PM’s Australian visit

PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s visit to Australia earlier this month, which included speeches to the National Press Club and Lowy Institute, received good coverage in the Australian press. He was also interviewed on Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat. Also widely covered was Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s call for a stronger regional role for PNG.

PNG Mining Conference

You’d have thought that the seismic effect that last week’s PNG Mining & Petroleum Conference had on Sydney’s CBD (1350 delegates and one of the city’s top hotels bursting at the seams) might inspire some thoughtful consideration of PNG’s economic potential in the Australian business press. On the contrary, the Australian Financial Review’s ‘Rear Window’ column couldn’t even get its facts straight, implying in its 5 December edition that the opening session featuring PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill had taken place on the previous day rather than two days earlier.

PNG cruise

The Age in Melbourne ran a travel feature on 24 November about taking an expeditionary cruise around PNG on the MV Orion. ‘The irony is that over dinner tables in Milan or New York, this is spoken of as a glamour travel experience. Yet in Australia, mention PNG as your next holiday destination and the alarm bells ring,’ noted Michael Gebicki.

Indonesia takes notice

PNG gets scant media coverage in neighbouring Indonesia, so it was interesting to see this opinion piece in the English-language daily the Jakarta Globeabout PNG’s prospects for joining ASEAN, ‘semi-informed’ though its author claims to be!