PNG ATTITUDE

Letter to the Hon Peter Slipper MP

Harry Topham

Dear Peter,

I am writing seeking your assistance for some form of recognition for Australians who previously served their country as patrol officers commonly referred to as Kiaps in Papua New Guinea from 1945 to Papua New Guinea’s independence in 1975.

There has been very little recognition of the role former patrol officers played in assisting Papua New Guinea towards independence during that period.

Australia’s role as colonial power was by other colonial country’s histories somewhat brief.

Australia’s role as a former colonial power was by comparison with other colonial powers of that period, something; I believe Australia should be proud of.

Although I like most of my former colleagues, believe that PNG’s independence may have been a little premature due to the insufficient infrastructure and human resource capabilities in place at that time however the role Australia played in assisting that country in economic, social, education and political development is something Australia as a nation should be proud of.

Unfortunately post independence, the PNG government of the day saw Australia’s role in it previous history as being irrelevant and the role of the former administrators, namely the patrol officers as a anachronism and dare I say it a threat to their power base hence most former patrol officers under duress from their new political masters left PNG shortly after independence.

The effect the cultural exposure, patrol officers experienced was to them selves un noticed, living and working with indigenous people at grass roots level tends to change one perceptions and a lot of that culture rubbed off on the kiaps resulting in changed individuals who when eventually returning to Australia, found themselves regarded as being outsiders ironically regarded as a proud term previously cited by Sir Hubert Murray a former Colonial Administrator of Papua who referred to his patrol officers as his “Outside Men”

Those older former patrol officers, who were permanent officers had the advantages of redundancy packages to tide them over, were more fortunate.

Many of the later younger ex kiap generation who were contract officers, post independence found themselves back in Australia having to try to re assimilate and find new less stimulating careers or occupations, a path many found very difficult as too much of PNG had rubbed off on their psyche and their superannuation provident fund insufficient to retire on.

I first journeyed to PNG in 1968 remaining until 1974, as a young 23 year old, initially looking for adventure and challenges and like most of my colleagues were inspired by the written recounts of the previous exploits of pre WW2 patrol officer legends such as Monkton, Hides, Champion, Townsend, Sinclair and others.

Alas, the sense of adventure sought did not take into consideration the hardships that would be faced by those seeking adventure nor the isolation factors associated in living in harsh locations.

The country at that time, was still in early stages of development, the terrain in most instances undeveloped requiring serious hard walking and living in areas with no services available or what services that were available very basic in nature.

These experiences of hardship and isolation, moulded what were initially young, inexperienced and some what naïve young men into stoic, laconic individualists who has a strong sense of esprit de corp often misinterpreted by those living in the urban townships as being conceited and arrogant.

The role kiaps played in the development of PNG has never really been fully documented, a sad fact that probably never will fully be revealed due to the passing of time and that the ranks of ex kiaps are thinning as most ex kiaps now are well over the age of 60 with probabilities that due to past exposures to diseases in PNG they remaining will probably pass away before their natural selection age.

As such I feel it would be timely for the Australian Government to formally recognise the role those young Australians played in the development of PNG and seek your assistance in raising this issue with the relevant current Minister.

Kind Regards

Harry Topham
Ex Kiap

Now is the time to get behind the kiaps

Like many readers of PNG ATTITUDE, I worked in association with and observed the nation-building work of Kiaps in PNG over a number of years. I formed a lifelong respect for these men – and no less for the wives and families who supported them in what they did.

For some time now, ex-Kiap Chris Viner-Smith has been striving to obtain some form of official Australian recognition of the Kiaps’ services. This has not always been easy – there are some Kiaps who think the notion of recognition is effete, which I have to say I find hard to understand.

Meanwhile, Chris has a submission currently before the Australian Parliament to give some formal recognition to Kiaps – and I think this is the time to get behind it. As a group, the contribution of Kiaps to the development of Papua New Guinea was critical and it was unique. I’m sure that any fair-minded consideration of their pioneering role would reach this conclusion.

So, having said that, let me turn to a letter from Paul Oates:

Dear ex kiaps

Responses from local Members and the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs (Hon Duncan Kerr) supporting Chris' submission are now starting to be received. All have promised to raise the matter with the Prime Minister.

If you haven't already done so, please contact every ex kiap you know and have them write to their local member, Duncan Kerr and the PM to support this initiative.

When you e mail or write, please let Chris or myself know as Chris has done a lot of work on our behalf and he should have all the support we can give him.

And this is where you come in. You can write a note (the shorter the better) to your local MP supporting Chris Viner-Smith’s submission. Just say something like: “The Kiaps built Papua New Guinea. Give them the recognition they deserve”. That’ll do.

And you can find the email address of your local MP here.

Pacific work scheme about to launch

Papua New Guinea workers could be picking fruit in Australia early next year after the signing of an international agreement this week. Three farming areas in Australia - Swan Hill and Robinvale in north-western Victoria and Griffith in the NSW Riverina - have been selected to participate in the Pacific seasonal worker pilot scheme. PNG workers were admitted to the deal after a last minute change of heart by the Australian Government in August.

Australian farmers hope the workers will arrive in January, although many details such as accommodation and transport still have to be ironed out. The finalisation of the scheme ends months of uncertainty for growers.

A delegation of ministers and public servants from PNG and other Pacific island countries will travel to Swan Hill this week for talks about the program. Swan Hill Mayor Gary Norton applauded the news. "We reckon it's great. The sooner the better. We've got a lot of horticultural growers at the moment waiting for workers," he said. "We need a good, reliable workforce for the picking. When the fruit is ready to be picked it's got to be picked that day, it's no good the next day."

Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Duncan Kerr, said up to 2500 workers will come to Australia for up to seven months each year. National Farmers Federation president David Crombie said about 100 workers would start within weeks.

He said the horticulture industry had a nationwide shortage of 22,000 seasonal workers and the scheme was critical to ensure farmers kept producing food. "At present, in the Pacific Islands, we have a ready, willing and able workforce happy to make the trek into regional Australia to fill these positions. Australian farmers are ready to welcome them with open arms.”

