FOR PRESS 8 NOVEMBER 1977
JOINT COMMUNIQUE ISSUED ON 8 NOVEMBER 1977 BY THE
PRIME MINISTERS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND AUSTRALIA
ON AUSTRALIAN AID TO PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Mr Somare, and the
Australian Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, announced today that
the Australian aid supplement for 1978/ 79 under the Australian/
Papua New Guinea Aid Agreement of 1976 would be $ A35 million.
The two Prime Ministers recalled that in their Joint Communique
of 4 March 1976 they had agreed upon a new aid relationship
which would properly reflect Papua New Guinea's independent status.
It had been agreed that the objectives-of the new relationship
would be to facilitate and promote economic and social development
for the people of Papua New Guinea, to facilitate the achievement
by the Papua New Guinea Government of its objective of increasing
self-reliance, and to enable Papua New Guinea to plan its
development on the basis of resources available to it including
those to be provided by Australia but to put an end to
arrangements under which Australia had been involved in
Papua New Guinea's budget-making.
The two Prime Ministers further recalled that, under the 1976
Agreement, Australia had agreed to enter into a new long-term
commitment on economic and social aid to Papua New-. Guinea
and to provide a minimum of $ AlBO million in social and economic
aid to Papua New Guinea for each of the five years beginning
1 July 1976. Further annual supplements to this basic annual
grant were to be considered in the light of circumstances.
It was decided that the annual supplements for 1976/ 77 and
1977/ 78* above the base figure of $ A180 would be $ 10 million and
million-respectively.
In the past few weeks there had been exchanges of views between
the Australian and Papua New Guinea Governments on the question of
further annual supplements under the Agreement.
The Papua New Guinea Minis-ter for Foreign Affairs, Mr Olewale,
had discussions with Australian Ministers on the matter in
September. During October, the Australian Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Mr Peacock, also had discussions with Mr Holloway, the
Papua New Guinea Finance Minister. Noting that the Papua New Guinea
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Government had decided to move to a calendar fiscal year
with effect from 1 January 1978, it was agreed that a
decision on the level of supplementation for 1978/ 79
was needed in the near future.
On the basis of these Ministerial exchanges Mr Fraser has now
informed Mr Somare that, subject to normal Parliamentary procedures
relating to appropriations, the Australian Government will provide
Papua New Guinea with an annual supplement in 1978/ 79, the third
year of the Agreement, of $ A35 million. This will bring
the Australian aid grant to Papua New Guinea for that year
to $ A215 million.
Mr Fraser also confirmed to Mr Somare that the Australian
Government will give full and detailed consideration to ways
and means by which the 1976 Agreement might be further developed
on the question of the determination of the annual supplements
for the fourth and fifth years of the Agreement.
Mr Somare expressed his Government's warm appreciation of the
Australian Government's decision on the level of the aid
supplement for 1978/ 79 which he and his Ministerial colleagues
saw as a renewed earnest of the Australian Government's commitmen
to the agreed objectives of the 1976 Aid Agreement.