Morauta remained an active opposition leader during the successive governments of Sir Michael Somare and Peter O'Neill, especially focusing on the politics of natural resources.

Sir Mekere was born in 1946 in Kukipi, a coastal village east of Kerema in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea.

Morauta maintained from that period a strong professional and warm personal relationship with the Australian economist Ross Garnaut.

Morauta was then Minister for Public Enterprises in the Peter O'Neill/Belden Namah cabinet that was formed in 2011 after a vote of no confidence put an end to the Somare/Abal government.

Morauta was installed as leader of the opposition after a successful appeal to the Registrar of Political Parties and the Ombudsman Commission against the actions of Muingnepe.

Morauta was a politician who had a strong regional base in Gulf and Western province because of the economic importance of his fishing interests as well as the benefits brought by the Ok Tedi mine.

The state owned enterprises (SOES) were brought together under a holding company called the Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC).

BHP wanted to avoid these and these were settled by transferring their shares to an entity representing the people of Western Province : the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Fund.

However, one third of that income was paid in a trust account in Singapore as a reserve for the people in Western Province when the mine would be exhausted.

MRDC's task was merely to administer the equity interest of landowner groups and provincial governments in natural resources projects.

Soldiers rebelled when a report was leaked proposing the curtailment of the army and even merging it with the police into a mere paramilitary force.

[31][32] A widespread protest movement of soldiers, workers and especially students emerged against the influence of the World Bank, IMF and the Australian government.

At a meeting with the parents of a dead student, Sir Mekere referred to the previous loss of his son and he described the events as "the blackest day in our nation's history".

[35] The National Alliance Party had fought a hard campaign against privatization and won the largest number of seats and therefore could invite the prime minister.

[42][43] The third set of reforms : privatization and regulating income from natural resources became the major issue in the opposition by Sir Mekere.

Sir Mekere Morauta gave himself a review of the achievements of that cabinet when departing from politics in 2012 and stressed that the reforms were incomplete: much work still needed to be done.

He protested against granting IPBC power to raise loans outside the normal controls of the Ministry of finance and the Central Bank.

In recent years the Office of the Prime Minister and those who influence it have come to dominate the structures and processes of decision-making by the Parliament and the Executive".

The independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC) supervised all the enterprises in which the government participated and a minister was in charge of that company.

[56] The loan from IPIC was secured through the government interest in enterprises under PNG's Independent Public Business Corporation (IPBC).

The mine was according to O’Neill run for the benefit of foreigners and local people still suffered from the environmental problems under the new ownership that should have tackled these.

[58] O’Neill declared as an opening shot the chairman of the Ok Tedi board, the economist Ross Garnaut, a friend of Morauta, a prohibited immigrant.

The fund became subject of protracted legal battles; Morauta as chairman of PNGSDP embarked on a case for arbitration before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington.

The judge produced a 149-page judgment in which it considered the reasoning of the government compelling but wanting in one crucial respect: there was no evidence to back up the argument.

The latter took an ambiguous position: they welcomed the Singapore ruling and asked at the same time to bring the management of the fund back to PNG.

UBS Australia loaned the government of PNG $A 1.3 billion in 2013 to buy a ten percent share in Oil Search.

Mekere Morauta as MP asked for a full government enquiry after the termination of the loan agreement: Prime Minister O’Neill and Oil Search Manager Peter Botten should testify.

[75] Prime minister Marape has installed a Commission of inquiry under the leadership of the chief justice and with the head of the anti corruption Task force Sweep as counsel.

Proceeds from the gas fields should be channelled into a Sovereign Wealth Fund under mixed government and private sector management dedicated to building and maintaining infrastructure.

James Marape called him "the number one prime minister in the country", while Julius Chan remembered him as a friend and "visionary leader".