This week, the Melanesia Program team is in Port Moresby for the 'PNG New Voices' event. So this week's links are focused on PNG.
- The Lowy Institute's Melanesia Program, in partnership with the PNG National Research Institute, has launched its Australia-PNG network, aimed at fostering people-to-people links in relation to business, culture, the arts, research, sport and civil society.
- There is ongoing debate about the role that Rio Tinto/Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL) can or should play in the future of Bougainville. While some argue that BCL is the 'better devil', others are adamant that the Panguna mine should remain closed.
- How does the government of PNG allocate finances to different sectors in the budget? You can use this spending wheel to find out.
- The report from one of several official inquiries into the violence at the regional processing centre on Manus Island in February has been released.
- A new report from the World Bank and the PNG National Economic and Fiscal Commission, 'Below the Glass Floor', looks at how rural health is (or is not) funded across six key areas. Allan Cairns has provided a summary of the report's key findings here.
- The chairman of PNG's Anti-Corruption Taskforce Sweep says he is pleased with improved liaison and procedures to combat the laundering of PNG funds in Australia.
- As part of the 'PNG New Voices' event, Tanim Graun will be filming a Q&A session for broadcast on EMTV focusing on the future of the informal economy. Previously, they looked at consumer protection:
