Bougainville’s Contesting Resource Bills

Leonard Fong Roka

In June 1967, the mining policy created by the colonial administration, the Bougainville Copper Agreement gave Australia's CRA 53.6 percent ownership and most of the profits from the Panguna mine. In 1964 an Australian administrator told local people they would get nothing from the mine. This led to the 10 year civil war and the Australia-back PNG blockade of Bougainville since 1988 that led to the death of estimated 10 to 20 thousand Bougainvilleans.

In 2005 after years of peace negotiations Bougainville was granted a high form of autonomy, under the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) within the state of PNG. It is now able to make its own laws as it prepares for a referendum between 2015 and 2020 as catered for in the Bougainville Peace Agreement of 2001 to decide its political future.

With this though, Bougainville is financially depended on PNG and other donors with its internal revenue generation still staggering. This situation has driven the leadership to pursue the re-opening of the Australian Panguna mine that was shut in May 1989 for its exploitation of Bougainville resources and suppression of its people.

To improve internal revenue sources the Bougainville government is focused on the re-opening of the Panguna mine through the creation of new laws in the Bougainville parliament. This parliamentary exercise of creating laws over the resources rights in Bougainville has now turned into a contest spilling beyond the House of Representatives in Kubu, Buka causing fear and doubt to many Bougainvilleans.

Since November 2006, the PNG government agreed to transfer mining, oil and gas powers to Bougainville and since then the Bougainville government was at work trying to mitigate its economic loopholes.

The late Joseph Kabui’s house got tangled up with controversial Australian businessman Lindsay Semple creating the Bougainville Resource Development Corporation (BRDC) that was to give 70 per cent of Bougainville resources rights to Lindsay Semple. The current Dr. John Momis house had got Bougainville dealing with BCL to get the Panguna mine running to free Bougainville economically.

Despite the Lindsay Semple deal blasted in parliament around 2008 contributing to the death of Joseph Kabui and its setback, it had made a come-back under the skin of Morumbi Resource Inc. running around Bougainville secretively trying to gain ground with potential resources sites and owners. On the same issue, the current Bougainville government house under Dr. John Momis is also engaging with the CRA subsidiary company, BCL and other stakeholders in a not-so-transparent pursued of the development of Bougainville resources.

Both regimes are fighting each other to get the Bougainville government to get their own bill to be the law overlooking resources, especially mining, but this is causing trouble for people running the negotiation of Panguna mine.

The two contesting bills, ABG’s Transitional ABG Mining Bill has Anthony Reagan as the architecture that is said to be backed by BCL and so pro-BCL and not much Bougainvilleans. Whilst the next bill known as Bougainville Resources Owners is backed by Lindsay Semple through Sam Kauona, the former Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) strategist.

An officer in the Panguna Mine Affected Landowners Association (PMALA) who asked to remain anonymous stated that as a body representing mine affected people they do not like both the ABG-Reagan and Kauona-Semple bills.

In the ABG-Reagan bill there is transparency in the Bougainville administration side. People know what they are doing but at the political level Bougainvilleans know nothing. Bougainville knows there are hidden agendas now in the BCL-Reagan-ABG relationship.

Recently the first draft of that bill abused Bougainville parliament by not getting endorsement and going in for the first hearing. During the ABG president’s daughter’s funeral Anthony Reagan was disrespectful of Bougainvillean customs pushing the parliament for another hearing of the bill.

It is obvious the ABG-Reagan bill does not want to change the old parasitic Bougainville Copper Agreement for it is profitable to them and this is where the landowners will not entertain that bill since the BCA did exploited and suppressed Bougainvilleans for the good of BCL and PNG thus leading into civil war and death of 20 thousand Bougainvilleans.

With the Kauona-Semple bill, Bougainville Resource Owners, the officer said it has few positive areas like 100 per cent right by resources owners to exploration license and so on. But this ‘100’ is not positive for Bougainville in other areas of the bill.

All Bougainvilleans suffered during the war and so in every resource development project the ABG must be the partner in ownership with the immediate resource owners. This is catered for in the ABG-Reagan bill but not in the Kauona-Semple bill.

Also, the Kauona-Semple bill exposes resource owners to reckless exploiters like Semple himself. They would not be immune since that law says it is their resource and it is they who decide.

Both bills are still contesting for acceptance in parliament with Bougainvilleans confused and watching.

The PMALA officer said that Bougainville must not entertain both bills but get the positive provisions out of each and built its own. The ABG must have priority set of guiding laws with the on-going negotiation to protect Bougainville with the influx of investors most of whom are parasitic.