Reports from Port Moresby reveal that, despite last year’s Federal Government commitments to facilitate the acquisition of Australian visas in Papua New Guinea, applicants are angered and frustrated by bureaucratic delays.

“It is quite clear that the Rudd Goverment's new policies have yet to flow through to the Australian High Commission at Waigani,” said one commentator, quoting a comment by Duncan Kerr, parliamentary secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, in December 2008 that the Australian Government was building immigration staff numbers and skills in PNG to reduce visa processing times.

“For too long there has been an unbalanced relationship between what is said will happen, and what actually does happen,” said an observer. “Mr Kerr is perhaps blind to what occurs on a daily basis at Waigani. Give the people of PNG a fair go! “