Another £3,000,000 For Her
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
Territories
Australian Bureaucrats Continue Their Fantastic Spending In the Islands
A DISSECTION of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, presented to the Australian Parliament in September, shows that Australia this year is spending between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000 in her Pacific Territories— mostly Papua and New Guinea. The fol lowing figures are copied from the docu ment: — Grant towards expenses, in cluding native welfare, de velopment, war damage and reconstruction £2,350,000 Consolidation of laws of the Territories 18,250 Contribution towards Chair of Anthropology, University of Sydney 1.750 Grant wherewith to buy “Dis posals” equipment 30,000 School of Pacific Adminis tration 12.000 Cost of shipping .. .. 200,000 Payments on account of former Administrations 24,000 Clearing secondary growth on reopened plantations Library services • • 3,000 Restoration of land and roads 40,000 Native training and reconstruc tion in Papua and New Guinea 130,000 Making a total being spent directly within the Territories in current financial year of £2,909,000 But that is not the full account of what Australia is spending on her Pacific Islands Territories this year. The fol lowing items may be added: Payments to air-mail contractors £75,000 New Guinea civilian war pensions and education benefits 20,000
Contribution to cost of South .
Pacific Commission 30,000 Interest on old Papuan and New Guinea loans 8,390 Norfolk Island expenses 4,000 Cost of Department of External Territories 52,000 Subsidy to shipping and surface mail services 12,000 Total of Indirect’Costs £201,390 That makes a grand total of Australia’s expenditure on her Pacific Territories and interests in this current year of £3,110,390.
An examination of the same official documents shows that the startling figures we quoted in last issue (taken from the New Guinea Gazette), as the total of governmental expenditure in Papua and New Guinea in 1946-47 correctly presented the position. Some £2,000,000 of Australian taxpayers’ funds (over and above £600,000 raised by local taxation) were disbursed in the Terri tories in that year. The Canberra docu ment shows that most of it went away .under the following heads:— Restoration and re-establish ment expenses £500,000 War damage compensation to natives 200,000 Clearing secondary growth from plantations 10,060 Miscellaneous services 1,518,538 Shipping service 179,534 These items are so vaguely stated, and are scattered through so many divisions of the compilation, that any real critic ism of them is impossible.
That, of course, is the way it is planned.
The planners and the bureaucrats ride high in the saddle, spending Australian funds with a free and lavish hand, and there seems to be nothing the unfortun ate Australian tax payer can do about it.