Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill visited Palm Island this week, becoming the first sitting prime minister of any country to visit the Island.
The Prime Minister was given a tour of the island and remarked that both PNG and Palm Island face similar obstacles,
“(I plan to see) what they are doing to overcome those challenges,” he said.
“We’ll learn from their experiences and hopefully they’ll learn from our experiences and we’ll exchange ideas.”
Palm Island Mayor Alf Lacey said the visit was significant for Palm Island and the Prime Minister praised the Island’s health layout, centre and infrastructure.
“He was quite impressed actually in terms of how advanced Palm was, especially for an Indigenous community ... compared to some of the larger villages in PNG,” Cr Lacey said.
“He’s taken away some ideas for home.”
Mayor Lacey also said he hoped the visit would inspire Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to make a similar trip.
“Malcolm’s welcome to take up my offer,” he said.
The visit to the region was part of a trip to highlight new direct flights available between Port Moresby and Townsville.
It is hoped the new routes will foster a closer relationship between the two regions and create opportunities in mining, property, health, education, tourism.
Palms Island's population of 2000 includes around 20 Papua New Guineans who live and work on the island.