Documents on Australian Foreign Policy: Australia and Papua New Guinea, The Push to Independence, 19721975
(Hardback)
Available Formats
Publishing Details
Documents on Australian Foreign Policy: Australia and Papua New Guinea, The Push to Independence, 19721975
By (Author) Bruce Hunt
Edited by Stephen Henningham
NewSouth Publishing
NewSouth Publishing
1st December 2022
Australia
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Physical Properties
Hardback
1200
Width 160mm, Height 225mm
Description
This is the second DFAT volume on PNGs independence. The first volume, Documents on Australian Foreign Policy: Australia and Papua New Guinea, 19701972: The transition to self-government, was published by UNSW Press in December 2020.
This era saw monumental change in the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea as PNG went from a territory firmly controlled by Canberra to self-government in 1975. The change of government in Australia in early December 1972 brought to power a prime minister with an intense interest in the future of Papua New Guinea, and a commitment to rapid change. Gough Whitlam, supported by his External Territories Minister, Bill Morrison, pushed hard to complete Papua New Guineas transition to full self-government and to accelerate its accession to independence. The latter took place in September 1975later than Whitlam would have preferred, but earlier than most people in both Australia and Papua New Guinea would have thought possible only a few years before. There were tensions and sharp words along the way, but overall, the transition was achieved with good will. Taken together, the 525 documents in the volume illuminate the development of Australian policies concerning Papua New Guinea during the push to independence.
Author Bio
Stephen Henningham is a specialist historian in the Historical Research Section in DFAT. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of New South Wales and a PhD from the Australian National University (ANU). He served in Noumea as a policy officer, in Port Moresby as Deputy High Commissioner, in Ho Chi Minh City as Consul General, and in Samoa as High Commissioner. He was a South Pacific specialist at the Office of National Assessments in 1987- 1988 and worked on South Pacific politics and history at the ANU from 1988 to 1995. He was Director of the Pacific Bilateral Section in DFAT from 1995- 1999. The late Bruce Hunt was a Research Fellow in the School of History, College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University. Stephen Henningham is a specialist historian in the Historical Research Section in DFAT.
