Papua New Guinea PM ‘cracks down’ on ASX company

The Lowy Institute’s Shane McLeod says the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister James Marape “wants a full investigation” into allegations of corruption involving a minister in his cabinet and an Australian company. Australian company Horizon oil was listed on the ASX and reportedly “linked to a PNG government minister that ended up a stakeholder in the project” that was then “bought out” in a transaction in 2011. Mr McLeod told Sky News “the allegation is that the minister benefitted from that transaction” and Mr Marape is looking to Australia for "help to dig into this” in an attempt “to act on promises he made to crack down on corruption”. “There is a lot going on at the moment with gas and oil developments in PNG” and “negotiations with PNG’s government have really been stalled,” he said. “This type of thing does undermine perceptions of Australia and perceptions of Australian foreign policy when there are allegations of corruption involving Australian companies.” Image: AP

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