PNG police protests spread to Mt Hagen

10:45 am on 4 June 2020

More police in Papua New Guinea have protested over unpaid allowances from the Covid-19 State of Emergency.

Papua New Guinea police.

Papua New Guinea police. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades

At Tuesday's protest in Western Highlands province, a small number of policemen and women are reported to have demanded their allowances at a local government building in Mount Hagen.

Provincial police commander Jacob Kamiak told the Post Courier he was out of town at the time but had since apologised to local public servants for the disturbance.

He said the provincial administration had so far paid police about $US30,000 in State of Emergency allowances and that more would be paid when the money was made available.

In May, police stormed a government building in Eastern Highlands province in pursuit of their allowances.

And last week, police guarding PNG's border with Indonesia demonstrated at a government building in West Sepik province.

At that time, State of Emergency Controller and Police Commissioner David Manning said risk allowances were still being processed.

This week, PNG's parliament voted to extend the Covid-19 State of Emergency, which started in late March, for another two weeks.