Reliable sources said the conduct of the officials had caused serious embarrassment to the PNG delegation, including senior government ministers behind the PNG LNG project.
Sources said the four Treasury officials were among a group of delegates from PNG who traveled to Brisbane for the Sitcom meeting on the LNG project on Saturday.
Sitcom is a meeting called by project developers that covers debt financing for the LNG project. The officials went for a night out at Casablanca, a famous nightclub in Brisbane, where they were involved in an altercation.
Details of the incident were sketchy but police were called in and the four were locked up in the Brisbane cells. Sources said the four arrested also failed to attend the LNG meeting.
A senior government minister, who did not want to be named, confirmed the incident in Brisbane but refused to give further details, claiming it was an embarrassment to the Government.
PNG National Planning Minister Paul Tiensten said if the report was true, then it was a national disgrace.
“For me and a number of people who have worked very hard for this project, if it is true, the officers caused embarrassment to this country and the positions they hold,” he said.
“If it is true, it’s a national disgrace. I think they need to be disciplined and they must face the full force of the law. They were entrusted to do a job and decided to do other activities,” he added.
“This is a project for PNG and we expect people to go there to negotiate on behalf of the people of this country,” he said.
“We have no room for that kind of nonsense. “They will be dealt with and I don’t think they should work in that important organization or to represent the people of PNG again.”
PNG’s consul-general in Brisbane, Paul Nerau, when contacted by The National, said he had not been notified of the incident by Queensland police, who routinely do so in matters involving PNG nationals.
