Ialibu-Pangia member former PM Peter O’Neill has hit out at Prime Minister James Marape’s appointment of Ian Ling-Stuckey as Treasurer in the latest Government reshuffle.
“The Prime Minister has the prerogative to appoint anyone he pleases at his absolute discretion but the appointment of the Opposition Shadow Treasurer to the Treasurer’s post is a gross insult to Members who voted him into office” O’Neill said
The ire from PNGs former PM comes at a time when Marape’s international diplomacy has seen him shore support from regional neighbours in a bid to regain investor confidence after the political turmoil earlier this year.
O’Neill going on further to say that despite the rhetoric on taking PNG back, he has seen no evidence beyond words
“With each action we seem to be taking PNG backwards.”
The angst for O’Neill stems within the PNC caucus, which the Ialibu-Pangia MP feels, Marape has betrayed.
“Both Mr Maru and Mr Marape went to elections under the People’s National Congress ticket…Now the Prime Minister has chosen to reject the people’s choice and join another party that is his prerogative but it seems preposterous that he has created a post for the very man who opposed him numerous time in parliamentary debates on financial and economic matters. It seems the Hon. Ling-Stucky has had the last word.”
O’Neill in a press release earlier today stated also that he refuses to stand by and let his successor derail all the hard work his team has put in in the last eight years.
“All we have seen is witch hunts and reviewing, revising and reversing all of our programs and projects so much so that everything has shifted to neutral and nothing is moving. This is dangerous for the country.
“The review of the Papua LNG project alone has cost a multinational resource company, Oil Search, K8.5 billion. That is just the start.
