1 May 2018

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has rejected as "utter nonsense" a report — he later admitted he hadn't read — that claims his country would have been better off without a massive liquefied natural gas project.

...During a speech...O'Neill dismissed the report as "fake news".

...After his speech, Mr O'Neill said he had not read the Jubilee Australia report.

...One of the co-authors of the Jubilee Australia report, economist Paul Flanagan, was in the audience during Mr O'Neill's speech and described it as "disappointing".

..."That report indicated that on almost all economic criteria, welfare has decreased in PNG because of the PNG LNG project," he said...