Pioneer missionary to Nuku's Sibilanga in West Sepik passes on

 “It is with great sadness that we record the passing into the presence of his Father our loved and honoured brother and fellow mission partner, Max Tuck on the morning of 14^th November 2021. Max served in Papua New Guinea from 1958-1976 and Max and Heather revisited regularly subsequently with their last visit to Sibilanga in 2016 when Max was 84 years old.

Max and Heather were married at Lumi by Kay Liddle on 25 March 1959. Ivor Pethybridge was his best man and Hope Dobbie was Heather’s matron of honour. Max and Heather’s three sons, Deane, Richard and Marcus were all born in PNG.  Together Max and Heather pioneered the opening up of Sibilanga in the following years, and were instrumental in developing Yimbrasi as a Christian Community Adult  Education Centre, now being used by Nuku Training College. Max also served on the CMML “committee” for a number of years.  Their influence and ministry was greatly appreciated by fellow-missionaries and by many Christians and village folk in the Palei-Maimai area of West Sepik Province.

 

After retiring from PNG in 1976, Max and Heather served the Lord Jesus in Christian ministry in both local pastoral ministry and in Bible College lecturing in New Zealand, Tasmania, Singapore and the USA.

 

We are so grateful to God for the service, fellowship and partnership of Max and Heather over many years. [Drafted by Ossie Fountain]

Max and Heather were married at Lumi by Kay Liddle on 25 March 1959. Ivor Pethybridge was his best man and Hope Dobbie was Heather’s matron of honour. Max and Heather’s three sons, Deane, Richard and Marcus were all born in PNG.  Together Max and Heather pioneered the opening up of Sibilanga in the following years, and were instrumental in developing Yimbrasi as a Christian Community Adult  Education Centre, now being used by Nuku Training College. Max also served on the CMML “committee” for a number of years.  Their influence and ministry was greatly appreciated by fellow-missionaries and by many Christians and village folk in the Palei-Maimai area of West Sepik Province.

 

After retiring from PNG in 1976, Max and Heather served the Lord Jesus in Christian ministry in both local pastoral ministry and in Bible College lecturing in New Zealand, Tasmania, Singapore and the USA.

 

We are so grateful to God for the service, fellowship and partnership of Max and Heather over many years. [Drafted by Ossie Fountain]

 

”

 

 

 

TUCK, Maxwell Henry (Max). Born October 10, 1932. Passed away on November 14, 2021. Cherished husband of Heather for 62 years, very much loved father and father-in-law of Deane and Janet, Ricky and Mary, Marcus and Kathryn. Adored Grandpa Max of Lawrence, Ashleigh, Jeffrey and Anna, Dannelle and James, Stephen and Michelle, Karrie-Ann, Chontelle and Matt, Caleb and Nerissa. Great granddad to Harvey, Kyah, Ardie, Huxley, Ava, Millah, Ryker (deceased), and Lexon. And BuBu to many in PNG. And loved by many in New Zealand and beyond. Due to the current situation a private service for immediate family was held on 18 November 2021 in Auckland. A memorial service to commemorate Max's life will be held in Tauranga in the new year, date to be advised. Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord”

 

 

Deloitte to review public services payroll system

BY GARY JUFFA

Chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform and Service Delivery (SPCPSR&SD) is very pleased today to witness the execution of a long overdue review of the integrity of the Public Services payroll system.

 “Over many years the country, the taxpayers, many governments and many public servants themselves have been voicing strong opinions on the integrity of the Public Service Payroll. As recent as last week in the Budget 2022 sessions the matter was raised as a national concern,” Juffa said.

“This issue was raised with me late last year as Chairman of the reconstituted SPCPSR&SD. We as a Committee have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to activate momentum to secure an independent status update by an independent internationally recognized firm” 

International firm, Deloitte through public tender, has been awarded the contract which is being signed today. 

The Department of Personnel Management will be the lead government agent to facilitate Deloitte. However, the Special Parliamentary Committee will be ensuring through its  sub- committee that there exists accountability by all parties that the milestones and independence of the Review are achieved. 

“It has to be independent to tell us exactly what is actually going on,” Mr Juffa said.

The Review will run over a 6-month period. It will cover the effectiveness of the Public Service current payroll system and its Human Resource Framework and recommend corrective action.

It is believed that the actioning of the recommendations of this Review will be a solid basis to modernize the public service payroll system and save substantial amounts of money. 

“About 130,000 public servants will be paid more than K6 Billion in the 2022 Budget- many have asked the question- For what? Why is that for every year for the last 10 years we have hundreds of Millions in Kina overruns in public service salaries and emoluments? 