Many voices contend for B’ville influence

The day job of Steve Mark [left], who I met at a rather soggy garden party in Bowral yesterday, is as NSW Legal Services Commissioner. One of his other passions, in his role as Chairman of the International Commission of Jurists (Australia), is the development of a workable common law code for the people of Bougainville.

The rule of law in Bougainville broke down totally during the civil war, and was replaced by the rule of AK-47. Following the cessation of hostilities, an unhappy mixture of ‘gun justice’ and various forms of traditional law prevail. This situation is neither pleasant for most of the people of Bougainville nor conducive to the economic and social development of the autonomous PNG province.

So, in a few weeks time, Mark and some colleagues will return to the island to continue an innovative task of blending traditional and common law – seeking to find a happy medium that will suit the needs of the fiercely independent and proud Bougainvilleans and the imperative to redevelop a Province in which little infrastructure remains but where, although the Panguna mine is finished forever, the central cordillera remains a rich source of gold, copper, silver and other minerals.

Such wealth lies there, in fact, that Chinese and Russian companies are competing for the favours of the Bougainville people in seeking to exploit it. (Australia is not to be seen.) But the question remains, under which law?

With the much-respected President Kabui dead of a heart attack a few months ago and a new election due in the near future, there are many contending influences for power in Bougainville. The hope that the Province would quickly settle back to normality after the civil war has not been realised.

That beautiful island with its fine people is still very much a work in progress. And it is clear that much of that work confronts the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs.

Positive response to ‘honour kiaps’ move

Reports in the PNG media about Chris Viner-Smith’s efforts to get the Australian government to honour the pioneering work of patrol officers have drawn an “unprecedented positive response” in PNG. The story was widely and prominently reported in PNG yesterday.

Under the headline ‘Recognise Aussie kiaps’, the PNG National reported Mr Viner-Smith saying that “their [the kiaps’] efforts were part of a forgotten Australian history that was never officially recognised. Kiaps brought law and order to PNG’s remote tribal areas to make way for Australian teachers, agricultural officers, infrastructure and health workers to go and work there for the first time. It’s Australia’s history, and it was a glorious chapter. I don’t know why we’ve been forgotten.”

The Post-Courier in its article (‘Aust want to honour kiaps’) quoted Mr Viner-Smith as commenting that there are positive signs the kiaps will obtain gain the acknowledgement they are seeking. Pacific Island Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Duncan Kerr said the submission would be viewed seriously as kiaps were an integral part of the colonial administration in PNG.

Fearless Aussie govt officials want PNG frontier work honour

By Ilya Gridneff

PORT MORESBY, Oct 30 AAP - The Australian government will be asked to honour the pioneering work of Australian patrol officers who brought modernity and development to Papua New Guinea's tribes between 1949 and 1974.

Chris Viner-Smith, a former patrol officer, or 'kiap', said their efforts are part of a forgotten Australian history that was never officially recognised.

Kiaps brought law and order to PNG's remote tribal areas so Australian teachers, agricultural officers, infrastructure and health workers could work for the first time, he said.

"It's Australia's history, and it was a glorious chapter, I don't know why we've been forgotten," he told AAP.

"We don't put ourselves in the same class as a Kokoda veteran, but both share the remarkable heritage of being Australian and shaping a new future for PNG," he said.

After World War II and before PNG Independence in 1975 more than 8000 Australian public servants ran PNG society as an external Australian territory.

Of those administrators 2500 kiaps regularly trekked to isolated villages to conduct weeks or months worth of surveys while also providing basic services like law and order.

"My first task was to get 40 prisoners to build an air-strip in a swamp. Imagine that as a 21-year-old in PNG in 1961, when there were no roads, no radios, no support.

"You just had to survive or you would die," he said

"It was not the people, it was the country itself. It was an alien land full of danger.

"Often the kiap was the first step towards development and modernisation, then they would administrate and other groups would follow," he said.

Viner-Smith said he has support from politicians, the PNG Association of Australia, the ex-kiap network and the Police Federation.

"There are positive signs we will gain the acknowledgement we deserve," he said.

Pacific Island Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Duncan Kerr said the submission would be viewed seriously as kiaps were an integral part of Australian colonial administration in PNG.

"During the time where PNG was a territory of Australia they represented the face of Australia's administration to hundreds of communities throughout PNG.

"The experience and individual development of many of those who were kiaps in PNG formed the basis of their mutual respect and admiration for the people of PNG. Many of those ex-patrol offices have been PNG advocates since independence

"The governments new partnership approach to PNG and the broader Pacific, an approach based on mutual respect and responsibility, builds on this legacy," he said.

Getting serious about Pacific broadcasting

In a thoughtful opinion piece in today’s Australian newspaper, Malcolm Colless asks a question that will be resonating through the corridors of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: whether the ABC is the appropriate organisation to build Australia's image internationally. “If not,” says Colless, “it should be uncoupled from this role.”

Colless takes as his starting point the Federal Government's review of national broadcasting, launched last week and argues that this offers Kevin Rudd with an ideal opportunity to demonstrate he is serious about enhancing Australia's profile in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Surely what we need is a strong and credible international voice if we believe that our contribution to, and significance in, the region should be taken seriously,” he says. “Failure to take a hard look at this will show that the Government, despite the rhetoric about Australia's future role in the Asia-Pacific zone, is not prepared to risk bruising precious egos in Foreign Affairs or at the ABC. And the result will be that we will continue to be saddled with an international broadcasting service whose primary function seems to be to deliver sporting programs to expats in hotels and Australian diplomatic missions across the region.”

“But to do this he has to first walk through a minefield of political correctness and challenge the shibboleths extolling the sanctity of editorial independence inside the ABC, something that has entrenched support from the bureaucracy. Failure to confront this issue will leave Australia hopelessly outgunned in the rapidly developing communications battle for relevance in the region.”

You can read the full article here.

