PNG landowners voice ‘foreign interference’ concern over Aussie-backed Kokoda Track bill

PNG landowners have accused Canberra of ‘foreign interference’ after a draft bill barring them holding power in a new Kokoda Track body was revealed to be linked to an Australian bureaucrat.

A group of PNG locals blockaded the Kokoda Track near the village of Kovelo for 48 hours from April 16 to 17. Picture: Kila Sibolo

Papua New Guinean landowners have accused Canberra of ­“foreign interference” after a controversial draft bill which will stop them holding power in a new Kokoda Track authority was ­revealed to be the work of an Australian bureaucrat.

Resource custodians along the historic track, which marks the site of one of the nation’s most significant military campaigns in World War II, have also criticised the bill for sidelining them from having an active role in managing the trail and for undermining their land rights.

The Kokoda Track Management Authority Bill will establish a new body to oversee the track’s operations, including issuing permits for trekking groups, collecting fees and distributing the proceeds and developing a tourism “master plan”.

But some custodians claim an Australian anthropologist is the mastermind behind the draft bill.

Kokoda Initiative strategic ­adviser Mark Nizette referred to “the latest version of the KTMA draft bill and a draft discussion paper I’m working on” while pushing for it to be passed by the start of 2022, in a leaked email ­obtained by The Australian.

Custodian Norris Selu said that the “people will rise up” if the bill is passed, criticising the provisions that state landowners can’t be on the board and that they cannot “unreasonably reject such advice from the authority”.

“The contents of that bill was that it restricted or did not allow any representation of resource custodians to be part of the board,” he said.

PNG Tourism Industry ­Association chair Andrew Abel said the bill undermined “nat­ional sovereignty and security and the preamble of our constitution”. “Could you imagine me as a Papua New Guinean trying to slip a bill through your Legislative Council in Australia and asking Scott Morrison to put it on the floor of federal parliament and I dictate that certain laws of your land will not apply there,” he said.

The existing body to govern the trail, the Kokoda Track Authority – which is partially funded by the Australian government’s Kokoda Initiative – has come under criticism for turning a blind eye to foreign tour operators working outside PNG law.

Mr Nizette has denied that he is the author of the bill, saying that the first draft was completed by former PNG Supreme Court judge Brian Brunton.

Dr Brunton has also told The Australian that he wrote the first draft of the bill.

Adventure Kokoda owner Charlie Lynn, a former NSW MP, said that the track needed proper management to tackle rampant exploitation, but criticised the bill for sidelining the custodians.

Oro Province Governor Garry Juffa said he did not see anything “clandestine” in Australia’s ­involvement in the bill.