Making Bougainville’s Criminal Justice System Independence-Ready
Bougainville’s criminal justice system is undergoing a staged transition from the national Papua New Guinea (PNG) framework towards an autonomous, localised system that emphasises restorative justice and community involvement. While traditionally part of the PNG correctional system, the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) is currently building its own infrastructure, including new courts and rehabilitation facilities, with financial and training support from Australia.
The ABG has funded a series of upgrades to the Bekut CIS facility, the most recent of which began in early 2026. This project will deliver upgraded male and female dormitories, secured fencing, and associated works. Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for this project on 19/3/2026, ABG Secretary for Law and Justice, Ms Leontine Ivano, said that the upgrade will contribute to improved standards of detainee management, staff welfare and overall facility operations.
Economic Opportunities for Bougainvilleans Under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme
A promising avenue to economic advancement for Bougainvilleans is the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme that allows eligible Australian businesses to hire workers from nine Pacific Island Countries and Timor-Leste where there are insufficient local workers available. Launched as the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme in 2008, the PALM scheme allows approved employers to recruit from two cohorts of workers – short-term workers (up to nine months) and long-term workers (between one and four years).
Benefits of the PALM scheme flow both ways, assisting Australian businesses to address workforce shortages while providing employment for Pacific and Timor-Leste workers, enabling them to develop skills, earn income and support their families and communities back home.
Children Born of Conflict and Social Dislocation on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea
The social and personal cost to local women on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and their children born as a result of liaisons with West Papuan refugees in the 1970s and asylum-seekers in recent times is well documented. However, the fate of children born to local women during the deployment to Manus Island of almost one million American troops on their way to the Philippines and 3,000 Japanese troops during World War II is only the subject of unsubstantiated rumours.
Manus Island achieved international notoriety in recent years due to an agreement between the Australian and PNG Governments to process the claims of asylum seekers intercepted at sea. Under this agreement, prospective asylum seekers were detained at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (Manus Island RPC) that was established in 2001 as part of Australia’s “Pacific Solution”.
Gun Collection and Disposal in Bougainville after the Crisis
From 23/12/2003 onwards, the practical process of weapons disposal in Bougainville was led by the United Nations Observer Mission in Bougainville (UNOMB), a five-person team based at Buka and Arawa. To officially mark UNOMB’s mandate over weapons disposal, a public gun destruction event was staged in Buka town on 23/12/2003. Several types of firearms, previously locked in containers by PMG staff, were destroyed by ex-combatants using an angle grinder and an oxy-acetylene torch.
To launch the gun destruction event, the chairman of the BRF and police minister in the Interim Autonomous Government (IAG), the late Hilary Masiria, gave a speech in which he encouraged all ex-combatants to surrender their guns. In his speech, Mr Masiria noted that the continuing presence of guns in the community was hindering the IAG’s efforts to bring peace and stability throughout Bougainville.
Medicinal Plants used in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea
The deterioration of health services in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) of Papua New Guinea (PNG) over recent years has led to critical shortages of medical supplies in its hospitals and and rural health centres. This dire situation is similar to what Bougainvilleans experienced during “The Crisis” (1989-1998) when the PNG Government imposed a total blockade into Bougainville of goods and services, including medical supplies.
The blockade, which commenced in May 1990, remained in position until a ceasefire in September 1994 and operated for much of Bougainville until 1997. In addition to triggering a collapse in Bougainville’s economy and causing many deaths, the blockade forced Bougainvilleans to return to a traditional way of life, including the use of medicinal plants to treat a wide variety of common ailments.
European Refugee Doctors in TPNG
In 1964, at a village hospital in central Buka Island, Territory of Papua New Guinea (TPNG), a violent confrontation occurred between a village councillor and a European doctor who had recently been stationed there by the territory’s health administration. The councillor, armed with a loaded shotgun that he was legally entitled to hold, had been alerted by villagers that the doctor had just physically abused his 16-year old daughter. While villagers restrained the irate councillor, the parish priest was informed of the incident, and together with the village patrol officer, (“kiap” in PNG Pidgin) this dangerous situation was resolved by having the doctor immediately transferred out of the village.
The circumstances leading to this confrontation involved the doctor conducting “clinics” at the village hospital whereby unchaperoned girls aged 6-16 were required to stand alone and naked in front of the doctor while he examined their breasts and genitals. When the councillor’s daughter refused to remove her clothes to allow this examination, the doctor slapped her face, precipitating the ensuing drama. Following the expulsion of the European doctor from the village, stories emerged of him using a scalpen to remove skin growths from the villagers, without the prior application of anaesthetic to dull the pain.
Farewell “Dr Fish”, a Champion of Pacific Fisheries
On 23/09/2022, internationally recognised fisheries scientist, Dr Antony (Tony) David Lewis, affectionately known as “Dr Fish”, died at Wesley Hospital, Brisbane, Australia after a brief illness. At the time of his death, Tony was 74 years old.
In the early 1970s, working for Dr Bob Kearney with fellow fisheries research officer, Barney Smith, in the Fisheries Division of Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Department of Primary Industry, Tony was involved in the initial research and survey work of PNG’s resources of skipjack tuna and baitfish species, onboard the fisheries research vessel “Tagula”. Tony personally conducted aerial surveys of surface-schooling tunas in the Bismarck Sea, recording the location and size of tuna and baitfish schools from single-engined aircraft flying from Madang on PNG’s north coast. PNG’s National Fisheries Authority (NFA) recently estimated that the potential value of PNG’s tuna fisheries industry is USD600 million per year.
“Bougainville Waters” – Stormy Seas Ahead for PNG’s Tuna Revenue
Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) National Fisheries Authority (NFA) manages the nation’s tuna fishery by selling access to PNG’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to foreign fishing vessels. The revenue collected by the NFA from managing the tuna fishery and other commercial fisheries is annually paid by the NFA to the PNG Government where it forms a significant proportion of the government’s consolidated revenue.
Bougainville’s steady progress towards independence from PNG threatens to significantly decrease this annual revenue because of an agreement between PNG and Bougainville that, once a revenue-sharing arrangement has been implemented, Bougainville will receive a portion of this revenue. In August 2019, Nelson Atip Nema, an economist based at the University of Papua New Guinea, estimated that at least 30 per cent of PNG’s annunal tuna catch is taken in “Bougainville Waters” (maritime waters associated with Bougainville), which would value the catch at over USD333 million/year.