People from the two new provinces who packed the public galleries in Parliament for the vote on Friday were delighted.
For Jiwaka (Jimi, Wahgi and Kambia) it’s a battle won after 35 years of struggle.
The Hela people of southern Highlands represent the home of most of PNG’s oil and gas bonanza and have been waging a strong campaign in the halls of Waigani in recent years, as their influence in the resource sector gained strength.
Parliament gave unanimous support for the law to come into effect, securing 86-0, way above the absolute majority vote of 73.
The law now allows for the creation of the provincial headquarters and administration. But this will not be done until after the third reading begins in two months.
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare on Thursday presented the proposed law to alter the Organic Law on Provincial Boundaries.
In April last year, the national government announced it would make budget allocations for the Hela and Jiwaka provinces in this year’s budget.
The Hela province will cover much of the natural resources wealth of the Southern Highlands, while the proposed Jiwaka province will be sliced from the existing Western Highlands Province.
The Jiwaka people inhabit a region that used to be the Minj subdistrict in colonial days, one of four sub districts that made up the Western Highlands District, along with the Mendi subdistrict, Wabag subdistrict and Hagen subdistrict.
Mendi subdistrict became Southern Highlands District in 1974, Wabag became Enga Province in 1978/79 and Minj and Hagen subdistricts remained to make up the Western Highlands Province. The proposed Jiwaka Province would take in Jimi, Wahgi and Kambia
The push for a separate Hela province from the Southern Highlands has been going on for the past 30 years, and now more than ever it has become an agenda item of national importance.
The foundations for the move to create a separate province of Hela lie in the cultural roots of the people of the area.
The Hela people created the Hela Association in the 1970s to work toward a separate Hela district and, eventually, province.
The association was incorporated as the Hela Gimbu Association in 1985. A significant impetus for this move was provided by the discovery of rich oil and gas fields which are now being developed.
In 2005, the ad-hoc parliamentary committee on Hela province chaired by Sam Abal, member for Wabag, gave a submission to the National Executive Council, which resulted in a proposal to the Parliament to create the province of Hela, comprising Tari-Pori, Koroba-Kopiago, and the Komo-Magarima electorates.