Source: ABC not up to engaging with the neighbours’, Malcolm Colless, The Australian, 28 October 2008

Australia blind to China PNG influence

This is an extract from a discussion paper written by the ANU’s Prof Hank Nelson last year, which did not receive the attention it deserved in the Australia. Email me if you would like to read the complete essay.

There is almost no similarity to, or continuity with, the Chinese in Papua New Guinea now and the Chinese of the 1930s who, even if born in New Guinea, held a certificate of registration of an alien on which the bearer was identified by his thumbprint. The Chinese were then a minority, largely unprotected by a home government, subject to petty discrimination, deliberately avoiding party politics and only entering the public arena to make a general show of being loyal citizens in such events as the Rabaul Empire Day parade.

The Chinese in Papua New Guinea now outnumber Australians by two to one; some are backed by a powerful government in China which is extending its global political and economic reach, and some have connections to other governments in Southeast Asia; they are engaged in billion dollar resource projects; they have joined vigorously in public debate, hiring high competence in public relations, and one of the major resource firms owns a national daily newspaper which is partisan when the interests of any activities of the parent company are an issue; and they have become involved in public decision-making from the highest to the lowest levels….

Outside commentators have to be careful not to accuse the Chinese of illegal or undesirable actions as though they are the only national group involved. The Chinese stand out because they are new, numerous and involved in the largest and most public ventures, not because they are the most venal. Commentators also have to accept the obvious: the Chinese have every right to pursue national, company and personal goals in Papua New Guinea. Scrutiny of legality, morality and mutual benefit to Papua New Guineans must be applied equally to all foreigners….

Australia continues to speak – and issue reports – as though it is not just the dominant player in the region but virtually the only big player, that this is where the rest of the world expects Australia to have expertise, and where Australia provides most aid, guides development and intervenes at times of natural and man-made disasters.

When Papua New Guineans suggest that they do not want to be beholden to Australians and that there are alternatives, this is scarcely taken seriously in Australia. It should be, and in future it will have to be. Failure to recognize growing Chinese engagement in Papua New Guinea was apparent in recent statements by the Australian government and opposition.

Hank Nelson is an Emeritus Professor and Visiting Fellow of the Division of Pacific and Asian History and Chair of State, Society and Governance in Melanesia at the Australian National University.

Source: Extract from Conclusion to  ‘The Chinese in Papua New Guinea’ by Hank Nelson, Discussion Paper 2007/3, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU

Corruption renders PNG police powerless

A Port Moresby Correspondent

This morning the PNG National newspaper had two articles on its front page. The first was about a tribal fight that went up and down the highway in the Western Highlands for a distance of 10 km and lasted several hours. There was no report of the Police attending.

The second incident was in Bougainville, where a son, protecting his mother, received serious stab wounds and is now in hospital. The Police know the identity of the assailants and have sent out word for the leaders to bring them to the police station. Surely this is a case where the Police must go out and arrest the perpetrators and bring them in forcibly if necessary. After all, the law has been broken.

Increasingly people appear to have contempt for the Police and either ignore them as having no official status or feel they can operate directly against them. People apparently believe that their leaders and politicians will protect them against arrest by the Police. They believe the community can control the Police, politicians and public servants. That people can make any sort of threat without retaliation.

What has happened to law and order in PNG?

Corruption is probably the main cause. Any situation can be bought out of, or so it would appear. And this is obviously what the community believes.

Every day there are articles in the press that demonstrate this. And what is the Government doing to stop it? I would suggest the Government does not care, nor do the politicians – providing they are being paid off everything is okay.

I am a PNG citizen and first came to the country more than half a century ago. I intend (or should that be intended?) to retire here.

Montevideo memorial to be dedicated

My old PNG sparring partner, Phil Ainsworth, is now managing director of King & Co property consultants in Brisbane and, more relevant to this story, President of the Ex-Members Association of the Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles.

Phil and his Association have trod where the Federal Government has been reluctant (or too dilatory) to go. Because on 11 November next – Remembrance Day – they will place at Subic Bay a plaque to the memory of those Australians who died in the sinking of the Montevideo Maru [left] on 1 July 1942. Some 1,053 mainly Australian prisoners of war died in this, the worst maritime disaster in our nation’s history.

A number of organisation’s- including the PNG Association and Channel 9 - and many individual Australians – have been on the Federal Government’s hammer to fund a search for the vessel, to declare the site a Commonwealth war grave and to erect a plaque in the Philippines. The net result of these efforts, so far, seems to have been confusion (the project flicked from Prime Minister’s Office to Defence to the Environment) and an ominous silence.

But now NGVR & PNGVR Ex-Members Association, 2/22 Battalion Lark Force Association, PNG Association of Australia and Greenbank RSL in Queensland have clubbed together to fund a memorial plaque (we’ll let you know the inscription when it’s decided) that will erected on a site overlooking the waters where the Montevideo Maru went down, tragically torpedoed by an allied submarine.

Large Japanese force that invaded Rabaul in January 1942 had overwhelmed the men. The memorial will honour the 818 from 2 /22 Battalion and attached units, 34 from the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles and 201 civilians who perished, some as young as 16.

Despite the Australian Government’s attitude to this, the group of associations has asked the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines to dedicate the plaque and fittingly this will happen on Remembrance Day. We’ll keep you informed.

Guest worker scheme on the way

Senator Chris Evans, the Federal Immigration Minister, last night introduced new regulations to allow Pacific Islanders, including Papua New Guineans, to accept seasonal guest work in Australia.

Senator Evans said the existing Special Programs Visa (Subclass 416) has been expanded to cover workers invited to be part of the Government's guest worker scheme. (Comment - this initiative didn't require any great techno-legal breakthrough, it was only a matter of wanting to do it.)

The pilot scheme will allow up to 2,500 workers from four Pacific nations to work in Australia's horticulture industry for up to seven months a year. The first workers will arrive at the end of the year.

Overall, a small but significant step. The less publicised easing of visa restrictions on Papua New Guineans entering Australia will probably have an even greater impact.

