PHIL FITZPATRICK
ONE of the more bizarre ideas in the run-up to self-government and independence was that Papua New Guinea should become a state of Australia.
The idea had particular currency in Queensland where avid eyes were cast over Papua New Guinea’s potential hydropower, mineral and agricultural resources.
Highlanders, informed by their innate conservatism and encouraged by the vested interests of the European plantocracy, also toyed with the idea.
Then there was Papua Besena, which argued that Papua, as a trust territory, was legally part of Australia and Papuans were Australian citizens and should so remain.
They argued that their status was similar to that of the people of the Northern Territory and Australia’s other territories like Christmas Island.
Legal opinion was divided but if Papua Besena had pushed its claims harder it might have won.
There were two major things that mitigated against the unlikely prospect of statehood however.
The first was colour. In the 1970s the racism inherent in the White Australia Policy still resonated strongly in the Australian community.
The second was the pride of the national elite in Papua New Guinea. Egged on by the United Nations and highly influenced by the experience of decolonisation in Africa, there was no way the elite was going to countenance an alliance with Australia.
The Australian Labor Party under Gough Whitlam encouraged them in this regard.
Fast forward nearly 40 years and the idea of PNG as an eighth state of Australia doesn’t seem so weird, especially when you consider the difference it might have made to the country and its people.
Among other things, essential services like health and education would be working efficiently. Infrastructure would have been maintained and expanded. The crisis in Bougainville may have been avoided.
Law and order would have been maintained and endemic corruption would not have developed on the scale it has. It would be safe to walk the city streets and women and children would be protected.
There are many other things that would have been better and perhaps a few, like racial tensions, that might have been worse.
Hindsight is a great thing. It is laden with possibilities that we regret or thank our lucky stars never happened. I’m not sure where the bizarre idea of PNG statehood falls. I guess it depends on who you talk to.
The impoverished and isolated rural dwellers might have an entirely different view to the engorged and greedy political leeches living in Port Moresby.
It is all water under the bridge now, of course, but there is still some interesting potential there.
A relaxing of Australia’s borders with PNG and reconsideration of our fundamental relationship could still deliver some of the things that motivated the minds of those people who promulgated statehood so long ago.
Whether the political will is there is an entirely different matter.
I suspect leveraging those pigs slavering up to their bellies in the muck and mud of corruption is a bridge too far.