Court cases in the West New Britain (WNB) province will now be better dealt with now that the province has a new Court House, which was officially opened in Bialla on Friday 14th April.
The Bialla Court Complex, which will house both the District and the National Courts, was built with a funding cost of K9.1million.
During his keynote address, Prime Minister (PM) James Marape made a verbal commitment to build the same type of facilities for other districts right across the country.
“I am aware of the Judiciary’s planned reforms for a three tiered Court system that will see the Court of appeals as well as the District and National Courts brought to the districts closer to the people. With that, the Minister for Justice and Attorney General Pila Niningi, will be bringing a paper to cabinet next week.”
PM Marape informed the Chief Justice, Sir Gibbs Salika that he looks forward to receiving the judiciary’s plans for reform and committed in principal in order to make available funding to build facilities like the Bialla Court facilities, in districts right across the country.
Meanwhile, the PM went on to discourage the people of Nakanai from getting involved in law and order issues that will see them come before the courts.
He stated that this will help the government spend the money saved towards improving health and education in the country. He explained that when there is an increase in unlawful activities, the government will have to use the limited financial resources available to pay for police personnel to address issues, leaving limited or no funds to go towards infrastructure development, improved health care and education services.
He reiterated the same message he gave to the people of Talasea earlier that when his government came into office after the 2022 National General Election, they had five development agendas that they wanted to see improved.
“The five main development agendas are economic development, infrastructure development, improved Health and Education, and Law & Order in which we need to improve.”
Whilst the government implements the work for infrastructure and improved health, education and economic development, the improvement of law and order is everyone’s responsibility, including all levels of government and the public service.
Furthermore, PM Marape also pledged to make available funding for the construction of a district hospital for Nakanai in Bialla.