PNG: Achieving a change in direction

Paul Oates is concerned about events and trends in Papua New Guinea and his thoughtful and provocative paper describing how these problems manifest themselves and making some recommendations for their alleviation is now available here.

Paul believes that, if Australia does nothing, PNG will continue on a downhill slope to further poverty and corruption notwithstanding increasing amounts of external aid funds. “If the process of ‘sweeping the dust under the carpet continues,” Paul writes, “then potential to prevent a humanitarian disaster on our doorstep will be lost forever.”

Well worth a read – and a response.

Securing a change in direction for PNG

Paul Oates is concerned about events and trends in Papua New Guinea and has written a paper describing how these problems manifest themselves and making some recommendations for their alleviation. Paul and I hope that readers – whether or not they agree with Paul’s analysis and prescription – may be stimulated to air their own views on this important, perhaps critical, issue.

We offer a short extract from ‘PNG: How to achieve a change in direction’, and there is a link to enable you to download the full paper. You can provide feedback in our Comments section or to me directly here.

At Independence in 1976 PNG was on the threshold of developing into a stable and prosperous nation. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Australia built up a regional government infrastructure throughout the country that provided essential law and order, education, medical assistance and all manner of essential support services in every area in PNG.

Australia then had a wonderful opportunity to bring PNG into the modern age and stand together with it as a friend and neighbour. Unfortunately, that opportunity was allowed to atrophy for want of interest. There was a mutual disregard.

In 2008, 33 years after Independence , much of the PNG government infrastructure has disappeared completely and yet the wages bill for PNG public servants continues to rise. Why is this so?

Among the recommendations Paul makes for securing a change in direction in PNG are:

1. Fund, strengthen and reform the PNG government infrastructure as a first priority for AusAID.

2. Reissue an updated PNG Government Code of Conduct and Ethics agreed to by government, unions and business. The Code of Conduct must be signed on behalf of all citizens by the PNG Prime Minister and disseminated to all levels. This must be encouraged by Australia as a matter of priority.

3. Issue a deadline for correct, ethical practice to commence. Offer an amnesty for people to come clean and testify.

4. Institute anti corruption tribunals and, after the deadline expires, use them to investigate and send new cases for trial to the PNG courts.

5. At the same time, improve Public Service wages, salaries and conditions of service on the premise that all PNG government employees sign performance based pay agreements specifying compliance with the new Code of Conduct.

Paul believes that, if Australia does nothing, PNG will continue on a downhill slope to further poverty and corruption notwithstanding increasing amounts of external aid funds. “If the process of ‘sweeping the dust under the carpet continues,” Paul writes, “then potential to prevent a humanitarian disaster on our doorstep will be lost forever.”

Download the full text of Paul’s paper here.  Download A_change_in_direction.pdf

Washing the dirty linen in PNG

Paul Oates is a thoughtful and realistic observer of the Australia-Papua New Guinea relationship. Who knows, some day his talents may be chanced upon by some of the bureaucrats whose job it is to advance that relationship.

Paul has taken to task comments by a company called Millennium Card Ltd (MCL), which has branded the recently-announced seasonal worker scheme as demeaning for PNG. MCL executive Alan Bodger said (from Western Australia) that the Australian government was imposing unnecessary requirements that made it hard for him to enlist professional PNG citizens to work in Australia.

"The process is hard and the obstacles are political. The seasonal workers scheme is demeaning to your nation as it focuses only on placing unskilled and semi-skilled workers," Mr Bodger told the PNG National.

Mr Bodger said his company is working to have some PNG nurses registered and approved to work in Western Australia. He said he’s also trying to recruit 100 security guards to work in Perth. He said his company had applied for entry visas for more than 400 skilled and professional PNG people but the Australian government was not helpful. "The unfortunate issue is that the Australian government obstructs at every stage and increases bureaucratic procedures that have to be fulfilled. It is only paying lip-service to your Government and will willingly promote Filipino and Chinese (Asian) workers in preference to your people," he told The National.

And that last comment was more than enough for Mr Oates. “Exactly what is Mr Bodger doing to help the situation or is he just trying to inflame it to feather his own nest”, asked a feisty Paul. “There seems to be a real conflict of interest here and Australia's image is not being helped by this kind of 'dirty linen' being aired in the PNG news”.

PNG relations: breaking the Gordian knot

Paul Oates

John Fowke’s erudite article is very close to the thoughts of many of us. The question that hangs in the air is: how can we change the status quo? It could well be that Somare is losing his grip and his cartel will be swept aside, but who takes over? More of the same or something different?

The bad old days in South America comes rapidly to mind, where one dictator was continually replaced by another under the guise of a revolution of the people. People power is just that: leaderless and disorganised. If Sir Mekere Maurata, Sir Julius Chan and Bart Philemon were to lead a coalition (and it does have to be a coalition) to power, will they be any different than the present lot, given the traditional way political power has to be won and kept?

What has changed with DFAT since John Fowke wrote his piece in 2006? Not much, if anything. Sure there has been a change in government, but there doesn't seem to have been a regime change at AusAID nor in its methodology.

The essence of the problem is that there are at least two different and independent impediments to changing the current impasse. While the causes of each impediment might be worlds apart, each conspires to keep the other in place. The 'Doyens of DFAT' (and this includes hangers on) and the ‘traditional PNG bigman culture' may be dissimilar in background yet they are distinctly similar in their desire to prevent change. They are both doing very nicely, thank you.

Why change if we don't have to? That's the nub of the problem. So what's the answer? There's only one real response: agreed responsibility and accountability.

The weak points of both camps (DFAT and the PNG elite) are their political power bases. To hold the collective conglomeration of our foreign aid programs accountable would be to attack the Gordian Knot. To get the Australian government to elucidate a workable and accountable aid program for PNG and the Pacific Rim is something to be worked towards.

The second, equally important initiative must come from the PNG people through their elected leaders. Here there may be a glimmer of hope as Sir Mekere and Bart Philemon actually started to effect worthwhile changes before they were white anted and ended up in Opposition.

