By GINNAH MINI
AUSTRALIA’S ’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Richard Marles has announced that recruitment of Papua New Guineans into Australian Defence Force (ADF) through the Pukpuk Treaty is expected to commence this time next year.
Mr. Marles has made that announcement during his first bilateral talks with Minister for Defence, Elias Kapavore, on Sunday 17 August at Airways Hotel.
Mr. Marles said that the recruitment is the first project under the Treaty that the two countries are working on.
“This is a huge moment in terms of the history of the Australian Defence Force,” Mr. Marles said.
“It’s a really big moment in terms of history of PNG and in terms of our bilateral relationship.”
He added that PNG and Australia are committed to ensuring that this time next year, recruitment is underway.
“We are looking at initial pilot program, which will start the process of proving the recruitment pathway,” Mr. Marles said.
He stated that the recruitment will be smaller in scale at first but over the next decade, thousands of Papua New Guineans will be recruited into ADF.
Minister Kapavore while addressing the media, said that he is looking forward to implementing the Pukpuk Treaty and thanked the Australian Government through ADF for the continual support towards PNG Defence Force (PNGDF).
Mr. Marles said that there is a task-force in place who are still working on the eligibility requirements of interested candidates who wants to join ADF.
The Australian Deputy Prime Minister concluded that the objective of this is to have people go through training programs in PNG that they would have the ability to meet the eligibility recruitment to join ADF.