Documents on Australian Foreign Policy Australia and Papua New Guinea, The Push to Independence, 1972-1975

by Henningham, Stephen; Hunt, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9781742237572
• ISBN10: 1742237576
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-02-22
• Publisher: University of New South Wales Press

Summary

This is the second DFAT volume on PNG’s independence. The first volume, Documents on Australian Foreign Policy: Australia and Papua New Guinea, 1970–1972: The transition to self-government, was published by UNSW Press in December 2020. This era saw monumental change in the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea as PNG went from a territory firmly controlled by Canberra to self-government in 1975. The change of government in Australia in early December 1972 brought to power a prime minister with an intense interest in the future of Papua New Guinea, and a commitment to rapid change. Gough Whitlam, supported by his External Territories Minister, Bill Morrison, pushed hard to complete Papua New Guinea’s transition to full self-government and to accelerate its accession to independence. The latter took place in September 1975—later than Whitlam would have preferred, but earlier than most people in both Australia and Papua New Guinea would have thought possible only a few years before. There were tensions and sharp words along the way, but overall, the transition was achieved with good will. Taken together, the 525 documents in the volume illuminate the development of Australian policies concerning Papua New Guinea during the push to independence.

Author Biography

Stephen Henningham is a specialist historian in the Historical Research Section in DFAT. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of New South Wales and a PhD from the Australian National University (ANU). He served in Noumea as a policy officer, in Port Moresby as Deputy High Commissioner, in Ho Chi Minh City as Consul General, and in Samoa as High Commissioner. He was a South Pacific specialist at the Office of National Assessments in 1987– 1988 and worked on South Pacific politics and history at the ANU from 1988 to 1995. He was Director of the Pacific Bilateral Section in DFAT from 1995– 1999. The late Bruce Hunt was a Research Fellow in the School of History, College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. Stephen Henningham is a specialist historian in the Historical Research Section in DFAT.

Table of Contents

Foreword Abbreviations Introduction Part 1 ‘ A secure, united and friendly Papua New Guinea’ : Key Developments, December 1972– February 1973 Documents, 11 December 1972– 27 February 1973 Part 2 ‘ If PNG was not ready, Australia would go ahead’ : Key Developments, February– July 1973 Documents, 28 February– 29 July 1973 Part 3 ‘ The country as a whole appears to have accepted self-government in a relaxed manner’ : Key Developments, August– December 1973 Documents, 2 August– 24 December 1973 Part 4 ‘ Today Papua New Guinea is not only self-governing but virtually independent’ : Key Developments, January– July 1974 Documents, 2 January– 27 July 1974 Part 5 ‘ The Prime Minister responded that his reputation was involved in independence being by the end of 1975’ : Key Developments, July– December 1974 Documents, 27 July– 10 December 1974 Part 6 ‘ In a state of deep depression’ : Key Developments, January– June 1975 Documents, 6 January– 27 June 1975 Part 7 ‘ By this legislation, we not only divest ourselves of the last significant colony in the world, but we divest ourselves of our own colonial heritage’ : Key Developments, July– September 1975 Documents, 1 July– 30 September 1975 Part 8 ‘ The close bilateral relationship … has persisted during Papua New Guinea’ s first year of independence’ : Postscript: Key Developments, February– October 1976 Documents 11 February– 27 October 1976 Appendixes Map Papua (and) New Guinea in the Early 1970s Indexes