Dede Sophie

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has reminded foreign media that held perceptions against PNG about its lack of female representation in Parliament cannot be accepted as slow progress. Mr Marape responded to a question from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that despite the election of  Rufina Peter as Central Province Governor, it was still very low. He said it took Australia 40 years to elect the first female into the Australian Parliament and its federation. Australia had its federation in 1901 and the first female elected to Parliament was in 1943 when Dame Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives and Dorothy Tangney was elected to the Senate. For PNG, Mr Marape said it took three years for women to be in Parliament and that is a statement that women were recognized as leaders in the matrilineal communities and in modern democracy his government will support females to enter Parliament through the normal election process. He said there will be no res...

All wheel drive versions of the performance variants of the Skoda Enyaq EV are scheduled to arrive in Ireland in the early part of this year, writes Brian Byrne. Skoda Ireland expects to see a significant increase in the number of 4×4 Skodas here when the 4×4 Enyaq RS and Enyaq Coupe RS arrive. Skoda Ireland’s Product Manager Libor Pavlas says that with the arrival last year of the Enyaq 80X, the AWD version of the brand’s EV SUV, the format now represents 10pc of all Enyaq orders. There’s a premium of €2,960 over the two-wheel drive version, with no change in annual road tax and minimal impact on range. Following Ireland’s coldest winter in 130 years in 2010, Skoda Ireland took a marketing position to promote 4×4 vehicles and succeeded in increasing AWD sales by a factory of five. “Subsequent winters have proved milder which has coincided with a reduction in demand for 4×4 vehicles but Skoda still has a loyal band of 4×4 customers ...