Ken Fairweather is a Papua New Guinean politician. He was a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea from 2007 to 2017, representing the electorate of Sumkar Open. He was Minister for Housing and Urban Development in Peter O'Neill's first ministry in 2011, but was subsequently dropped from Cabinet. He was first elected to the National Parliament in the 2007 general election, as independent MP for the Sumkar Open constituency in Madang Province, though he subsequently joined the People's National Congress Party. His election was notable as he defeated Jerry Singirok to take the seat. Initially a government backbencher, he withdrew his support from Sir Michael Somare's coalition government in June 2010, in protest over amendments to the Environment Act, which he said had been undemocratically "bulldozed through Parliament". Under the amendments, if the authorities granted a company permission to exploit resources on particular lands, landowners would have no recourse to challenge the permit in court. Fairweather said the amendments deprived the people of their rights, and would lead to harmful environmental damage; Environment and Conservation Minister Benny Allen responded that they were in the "national interest". Fairweather announced he would be sitting on Parliament's "middle benches", rather than specifically joining the Opposition. In January 2011, he stood as candidate for the position of Governor of Madang Province, to succeed to Sir Arnold Amet, who had just been appointed Attorney General and Minister for Justice. He was defeated by James Gau, deputy Minister for Works, who obtained eighteen votes to Fairweather's eight in the provincial assembly. In April 2011, Amet organised a meeting in Madang so that landowners potentially affected by a proposed Pacific Marine Industrial Zone could express their views and concerns to members of the government. As local MP, Fairweather attended, and criticised the project, describing it as a "con-job" which would not benefit his constituents. He also described Gabriel Kapris as a stil-man, a Tok Pisin word for a thief. Amet responded by calling Fairweather, who is white, "a white millionaire that the people do not need", telling him: "You pack up and you leave my island. You don't belong here". He added that a white person could never understand the country, and thus could not provide the services that the people needed. The exchange, which had been filmed, was posted on YouTube, and made front page news in the Post-Courier, the country's largest-selling daily newspaper. The paper described Amet's words as "shamefully wrong and unbecoming of a state minister, especially coming from the former Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea". In response, Amet "took out a full page advertisement" in the paper, in which he apologised to Fairweather and the people of Sumkar "for unbecoming racial and abusive comments and behaviour". At the start of August 2011, Fairweather supported a successful parliamentary motion of no confidence which brought down the government of Acting Prime MinisterSam Abal, enabling Peter O'Neill to become Prime Minister. O'Neill appointed Fairweather as his Minister for Housing and Urban Development. He was defeated by Chris Nangoi at the 2017 election.
