Crisis At The Top In Papua-New Guinea

Calls For Vigorous New Broom

By Stuart Inder, Editor of PIM.

The big Australian territory of Papua-New Guinea is undergoing a serious adminis nhnT.£ r ' SIS W ,. lth tHe tO P men variously apprehensive, confused, irritable or uninterested to be corrected m ° V6S ' The Sltuatlon needs a strong hand in the next six months if it is

T HE crisis has been precipitated A . . • The imminent retirement of the Administrator, Sir Donald Cleland. • Vacancies in the two top posts of Assistant Administrator and in other senior departmental posts. • Changes in the Territories Department in Canberra. • A period of flux and low morale m the Territory Public Service, which is resulting in a largescale waste of time at administrative headquarters, Port A ; Moresby.

At the end of February Canberra, aware of the crisis, was pressing for an early appointment of a new Admmistrator, to help right the situatl 2?' ... , The man in line for the post is an architect, Mr. John Overall, 52, Commissioner, National Capital Development Commission, Canberra.

If he finally takes the top job he will have on his hands the biggest set of problems he has yet tackled.

Not in the 13 years that I have taken a close interest in New Guinea have I seen the territory so confused at the administrative level as it is now * r . .

Sir Donald Can t Stay

Here are the mile posts in detail: Sir Donald Cleland turns 65 in June. Canberra wants him to retire at 65, and won’t agree to his request to be allowed to remain until the end of the year.

The main reason for the rejection is that Canberra thinks it important that the new Administrator should have a say in the selection of his two new Assistant Administrators and of the heads of several departm rvi S wbose P° sts are now vacant.

Admin, tW £ P ° StS ° f Assistant Administrator became vacant in H n H r ßeeTe The n. n. Keeve. the second, filled since

1957 by Dr. John Gunther, will be vacant in March when Dr. Gunther resigns to become vice-chancellor of the new University of Papua-New Guinea.

Dr. Gunther’s new £6,100 job was announced officially in Port Moresby on February 7, several days after PIM had revealed it (Feb., p. 11) The vice-chancellorship, which is not a Government appointment, was sought by Dr. Gunther after he had realised he was not going to be offered the post of Administrator, Although it was fortunate for the independent selection committee that Dr. Gunther happened to be avail able just at this time, for he is an excellent choice for the university post, his departure from New Guinea’s administrative and political scene has added considerably to the difficulties of the present crisis A i M rU« o A *- han g e In The System?

There is speculation in the Terri torY as to who will get the new Assistant Administrator posts, but it seems to me to be idle because the new Administrator may draw a new set of names out of the hat, or may change the system. .1 personally doubt if the new men will get the same authority as Dr.

Gunther and Mr. Reeve. , 1116 names so far mentioned, *°se W. Johnson, Director °* Education, and Mr. Frank Hender son ’ Direc tor of Agriculture, have, I suspect, been inspired by Dr.

Gunther’s wants and desires— although good choices in themselves, The filling of top departmental posts, such as Labour and Trade, and of various senior positions in a hig number of departments, will be no less vital than the Assistant Ad ministrator posts.

Vacancies have been growing in the last 12 months and the Pnhlir Serv “2 e ha * been losin 8 far too many experienced men, especially at the

middle level, which is the backbone of any service.

This has been caused by retire ment of many of the first postwar officials, and by resignations. Many of the resignations have been due to general dissatisfaction and un certainty over the future of their careers because nobody knows where the Territory is headed politically.

P-NG suffers from lack of target dates in this as in many other ways.

Resignations and retirements have altered the whole pattern of Public Sendee recruitment, with contract officers on two-year terms taking over from permanent officers. Of the 30 resignations in January, 24 were overseas officers, including permanent men.

Although the number of public servants is rising, the permanent officers are diminishing, and, as well, are being watered down by the ad dition of people on two-year con tracts. The hard core of experienced men is thus decreasing.

The long, and, at times, bitter fight between the public servants and the Commonwealth over the need for a compensation scheme has helped lower morale to its present poor state.

Compensation Approved

A scheme has now finally been approved by Cabinet and should be announced any day, and it will be important to see how it is accepted.

Despite this, more discipline and a new enthusiasm at the top are needed if public servants at adminis trative headquarters in Port Moresby are to give value for money. With Port Moresby merely going through the motions, Australia is certainly not getting value now.

The key to all these New Guinea problems is at present held by Canberra. And there, too, new working arrangements are being formed.

After two years in the post, the

Minister, Mr. C. E. Barnes, is only now beginning to translate his think ing into practical terms. He still relies to a great extent on the Secre tary of the department, Mr. G.

Warwick Smith.

Territories Short-Staffed

The department is generally short staffed —and short of good men par ticularly. It is beset with some of the problems of the New Guinea administration; too much staff turn over, lack of sufficient sound men on the middle levels and lack of drive caused by the fact that many public servants with ambition don’t consider the Territories Department has a future, and seek elsewhere.

Mr. Barnes, sincere, and more astute than he is given credit for, does not enjoy the challenge of authority, or of politics, as Mr.

Hasluck did —probably because Mr.

Barnes is less egocentric than Mr.

Hasluck.

He took over many Hasluck-made problems and has had to work them around the edges to get them into a satisfactory shape, and this has taken time.

His current weakness, and, I feel, the weakness of the Territories De partment generally, is lack of real awareness of the Territory’s political

problems. They are increasing in p P ace and complexity, but Canberra is concentrating most of its effort on pushing through the recommendations of the World Bank report on economic development ?

For following a recent visit to Canberra, I think Canberra genuinely believes that: • New Guinea needs a strong Ad diffiS°S&°DonaTdl who was dominated by Mr. • Morejecismns should be made • There should be faster moves towards Cabinet government, and more authority given the Under Secretaries and the House of Assembly. . . .

What disturbs me is that the desire to do the right thing in New Guinea may not be good enough, so fast are the problems multiplying and so few are the people experienced enoußh (q them Will Canberra in fact let go or will it dominate the new Administration too?

There can be no argument about the need for more decisions to be taken on the spot in New Guinea.

One of the strengths of Britain s system of colonial administration is the authority given to colonial ad

ministrators. A good man is able to obtain the room for manoeuvre that he needs.

This system developed because in the old days distance precluded colonial administrators from seeking frequent guidance from Whitehall.

New Guinea’s main weakness still is that Port Moresby and Canberra are too accessible to each other.

Another is that because New Guinea still depends on huge financial handouts it is being made to sing to Canberra’s tune. Any British colonial administrator knows that even his authority will come under more fre quent challenge from home if his territory is dependent on aid funds.

What, it seems to me, is badly needed now is a compromise between what Canberra thinks it ought to do for the Territory’s own good and what the New Guinea House of Assembly, with its local majority, feels that Australia ought to do for New Guinea’s good.

Also, the time has ended when the Territory can be administered through some mysterious and vulnerable system of personal alignments, loyal ties and ambitions. We need an efficient, no-nonsense colonial service in New Guinea and Canberra. • See "New Guinea's Despondent Police Force" p. 51.