Up Front

with the Publisher

Two quotes from a PIM piece last December: “The Queensland Government takes a hard line over the future of the islands in the Torres Strait, a political hot potato which is bound to feature on the parliamentary menus of both Australia and PNG in the next few months . . . The new nation of Papua New Guinea and Australia have vowed to foster a lasting friendship, but how long will it last?”

Not very long if the ratbag Premier of the Australian State of Queensland keeps stirring the stew.

In June, PNG Foreign Affairs Minister Sir Maori Kiki and Australian Foreign Af fairs Minister Andrew Peacock came up with a compromise agreement on the vex ed border question. The new border between PNG and Australia is to run south of the islands of Boigu, Dauan and Saibai, which are Australian islands within a stone’s throw of the PNG mainland. Just how far south is yet to be fixed, but at least it won’t be skirting PNG’s beaches, as it does now. But the three islands will remain Australian, their people Australian citizens.

It’s an unusual compromise, in theory not neat, but in practice, in that area with its long history of friendly “togetherness”, practical. It’s a typical Islands’ approach to a problem, with grey areas recognised and accepted. Living together means com promise, consensus; few problems have a

simple right or wrong.

Andrew' Peacock, who has great regard for Papua New Guineans, deserves credit, with the Australian Cabinet, for an enlightened approach in handling the first major dispute between PNG and Australia.

Not so Queensland Premier Bjelke- Petersen. He’s loudly, insultingly opposed to any concession on his State boundaries.

Says he, “A nation smaller than Queensland has been able to put it all over Canberra, even though it has no legal or moral right to claim any part of the Torres Strait except for its greed to lay hands on oil supposed to occur in this part of Queensland and Australia.”

Stripped to essentials, what the Queensland State Premier is saying is, “It’s power politics! We’re bigger, so we win!”

Thank God his view is not supported by the Australian Government. But that kind of attitude is too commonly held in Australia nevertheless.

The Island nations of the South Pacific are their own men now. They may be small but they're entitled to equal consideration.

What’s more, nobody should make the mistake of believing that the “Pacific way” of consensus and respect for others means they’ll display no steely resolve should all other avenues for getting a fair go fail.

When close friends fall out, the struggle can be bitter.

Stuart Inder

Andrew Peacock