O'neill wants Opposition Leader Belden Namah referred to Committee

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill wants Opposition leader Belden Namah referred to the parliamentary privileges committee for discrediting individuals in the House.

He asked Speaker Theo Zurenuoc to refer Namah to the committee for abusing parliamentary privileges and defaming people.

Zurenuouc will make a ruling today on O’Neill’s request.

O’Neill was responding to allegation made by Namah against him and the Central Bank’s economical advisor, Dr Jacob Weiss.

Namah had referred to moves or agreements to transfer and manage the PNGSD programmes and another development foundation to a company owned by Weiss’ son, LR group of companies, which was already doing work in Western.

Namah claimed that Weiss was a close friend of O’Neill.

Speaker Zurenuouc warned Namah to stop naming people using parliament privilege as it was against standing orders.

He said he would not allow the Prime Minister to answer Namah’s questions. 

But O’Neill insisted that he should respond to the questions for the benefit of the nation.

O’Neill said there was no such agreement during his visit to Israel with Weiss or his son’s company and called on Namah to produce evidence.

He said Weiss served the country for over 30 years and had stabilised the economy of the country. The National