PREYING
ON PARADISE: FOUR CORNERS
PREYING ON PARADISE, reported by Marian Wilkinson and presented by Kerry O’Brien, goes to air on Monday 23rd September at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 24th September at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, on ABC iview
A businessman in Papua
New Guinea is accused of taking millions of dollars for government work that
has never been completed. He is charged but released on bail. Then, using an
Australian issued 457 Visa, he comes to this country and avoids justice,
telling authorities he is too sick to travel back to PNG.
Crime fighters in Papua
New Guinea say this type of behaviour is all too common.
“Their families are down
in Australia and their property is down there. They gamble heavily in
Australian casinos, they bring money from Papua New Guinea down to Australia.
And the evidence is in – they use Australian bank accounts to launder PNG
corruptly-obtained money.”
This week on Four
Corners, reporter Marian Wilkinson travels north to investigate the
extent of corruption in Papua New Guinea and the apparent failure of Australian
officials to play their part in tracking down stolen money. She speaks with the
Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, who tells her he’s determined to stamp out
behaviour that is undermining his country’s future.
“Some of our own ministers have been investigated as we speak.
Nobody has been protected by this government and I can assure you that we are
committed to this fight that we have started…”
But how far does this
commitment to stamp out corruption extend?
The Prime Minister of PNG
has just announced the next stage of an ambitious plan – creating new laws that
would bring the massive Ok Tedi copper mine into a financial trust that would
control the country’s key national assets. The Prime Minister tells Four
Corners this will minimise the possibility of corrupt behaviour.
Others warn this move is ill-advised and could in fact raise the risk of money
being syphoned off.
“The danger could be that
if the team decided that they really wanted to look after themselves, rather
than the broader interests of the nation, they could do extremely well for
themselves and the nation could be severely short-changed.” – Paul
Barker, PNG Institute of National Affairs
Australians have a vested
interest in stopping corruption in Papua New Guinea. The reality is that
corruption there is indirectly costing Australian taxpayers millions of
dollars. Each year the Federal Government delivers over $500 million in aid to
our northern neighbour. At the same time corruption fighters in PNG claim 25
per cent of their country’s budget is lost in detectable fraud. In effect, the
aid sent north is being used in part to subsidise basic services when the PNG
budget is being swindled away.
“I think Australia should really focus in helping us to combat
corruption and to show the seriousness start repatriating proceeds of crime
that are deposited in Australian bank accounts…” – Sam Koim, Head of
PNG’s Task Force Sweep