If a responsible and accountable PNG government were to require the Australian government to effect overdue change to our ‘neighbourly’ foreign aid architecture, it would be a good forward step.

Similarly, if the PNGAA were to suggest a round table where interested organisations could be evaluated on their effectiveness in achieving results, maybe there might be some way ahead for a more positive outcome. What would not be productive would be to commission yet another 'talkfest'.

An agreed agenda with stated outcomes and benchmarks should be set in place prior to any conference taking place. Invitations could then be issued to all those who have something constructive to offer.

Australia has to do much better for PNG

John Fowke

This article has been previously published (in 'Quadrant' and the PNG 'National') but richly deserves another airing. John Fowke has devoted 50 years to Papua New Guinea, and makes a plausible case that Australia is ‘getting it wrong'. This extract is reproduced with John’s permission, and you can also download the whole article [see below] - KJ

It is a characteristic both of AusAID and its partners - the private consultancies that plan and execute projects - that the word ‘memory’ is not in their vocabulary…. In fact the whole sisterhood/brotherhood of the aid industry, the departmental bureaucrats and the consultancies concerned, is collectively very quiet about what it does. This begs the obvious question: why?

Australians in general together with the breed described in the media as ‘Pacific Specialists’ really don’t understand just how different PNG society is from that which occupies Australia. The ‘Pacific Specialists’ upon whose advice aid programs delivered in PNG are based obviously draw from a Western matrix for their ideas, not only because this is usually the only basis they have, but also because it is the unstated but underlying objective of all these projects to Westernise the recipient society in some measure.

With only a superficial understanding of the groups of people they are working with it is natural that engagement and achievement also are superficial, together with results. PNG is a highly convoluted maze both in a physical and a conceptual sense. Nevertheless, there is a way into this maze, and it involves knowledge of both the culture and the language of the people targeted. An ability engendered by the interest and initiative needed to move freely and without fear in street-side and village society; to speak the lingua franca as it is spoken by the people.

To be accepted and welcomed as a friend by ordinary Papua New Guineans. Whilst the remnants of the old Australian School of Pacific Administration may have informed the early development of ANU’s School of Pacific Studies a continued offering of courses helpful to those of a mind to take up the Pacific challenge (if such people there are) is entirely lacking so far as this writer is aware. More’s the pity. The lack is so obvious, manifest in any encounter with a young Australian DFAT official or Australian project-consultant.

The writer has often had cause to feel angry at the bland and comfortable assumption that you can take a thirty-year-old MBA from a teaching position in some Godforsaken TAFE College in country Victoria and confidently put him in charge of producing a relatively complex set of results in a rural setting in PNG. Just watching these young men and women smiling uncertainly and speaking very slowly in what they imagine to be a form of broken English comprehensible to their little captive audiences is enough to make ones hair turn white.

On the other hand it is just as aggravating to be present in a hotel largely taken over for an Australian-funded police seminar, and to find that whilst the PNG police officers attending the seminar socialise together in the bars and bistro areas, the Aussie consultants presenting the seminar arrogantly dine separately in the hotel’s high-cost restaurant. Insulting enough in a Western setting, in Melanesia where the sharing of food is the basis for all meaningful interaction this sort of behavior is both outrageous and provocative. The writer has been witness to many such instances of the inability or unwillingness of Australian advisors and consultants to engage at a personal level.

Download 'Getting_it_Wrong_in_PNG'

‘Getting it wrong in PNG’ by John Fowke. The article was published in ‘Quadrant’ in December 2006 and in the PNG ‘National’ in January 2007.

Opposition divided on labour scheme

Federal National Party politician Kay Hull [left] has defended the Government's new Pacific island worker scheme against attacks from Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson. Dr Nelson says there should be enough unemployed Australians willing to work. He has criticised the plan as bringing in "dirt poor Pacific islanders" to help farmers.

But Ms Hull says many fruit growers in her southern New South Wales electorate are in desperate need of pickers and would welcome the Pacific islanders. She says they have tried for many years to attract Australian workers, with little success. "There is an absolute recognition for years and years and years that there has been a labour crisis and a shortage in this electorate," she said. "None of the endeavours that have been put in place have resolved it. My growers deserve a fair go."

Ms Hull says the farmers she represents sometimes have to let fruit rot on the ground because they cannot find enough pickers. She has called on Dr Nelson to visit her electorate in southern NSW to see the dire circumstances facing farmers. "You simply cannot live in a city electorate and make these decisions," she said.

Source: Hull throws support behind Pacific workers scheme, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 21 August 2008

Labour scheme minimal but good signal

The Federal Government blind-sided some of us over its Pacific guest workers announcement yesterday. All the harmonics were that PNG should prepare for disappointment, but it was included in the scheme. This was both a good decision in itself and because of the strong signals it sends to PNG about Australia's commitment to the bilateral relationship. Likewise the foreshadowed refinement of visa processes for Papua New Guineans, an overdue but still welcome initiative. That said, the labour scheme is minimalist, however it is a start and – as today’s posturing by the Federal Opposition demonstrated - the domestic politics were potentially quite difficult for the Rudd Government.

PNG included in guest worker program

The straw in the wind was illusory and the breeze in the trees whispered nothing. Contrary to all expectations, Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke [right] has announced that the Pacific Island guest worker scheme to start later this year will include Papua New Guineans.

This decision, when added to the easier visa processes foreshadowed by the office of the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs two days ago, breathes life into Australia's special relationship with PNG and gives meaning to the Rudd Government's commitment to strengthen bonds between the two countries.

Mr Burke said the three-year pilot scheme will focus on the horticulture industry, especially in harvesting fruit and vegetables. He said 2,500 visas will be made available for workers from Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to work in Australia for up to seven months in any given year. The Government is cooperating with industry to identify which regions will participate, with Swan Hill in Victoria and Griffith in New South Wales the most favoured.

The Opposition criticised the proposed scheme, saying it lacks detail on how Pacific Island workers will fit into the Australian labour market. The Government will review the scheme after 18 months.

