My dear People of Papua New Guinea,

As we wind down for the year, I come to inform you of some of the work your Government has done this year that will directly impact you in the communities. I know many of you have concerns, especially in the area of Law & Order and Costs of Living.

LAW & JUSTICE AND POLICING

Seven hundred and three million kina (K703 million) is being allocated to revamping and strengthening our police force. Our police capacity has dropped very low to only 6,000 police personnel. Beginning this year over this decade, we are gradually building our manpower to 10,000. Recruitment and training have already started at Bomana Police College and will continue until we reach the required ceiling.

In the last sitting, Parliament also passed the anti-terrorism act that now empowers and legally protects our policemen going into crime hotspots. Under this new law, a specialized police unit is also being assembled. This special force will be highly responsive to attend to any Law & Order situation in the country, and will be resourced with proper equipment such as armoured vehicles so members go in prepared. For far too long, criminals have held the upper hand but this will now change. Our police will go in ready to take on any situation.

For trouble spots especially in the Highlands, we are focusing on special police leadership and training from Commonwealth police to be stationed in Enga and taking up leadership roles to enhance policing in this area.

From next year, we expect to see a turnaround in our policing as recruitment continues and our police force gets its command and control in order; as the new law kicks into place and our new police operations becomes stronger.

Also, in the area of Law & Justice, we are continuing to get more judges from Australia to see a faster dispensation of justice at our National and Supreme courts. This arrangement is through the Bilateral Security Agreement with Australia which we signed at the end of last year, and has really helped us in our two higher courts.

Those of you in Port Moresby would have seen the new Courthouse complex in Waigani nearing completion. We expect to finish it and commission it in April. The new complex is to complement the reforms we are carrying out in the PNG Judiciary. Structurally, we will be adding an Appeals Court between the National and Supreme courts. This will free up workload and make sure justice is served as efficiently and effectively as possible for our people going into the future.

Besides this our Magisterial Services continues to be fully resourced so magistrates also conduct their duties properly and efficiently. These reforms include putting Village Court officials on government payroll, which is the first time any government has done for these lot of workers since Independence.

All in all, our Law & Order issues should be contained to some degree by this time next year, as our police, higher courts and the magisterial services pull together efforts in their specific areas.  

INFLATION & COST OF LIVING RELIEF

Another big concern among you all is Costs of Living.

Our 2025 National Budget takes this into consideration as well. To assist families and households, the Government is removing the 10 percent Goods & Services Tax on 13 Household items including rice, tinned fish, tinned meat, cooking oil, and chicken. This will be implemented in July next year because the Internal Revenue Commission needs time to put the mechanism that will exempt the tax in place, at all the retail outlets throughout the country. We will see how this goes and there is likelihood of continuing this assistance into 2026.

We are also continuing to exempt taxes on people who earn salaries at K20,000 and below. Previously it was at K12,500 for a very long time, until this Government lifted the threshold to K20,000.

For next year, Government will lift the stamp duty exemption threshold for first home buyers from K500,000 to K700,000, while continuing to pay school project subsidies for an estimated 2.3 million students around the country.

The Household Assistance Package for 2025 will be worth K685 million, and altogether since we started it four years ago, will total K2.3 billion of assistance the Marape Pangu-led Government has given to struggling families in the country.

My people,

I want to clarify this. Inflation is a very real part of every economy and country. As the world came out of COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War and its cascading effects, all countries of the world have been greatly impacted by these two big shocks – on their economies and costs of living.

For us here in Papua New Guinea, things should begin to look up once one of our mines or gas fields such as Pasca, Wafi-Golpu, P’nyang or Papua LNG begins construction and goes into operation. We have reopened Porgera under a benefit-sharing agreement in favour of PNG as we do that same for Pasca, P’nyang, Papua and Wafi-Golpu projects.

For now, we will continue the Household Assistance Package, fully pay school fees for elementary to secondary high schools, and offer incentives so our people get into starting their own small businesses (SMEs) and increase their purchasing power.

EDUCATION

I am pleased to say that the Marape-Rosso Pangu-led Coalition Government continues to recognize the value of universal education for all, where No Child Is Left Behind.

This year our Government has continued its Tuition Fee Free policy where we paid school fees for all our children from elementary school through secondary and vocation institutions. For next year 2025, we will continue subsidizing school fees for young Papua New Guineans so the opportunity to be equally educated is available to all our children.  In addition, we have also taken on board school project fees to further unburden parents and free up education for all our children.

