“Bloody Upset”

Jackson Report

“Bloody Upset” says Somare

Papua New Guinea’s view of Australia has been marked by a splash of acid lately as a result of two important documents now under consideration in Canberra.

The first of these is the Jackson Report, produced at the behest of Foreign Minister, Bill Hayden, which reviews every aspect of Australian fore ign aid. Some of its recom mendations were leaked to the “Sydney Morning Herald.”

The second is the latest Aus tralian defence policy docu ment, details of which were leaked to the “National Times,” a Sydney-based weekly. Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, Mr Michael Somare, reacted angrily to the Jackson Report.

He was, he said in Sydney,

“bloody upset” by the contents of the report.

In the decade since Papua New Guinea gained independ ence Australia has given mas sive sums to support their na tional budget. In 1984/5 it will approach $3OO million and rep resent about a third of all Australian aid spending. Most importantly, the aid has been untied and, broadly, no accounting is asked of Port Moresby.

The Jackson committee sug gests that increasingly over the next five uears, aid should be tied to specific projects, and that those projects should be super vised to see that the money is efficiently employed.

They also say that continued large-scale aid should be made

to some degree contingent upon the PNG government im proving its grip on law and order. The report is critical of PNG’s economic development and administration.

Mr Somare objects, publicly and strenuously to the sug gested changes. “The present system has worked well, the country has strengthened, we are a good contributor to the stability of the region. We have achieved a major redistribution of wealth and income, our people are acquiring a larger share of the resources and opportunities of the private sec tor and we have extended education considerably.”

“All of that has been done in 10 years, without any social upheaval. So why set the clock back?” he demanded.

He said that if aid were tied bureaucracy would grow. Civil servants would “build great empires” while they “supervise us at great expense,” and the result would be less, rather than more efficiency.

A few days later Australia was given another sharp slap by PNG’s foveign minister, Mr Rabbie Namaliu, who is cur rently also more than some what terse with Indonesia over their military actions against Free West Papaua (OPM) re bels in Irian Jaya, and the very tense situation it has caused on the border. (See page 11, this issue).

According to the “National Times” the defence review document proposes that Aus tralia bring pressure to bear on PNG to “suppress the activi ties” of OPM rebels across the border in order to reduce a potential Indonesian threat to Papua New Guinea.

Mr Namaliu sent what is believed to be a very sharp diplomatic note to Canberra and then spoke publicly about what he had told Mr Hayden.

He said his government “would not tolerate” being told by Australia, or any other fore ign government, how to deal with the Free West Papua re bels.