Settlement payments in Papua New Guinea - Are they Just or Unjust?

Abstract

This paper discusses and analyses settlement payments paid to customary landowners in Papua New Guinea by the State for the acquisition of their customary land prior to Independence. These payments had been introduced after customary landowners had raised their grievances over the low purchase prices that they had been allegedly paid by the early European settlers and the colonial administration over their customary land. They are statutorily fixed payments provided under the National Land Registration Act 197. However, since the introduction of these payments, the State has encountered a number of problems. The main problems are firstly that customary landowners are still dissatisfied with the amounts paid and therefore continuously demanding further payments. Secondly, the National Land Commission which was established to administer the process of facilitating these payments under the National land Registration Act is not performing its functions effectively. Therefore this paper aims to study the historical reasons behind introducing these payments and argues that based on the current problems that the State is experiencing with paying landowners’ settlement payments it should consider whether or not to continue to pay customary landowners.