited foreigners and Marape associates, not Papua New Guineans. Papua LNG is turning out the same way.

Last week, the petroleum minister, as stated in Parliament, wants the NEC to rubber stamp massive tax concessions to Papua LNG – a deal too good to believe for the foreign developers and catastrophic for PNGs future.

“The Marape Government is defined by a pattern of fiscal irresponsibility, corruption and a fire sale of our future. While developers in the Middle East face production cuts, PNG remains a peaceful haven—yet we are the ones being asked to pay for the Marape-made delays to the Papua LNG project.”

“The people of Papua New Guinea deserve better than a Prime Minister who begs and promises in Washington DC, Canberra, Paris and Davos. We need a government with the backbone to stand its ground in Port Moresby and stick to the 2019 Papua LNG agreement.”

𝐇𝐨𝐧. 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐎’𝐍𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥, 𝐂𝐌𝐆, 𝐌𝐏

Member for Ialibu-Pangia

Leader of the People’s National Congress Party