Another Labor and RUDD failure
Tensions erupt on Manus Island as locals threaten to sabotage 'PNG Solution' detention centre
AUSTRALIAN taxpayers are already pouring around $500,000 per asylum seeker into Manus Island under Kevin Rudd's rushed "PNG Solution" - but the money pot is igniting bitter clashes in the jungle between angry locals trying to cash in.
One Manus Island tribal leader is threatening to sabotage the makeshift detention centre by cutting off water this week unless its demands for 291,000 kina in "rent" are paid.
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Inside the centre, local workers - who are astonished that asylum seekers are receiving free mobile phones, chocolate and ice-cream - have staged strikes to lift their pay from about 3 kina an hour.
Tempers are boiling in the steamy jungle surrounding the temporary centre - one tribal elder vowed to die before allowing construction workers access to gravel during a fiery blockade witnessed by The Daily Telegraph on the weekend.
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"You can kill every one of us if you want, but we will be here - we will stand here and wait,'' village elder John Lillie told fellow Manus Island local Stenat Moli, who was stopped from digging gravel for the centre
"Everywhere you go - dig, dig, dig digging to fill your own pocket, but what is left for us?
"The only thing is you die or we die - that's the bottom line and I am prepared to die on my land.''
Manus Governor Charles Benjamin said "things are getting bad" after the Lombrum Landowners Association shut down a dump which they claimed was being "illegally" used by the centre, which is being rapidly expanded at Manus' old military base.
After detailing his demands in a letter on Friday, the landowners' leader, John Lou, said that unless $291 kina was paid within 72 hours, the clan would consider cutting water supplies and blocking entry to the base.
Manus national parliamentarian Ron Knight, the son of an Australian soldier who served in PNG in World War II, said it was "make or break time because no one is happy".
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"We don't want any more Australian companies here - we call them carpet baggers,'' he said. "This is Boomerang aid and Manus will lose out again.''
Tensions are also bubbling over a 50ha block of land where the Rudd government aims to build a permanent $150 million detention centre housing 600 asylum seekers and 200 workers near a school in the main town of Lorengau.
A member of the landowners' clan said he set up a company three months ago which must have "first priority" when the WA builder Decmil subcontracts work.
"Everything must go through us,'' Allan Pomat, of the Rossun Peren clan, said. "I have told Decmil's people that it's my way or you take the highway - but we are being kept in the dark until after the (Australian) election.''
Australian government officials are planning to meet the clan on Tuesday as a land deal must be reached before any building work begins.
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Money is raining down on Manus, as the Rudd government desperately tries to expand Manus' asylum seeker facilities in a bid to win back voters following the costly explosion in boat arrivals under Labor's watch.
More than $240 million in contracts relating directly to Manus have been signed up between October and July, according to the government's Austender website.
But this doesn't include another $75 million being paid to the Salvation Army for "welfare and support services" at both Manus and Naru over 12 months and $66 million to the Singapore-affiliated International Health and Medical Services for work at both Pacific locations.
The $240 million also doesn't include hundreds of thousands of dollars spent since Mr Rudd's surprise July announcement jetting supplies into PNG on giant Russian Antonov cargo planes under Toll's logistics deal with the Immigration Department, which was worth $11 million last year.
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With estimated costs sitting around $300 million, this would equate to $500,000 for each of the 600 asylum seekers which are expected to be housed temporarily at the old US bomber base.
Another $400 million will be directed to the PNG government under an expansion of the AusAID program.
More than 400 asylum seekers are believed to be at Manus now, with staff being told another 200 will be flown in during the final week of the election campaign.
Two workers at the centre said they were surprised at the generous facilities for asylum seekers, which include an internet cafe, gymnasium and pool hall.
They have good food - bacon and eggs, nice meat, sweet biscuits, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, and the Salvation Army gives everyone a phone,'' said one of the workers, who is paid 252 kinas for a 12-day fortnight.
The workers said that G4S' PNG security workers - who are paid about $180 a week while Australian guards are pocketing $2000 - manned a strike over pay recently, while cleaners mounted a smaller protest last week.
Mr Benjamin said the people deserved to "see in black and white" what the island would be receiving to assist its development.
He said it was critical Manus was given commitments on funding to modernise its water and power supplies, upgrade its hospital and improve roads and schools.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/tensions-erupt-on-manus-island-as-locals-threaten-to-sabot...
