We do have to be realistic. Australia is a rich country and PNG is (according to the social index) a poor country. We only have to look at how many Daru's are sneaking across the border into Torres Strait and living illegally on T.I. or in Cairns, willing to leave their home country in search of a better life to know that a relaxed visa policy will certainly result in more PNG's overstaying in Australia.
Even PNG also makes it very difficult for citizens of India, Bangladesh, China and other poor(er) countries trying to come here in case they might overstay. Even genuine businessmen from those countries find it nearly impossible to make business trips to PNG without help from somebody in PNG to sponsor them for a visa.
So it's not surprising that both Australia and PNG have strict visa rules for people applying from "poorer" countries who are at risk of overstaying.
However there is a difference between strict and unreasonable.
In this day and age Australia should be able to find a more valid way of assessing the overstay risk of individual visa applications without asking applicants to supply their family tree and copy of their bank balance. In reality the Australian High Commission visa processing officers have no way of verifying the family tree anyway because PNG does not have computerised records of its citizens like Australia does, and the visa officers don't have to time to ring up all the relatives and enquire if they really exist. And we all know that you can qualify for the bank balance criteria by asking a friend or relative to transfer K5,000 into your account so you can print out your balance to attach to your visa application and then transfer the money back to your friends account. The bank balance criteria disadvantages those of us who are due to receive money prior to travel (eg travel allowance or holiday pay) that is not in our account at the time we have to lodge the visa application.
What the AHC really needs is a simpler system of differentiating between genuine applications from PNG's trying to visit Australia for shopping, Visiting Friends and Relatives, business and conference trips etc as opposed to those who might be simply trying to get in the door so they can disappear into society and become illegal residents. Support letters from employers, family members, sponsors in Australia etc should be given more weight and visa officers should ring the people who issue the covering letters to verify them. As an Australian citizen running a business here in PNG I have written support letters for numerous employees and friends planning genuine trips to Australia and although all the applications were approved, nobody from the AHC ever rang me up to verify that I had really written and signed those letters.
A simpler system that makes it quicker and easier for genuine travellers to get visas will have great economic spinoffs for Cairns and Brisbane which are the popular destinations for PNG travellers.
These economic benefits will outweigh any small increase in overstays.
The Australian Immigration Office really needs to do a cost/benefit analysis on this. A Cairns travel company recently reported that a $100,000 conference in Cairns was cancelled and rebooked in Singapore because the attendees and spouses could not get Australian visas in time. If you multiply this by 1000 you might get a reasonable estimate of the amount of business that Cairns shops, hotels, airlines etc are missing out on now that nouveau riche Papua New Guineans are saying "maski Australian visa is too hard we will go to Singapore for shopping trip".
Further, as an Australian I am SOOO embarrassed about the bitchy attitude of the visa staff at the Australian High Commission, both the PNG and Aussie staff. They will never smile, they will never ask you politely about your documents, they will never volunteer useful information they just treat you like an inconvenience. Don't worry people it's not racism it's just plain old bad manners and snobbery. I am a white Australian and they treat me exactly the same shitty way when I stand in the line to a lodge an application on behalf of one of my PNG staff travelling to Australia. On the other hand as soon as you arrive in Australia the public servants like Customs officers and airport staff are very helpful and friendly (in a professional way). Shouldn't it be the other way round? AHC staff are the face of Australia in PNG but my god what an ugly face they present to potential tourists and business people from PNG.
But it's no use for PNG's to complain to the AHC from this end because they will always say they are just implementing policy (although the snobby attitude of the staff is surely not policy). I really think it's up to Australians like me working in PNG and running businesses in PNG to write to our MP's back home to put pressure on the Australian Minister for Immigration to review the policy and implement a more realistic visa application system.

#51: Aussie in PNG - Be realistic 

 This is a very sensible and mature comment.

#51: Aussie in PNG - Be realistic

Well,have you and the Australians living and working  and running your businesses in Papua New Guinea tried doing exactly as you have suggested to tried to pressure your local members to do something about this ediotic system where
by they treat us as criminals.My family have been travelling up and down (35years or more) ever since they were in their nappies and still they want to know how much we have in our bank account,how much our relatives in Australia  have. Now  these babies have now have children of their own and they want to travel.In all those 30 years and over we have never ever over stayed,we dont even have police records in PNG or Australia.Something is total wrong with Australia's visa policy towards Papua New Guineans...may I sugget is a racist policy?
But if certain number of Papua New Guineans have gone feral  and disappeared into the wider Australian society than deal with those feral ones and not hold every other genuine Papua New Guinea travellors to Australia as hostage.Why only a few feral ones have done the runner and Australia holds 6.9 million other Papua New Guineans as accomplices..!!!!!