The Wire

Papua New Guinea are still outraged by events at Brisbane Airport last week, where their Prime Minister Michael Somare was subjected to a security check and was asked to remove his shoes. Somare announced his country will not accept an $800 million aid program unless Australia apologises and even chartered a private jet to New Caledonia so he could avoid going through Australia. But not everyone shares their government’s anger. PNG businessman and former political candidate Allan Bird wrote a letter to PNG’s daily newspaper saying he was embarrassed at the way his country was behaving. He spoke to Annie Hastwell about the incident.