Michael J. Manning

Manning was born in 1943 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, but raised in Coonabarabran, New South Wales.

He was the son of Margot Manning and Alan Manning, one of the founders of the Democratic Labor Party.

Manning's father, Alan Manning, became a protégé and supporter of Ben Chifley and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) following his return from World War II.

Alan Manning ran for office as an Australian Labor Party candidate three times, losing on each try.

Manning's ALP affiliation did not sit well with others in rural Coonabarabran.

The Manning family was eventually removed from their family farm by the ownership trust for "spending too much time in politics."

Alan Manning and other ALP dissenters were expelled from the political party in 1956 after openly criticizing the "36 faceless men" of the ALP federal executive.

In response to his expulsion, Alan Manning, a Protestant, joined the Democratic Labor Party, which was dominated by Catholics.

Manning became the president of the Democratic Labor Party in New South Wales.

Manning contracted polio when he was just five years old.

He spent one year inside an iron lung for treatment.

He recovered from the disease.

Manning went on to attend the King's School, Parramatta thanks to a trust fund set up by his grandfather, who was a wealthy grazier.

Manning left his university studies for five years after the death of his mother, Margot Manning.

He returned to farming at a town near Canberra before moving to Rylstone, where he helped to raise his younger brothers.

He returned to university and received his bachelor's degree in economics from Australian National University in Canberra.

He then obtained a job with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics while he worked to obtain his master's degree in economics.

Before he completed his master's degree, Manning was recruited to work as an employee for the newly independent government of Papua New Guinea, which gained independence from Australia in 1975.

He relocated to Papua New Guinea in 1975.

Manning first worked for the Papuan government ministry in charge of minerals and energy.

He then moved to the finance ministry, where he oversaw the finances of all nineteen provincial governments.

Manning was known to be thorough in his oversight of provincial finances, even threatening to shut down provincial governments who deviated from official policy.

Manning worked in a number of other positions within the Papua New Guineanpublic and private sectors throughout his career.

He worked for many PNG consultancies and board of directors throughout the country.

Much of his work, lectures and economic studies centered on the expansion of smallholder production within the tree crops industry of the Papuan economy.

The tree crop industry, such as cacao, is seen as a way to increase employment, living standards and prosperity for millions of Papua New Guineans who live in lowland and coastal villages, some far from major population centers.

Manning moved to Rabaul on the island of East New Britain in 1980 to run the community owned New Guinea Islands Produce Company -NGIP, which managed local cocoa plantations.

He resided in Rabaul from 1980 until 1993.

He met his wife, Relly, a local Tolai woman.

Manning was inducted into Tolai society.

The cocoa industry in New Britain was severely hurt by the failure of the initial hybrid crop, which companies like NGIP invested in heavily, and then by the devastating Rabaul volcanic eruption of 1994, which also damaged parts of the town.

The eruption led to the restructuring of the cocoa industry and Manning left the company, with later merged with Agmark Pacific.

Manning moved back to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, following the volcanic eruptions.

In 1997, Manning became the director of the PNG Institute of National Affairs, the country's leading independent economic agency and think tank.

He served as director of the institute for eight years.

Manning became a vocal critic of corruption and the decline of good governance within the PNG government, especially in Parliament.

He was especially critical of the government of Prime Minister Michael Somare.

Manning served as the second Chairman of Transparency International PNG (TIPNG), one of Papua New Guinea's largest organizations dedicated to eradicating corruption, from 2003 until 2008.

He was a naturalized citizen of Papua New Guinea.

Michael John Manning OBE (1943 – 22 August 2008) was an Australian-born Papua New Guinean anti-corruption activist and economist.