9 Feb 2013

PNG's Morauta says motion of confidence extension unlikely to forge stability

11:47 am on 9 February 2013

A former Papua New Guinea Prime Minister says the extension of the grace period protecting a government from no-confidence votes in parliament is unlikely to forge political stability.

Parliament this week extended the period from 18 to 30 months after an election, in addition to the final year of a five-year term as also exempt from such votes.

The Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says the move helps ensure political stability.

But Sir Mekere Morauta says that before it was weakened in 2010, the Organic Law on Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates had achieved stability.

"That stability was double-edged. If we had bad government the nation could be destroyed. But if we had good government, the nation stood to benefit greatly. There was that potential but I think the system was robust enough to counter that. Now we've gone to the other side of that coin which is the potential of changing governments regularly. And the difficult development decisions politically unpalatable are likely to be ignored."

Sir Mekere Morauta