For tertiary education, our scholarship programs HECAS and TESAS have assisted many students and their parents with tuition fees at universities, while the HELP loan program has continued to offer assistance to many struggling students. HELP is a flagship program of this Government, which by the end of this year, will have assisted over 50,000 students to the value of over K200 million.

Another signature program of our Government is the National School of Excellence and the complementary Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) program and associated scholarship that accompany it. Our National Schools of Excellence have really matured into hallmarks of learning, as they continue to produce quality students and future leaders of our country.

This year, we have nearly quadrupled in our STEM scholarships where our selected young bright minds secure places to study in universities overseas. Last year 2023 when we pioneered this program, only 43 of our young people left to the United States to study. This year, we increased to 165, and expanded to also include to India, China, and Fiji. Next year, I foresee STEM to continue growing. We have scholarships offered by Indonesia, Japan and even Hungary we have not yet taken up, which we most certainly will into the future.

I am extremely pleased to see these two programs grow from strength to strength because these were the initiatives I mapped out when I was Education Minister in the former Somare Government.

For this year also, I want to make special mention of our Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET), especially the Improved Technical and Vocational Education for Employment Project. This is a US$66 million (K228.89 million) project that is financed by the Asian Development Bank, Australian Government and our Government. It involves the upgrade of 10 technical colleges across the country, and teacher training for these institutions.

It has become glaringly obvious by now that the best way to address our youth bulge and absorb our expanding school leaver population is to direct our young people into trade, technical and business skills. This new project will help us to achieve this goal as we work toward creating a more balanced education field for both academic and technical areas in the education sector of our country.

HEALTH

In Health, I am pleased to inform you all that our specialist centres for Cancer, Heart and Kidney are completed or nearing completion. Our cancer unit in ANGAU Memorial Hospital in Lae has reopened this year after remaining shut for so long. The heart and kidney units at Port Moresby General Hospital in Port Moresby are now operational also.

For so long, our people struggled to received specialist health care, with only a few who could afford the costs seeking treatment overseas. Now no more.

Under this Government, I will do everything in my power to make sure that health care is accessible to you, in line with the latest National Health Plan and the Medium Term Development Plan IV.

Work is also continuing into the construction of our provincial hospitals. We have finished the upgrading of ANGAU, Wabag, and Wewak hospitals and next year onward, we will gradually construct other hospitals as well.

I call on Provincial Health Authorities to dig in your heels and get to work. Submit your plans and we will help you build your provincial hospitals.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Many of you in our villages and districts will have seen earthmoving equipment drive through your village bringing roads into your communities.

This is our main flagship program, Connect PNG, at work. New roads are cutting right across the country, even in the remotest backwater places. Today, you can drive from Kiunga in Western Province right across the breadth of the country to Telefomin in Sandaun Province. There is a road connecting Aseki to Kaintiba to Kerema, connecting Morobe Province to Gulf Province and eventually to Port Moresby. We are nearly finishing the road connecting Port Moresby to Alotau. The road through Kikoki through Southern Highlands Province is already completed. Finschhafen will soon be connected to Lae. On the island of New Britain, the highway connecting Kimbe to Kokopo is completed and nearly sealed. We are connecting Lorengau to the west side of Manus. These are our new roads. While these are going on, the Pangu-led Government continues to upgrade existing roads such as the Buka ring road, the Kokopau to Buin Road, the Vanimo road, Wewak roads, the Port Moresby to Kerema road, sections of Highlands Highway in the Highlands, and sections of the Highlands Highway in Morobe Province such as the Lae-Nadzab Road.

As these are happening, we are working with the Australian Government to upgrade our ports and jetties throughout the country; our airports are also being redeveloped under another program with ADB and JICA (Nadzab Tomodachi Airport); and airstrips under yet another program with Rural Airstrips Agency. Power supply lines, and telecommunication lines are also being built and rebuilt.

The Connect PNG Program is a big program aimed at unlocking our rural areas and transforming lives within the next 10 years.

The work through Connect PNG Program is on top of the projects and programs being undertaken through the District Services Improvement Program and the Provincial Services Improvement Program and other infrastructure funds we have passed through our districts and provinces.

