to September
pp. 9-10 · Read in the full issue
PNG looks to September for The Day
From Gus Smales
in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea has a new tentative independence date—some time in September this year.
And this time the date looks like being the real thing, after 15 months of false alarms, rumours and targets which simply couldn’t be achieved.
The most recent unofficial target was to have been next June.
The Chief Minister, Mr Somare, confirmed towards the end of March that his Cabinet had been striving for a date in June. But Cabinet met in Port Moresby and abandoned the idea.
There just wasn’t time to clear up the necessary constitutional arrange ments in time, the ministers decided.
Under the new timetable the House of Assembly will meet in its present form between April 28 and May 2 for routine business. It will meet again as “the Constituent Assembly of Papua New Guinea” from May 5 to May 16 to adopt a national Constitution.
If the Constitutional Bill goes through as expected—and there is no reason to expect further delays— an independence date in September will then be approved.
Mr Somare has wanted indepen dence for well over a year, but two factors have held him back. The first was the need for holding together his coalition government in which all partners did not favour immediate independence.
Later, he gave an undertaking to the House that he would not pro ceed to independence until all con stitutional issues for the new nation were decided and complete.
Delay by the House of Assembly in reaching agreement on consti tutional matters has tied his hands since then.
He had hoped to declare indepen dence from Australia last December, then next June, but now the Septem ber date seems certain.
Cabinet discussed a series of sub missions on the independence time table.
Submissions from Mr Somare’s office stated it would be “politically
advantageous” for all parties to be absolutely clear on all constitutional issues before embarking on a vote.
Extra time was necessary if this ab solute clarity were to be achieved, the submission said.
Cabinet was also told that to hold to a tentative date in June was be coming increasingly risky if proper celebrations were to be held. There would be insufficient margin of time to invite heads of state and other overseas representatives.
Mr Somare said that the delays had occurred because of “the time necessary to produce a good home grown Constitution”.
Planters 7 Fears
Fears are growing among Aust ralian planters in Papua New Guinea that Australian Government attitudes may drastically affect the level of compensation for properties taken over by the PNG Government.
This became evident early in April when a government office dis closed unofficially that the Australian Government couldn’t make up its mind how much money to allocate to PNG as a compensation fund. It was also learnt that the Whitlam
government had rejected a scheme proposed by the PNG Government to provide a basis for compensating Australian nationals on plantation properties.
In theory, the matter of acquisition and compensation is entirely the responsibility of the PNG Govern ment, and subject entirely to PNG Government policy.
The Australian Government —to the annoyance of many Australians in PNG—has refused to accept any direct responsibilities towards its nationals.
The PNG Government has given an assurance that it will not take over any properties without due nego tiation and compensation.
But, at the same time, PNG is re lying on an ex-gratia offer of special aid funds from Australia to provide the pool from which compensation payments will be made. Until the extent of Australia’s allocation is known, either in total or on a year to year basis, PNG is unable to fix a compensation formula.
At present the PNG Government is acquiring properties only where land is urgently needed for its own nationals, and these pressures will govern the long-range operation of the acquisition scheme.