KEITH JACKSON

The Cricketer (illustration by Harry Lake, Kundiawa News 1964)

NOOSA - The dateline tells you we're back in Noosa after one of those nightmare trips you'd want to forget except for the fund of future yarns it will yield.

I was discharged from the France-Vietnam Hospital in Saigon on Monday after a week in situ with sepsis, which triggered a bunch of other unpleasantness around the body.

Some of the details even made my GP, usually so composed, appear bemused.

But now's the time for apologies and a promise to make up time when the opportunity arises over the next week or so.

Meanwhile the weather in  Noosa is sublime. As am I.

MARIAN FAA
| Extracts

Complete story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-06/australians-from-icac-png-embroiled-in-chaos-police-complaints/105381984

PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea's peak anti-corruption body is on the brink of implosion as its three commissioners from Australia and New Zealand level criminal allegations at each other.

The country's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) began operating in 2023 but has been hamstrung by feverish leadership tensions.

EDDIE TANAGO
| Campaign Manager, Act Now!

PORT MORESBY - Community advocacy organisation Act Now is calling on prime minister Marape and regulatory agencies to take urgent action to address huge discrepancies in log export values revealed in a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The findings are based on log export monitoring reports and Chinese customs data and show foreign owned logging companies could be defrauding the PNG government and resource owners out of billions of kina in revenues.

BERNARD CORDEN

It just didn’t happen - Christian Porter

BRISBANE - Unchristian Porter, a Frank Spencer doppelganger, was the son of Charles Michael (Chilla) Porter, former Olympian and general secretary of the Liberal Party of Australia. The favourable bloodline included his grandfather, the late Charles Robert Porter, a member for the redneck electorate of Toowong in deep north Queensland, who served as a minister under that imperious dullard, Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen.

This pedigree of perceived privilege enabled a brisk ascent through state and federal politics and generated egotistical aspirations of becoming prime minister. During a tenure as social services minister, the power trip involved implementation of the federal government’s callous Centrelink Robodebt recovery scheme and the inhumane cashless welfare card, amidst sinister recommendations covering mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients.

JOHN MENADUE

On almost every measure, Australia has gone backwards on engaging with our region, and particularly with China, and it is time to do something about it.

As a settler society we cling to our history with the UK, Europe and now the US. We are fearful of our geography. We have failed so far to reconcile our history and geography.

KEITH JACKSON

MV REGATTA, EN ROUTE TO SHANGHAI – I never bloody learn. Never. My travelling days should be over. Don’t have the back for them. Nor the neck, nor the hips. Can’t feel my feet. Knees OK.

But, even though I rarely leave the ship, I enjoy travelling with Ingrid. Who brings me tales from ashore. The markets. The price of kimonos in Nagoya. The street dramas. The drum orchestras. Purchasing shoes in a foreign language.

NEWSROOM
Radio New Zealand

 “Back to square one in PNG by the look of it. Finally they have understood
why all those DIES District stations on shortwave were so successful in
nation building and information sharing” – Martin Hadlow

AUCKLAND - Papua New Guinea's National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) is aiming to reintroduce shortwave radio to achieve the government's goal of 100 percent broadcast coverage by 2030.

This week, the state owned broadcaster hosted a workshop on the reintroduction of shortwave radio transmission, bringing together key government agencies and other stakeholders.

EDITED BY KEITH JACKSON

SMART TRAVELLER ADVICE FOR PNG
| Foreign Affairs Department Australia

CANBERRA - We continue to advise exercise a high degree of caution in Papua New Guinea due to high levels of crime, tribal violence and civil unrest. Higher levels apply in some areas.

Local level elections will take place across the country between May and August 2025. Be alert to the possibility of tensions and violence during elections.

BERNARD CORDEN

I have never seen a situation so dismal that a
 policeman couldn't make it worse - Brendan Behan

BRISBANE – In my estimation, one of the most repugnant rednecks in the Morrison ministry was the federal member for Dickson who eventually took the poisoned chalice and became leader of the opposition.

The socially awkward malapert was a former walloper with the Queensland Police Service and reached the dizzy heights of detective senior constable.

BERNARD CORDEN

I don’t hold a hose mate - Scott Morrison

BRISBANE - Every nation gets the government it deserves and the appointment of the so-called Liar from the Shire as Australia’s 30th prime minister must have been a belated payback from Papua New Guinea following its hastily granted independence back in 1975.

If you search the internet for kakistocracy, it would more than likely generate an irritating mugshot of a smirking sanctimonious mooncalf.

PRISILLA MANOVE
| Prisilla's Notes

HIGHLANDS - Isau and Iningeh are a father and daughter team. They lost their wife and mother when Iningeh was an infant, and since then it has just been the two of them.

In Marawaka and along the coffee belt, most of the labour for subsistence agriculture and coffee production is done by women.

DOUGLAS PATIKEN BARARA

PORT MORESBY - On the eve of Papua New Guinea’s fiftieth anniversary, the identity of our country is slowly being erased by Western influences.

But none of us cares about it, let alone wants to stop it. Cheerfully we rejoice in the destruction of our motherland.

BERNARD CORDEN

When politicians offer you something for nothing, or something that sounds
too good to be true, it's always worth taking a careful second look - Malcolm Turnbull

After the leadership spill, Tony Abbott was replaced by Mr Harbourside Mansion and the subsequent farewell party at parliament house with his flour gang was a boisterous affair.

Damage during the cabinet anteroom shenanigans was limited to a shattered ornate Italian marble coffee table and several shards were later discovered in ministerial offices.

BERNARD CORDEN

There are no factions in the Liberal Party - Tony Abbott

BRISBANE - The cracks under Rudd rapidly turned into chasms and provided an ideal opportunity for yet another unflushable turd on the neoliberal gravy train to seize power.

Tony Abbot, the former seminarian and surrogate love child of John Howard and Margaret Thatcher was a renowned bruiser and head kicker without a skerrick of emotional intelligence.

IN MEMORIAM

CARDIFF, SOUTH WALES - It is with great love and deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Arthur John Frederick Williams, who died peacefully at Heath University Hospital on 09th April, aged 86 surrounded by loved ones.

Arthur was a man of great integrity, compassion, and wit. Born and raised in Cardiff, South Wales, he spent over 30 years in Papua New Guinea, where he served with dedication as a kiap—a colonial patrol officer—navigating remote terrain, bridging cultures, and contributing to the development of local communities.