I encourage our people to make full use of these opportunities by getting into businesses to capitalize on this enabling infrastructure coming through your communities.

ECONOMY

As for our economy, we are not doing too badly, considering our economy was in a very bad shape when our Government took office in 2019. On the edge of recession in 2019, only to be hit by the devastating impact of COVID-19 in 2021, 2022 and 2023, we are slowly navigating out of very rough waters. Our consistent increases in revenue are steadily reducing our budget deficit, which has fallen from 8.9 percent of GDP in 2020 to 2.2 percent of GDP in 2025. This is part of our 13-year budget repair program. We look set to reach a balanced budget in 2027 – that’s only two years away; and be debt-free by 2034.

In regard to the size of our economy, we have grown this from K122 billion this year 2024 to K136 billion in 2025.

I want to reassure our people that our mines and gas projects are set to support our economy further; to provide more employment opportunities in their construction phases; and benefit our landowners, provincial governments and the State when in operation.

New Porgera Mine has opened this time last year, and although has experienced some delays because of social issues in Enga, we are optimistic with the efforts going into Law & Order, we should normalize Porgera Valley by next year so New Porgera mine can fully operate. Again, I remind everyone of the benefits our landowners are taking in New Porgera at 53/47 percent in our favour in Equity, Royalty, and Tax during the full life of the mine. This means, in total, benefits to PNG will be no less than K26 billion over the 20-year life of the mine. This is a substantial amount of money that should easily transform the lives of landowners, the provincial governments, and the State. Landowners should well and truly be organized by now, and get into capitalizing on the business spinoffs and setting themselves, their children and grandchildren up heading into the future.

Pasca Offshore Gas Project. Many of you would have heard the news of the announcement made in Sydney earlier this month. Twinza Oil, the developer of Pasca, has agreed to the terms of the agreement; Cabinet has approved the project last week; and the Governor General has formalized the agreement, also last week.

I congratulate the People of Gulf Province, the Gulf Provincial Government, and Kumul Petroleum Holdings, our State-owned company, together with Twinza Oil. This is a K30 billion project that has PNG holding a massive 70 percent total benefits over the life of the mine.

I am very, very pleased with this outcome. The Pangu-led Government will not rest until we capture nothing less than 55 percent in all our project resources in the country. We have begun with New Porgera, and Pasca, as we continue for all our projects into the future.

Fellow Papua New Guineans,

As I bring my Christmas Message to a close, I want to call on you all and draw your attention to our renewable sector of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, and Tourism. The potential of our renewable resources carrying us forward into the future is great but we all have to return to our land and start the work.

Our coffee, cocoa, copra, oil palm, vanilla, marine produces, and forest products can very easily find markets in many countries. I have worked over the last five years linking us up with China, the United States of America, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, India, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom, France, and strengthened further our ties with our own Pacific family of nations. Our enhanced relations open up markets like never before.

China, for instance, has agreed to buy our coffee and most of our agriculture produce. With its population of 1.411 billion people, China is like an ocean that we can sink all our agriculture produce into. Our problem is that we do not have enough supply to consistently meet China’s demands.

After nearly 50 years, we must return to tilling our land, as it says in Leviticus 25. I call on our people to return to your land and get into growing coffee, cocoa, coconut, oil palm, vanilla, spices and fresh produce. Make use of the roads we are building into your communities; make use of our SME facilities at the banks; make use of our agriculture support programs. Get into financially empowering yourselves and growing our economy as well.

We must work for our country in the land God has blessed us with, as the Government tries to help you with some of the burdens so you can be free to get into these self-sustaining enterprises.  

My people,

For now, I want appeal to our people, especially the youth, to observe Law & Order this festive season.

We continue to do the work at the top level. But all these will eventually mean nothing, if you continue to destroy our living environment at the daily level.

Observing the Rule of Law comes at no costs to you. All it requires is your respect of the rights of others by observing our laws. I know deep in our hearts, each of us love our country dearly. Let us show this love by respecting each other and learning to live with each other among all our diversity.

I appeal to you to celebrate Christmas with behaviour that is befitting the season, to respect Law & Order, and to celebrate with family in reflection and quiet gratitude.

Let us rest properly because we have much to do in 2025, which is a momentous year for us, as we work together to grow Papua New Guinea further.

I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025.

May God bless you all.

HON. JAMES MARAPE, MP

PRIME MINISTER