|
|
|
Subject:
Now here's a can of worms!!!
tjkhan
1/26/2006 6:46:14 AM
|
| Papuans long for Australian citizenship
January 26, 2006 - 4:55PM
Hundreds of wannabe Aussies have celebrated Australia Day in Port Moresby under the twin flags of Australian Papua and the nation they say should recognise them as citizens.
Some Papuans in the southern half of Papua New Guinea's mainland believe those born in Papua before PNG gained independence in 1975 were denied the choice to remain Australians.
A rally of several hundred people at Hubert Murray Stadium in the national capital on Thursday was held under two flags, that of Australia and that of Australian Papua.
Australian Papuan Community coordinator Jonathan Baure said Papua was still the seventh state of Australia so it was appropriate to celebrate Australia Day.
"Papuans are still Australian citizens so why not celebrate our day in casual, laidback Papuan style."
The rally featured traditional dance, singing and comedy performances along with speeches urging recognition of Australian Papuan rights.
Baure said an education campaign was under way in Papua targeting rural districts.
A petition was also circulating with the aim of collecting half a million signatures to send to the United Nations urging an assessment of Papua's legal status.
Around 45,000 signatures had already been collected and a referendum on the issue would be sought after the petition was sent, Baure said.
A referendum was needed to determine whether Papuans wanted to remain with New Guinea or seek ties with Australia perhaps under some form of free association, he said.
Papuans would also be urged not to vote in PNG's 2007 elections on the grounds they were not PNG citizens.
On November 16, 1905, Papua became an Australian territory under the Papua Act.
Under Australia's 1948 Citizen Act, the territory was defined as part of Australia and anyone born there acquired Australian citizenship, though indigenous Papuans needed entry permits to enter Australia.
Baure said there was never a referendum in Papua to legally sever ties with Australia so Papuan rights were denied.
Papuans born before independence in 1975 were Australian citizens but that was stripped from them and they were even forced to renounce their Australian passports, he said.
In August last year, Australia's High Court upheld laws that Papuans ceased to be Australian citizens when PNG became independent in 1975.
Amos Bode Ame, born in 1967, argued in the court that he had remained an Australian citizen after PNG independence because he had not renounced his Australian citizenship.
But the court unanimously found that Ame ceased to be an Australian citizen on Independence Day 1975 by virtue of PNG's constitution.
The constitution did not allow dual citizenship and declared that anyone born in PNG with two indigenous grandparents was automatically a PNG citizen.
© 2006 AAP
|
| |
|
|
|