Either someone cannot draft budgets or someone is just adding people onto the public payroll at will or ghosts have appeared through ghost holes. Either way- it has to stop”, Mr Juffa said.

Avoid queues pay your Air Niugini ticket online

Air Niugini has announced toe customers that the online payment facility for tickets purchased via the Air Niugini website has now been fully restored. 

Tickets and services can be paid online using your Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards.

Air Niugini apologises for any inconvenience over the recent period whilst the online payment gateway was unavailable.

Thank you Air Niugini, it had been a very user friendly system for me.

I could get a ticket late at evening and fly the next day with E-ticket emailed direct to me.

Happy Christmas Air Niugini

Solomon Islands Prime Minister survives vote of no confidence

 

I have been following this since the morning.

I had to leave the Parliament session but here is the latest from ABC.

............................................................................................

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament, triggered by recent civil unrest.

Anti-government protests last month set fire to buildings and looted stores in the capital.

Around 200 troops and police from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand are helping keep the peace at the request of the Solomon Islands government.

Opposition leader Matthew Wale told Parliament he brought the motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare because he had repeatedly lied to the people and used Chinese money to cling to power.

Wale described a nation plagued by unemployment, exploited resources and "looting at the top."

But in a fiery 90-minute response, Sogavare said he'd done nothing wrong and would not bow down to "the forces of evil" or to "Taiwan's agents." At one point he picked up his chair and banged it on the Parliament floor to emphasize a point.

"If I resign, sir, it would be a message to our young children and youth, Mr. Speaker, that whenever we are not happy with those in authority, we take the laws into our own hands," Sogavare said.

The motion was defeated on Monday afternoon following a lengthy debate in Parliament.

15 voting in favour, 32 against the no-confidence motion, with two abstentions.

-AP/ABC

Prime Minister James Marape to launch major international wharf project in Vanimo

BY CLIFFORD FAIPARIK in Vanimo

Vanimo town is preparing to receive Prime Minister James Marape on Monday (6th of December) to launch the Vanimo international wharf project in West Sepik according to Provincial Administrator Conrad Tilau. 

PM Marape is also expected to open the new office complex for the Provincial Education Division and the new Provincial Assembly; and inspect the new terminal of the airport.

Mr Tilau said that the international wharf will include a naval base for maritime surveillances to monitor the movement of people and vessels travelling at sea between Jayapura in Indonesia and Vanimo. 

In June 14, 2018 then National Planning Minister Richard Maru when announcing the commencement of the feasibility studies said the wharf would cost about K15million and will be co-funded by the PNG Government and the Asian Development Bank.

 “Frieda gold mine and the Bewani Oil Palm project will start soon and there needs to be security along the waters of the PNG-Indonesian border”.

Mr Maru said plantation managers have pleaded with the government to build a wharf to assist them get the oil palm out.

“Bewani Oil Palm said it needed another 10 hectares for their storages facilities for the wharf.

“The proposed new Vanimo wharf is part of the overall development strategy for the province.”

“Vanimo international wharf will be strategically located as PNG’s closest wharf to the Asian market and will transform West Sepik into a dynamic economic hub for the country, Mr Maru said then.

Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Roy Mumu said the current port was only 28 metres long and the water depth is 6m.

“Our challenge is to extend the wharf to cater for large ships and to have the depth to be 15 metres,"Mr Mumu said.

PNG can produce 19 GW of power says Prime Minister

Papua New Guinea has “the potential of becoming a huge producer of green products for the world” with 19 gigawatts of power already estimated out of the Purari , Kikori and Stricken hydro potentials and the West New Britain geothermal projects, Prime Minister James Marape has been told.

Chief Executive Officer of green energy developer Fortescue Future Industries Julie Suttleworth said this on Friday (03.12.21) in her brief to the Prime Minister when the CEO was on her way to visit project sites in Gulf and West New Britain.

She also appraised the geothermal sites of West New Britain as being “one of the top three areas in the world” for Fortescue projects.

The CEO was responding to the Prime Minister’s query on whether PNG green energy potential would meet the projection as set by FFI owner and environmentalist, Dr. Andrew Forrest, who said PNG could provide up to 25 gigawatts of power from its renewable energy sources.

Suttleworth said: “We have currently indicated that there was about 15 gigawatts of hydropower that is in the Master Development Agreement that we could access. So we are starting at 15 gigawatts of hydropower; there is approximately 4.3 gigawatts of geothermal also that we have identified at this stage.

