Papua New Guinea, a constitutional monarchy, recognizes the Queen of England as head of state. She is represented by a Governor General who is elected by Parliament and who performs mainly ceremonial functions. Papua New Guinea has three levels of government–national, provincial, and local. There is a 109-member unicameral Parliament, whose members are elected every 5 years. The Parliament in turn elects the prime minister, who appoints his cabinet from members of his party or coalition.

Members of Parliament are elected from 19 provinces and the national capital district of Port Moresby. Parliament introduced reforms in June 1995 to change the provincial government system, with regional (at-large) members of Parliament becoming provincial governors, while retaining their national seats in Parliament.

Papua New Guinea’s judiciary is independent of the government. It protects constitutional rights and interprets the laws. There are several levels, culminating in the Supreme Court.

Papua New Guinea’s politics are highly competitive with most members elected on a personal and ethnic basis within their constituencies rather than as a result of party affiliation. Members of Parliament have been are elected on a “first past the post” system, with winners frequently gaining less than 15% of the vote. There are several parties, but party allegiances are not strong. Winning candidates are usually courted in efforts to forge the majority needed to form a government, and allegiances are fluid.

No single party has yet won enough seats to form a government in its own right. As the majority of Parliamentarians do not retain their seats (75% lost in 2002), party structure is weak and national leadership is not stable. The current government was formed by a coalition of several parties after the 2002 election in which virtually the entire previous cabinet lost their seats. Sir Michael Somare, the leader of the Melanesian Alliance (and the nation’s first Prime Minister in 1975), was elected Prime Minister.

Papua New Guinea is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state. She is represented in Papua New Guinea by the Governor General who is currently Sir Paulias Matane.

Actual executive power lies with the Prime Minister, who heads the cabinet. The unicameral parliament has 109 seats, of which 20 are occupied by the governors of the 20 provinces. The members of parliament are elected every five years.

Elections in PNG attract large numbers of candidates. Since independence in 1975, members have been elected by the first past the post system, with winners frequently gaining less than 15% of the vote. Electoral reforms in 2001 introduced the Limited Preferential Vote system (LPV), a modified version of the Alternative Vote. The first general election to be conducted using LPV will be held in 2007.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. There are three levels of government - national, provincial, and local.

It is a Commonwealth Realm, with the monarch of the United Kingdom (king or queen) being the head of state. The monarch is represented by a Governor-General who is elected by Parliament and who performs mainly ceremonial functions.

PNG’s head of government is the Prime Minister, elected by the 109-member unicameral Parliament. The prime minister appoints his cabinet from members of the governing party or coalition.

Members of Parliament are elected every five years from 19 provinces and the national capital district of Port Moresby. Since independence in 1975, members have been elected by the first past the post system, with winners frequently gaining less than 15% of the vote. Electoral reforms in 2001 introduced the Limited Preferential Vote system (LPV), a modified version of Alternative vote. The first general election to use LPV will be held in 2007.

Parliament introduced reforms in June 1995 to change the provincial government system, with regional (at-large) members of Parliament becoming provincial governors, while retaining their national seats in Parliament.

Papua New Guinea is richly endowed with natural resources, but exploitation has been hampered by rugged terrain and the high cost of developing infrastructure. Agriculture provides a subsistence livelihood for 85% of the population. Mineral deposits, including oil, copper, and gold, account for 72% of export earnings. Former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta had tried to restore integrity to state institutions, stabilize the kina, restore stability to the national budget, privatize public enterprises where appropriate, and ensure ongoing peace on Bougainville.

The Morauta government had considerable success in attracting international support, specifically gaining the backing of the IMF and the World Bank in securing development assistance loans. Significant challenges face the current Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, including gaining further investor confidence, continuing efforts to privatize government assets, and maintaining the support of members of Parliament. The third quarter (September, 2004) Reserve Bank Report by the Governor of Bank of PNG showed positive economic stance by the Government, with inflation at zero.

Economy - in greater depth

The economy generally can be separated into subsistence and market sectors, although the distinction is blurred by smallholder cash cropping of coffee, cocoa, and copra. About 75% of the country’s population relies primarily on the subsistence economy. The minerals, timber, and fish sectors are dominated by foreign investors. Manufacturing is limited, and the formal labour sector consequently also is limited.

