Kidu asks Australia to relax visa laws

Source: The National, Monday 16th April 2012 AUSTRALIA’S immigration laws for Papua New Guineans need to be reconsidered, a symposium has been told. Opposition leader Dame Carol Kidu said there were too many processes citizens of Papua New Guinea were required to go through to obtain a visa. She said the Australian government needed to loosen its visa policies for Papua New Guineans if it was serious in assisting PNG change. Dame Carol, Public Service Minister Bart Philemon, academics and researchers attended the symposium titled “Securing a prosperous future” at Deakin University, in Geelong, Victoria. She said a Papua New Guinea woman married to an Australian and with two children had applied for an Australian visa three years ago and was still waiting. She said it was the kind of hardship Papua New Guineans had to go through when applying for a visa. Private lawyer and pro chancellor of the University of PNG Camillus Narokobi, who was one of the conference participants, said although he had been frequent visitor to Australia since he first visited there in 1971, he continued to find it difficult to obtain a visa. He said Papua New Guineans were genuine people who wanted to visit and spend holidays there, visit friends or conduct business. They were not boat people who sought asylum or permanent residency, he added. Prof Kenneth Sumbuk, who shared his experiences of travelling to Europe, said obtaining visas to visit places in Europe was easier than obtaining a visa to go to Australia. Meanwhile, PNG can change if good decisions are made, Australian parliamentary secretary for Pacific Islands Affairs Richard Marles said. Marles said PNG was one of the seven fastest growing economies in the world, something the people of the country should be proud of. He said with the mineral boom, the country was going to change significantly. However, he said there were many problems that needed to be addressed if PNG was to prosper. He said the health, education and social status of the people had not change despite the riches the country had.