PNG: no labour scheme, but new visa deal

While it seems Papua New Guinea will not be included in a trial Pacific labour mobility scheme, it has been revealed that the Australian and PNG governments are working to develop a pioneering work and holiday visa arrangement. The bureaucratic hoops Papua New Guineans have to jump through to obtain visas for Australia has been a gnawing problem in bilateral relations.

In a letter to me, Brian Mitchell, chief of staff to Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs, has given the strongest official indication yet that PNG will not be part of the proposed pilot labour mobility scheme to be announced at the Pacific Forum in Niue next week. Mr Mitchell was replying to my request that the Federal Government give consideration to including PNG in the scheme, a proposal that has strong support within PNG itself.

But Mr Mitchell is preparing PNG for a let down. “The selection of partner countries in any limited-scope pilot [should not] be misread as reflective of the state of bilateral relations,” he wrote. “We are aware that all our Pacific island neighbours would wish to participate in any such scheme and that some may be disappointed if that proves impossible.”

And he was careful not to put too high a value on the impacts of the scheme. “Whatever the outcome of that [Pacific Forum] decision, it is important to note that a labour mobility pilot should not be considered a panacea for the challenges of unemployment and underemployment”

It’s not all bad news, though. Mr Mitchell pointed to Australia's current openness to PNG’s interests in labour mobility, “reflected in the significant, and growing, numbers of skilled PNG workers who are already participating in the Australian labour market.”

He also said work is underway for Australia and Papua New Guinea to collaborate on workforce planning in the context of resource developments such as the proposed Liquid Natural Gas project. And he revealed that “the two countries are also working well to put in place a Work and Holiday visa program, a first for a Pacific island country.”

Rudd likely to disappoint PNG workers

The Asia-Pacific editor of the Sydney Morning Herald has today reinforced doubts that Papua New Guinea will get a guernsey when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces a pilot scheme to bring seasonal farm workers to Australia at next week’s Pacific Islands Forum.

“We can expect [the scheme] to be highly cautious, and limited to a handful of the Pacific's medium-sized countries - such as Vanuatu, Tonga and Kiribati,” writes Hamish McDonald.

The Rudd scheme, a bit like the man himself, will be unadventurous and just a bit fluffy. The nations supplying labour and the model of the program will be identical to the so-called ‘New Zealand experiment’ that has been operating successfully for the last two years and is now an established part of rural life in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

The New Zealand scheme has something of a neo-colonial air about it: hiring mostly married young men; intimations that, if there is misbehaviour, whole villages will be barred from the scheme; monitoring to see that workers bank their wages and remit them securely. Recruitment firms, churches and Rotary clubs are involved in a careful approach that also has a solid upside of care. So long as it doesn’t suffocate individual freedoms.

An estimated 5000 workers will be invited on to Australian farms, orchards and vineyards to deal with what the National Farmers Federation says are crops rotting because of a 22,000 shortfall of unskilled labour. But there will be no Papua New Guineans. “If and when [the scheme] builds up,” says McDonald, “and extends to the larger and more strife-prone countries such as PNG, the seasonal labour traffic can make a real difference to the so-called ‘arc of instability’ and thus to Australia's strategic outlook.”

PNG’s High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani, has said if PNG is excluded from the labour program, it will represent a severe test of the relationship with Australia. “It would be a tragedy if that happens,” Mr Lepani remarked earlier this year. “It will set our PNG-Australia relations in a very negative light again. Australia should start with PNG.”

Earlier this month, the PNG Post-Courier editorialised: “The worker scheme could be an excellent boost to relations and trade and give Australia a chance to prove its pan-Pacific credentials are not just hot air. Many of our citizens are already showing their worth and being accepted as doctors, engineers and pilots down south. Why not our labourers, vetted and tied to normal conditions?”

If PNG is excluded from the pilot scheme, one can only hope that Kevin Rudd and Duncan Kerr, the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, have squared it away with the Somare Government and, in doing so, offered some indiaction of when PNG will be involved.

The Pacific Forum meeting in Niue kicks off on Tuesday.

Test of Australia-PNG relations looms

Federal Parliament opens its Spring session on Tuesday 26 August but before then the Labor Government will face an early test of its vaunted new relationship with Papua New Guinea. At the Pacific islands Forum in Niue from 19-21 August, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will detail a trial guest worker scheme for Pacific islanders. The big question is whether workers from PNG will be included in the scheme.

 PNG High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani [right], has said the Rudd government has been working hard to normalise the relationship between the countries but, if PNG is excluded from the labour program, it will represent a severe test. “It would be a tragedy if that happens,” Mr Lepani has said. “It will set our PNG-Australia relations in a very negative light again. Australia should start with PNG. It's very important that Australia gives a serious consideration to the largest Pacific Island and its closest neighbour, tied to its national security interests and much of the aid money is also directed to Australia's national security interest. So all these will be put to the test if I may venture to say on these labour mobility issues or seasonal workers issues.”

One of the reasons Australia will initiate the pilot seasonal worker scheme is to try to improve relations with Pacific countries and it would be a deep irony, given this goal, if PNG’s exclusion from the scheme should once again plunge the association with Australia into crisis.

The trial has been supported by Australian business and a number of trade unions. The idea is also strongly supported by Pacific nations, which see it as a means of supporting their ailing economies.

This is a matter I expect to raise during discussions with Duncan Kerr, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, in Canberra late this month. ASOPA PEOPLE readers are invited to offer their views on the subject of seasonal labour from PNG so I may convey them to Mr Kerr when we meet. Simply utilise the ‘Email Me’ link under my very fine photograph top left of this site.

Let’s allow PNG workers into Australia

More than two years ago an editorial in PNG’s The National newspaper urged the then Australian government to reverse its restrictive policy on PNG seasonal workers being employed in Australia.

Now all the arguments are being reprised as the Rudd Government moves to develop a policy that, it appears, will enable people from other Pacific countries to work seasonally in Australia, but not Papua New Guineans. Let’s also reprise, with approval, The National’s editorial of May 2006…. 