“This is early days; there may be more. So that totals to about 19 gigawatts that our study team has already identified. Not quite 25 gigawatts yet, but we hope that over time, we will get to that number. But round now, we know that there is 19 gigawatts of potential.

“If all these projects of about 19 gigawatts of power are developed, they can make over 10 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen, or about 13 million tonnes of green ammonia, or a combination of both, because ammonia is heavier than hydrogen.

“So there is the potential to be a huge producer of green products for the world.

“It is a very important part of our portfolio. We have made a commitment globally to make 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year, much of that will come from Australia, but over 2 million tonnes of this will come from PNG which is a huge percentage of our target.

“So the overall vision is to make over 2 million tonnes of green hydrogen from PNG, develop over 19 gigawatts of geothermal and hydropower across the various projects, as well as decarbonise PNG, and have excess for export which is a huge amount to export, because PNG won’t need all. 

“We will be doing the studies on the hydropower system to optimise the design of the hydropower dams phase process. So the first Purari sites will be 3 gigawatts. And then there will be stage by stage development – upper Purari, Strickland and others to get to the total of 15 gigawatts. So that does not all happen at once. Start off lower Purari and then others up to 15 gigawatts.

“And at the same time, we need to do more investigative work on the geothermal potential. Geothermal exploration is very expensive. So you need to do a lot of fieldwork first to determine where is the drill bit is going to go down to determine the geothermal potential. This is not done in many places around the world because it is so expensive. Tens of millions of dollars per one hole. It is very expensive drilling. We think there’s at least 4 gigawatts of geothermal potential that needs to be explored and determined to the best way to develop.

“So part of studies is working out the best way to develop the hydropower resource and the geothermal resource. Once we got that renewable power, we need to put the transmission lines to the industrial hub. So of course, in the hydropower, you are linking Strickland, Upper Purari, Lower Purari altogether, so then take the transmission line to the coast where there is a port location.

“We are optimising, right now, the best location for the port. We got two or three options.

“And then we need to optimise the hydrogen production facility. How many electrolysis do we need to make the best use of power, and that electrolyser will take the renewable power, electrolysis of water - so we need to determine where we getting the water from. Is it going to be seawater, or from the river. And then we have to clean that water up to use for electrolysis.

“Electrolysis will make hydrogen with zero emissions. That hydrogen can be used or exported or made into ammonia. This first project that we do, we’ll probably make ammonia because it is easy to transport ammonia.”

Prime Minister Marape encouraged Suttleworth to explain the process of making green hydrogen and green ammonia because of the lack of knowledge and understanding of how the process worked.

These projects are similar to the magnitude of a large LNG projects in exploration, construction, operation and income generation to the country which has seen Government full support to progress them.

NCD Governor welcomes construction of new Central Province Hospital

Putting politics aside, Governor Powes Parkop attended the launch of the new 300 bed hospital arriving early with other politicians.

His media unit says he was elated about the invitation and therefore attended the ceremony at Bautama along the Magi Highway.

Governor Powes Parkop has welcomed and expressed his full support and that of NCD towards the establishment of the hospital for the Central people outside Port Moresby. 

His media unit reports that by rubbing shoulders with his Central Province counterpart Robert Agarobe it was maturity in political leadership.

A picture of their golden handshake has been shared and acknowledged widely on social media.

Parkop and Agarobe have had quite a sour relationship based on their stance and issues regarding land demarcation, GST shares, markets and provincial capital.

Endorsing the hospital Parkop said with the increased population of Port Moresby the , it was totally inadequate to cater for the health needs for its increasing population as well as that of Central and Gulf Provinces.. 

Governor Parkop said the launch was a momentous event for Central Province in that for the first they will have a major facility of their own available in the first instance to Central Province and subsequently to our people of NCD and the rest of the country. 

“ I look forward to more such facilities both public and private can be built so eventually the concept of two great cities co-existing side by side can become a reality . 

When completed, he said, the new hospital will help to shoulder the skies of the provinces together, adding it will relieve the stress on medical workers and end relatives  camping outside Port Moresby General Hospital awaiting for the sick relatives. 

“This initiative has ushered in a new era for NCD, Central Province and the Country and on behalf of all our people in NCD, I commend Prime Minister Honourable James Marape and Governor Robert Agarobe for their leadership in getting this project started. It is I hope a start of a new journey in the right direction and I call on everyone to support this initiative and journey.”

NCD is expected to build a five star hospital at Gerehu (Tete) and this should relieve the strain on Port Moresby General Hospital as well so it can concentrate as a teaching and specialist referral hospital.