One of Papua New Guinea’s most senior ministers has been arrested in Sydney after he allegedly assaulted a 31-year-old woman in Bondi.
Jimmy Maladina, the Minister for Petroleum, was charged with domestic assault on Saturday morning.
PNG Minister for Petroleum Jimmy Maladina was charged following an incident at Bondi.
NSW Police were called to the Imperial Avenue home at 10am after reports of a domestic dispute.
They found the woman with facial injuries, allegedly as a result of an altercation with Maladina. The woman is known to the 58-year-old.
Maladina is one of Prime Minister James Marape’s closest advisors and is in the middle of international negotiations over a $17 billion mega liquified natural gas project in PNG.
But his past has been chequered by multiple legal issues, including claims of corruption and fraud in PNG.
Maladina spent three years in Brisbane in the early 2000s after completing a masters of law at the University of Sydney. He had his passport confiscated in 2002 by the Federal Court during a dispute over insolvency proceedings for PNG’s compulsory superannuation scheme, the National Provident Fund, which he chaired.
Maladina was granted conditional bail and will appear at Waverley Local Court on Thursday.
The PNG government and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs have been contacted for comment.
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