Six month ago, John Howard firmly rejected calls for a seasonal workers scheme raised by Pacific Island leaders who were attending the Forum in Port Moresby. At the time, The National expressed doubt over his stated reasons for refusal.

It seemed to us that the Australian prime minister produced a red herring at the Forum, with a spurious reason advanced for his government’s stance on the issue. Mr Howard sought to boost the concept of “building island economies” as the answer to unemployment, and described the guest worker concept as “imaginary relief”. He did not attempt to tackle the sensitive question of existing preferences given to young European and American backpackers. The Australian Government has now decided to significantly extend those work opportunities to cover tourism and regional and rural work opportunities

As Sir Rabbie [Namaliu] says, these are the very areas in which young seasonally employed Papua New Guineans could not only benefit Papua New Guinea, but Australia as well. Where is the logic in Mr Howard relaxing already generous provisions for European and American backpackers, while refusing to recognise the claims of his country’s island neighbours to similar treatment?

Similar arrangements applied to the Pacific island nations could have many potential benefits. Among them are the strengthening of PNG-Australian ties, not between diplomats and ministers, but in a more youthful and personal way. Young people of both countries working together would learn to appreciate each other’s customs and aspirations. Such contacts are far more likely to contribute to the much vaunted “special relationship” that supposedly exists between our two nations. The working and social experience gained by young Pacific islanders could contribute towards the development of their maturity and vision…

Editorial, ‘Canberra’s Intransigence’, The PNG National, 18 May 2006

 

Labour is test of PNG-Australia relations

When Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attends the 39^th Pacific Islands Forum in Niue in August, he is expected to announce a pilot scheme for short-term Pacific Island labour to work in Australian agricultural industries.

Through its High Commissioner to Australia, Charles Lepani [left], PNG has already indicated it will be shocked if Australia does not include it in the scheme. Indeed, PNG says it should be considered first for any pilot seasonal labour scheme.

And, given the historical relationships and close ties between PNG and Australia – not to mention the need for PNG workers to find a way into the cash economy – who could cavil with such a statement?

Mr Lepani has said that the exclusion of PNG will be a blow to relations between the two countries. Indeed, to give preference to other Pacific nations while turning our back on PNG, would be an act of overt discrimination against our closest neighbour. And not the first snub we’ve delivered to a nation we helped develop and guide to national independence.

While a Cabinet decision has not been announced, there have been reports that Australia is considering approving a seasonal labour scheme for Pacific Island workers from Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Mr Lepani says if PNG is excluded it would be a tragedy.

He says the Rudd government has been doing all it can to normalise the relationship between Australia and PNG. If PNG is left out of the labour program, it will represent a severe test of the relationship.

“It would be a tragedy if that [exclusion] happens,” Mr Lepani has said. “It will set our PNG-Australia relations in a very negative light again … Australia should start with Papua New Guinea. It has the historical and bilateral relations as our former colonial authority and is now a very robust bilateral relations that we have. So there is no reason whatsoever that Australia should forget or exclude Papua New Guinea from any initial pilot programs on seasonal labour.

“We put out about 250,000 young people a year, school leavers from Grade 10 as well as that, rural youth. They are occupied, under employed not unemployed, unlike the urban youth, because they have land to tend to, subsistent gardening and farming and that sort of thing. But it will be a very substantial contribution to our development, in fact to the extent that I would venture to suggest it is not our government policy, but I would venture to suggest that PNG would be willing to trade up with the substantial amount of foreign aid that it receives on an annual basis to pay for or to with seasonal labour and even on a broader scale, employment opportunities for our schemed and semi-skilled workers in Australia.

“You can't have globalisation without labour mobility. You can't have closer financial services, liberalisation of trade and investment and goods and services without labour mobility. That's our argument. So it's very important that Australia gives a serious consideration to the largest Pacific Island and its closest neighbour, tied to its national security interests and much of the aid money is also directed to Australia's national security interest. So all these will be put to the test if I may venture to say on these labour mobility issues or seasonal workers issues.”

Source: Based on reportage by Jemima Garrett, Radio Australia

 

Long painim ki bilong opim doa

Paul Oates
After reading your Notes ['Yes, we can all make a difference'] I thought, "You
beauty! Someone has finally asked the right question as many of us have
been silently (or not so silently) asking ourselves." The trouble is; before you
can provide a solution, one must define a problem. So what's the problem? 
 
Clearly there is a daily plethora of recognisable problems happening in PNG 
but so is there elsewhere in the world. So what's the difference? I suspect 
one of the major differences to us old PNG hands is one of disbelief that the
 country and people we knew (or know) so well has been allowed to lapse 
from the standards we set when we ran the place. 
 
"Why is this so?" the old scientist Julius Sumner-Miller used to ask? There 
must be a fundamental impasse between what we, and I suspect most 
PNGians expect, and the ability, opportunity and intention of the current 
PNG government to implement. If that is so, what is causing this impasse? I 
doubt that many or any politicians or potential leaders ever start out with
 dishonourable intentions. At least, not in our country. Why is it then that 
as political leaders progress upwards, they seem to become immune and 
disconnected with the people they initially set out to help? 
 
"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are
 nearly always bad men," said Lord Acton. Is this the essence of the problem 
for PNG? I don't think it's the only problem. We ourselves were, I believe, 
partly guilty of setting the expectations of the PNG people up to expect 
that the system of government we installed would work after we left. This 
is because it worked (and I believe worked well), while we were in charge. 
Why doesn't that system of government work now? That is the real question 
that should be asked? 
 
The answer to this apparently complex problem is I believe, very simple. 
The government system in place at PNG Independence was rapidly 
dismantled. I have spoken to the person whose job it was to do this and he
 explained who directed him to take this action and how it should be done 
as quickly as possible. Most expatriate officers in the government field service
 were removed inside a 16 month period. This was a clear intention of the new 
PNG government to remove any vestiges of a previous system and also to 
ensure there would be no impediment to the new leaders taking over the reins of 
power. What was not understood by these new leaders at the time was that by 
decimating the field service and removing those who had experience and 
ability in the field was to precipitate a collapse of any control and law and order 
in their own country. 
 
