Torres Strait border problem is resolved

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 16

Torres Strait border problem is resolved

By

STUART McMILLAN

I of “The Press”

The log border negotiations between Australia and Papua New Guinea appear to be near an end. An outline of a treaty, expected to be signed later this year, was presented to the Australian and Papua New Guinean Parliaments on May 25. Barring accidents, of which the most frequent in the past have been the interventions of the Queensland Premier (Mr Joh Bjelke-Petersen) in the issue, a potential source of friction between the countries will be removed. Mr Bjelke-Petersen, whose own views on how the matter should be settled have upset both the Labour Government and the Coalition, is reported to be “very

happy” with the arrangements. No doubt both the Federal Government and the Papua New Guinean Government will redouble their efforts to get the treaty signed while his mood lasts. The treaty is expected to contain three basic elements: A seabed resources delimitation line. A swimming fisheries delimitation line. A protected zone in which Torres Strait Islanders and coastal Papua New Guineans will have their traditional rights safeguarded. Papua New Guinea will gain three islands close to the Papua New Guinean

coast. Torres Strait Islanders will remain Australian citizens and their islands will have a three-mile territorial sea around them — even though some are so close to the Papua New Guinean coast that they would be expected to fall within the territorial sea of Papua New Guinea.

Several complex problems made the negotiations particularly difficult. One was the inhabited islands so close to the coast of Papua New Guinea — Saiban, Dauan, and Boigu (the last being one of the Talbot Islands on the map). The Torres Strait Islanders are Australian citizens, and wanted to remain so. They are able to pursue their traditional life partly because many are entitled to receive Australian unemployment benefits. But whatever their motivation, the Torres Strait Islanders feel they have an identity of their own, separate from Aboriginals, from white Australians, and from Papua New Guineans. They did not want to find some of their people Papua New Guineans and some Australians. Fishing and travel between the islands was part of their way of life. Not the least complicated aspect of the issue was that the Torres Strait Islands were annexed to Queensland before federation. Mr BjelkePetersen was adamant that no-one was going to give away Queensland territory, whatever people in Canberra thought about it.

Had some islands been given away, Queensland would have lost part of the Great Barrier Reef. Although the Great Barrier Reef is protected against exploitation for minerals, the possibility of claiming seabed minerals is another motivation of Mr BjelkePetersen’s.

The annexation to Queensland was marked by the publication of a map with a line which goes very close to the Papua New Guinea coast — generally known as the 1879 line (shown on the accompanying map). The package which emerged from the negotiations to mark a border between Australia and Papua New Guinea, which became independent in 1975, takes account of all these problems.

Papua New Guinea will be entitled to the seabed resources (sedentary seabed marine life, oil deposits, or other minerals) north of the seabed resources line, Australia to the south. The swimming fisheries line, which follows the seabed resources line for some of the way, marks each country's entitlement to fish, migratory or otherwise, turtles, and other marine life.

The establishment of a protected zone is an attempt to leave the Torres Strait Islanders and the coastal Papua New Guineans free to elad their traditional ways of life. Within the protected zone traditional fishing will take precedence over any commercial fishing. An embargo on oil drilling

and mining in the protected zone will remain in force for 10 years. Within the protected zone certain flora and fauna will be protected, including the dugong and certain species of turtle. Pollution will be controlled, and fishing resources managed and conserved. Australia will give Papua New Guinea precedence over third fishing countries — Japan and Taiwan, being the most likely ones — in fishing rights and vice versa. Third countries will be allowed to fish only with the agreement of both Aus-

tralia and Papua New Guinea. The objections from Mr Bjelke-Petersen have been overcome by the creation of Australian enclaves within an area that falls mostly within Papua New Guinean jurisdiction. Papua New Guinea has been granted sovereignty over the islands of Kawa, Mata Kawa, and Kussa. The Federal Government went to considerable trouble to establish that these islands were not among those annexed to Queensland. It has published the original maps and deeds. The islands are not inhabited.