Papua New Guinea is getting hotter, a rising temperature of the political kind and nothing to do with climate change. Police opened fire on protesting students in the capital on Wednesday as a tense five-week stand-off boiled over into violence.
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Gunfire at university student protest in PNG
Amateur footage provided to Fairfax Media allegedly shows police firing shots and tear gas on a group of protesting students in Port Moresby. RAW VISION.
Why are the students angry?
Go straight to the top. The students want PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to step aside. Anti-corruption police wanted to question O'Neill over dodgy payments to a law firm totalling millions of dollars. O'Neill refused. PNG police issued a warrant for his arrest in 2014, and the anti-corruption taskforce was disbanded, and O'Neill fought to stall the warrant in the courts. He also installed a new police chief. The saga has dragged on for years. In April, a court cleared the way for the investigation to resume.
Why did violence flare?
The students wanted to take their protest to the Parliament but the police blocked the way. The violence then sparked – the students say the police fired first, O'Neill says the students threw rocks. Video from the scene shows tear gas and the sound of gunfire. Initial reports to the PNG Parliament had up to four dead, but that information was wrong – the hospital said no deaths had occurred. It now appears up to 8 were wounded, some seriously, but it doesn't change the fact police shot at students.
Why protest now?
The PNG economy is teetering, fuelling a nationwide headache. The country is rich in natural resources and oil and gas deposits had promised a rich stream of cash to the budget coffers. But in the last year, global commodity prices have collapsed, leading to extraordinary cuts to spending. The national health budget alone has been slashed by almost 40 per cent. None of this has been helped by a severe drought resulting from El Nino weather patterns.
How does the PM hang on?
Simple rule of politics – O'Neill has the numbers. He enjoys a thumping majority in the Parliament because most MPs depend on him to provide funds for their local electorates. The budget in PNG is distributed among districts and any MP offside with the prime minister gets less. This has delivered a measure of political certainty in PNG where no-confidence motions have been a bane of stable government. But with elections expected next year, local politicians are also positioning for the future.
What can Australia do?
PNG was once an Australian colony and still gets the bulk of Australia's foreign aid – around $550 million each year. But Australia treads a tricky path there, relying on the country to process asylum-seekers as part of the so-called Pacific Solution. A court ruling in April found the Manus Island detention camp to be illegal and O'Neill said it must close. The Turnbull government looks to have persuaded PNG to keep the camp open until after the Australian election, but that seems to be the number one priority. The politics inside PNG are a distant second.
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