Career
He was the Governor of Madang Province from November 2007 to December 2010, whereupon he resigned the position to be appointed Minister for Justice and Attorney General in Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare"s Cabinet. He held these positions until the government was brought down by a parliamentary motion of no confidence in August 2011, whereupon he was relegated to the Opposition benches. Pacific Magazine in 2008 described Sir Arnold as "the likely successor of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare when "The Chief" steps down as head of the governing National Alliance Party."
Local Member of Parliament Ken Fairweather attended, and criticised the project, describing it as a "con-job" which would not benefit his constituents.
Fairweather also described Gabriel Kapris (the Minister for Commerce and Industry, who was present) 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. (This was disputed by villagers, who pointed out that, under Fairweather, they had benefited from new school facilities, roads, and a greater access to water supplies) 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 Madang "for unbecoming racial and abusive comments and behaviour".
