NEW GUINEA TOUR 1970
NEW STEPS TOWARDS SELF -GOVERNrMENTr IN PAPUA AND NEW GUINEA
peech y the Prime Minister, Mr John Gorton
at Papua Hotel, Port Moresby
S6 JULY 1970
"~ 4fYo onour, Members of the Administrator's Executive Council,
Distinguishd guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I think that the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and the other islan 1i
which at the moment make up the whole, faces a most difficult period in its evolution
towards: self-government in the future and towards independence. We have reacael
a stage of political development inside the Territory at which there are vocal dem'nds
for progress, or at least demands for changes in various fields. But such changes
are probably more difficult in this Territory than in . ay other area of which I can
think. We have here in Papua and New Guinea and then across areas of sea
other islands which, as I said, at the moment make ui a whole, We have ' 7erritory
composed of what are virtually different races, with different languages, with
different district loyalties and we have aTerritory in which some areas are
clamouring for quicker advancement towards self-government and ind-ependence and
other areas are fearful that the advance is already too swift. And we have a
Territory, and I look to the future, which of its very nature is liable to be suoLwct
to the dangers of fragmentation.
Those dangers stem partly from different languages, partly from different
outlook, partly from different stages of development. They can be reinforced by
fallacious argument that if some part of Territory is fortunate enough to discover,
for example, a copper mine then it would be better off by itself. And if this
fallacious argument, and I believe it is a fallacious argument, is accepted thien at
some stage there would be that fragmentation. If oil were discovered in Pap la
there could be a danger of fragmentation there, and so it would go on ultimately,
I am sure, to the detriment of all the people of the Territory which we would like
to see advance as a unit towards nationhood. Talking of advancing as a unit
towards nationhood there have been, sir, as you have said I think, great advances
made economically and politically in the Territory since the Second World War.
I think the time has come for further advances to be made alona tr at
road. I do not speak of self-government in 1972 or in any calendar year that you
may care to mention, because you are on a road towards sell-government. You
have started on it. There will necessarily be progress along it step by step and
anyone who seeks to say that at a given month at a given year a period will have
been reached when that can be achieved is, I think, dangerously simplifying the
problem and is acting to the detriment of the people for the future. / 2
But there are further steps now short of self-government but towards
self-government which I feel should be made and these I wish to outline to you
tonight. We believe that the time has come when less should be referred to
Canberra for decision and more should be retained for decision by the Administrator's
Executive Council and by the Ministerial Members who for the most part make up
that Council. What we suggest is this that there should be negotiated between the
Australian Government and the Government here, a sum of money for recurrent
expenses and for minor works inside the Territory. And, speaking for the Australian
Government, we would expect that there would be more effort on the part of the
local peoples to raise revenue inside this Territory, as years go by for the purpose
of this recurrent expenditure and these minor works. But once this sum of money
had been negotiated, made up partly by local revenue, partly by what we will call a
grant-in-aid for these purposes from the Commonwealth, then that sum of money,
we believe, should be divided by the Administrator's Executive Council among the
various Ministries up here which will put in claims in the way Ministers put in
claims to the Cabinet in Canberra.
So there will be a claim from the Minister of Education, there will be a
claim from the Minister of Health, there will be a claim from the Minister of
Public Works, and the Administrator's Executive Coun~ cil within the sum of money
available to it will apportion to these various Ministers the Sums that they can
spend. When that has been done, when a Minister, let us say, of Education, has
received a sum within the total limits then we believe that he should have authority
as to how that money should be spenit in the Territory, should be able to make
decisions here which now require reference to Canberra before they can be made.
If h& has a new programme, he will need to get the agreement of the
Administrator's Executive Council. If, as is not unknown inpuclitical circles in
Canberra, he wishes to get more money in the course of the year for his own
portfolio at the expense of somebody else's portfolio and that is the only way he
will get it, he won't get -i* t by additional grant from Australia then the
Administrator s & ecutive Council car, listen to the pleas of th-e two Ministers
concerned and, as a council, can decide what should be done.
This, I think, will be a great transference, not so much of power, but
of administrative power to the elected Members who are Ministerial ! rnzbers in
this Teiritory and to the Administrator's Executive Council. As there is to be this
transference of power and in future, no doubt, other transf,-erences of power, so
concomitant with it will there need to be an assumption of res-ponsib ility by the
Ministerial Members and the House of Assembly in Papua and New Guinea. If
there is a requirement for more money to be provided than has been provided by
the existing level of local taxes, and vwhat the Australian Government is prepared
to provide by a grant-in-aid, then that's fine. It can be provided if the House of
Assembly up here is prepared to impose the taxes required to raise it in the same
way as the Government of Australia has to impose the taxes required to provide
what it wants to do. I hope you won't read into what I have just said any suggestion
that Australian aid will cease for Papua and New Guinea. Of course it won't,
but I hope you will read into it a realisation that as power is transferred so also
must responsibility be transferred and these two things go hand in hand.