Mineral Resources

In 1999 mineral production accounted for 26.3% of gross domestic product. Government revenues and foreign exchange earning depend heavily on mineral exports. Indigenous landowners in areas affected by minerals projects also receive royalties from those operations. Papua New Guinea is richly endowed with gold, copper, oil, natural gas, and other minerals. Copper and gold mines are currently in production at Progera, Ok Tedi, Misima, and Lihir. New nickel, copper and gold projects have been identified and are awaiting a rise in commodity prices to begin development. A consortium led by Chevron is producing and exporting oil from the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. In 2001, it expects to begin the commercialization of the country’s estimated 640 km³ (23 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas reserves through the construction of a gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea to Queensland, Australia.

The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were led by Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sailed up the west coast of the South and North islands in 1642. He named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land Jacob Le Maire had discovered in 1616 off the coast of Chile. Staten Landt appeared on Tasman’s first maps of New Zealand, but this was changed by Dutch cartographers to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland, some time after Hendrik Brouwer proved the South American land to be an island in 1643. The Latin Nova Zeelandia became Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch.

Lieutenant James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand, although the names he chose for the North and South islands were rejected, and the main three islands became known as North, Middle and South, with the Middle Island being later called the South Island. Cook began extensive surveys of the islands in 1769, leading to European whaling expeditions and eventually significant European colonisation. From as early as the 1780s, Maori had encounters with European sealers and whalers. Acquisition of muskets by those iwi in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Maori tribes and there was a temporary but intense period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, that only ceased when all iwi were so armed.

Concern about the exploitation of Maori by Europeans, Church Missionary Society lobbying and French interest in the region led the British to annex New Zealand by Royal Proclamation in January 1840. To legitimise the British annexation, Lieutenant Governor William Hobson had been dispatched in 1839; he hurriedly negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with northern iwi on his arrival. The Treaty was signed in February, and in recent years it has come to be seen as the founding document of New Zealand. The Maori translation of the treaty promised the Maori tribes “tino rangatiratanga” would be preserved in return for cedeing kawanatanga, which the English versions translates as “chieftainship” for “sovereignty”; the real meanings are now disputed. Disputes over land sales and sovereignty caused the New Zealand land wars which took place between 1845 and 1872. In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal, charged with hearing claims of Crown violations of the Treaty of Waitangi dating back to 1840. Some Maori tribes and the Moriori never signed the treaty.

Although New Zealand was initially administered as a part of the Australian colony of New South Wales, it became a colony in its own right in 1841. European settlement progressed more rapidly than anyone anticipated, and settlers soon outnumbered Maori. Self-government was granted to the settler population in 1852. The first capital of New Zealand was Kororareka (known today as Russell) but shortly afterwards moved to Auckland. There were political concerns following the discovery of gold in Central Otago in 1861 that the South Island would form a separate colony. So in 1865 the capital was offically moved to the more central city of Wellington. New Zealand was involved in a Constitutional Convention in March 1891 in Sydney, New South Wales, along with the then-colonies of Australia. This was to consider a potential constitution for the proposed federation between the then-British Colonies of Australasia. New Zealand lost interest in joining Australia in a federation following this convention.

New Zealand became an independent dominion on 26 September 1907 by royal proclamation. Full independence was granted by the United Kingdom Parliament with the Statute of Westminster in 1931; it was taken up upon the Statute’s adoption by the New Zealand Parliament in 1947. Since then New Zealand has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.

The history of New Zealand dates back at least 700 years to when it was discovered and settled by Polynesians. Europeans visited the country in 1642 but it wasn’t until the 1840s onward that it experienced large scale European migrations.

Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and is represented in the country by a non-political Governor-General. Political power is held by the Prime Minister who is leader of the Government in the democratically elected Parliament of New Zealand. The monarch’s Realm of New Zealand also includes the Cook Islands and Niue, which are entirely self-governing; Tokelau, which is moving towards self-government, and New Zealand’s claim in Antarctica.

Aotearoa in the native Maori language - is a country in the Southern Pacific consisting of two main islands and a number of small offshore islets. With a population of just under 3.6 million people and a total land area of 27.1 million hectares, the country is characterised by vast unpopulated areas mainly used for the agricultural and forestry industries.

New Zealand is a member of the Commonwealth of States and is politically run as parliamentary democracy under a Mixed Member Proportional Representation government. Its capital is Wellington, located on the southernmost tip of the North Island. Further to the north lies New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, with a population of one million. The largest city in the South Island is Christchurch.