PNG puts Manus naval base deal in jeopardy

Papua New Guinea has ordered a review of an agreement with Australia over the use of Manus Island’s Lombrum Naval Base.

Defence Minister Senator Linda Reynolds at Lombrum Naval Base in Manus province with her PNG counterpart, Saki Soloma, in August. Picture Gary Ramage

Papua New Guinea has ordered a review of an agreement with Australia to use Manus Island’s Lombrum Naval Base, claiming PNG’s Department of Foreign Affairs was never consulted on the agreement.

The Australian government was blindsided by the announcement, which throws into doubt the future of the partnership that the US has joined to redevelop the strategic deepwater port as a joint facility.

Security experts said the move could open the way for China to commence negoti­a­tions to access the base.

PNG Foreign Minister Patrick Pruaitch told the country’s parliament on Thursday that last year’s memorandum of understanding signed by the country’s former O’Neill government was not valid because it was agreed by defence rather than foreign affairs officials. “The MOU was negotiated and signed without the involvement of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade,” he said.

“When Foreign Affairs is not involved, it means the interest of our country is not represented.”

The move follows a recent Australian Defence Force tender to redevelop the base worth up to $175m, which the Governor of Manus province, Charlie Benjamin, attacked as shutting out local companies.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings urged Scott Morrison to get on the phone to his PNG counterpart, James Mar­ape­, to resolve the issue as soon as possible. “This was in many ways the centrepiece of the Prime Minister’s Pacific step-up, and it’s frankly a little dis­appointing we have not been able to make much faster progress than we have,” he said.

“I think we have got to be concerned. The thing about China is it is always there; it is always happy to facilitate discussions with money. This is frankly a race that will go to the quickest competit­or, and we need to lift our act in that respect.”

Mr Pruaitch said he had many questions about the MOU, and would examine how it could be “rectified” to ensure the interests of the people of Manus province were taken into account.

“I am making an undertaking on the floor of parliament to lead a review on that particular MOU,” Mr Pruaitch said.

Mr Benjamin, who was critical of Australia’s use of Lombrum for its Pacific Solution immigration processing centre, said the tender to redevelop the base was “strictly and covertly confined to just pre­selected Australian contractor companies”.

He likened the issue to the Paladin scandal over security services for the Manus detention centre, in which a little-known Australian company won more than $420m in refugee service contracts on the island without a competitive tender process.

Mr Benjamin said he believed the Australia-PNG MOU, which he had not seen, would “make Manus look like Japan’s Okinawa prefecture — a US military base for containment of China”.

And ADF spokeswoman told The Australian on Thursday night that “the Australian Government has not received a request to review the memorandum of understanding”.

The redeveloped base “will be owned and operated by PNG”, she said.

“The Lombrum Joint Initiative, including this infrastructure development, demonstrates Australia’s commitment in partnering with Papua New Guinea to build a region that is secure and stable,” the spokeswoman said.

She said PNG-based contractor Hornibrook NGI Ltd recently commenced works to prepare the site for construction across the Lombrum base. The development would include community facilities, she said.

“The contractor for the major works is being selected through an open and competitive tender process, which will provide the opportunity for full participation by local contractors in the construction project,” the spokeswoman said.

The deal to develop the Manus base as a joint facility was agreed between former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Peter O’Neill in July 2018 and formalised in last year’s MOU.