That is the first proposition we will make. We will have in the
Australian B udget a negotiated a mount of money for the Territory called a / 3
" tgrant-in-aid" added to the sum of money raised by the decision of the local House
in tL~ e number of taxes they propose to impose, and the rate off taxes they propose
to impose, and that will be left to division among the Ministries by the Administrator's
Executive Council and for spending by the Ministerial Members concerned.
We will have also in the Australian Budget a development grant. That
development grant for the general development of Papua and New Guinea Territories
will remain with, and be negotited, of course, by the Australian Government and
the Government up here, but its expenditure, since it will be provided entirely by
the Australian taxpayer, virtually entirely, will remain the responsibility of the
Australian Government. In other words, we will want to see that a general
development grant is expended on those projects for which it is voted, and we
will want to overseee that it is properly expended on those projects.
We propose, this is just a mater I suppose of presentation too, that
in future we would have on our Australian Budget an item which is to pay all the
overseas allowances of expatriate and overseas officers so that everyone can see
that this comes from the Australian taxpayer and from what Is provided inside
Australia, and not from what is provided in the Territory. The base rates of
jiublic oervants from the Territory and from Australia can of course be the same,
but I think it is essential that people should know that the additional allowances paid
do come from the Australian taxpayer, are shown in the Australian Budget and
are paid to expatriate officers.
We have had it brought to our attention that there Is fear in the
Territory amongst responsible people that key public servants may be lost to the
future service of this Territory because, if they are expatriate officers, they have
an insecurity of tenure. A man of 40 or 45 may reach a point where he has a
family to educate, responsibilities to take on, and where he says to himself
" Should I remain in the Service of the Territory, either as a Member of the
New Guiuea/ Papua service or as a contract oficer? Should I continue in this or
should 1, because I do not know what the future holds for me in case self-government
or independence comes, should I at this stage begin to carve some new career for
myself". And it has been put to us that a number of key public servants, I mean
d istrict officers, professional officers, sub-professional oYfficers and technical
officers, either have resigned or may in the future resign because they do not
know what would happen to them when self-government or independence comes.
It has been put to us that this poses a danger to the future development
of Papua and New Guinea. because these people and their accumulated experience
are going to be required when self-government comes or independence comes.
And so we have decided to do this. In order to encourage selected key overseas
officers to remain in the service of Papua and New Guinea for the present and
future good of the Territory, we propose that those who are permanent officers
of the Papua and New Guinea Public Service, some of those who are permanent
officers of the Papua and New Guinea Public Service, and some of those who are
contract officers, will be offered enlistment in a new Australian-based service.
Offers of engagements in this new service ( and it will be a selective serv ice),
offers of engagement now and in the future will be made to the selected key
Administrative officers of whom I have spoken, but acceptance of such an offer
will be entirely woluntary on the part of any such officers and offers of selection
will be decided by the Administration. 4 / 4
4.
At the moment we believe the ceiling of this new Commonwealth based
service should be approximately 1, 000. It will be additional to the existing
arrange~ aents under which officers serve in the permanent service here or in
which they serve as contract officers. That is to say permanent officers who
are riot appointed to the new service will continue as they are at present, losing
nothing of what they have achieved. Contract officers who are not offered
appointment will continue on their existing contracts. But appointments to the
new Service will carry a guarantee by the Australian Government that a memier
appointed will be assured of continued employment in the Public Service of Papua
and New Guinea or in the event that he is transferred from that, or displaced from
that, in the future, there will be a guarantee that the Commonwealth Government
will place him in permanent employment in a like field on a comparable salary.
This, we hope, will enable many officers to resolve the dilemmna in which perhaps
they are at present placed, and will enable them to decide to make their accumulated
experience available to the Government of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea
while at the same time retaining full confidence in their ownM future and in their
own future employment. Before the details of this approach are settled, overseas
officers themselves will be consulted throughout the Territory, as will the Public
Service Association. But that is another step which we propose to make which we
think will be of assistance to the development of this country i the future and
which so many people in this Territory have urged us in one way or another to do.
