Author: Charlie

During my time in the New South Wales Parliament as a Member of the Legislative Council established the first ever Australia-Papua New Guinea Friendship Group and hosted numerous official functions for the PNG Consul-General, Mr Sumasy Singin. I also facilitated a meeting between the Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare MP and the NSW Premier, The Hon Bob Carr MP. I used the platform to raise issues of importance in regard to the need to protect and honour our shared wartime heritage on the Kokoda Trail.

By 2015 the mismanagement of Kokoda tourism was patently obvious.

On the Trail itself illegal tour companies operated without fear of sanction; guides, porters and campsite owners continued to be exploited; villagers were mere spectators to a passing parade of trekkers because they had not been trained in providing goods and services to meet their needs; there were no management systems in place so the ‘law of the jungle’ prevailed along the Trail which led to disputes over campsites between trek groups; environmental degradation; and the desecration of heritage sites. And annua trekker numbers remained stuck 46 percent lower than when the DFAT Kokoda Initiative took control of the management from PNG in 2009.