PNG Opposition Leader demands Papua LNG forum return to project provinces

 PNG Opposition Leader demands Papua LNG forum return to project provinces

Opposition Leader James Nomane has called on the National Government to relocate the Papua LNG Development Forum back to its rightful host provinces and districts, insisting that any consultation process must strictly follow Section 48(1) of the Oil and Gas Act 1998.

The Kikori MP told reporters that landowners and local level governments in the project area had effectively been shut out of discussions that are supposed to directly involve them, warning that pushing the forum to Waigani amounted to sidelining the very people the law was designed to protect.

“Today, on behalf of all the landowners, the Opposition is putting a direct demand to the Government: stop compromising the Papua LNG Development Forum, comply with the law, and take the consultations back to the people, where the law requires them to be held,” Mr Nomane said.

He stressed that his party was not opposed to the project itself, describing Papua LNG as vital to the country’s economic recovery, but said the way forward had to be lawful and inclusive.

“Let me be clear. Papua New Guinea needs Papua LNG and the Opposition wants this project to succeed. A timely Final Investment Decision means jobs, revenue, and confidence for our struggling economy. But the Opposition will not accept success built on shortcuts. This project must be done right, with the landowners, not around them,” he said.

Mr Nomane pointed to the legal requirement under the Oil and Gas Act, which he said obliges the responsible Minister to properly represent all affected parties.

“The law is not complicated. Section 48(1) of the Oil and Gas Act 1998 requires the Minister to convene a Development Forum that fairly represents project-area landowners, affected Local-level Governments, and affected Provincial Governments,” he said.

“Yet the Government has dragged the forum out of the project footprint and into the corridors of Waigani. A forum the landowners cannot reach is not consultation. It is exclusion dressed up as process.”