We propose that the Administrator's Executive Council, as a result
of the new responsibilities which it assumes, will have a spokesman for that
Council appointed in the House of Assembly to answer questions as to what the
Administrator's Executive Council has done and why it has done it. And we also
propose that the Parliament of Australia will not exercise its veto power in
relation to ordinances if those ordinances affect the actual res-, onsibilities handed
over to Ministerial Members,
Now let me indicate to you the kinds of areas in which we feel
responsibility shotild be taken by Ministerial Members here and the kinds of areas
in which we feel the Commonwealth of Australia should continue to exercise its
present authority. There will be delivered later by my colleague, the Minister
for Eaernal Territories, in more detail but for the moment the subjects on which
we thin-k that authority to take decisions should reside in the Ministerial Members
or the Administrator's Executive Council are educatio; r. l primary, secondary,
technical, but not tertiary public health, tourism, co-operatives, business
advisory services, workers' compensation, industrial training, posts and
telegraphs, Territory revenue including taxation ( for inherent in what I have
said is the need foc the House of Assembly to take greater responsibility in the
levying of revenue in this Territory), price control, coastal shipping, civil defence,
corrective institutions ( that's prisons in case anybody's wondering), registration
of customary land, land use, leasing of land and town planning and urban
development. The areas in which we wish and must at this stage retain final authority
are the judiciary, the enfor cement of law and order, internal security, external
affairs, external trade and large scale development projects in agriculture, in
transport, forestry, in those things in the five-year development plan which we
are now some half-way through and which will for the most part be financed by the
Australian taxpayer and therefore overseen by the representatives of the Australian
taxpayer rather than the representatives of the Territory.
I may say that other matters such as civil aviation and defence will,
as they are at present, be paid forand controlled directly by the Commonwealth
Departments concerned.
In the Adiitao's Executive Council, when, decision~ s are being
arrived at as to proposals put forward by Ministerial Members for authority to
spend on this or that, the official Members will sit in the Administrator's Council,
as they sit at present, and they will offer advice to that Council and they will offer
their experience to that Council. They will not take part in any vote that Council
may have as to what it finally does. I suggest that these are very significant steps
fo ' rward along the road to transferring power to the representative Members of the
Territory and to transferring responsibility to the representative Members of
the Territory. But I emphasise again that the total sum available fIor recurrent and
minor works will be a total sum, only able to be added to, if thre House of Assembly
wishes. to find some new avenue of expenditure, by imposing taxation to raise the
revenue for that new expenditure because as a Territory progress es towards the
ability to exercise greater power, so it must accept the greater responsibility for
financing the decisions which it make..
Even when in the future self-government comes or independence comes,
there will be continuing Australian assistance for this Territory, but the amount of
recurrent assistance provided will, to a great extent, depend on the amount of
self-help which the Territory is prepared to impose upon itself. The developmental
sums made available for development here will continue., but if, as I hope, the
Territory develops and has an increased taxabla~ capacity because of such things as
the Bougainville copper mining or oil, which may be found in Papua or elsewhere,
the industrial development if that happens, then we would expect greater responsibility
still to be accepted by the people of Papua and New Guinea, because when you boil
it all down I believe that this is the position as far as the Australian people are
concerned. We feel we have an obligation and a responsibility. I don't talk about a
technical obligation at the moment under the trusteeship council feel we have an
obligation and responsibility to help the development of this country to a stage where
it could not only govern itself politically but govern itself economically, and we
will accept that responsibility and this may go on for years.
But I don't think we would want to accept the position where in years to
come people from the Territory came to us and said " These are our needs, these
are our requirements, we don't want to accept the responsibility for taxing to meet
them you tax, you provide them'". At some stage the Australians would say:
" Sorry"'. But if we continue to provide the assistance we are providing and intend
to provide in the future, then at some stage there would be no need for the people
of the Territory to come to us because, by a joint efi~ ort, we would have been able
to raise the economic capacity of this country to a stage where the companies that
have come in would be taxed, where wealth that flows to individuals would be taxed,
where developments that have already taken place would lead to developments still
in the future, and where the Territory of Papua and New Guinea could probably
look after itself. / 6
6.
But for the present and in the foreseeable future vie intend to provide
that assistance at least which we provide now. And for the present we propose
tais new step forward towards self-government and responsibility, which I know
in Fome areas of the Territory will be thought to be going too far, which I know
in other areas of the Territory will be thought to be going not far enough, but which
looked at from either end are, I think, necessary steps towards a future which must,
at some time, hold full internal self-government and full inde-pendence.
This is as far as we feel we should now go, arnd I finish as I began by
saying that I believe it against all logic and all sense to put a timetable on this.
We don't want to remain in the Territory one week against the wishes cf the
majority of its people. We don't think we ought to get out of the Territory against
the wish of the majority of its people. We don't want to rule any peoples without
their consent. We don't think it proper to move out and possibly help a vocal
minority rule a majority without that majority's consent, and one can't put a
timetable on this but one..: can say these are steps towards the time when this
Territory; will be self-governing and when its people will express their views.
And we will take account of those views instead of imposing our views on them as
to a date for self-government and independence.
Your Honour and Members of the Administrator'S. Executive Council,
I hope you will agree that these are significant steps and I hope with all my heart
that the people of the Territory and the Members of the House of Assembly and
the Members of the Administrator's Executive Council will make the fullest
possible use of the opportunities now~ offered for the advancement of this
Territory and the assumption of the responsibilities which must go with them.
Thank you.