The Bougainville referendum was held in 2019 and the region voted almost unanimously to be independent. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Johnny Blades
The results of the Bougainville referendum will not be tabled during the current session of the Papua New Guinea parliament.
It had been the plan to do so but the Bougainville Minister for Independence Mission Implementation, Ezekiel Mazatt, said some additional parliamentary procedures needed to be put in place first.
The referendum was conducted across Bougainville in 2019 and the region voted almost unanimously to be independent.
Since then, there have been consultations within Bougainville about the nature of this independence and with PNG about how it might be effected.
Mazatt said there is agreement the referendum results and other documents, such as the outcomes of those consultations, will now go to parliament later this year.
He said a sessional order needs to be put in place first to allow changes to standing orders so the documents can be presented.
The PNG Minister of Bougainville Affairs, Manaseh Makiba, is now set to make a statement on Bougainville to parliament next Tuesday, he said.
"So that is on track. We are not fussy about what next week's statements will bring," Mazatth said.
"We are looking forward to that statement because it will point us in the direction of where there is a gap between our understanding and that of the national government."
As to whether Makiba himself would support Bougainville independence, Mazatt said the minister, in his experience, has always echoed the desire of Prime Minister James Marape, to get the issue to parliament and allow the national MPs to deal with it.
He said efforts will be made to ensure MPs know more about the Bougainville situation.
"There is an agreement between the minister and me, starting almost immediately, and that is after he has given his statement [on Tuesday] that the national parliamentary members would be taken through a number of workshops so that they are fully informed on the Bougainville issue."
Mazatt said Makiba is also set to re-activate the bi-partisan parliamentary committee on Bougainville affairs, which stopped operating before the referendum.