SACKED Investigations Task Force Sweep chair Sam Koim has defended his travel to
Australia saying it was done to clarify and refute the charges by the Prime Minister that local institutions were politicised. The PNG lawyer travelled to Canberra early in the week and met with Australian leaders including Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to seek their support after Prime Minister Peter O’Neill disbanded his office and made a number of high profile sackings including that of his attorney general and justice minister Kerenga Kua. The PM slammed the trip and his meetings in Australia saying they were not in PNG’s "national interest" and it could lead to the discontinuation of Australian funding for health, education and infrastructure programs in PNG. Mr Koim said the branding of institutions such as the police as being "politically compromised" sent a wrong message to the international community and he had to correct that. "My reason for going to Australia therefore was to clarify the domestic situation in PNG. As people holding responsible position, we have to continuously demonstrate confidence in our institutions when we make public statements and representations, even when it doesn’t suit us," he said. "We have fought hard to uphold the rule of law without fear or favour. The Government of the day can go as low as they want to and remove all they want from us. But we will never allow them to maliciously discredit our institutions’ reputations or our individual reputations. I have seen good men and women standing up for this cause and I am duty-bound to protect them, even as a private citizen." He confirmed meeting with Ms Bishop and other Australian government officials but it was in a private capacity. "I was careful and did not request Australian Government to do something about it. I left it to them to weigh it out." Comments are closed.
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