Secondly, what was also not understood at the time by the Australian 
government was that by a rapid advancement of only partially trained and 
previously inexperienced PNG national government officers to fill the places of 
those expatriates who were being withdrawn only helped exacerbate the 
collapse of the field service and the structure of government for the country. 
 
Clearly, with the perspective of hindsight, many of today's issues could 
have been prevented. So where does that leave us now? We can't undo
history but we can learn from it. 
 
The nexus of connecting the current PNG problems with potential solutions
 is at first very tenuous. It is easy for those who are not currently responsible 
to "point the finger" and for those responsible to shift the blame. If PNG were
 just our nearest neighbour we might have an easier time of helping her out.
 In the global scheme of this however, this is not so. PNG's resources and its
 strategic position in the Pacific has been a target for various other countries
 to ingratiate themselves with the current and past political leaders in order to 
advance their own geopolitical initiatives. They will not take lightly any move 
to diminish their long term goals and influence, bought with their time, effort
and money. 
 
So where does that leave the vast bulk of the PNG people? 'Behind the eight 
ball' it would seem. The question is: Do we send aid to PNG? We are damned 
if we do and damned if we don't. If we send high level aid in government
 funds it stands the chance of being 'siphoned off' at the highest levels of 
government and used for 'other purposes'. If we contribute to help at lower 
levels we merely assist the current mismanagement and maladministration
by allowing the government to spend their money on other things to help gain 
political influence, rather than to direct these funds to essential services. 
 
Another overlying and serious problem in PNG is the rapidly increasing 
population coupled with an equally rapidly increasing AIDS epidemic. 
 
So what's the answer? I suggest that a large part of the answer lies in 
promoting good communications with PNG and within PNG. This must be 
done in a macro and micro sense. The current problems with the provision 
of mobile phones and a general lack of communication with the country only
assists the dislocation of political leaders with their own people. I read some time
 ago that any country that has a mobile phone coverage of something like over 
20% of the population, has never been taken over by a dictator or another 
country. Of course that could also mean that these countries had a degree of
affluence, however that hasn't always stopped takeovers in the past. 
 
On a macro scale, we can't expect the current PNG leaders to feel friendly 
towards us if we don't encourage dialogue and discussion. There should be
continual meetings and conferences set up at all levels of government between
Australia and PNG and on a mutual and beneficial expectation and recognition
that both countries will benefit. Benchmarks for achievements must be set and
monitored. This dialogue should also be encouraged at all levels of business,
education, the arts and social services. We learned a great deal from PNG and
now the current Australian generation ought to be able to, as well. 
 
Where are the funds to support reciprocal exchanges of ideas, learning and 
encouragement? Service organisations like Rotary International and Lions, 
etc. and other important bodies like Red Cross, Councils, etc should be 
encouraged to actively participate, communicate and learn more about each 
other's countries and their problems. The Australian government must start 
involving and fostering Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in the 
inter-country communication process at all levels. This is where I suggest the
key to a better life in PNG may start with this essential ingredient. 
 
"Sapos yu bin plantim pikanini diwai long gutpela graun na bai yu lukautim
gut em bai gutpela kru ikamap na bihain bai strongpela diwai igirap. Ki 
bilong opim doa igo long nupela rot istap long dispela tingting."

We invite other readers to join this dialogue about what steps Australians may
be able to take to give practical expression to our friendship and concern for 
the people of Papua New Guinea. 

Yes, we can all make a difference

Prague, Wednesday - The weather remains dour, all the better for energetic walking, but the beer is as good as ever. It's also pleasing to see the name Budweiser back in the ownership of the country where it belongs.

If you have read Liz Thurston's letter to the Prime Minister [below] about the Montevideo Maru, I think you'd agree that the she offers is both intellectually compelling and emotionally engaging. Indeed, it strikes me that it would take a very flinty heart and a very closed mind in the Office of the Prime Minister to flick a letter like that into the tray marked 'Stock Replies Only'. Perhaps it will be a measure of what we can expect from the (relatively) new Rudd Government when we learn how Liz's letter has, in fact, been handled.

That's by way of introducing the substance of today's note: which is, when it comes to matters of public policy or national endeavour, each of us can make a difference. Putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, remains a worthwhile enterprise.

For example, I know there are many matters that would concern all of us about present day Papua New Guinea. Whether it has been benign neglect, bordering on indifference, by the Australian Government over recent years to very difficult issues around governance, corruption, health, education, infrastructure and crime in PNG. I do not believe any of us who spent time in that country, and who built close relationships with its people, would feel anything other than a sense of profound sadness for the lives of Papua New Guineans which are blighted, especially by the degradation of public services.

Now the last thing we ought to be is patronising about such matters. But I do think we ought to have a view. I do think we should be engaged. I do think we need to articulate a position. And I believe we must  do something.

The first step along the way might be to decide how best that ordinary Australians like us (albeit extraordinary  in the sense that we care for PNG and its people) ought to be responding. I'd like to hear your views. You can post a comment below or you can email me using the link under my photo at left. Yes, we can all make a difference. But it will first take that minimal effort of thinking through what action might be proper and appropriate and meaningful.

There are many things already happening - from doctors spending their leave in rural health centres to shipments of books and materials for PNG schools. People like Norm Richardson and Paul Oates are coming up with great ideas to strengthen relationships between PNG and Australia. But can these efforts be better organised? And what more can we do? Your observations and thoughts will be taken seriously and we'll also commit to taking them further. Over to you.

Dear Mr Rudd: re 'Montevideo Maru'

Liz Thurston

Dear Mr Rudd,

The recent discovery of the HMAS Sydney has given Australians an overwhelming  sense of  collective  relief and closure for what  was a great wartime tragedy. For those families who lost loved ones, there is finally a sacred sit