Papua New Guinea prepares for its most consequential elections since independence

These are just a few example of what "Take Back PNG" means in reality. It's a form of economic nationalism with obvious "socialist – big government" implications. At a time when PNG continues to run up huge annual budget deficits, "Take Back PNB" is and will increasingly be a costly impost on the fiscal position.

Papua New Guineans are overwhelmingly pro-business and free enterprise. They are rightly suspicious of too much government, especially too much government intervention in business and industry. Socialist parties have never done well in Papua New Guinea for these reasons.

When you look at the record of state-owned corporations in PNG, who would blame them???

The state-run electricity generation and distribution system is inefficient and costly, with blackouts a daily occurrence in many centres, Most state owned enterprises are in terrible shape, and the basic services provided by the government – health, education, roads etc – have never been worse than they are today.

It will be interesting to see if any PNG leaders, notably Peter O'Neill and Opposition Leader Belden Namah, run campaigns that challenge the "practicality and reality" of "Take Back PNG". Former prime ministers, Sir Julius Chan and Paias Wingti, as well as other party leaders, may do so as well.

If so, PNG might just for the first time have a real policy contest – between a big state, interventionist government that limits the ability to fund basic services and one that offers a real alternative of small business growth, improved basic service delivery and reduced state debt.

There is unquestionably an "attraction" in what Marape has been outlining – but in practical terms Papua New Guinea is in a very weak fiscal position, and a worrying economic state given the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccination rates at barely 3%.

The challenge his opponents face is to articulate a message that does not dismiss "Take Back PNG", but looks at it in a practical "real life" way. And to offer an alternative based on improving the living standards of the 9 million people of PNG who frankly have suffered for too long from poor and poorly focussed government.