Bougainville Land Bill roadshow continues in Central Bougainville
The region wide road show on the proposed Bougainville Land Bills is into its second week this week, consulting with stakeholders in Central Bougainville.
The first consultation in Central Bougainville was held yesterday with stakeholders and leaders from Amiaming, Kokoda, Kongara and other communities within the South Nasioi Constituency and was hosted at the Kieta District Administration office.
ABG Department of Lands and Physical Planning continues to drive this important road show to showcase the proposed land bills in order to gage views from stakeholders and the public in an effort to ensure that the land legislation process is transparent, inclusive and importantly it respects the unique cultural and land-related needs of Bougainville’s communities.
Secretary for the Department Ms Lynnette Baratai Pokas in her remarks at the consultation welcomed the participants and stressed that the department was there to present the draft Bill that was created over a decade from views collected from the public across the region.
She added that the creation of the Bougainville Land Laws was one of the department’s priorities towards preparing for Bougainville’s political aspirations for independence.
The proposed Bougainville Land Bill was created to protect customary land ownership for future generations, protection to be balanced against unlocking potential financial value of customary land, provide for registry of land details specific to Bougainville and provide power to ABG to take-over management of State Land on Bougainville and PNG.
The proposed Bougainville Land Bill is structured into four parts:
- Bougainville Customary Land Bill refers to how customary land can be dealt with and how interests in customary land can be registered
- Bougainville Government Land Bill refers to how government uses land for public purpose and how government allocates leases,
- Bougainville Land Registers Bill refers to registry of all government land and customary interests, register of interests and prioritization of interests
- Bougainville Planning and Development Bill deals with land disputes and retains the use of land mediators.
The consultations in Central Bougainville gives opportunity for the people to give their views on the proposed Bougainville Land Bills before a final draft is presented to the ABG Parliament for deliberation and passing as a Land Law for Bougainville.
According to the draft Bill that is currently being show cased during this road show, all land bills should progress to the Bougainville House of Representative (BHoR) at the same time as Bills only work as part of a suite of legislations.
The consultation was also attended by the ABG Member for South Nasioi Constituency Hon Justin Borgia, who welcomed the team and contributed immensely towards creating the Bill.
Other stakeholders who attended included ward members, Community Government chairpersons and deputies, chiefs, Land mediators and representatives from women, youths, churches and the public servants from Kieta District administration.
Meanwhile, consultations for Arawa urban, North Nasioi constituency and Panguna will be on Wednesday this week at the Arawa Community Government Hall.
The draft Land Bills are available for download on the ABG website at: https://abg.gov.pg/.../departm.../lands-planning-environment
Public comments, queries and grievances can be emailed to this address: abglandbillroadshow23@gmail.com
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