Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Australian Labor Party to express our condolences following the passing of former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare at the age of 84. Throughout the histories of nations there are those who are icons, giants, that people look to, who lead people through struggles and who help people see who they are and what they can be, and the people of Papua New Guinea have lost one of theirs.

I offer my party's condolences not just to Lady Veronica and Sir Michael's family and friends but to all the people of Papua New Guinea on the passing of Sir Michael Somare—papa blo kantri, the father of the nation, Grand Chief and Papua New Guinea's first Prime Minister, whose leadership spanned decades and the premierships of Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Howard, Rudd and Gillard. He served as Prime Minister on three occasions: from 1975 to 1980; from 1982 to 1985; and from 2002 to 2012. In the latter period I did have the opportunity to meet the Grand Chief, as minister for climate change, as the Rudd government engaged deeply with Papua New Guinea on climate change and deforestation.

Sir Michael Somare's campaign to lead his people into independence coincided with Gough Whitlam's and Labor's determination to end Australian colonialism and deliver self-government to the people of Papua New Guinea. Mr Whitlam made that clear on visits there as opposition leader in 1970 and 1971. Indeed, Gough Whitlam wanted to see self-government within a year of coming into office and full independence within his first term, and, give or take a few months, that's what happened. At the same time it was Michael Somare, with his Pangu Party, seeking to unite the people of Papua New Guinea in a campaign for independence:

A lot of people in this country thought we wouldn't be able to do it, they were talking in terms of two or three decades, while I was talking in terms of two years.

With some comparability to his own experience, Gough Whitlam once said Sir Michael's country 'had found a man whose time had come'.

Sir Michael was the son of a police officer who bore the tribal name Sana—a name he would later take himself. It is not insignificant that it is a tribal name which means 'peacemaker'. The values to which he was exposed in early life as his father carried out these dual roles in cultural and secular leadership would stay with him throughout his political career. His first vocation was in teaching, a role that again took him to different regions across Papua New Guinea. This evolved into a career in journalism and broadcasting, something that would bring with it his first forays into politics. He attended Administrative College in Port Moresby, which was designed to build the skills of the local population to serve in the Australian colonial administration but also had the effect of bringing together individuals who shared a vision of a new nation—a nation that would govern itself, a nation not subservient to a foreign master. Somewhat unwittingly, colonial Australia built the training ground for the leaders of Papua New Guinea's independence movement, and that is a good thing.

Momentum towards independence for Papua New Guinea was building throughout the sixties and into the early seventies. After little progress under Australian colonial rule for half a century, international pressure began to come to bear. There was acceleration through this period, as there was in many other parts of the world. Sir Michael Somare was one of many energetic, young, idealistic and nationalistic individuals ready to bring the curtain down on Australian administration. They came together and they organised politically. Sir Michael's union background helped him to connect with other movement participants, of whom he soon became a pre-eminent leader. At the same time Gough Whitlam was modernising Labor and preparing to modernise Australia, including an end to the era of colonisation.

Leaving his public service job to successfully contest the second elections for the House of Assembly in 1968—the year I was born, Mr President—Sir Michael entered parliament representing East Sepik and succeeded to the leadership of the Pangu Party. He became a key figure in the preparations for independence and in the preparation and adoption of the constitution for the new country. So, whilst Sir Michael did not arrive with independence, independence arrived with Sir Michael.

Recognising the importance of bringing people with him and with the movement for independence as a whole, as well as tempering the urgency with which some wanted to move, he engaged carefully across the nation and across peoples. This included travelling to the highlands and villages to talk directly with more conservative tribal leaders. For Sir Michael independence was the goal, but he recognised it had to be in keeping with Papua New Guinea's traditions and had to be delivered organically, peacefully and, most importantly, in a culturally unifying way. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has reflected that Sir Michael was not just a disrupter but helped to build a new status quo, helped to steer his nation through the heady days of independence and beyond.

Having successfully delivered independence peacefully, as the country's first Prime Minister, Sir Michael had to make it stick. It was no foregone conclusion that the new nation would be a success, particularly considering its diversity of tribal groups. Papua New Guinea was described by Sir Michael as 'a melting pot of tribes, clans and families that were never meant to be the same,' so of course, as always, the role of leadership in those early years was pivotal. Sir Michael helped to build a nation that saw the strengths that lay in its traditional culture and diversity as sources of unity and common ground rather than as sources of potential fracture and disharmony.

Regrettably, Papua New Guinea today is not without serious struggles. Too few children complete school. Too many women are subjected to family violence. Preventable disease still has a devastating impact on the population and, as we speak, the worsening outbreak of COVID-19 poses a grave threat. But it is a country that has made its transition to independence in peace and in optimism—a legacy that is Sir Michael's as much as anybody's and a legacy which Labor will always be proud to have supported.

Ronald J May of the Department of Pacific Affairs at the ANU noted of Papua New Guinea:

It remains one of a fairly small number of post-colonial states that have maintained an unbroken record of democracy.

It has managed to maintain the spirit that characterised its transition to independence, best described by Papua New Guinea's first Governor-General when he said in 1975:

… we are lowering the flag of our colonisers … not tearing it down.

Of course, it was only a few months later that Sir Michael joked, following the dismissal of the Whitlam government:

We've only let Australia go for a few months and look at the mess they're in.

Sir Michael Somare died in February 2021. Papua New Guinea and the wider Pacific has, with his passing, lost one of its most prominent and respected leaders. In his last address to the parliament, in 2017, Sir Michael said: 'We progress through many waves and changes in the world. We survived our own bad decisions. We have united at times when the world thought it was not possible to do so. We must be thankful and we must always count our blessings.' All these things are true and they are in large part true because of Sir Michael's stewardship. The opposition again express our deep condolences to the people of Papua New Guinea and to Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare's family and his loved ones.