A historical selection of key speeches charting PNG’s path to independence has been launched at the Australian High Commission, in Port Moresby.

As Papua New Guinea celebrates 50 years of independence in 2025, the Australian Government has proudly supported Deakin University, in collaboration with the University of Papua New Guinea, to publish Debating the Nation – Speeches from the House of Assembly 1972-1975.

The Third House of Assembly laid the institutional, constitutional, and symbolic groundwork that culminated in PNG independence on 16 September 1975.

The book is a 200‐page selection distilling the central themes and arguments from 8,000 pages of Third House of Assembly debates (1972–1975), preserving for future generations the words and deeds of the 100 members at the time.

The launch, which is part of the Australian High Commission’s Yumi Stap Wantaim Campaign, included a Q&A session with the authors Dr Brad Underhill (Deakin University) and Mr Keimelo Gima (University of Papua New Guinea).

Dr Underhill says he and co-author Associate Professor Dr Helen Gardener from Deakin University discovered that the debates were not available in Papua New Guinea.

“We were keen to work with UPNG historian Keimelo Gima on a 50th anniversary project and felt that the digitising of the parliamentary debates would grant Papua New Guineans access to the foundation of their nation such as the Constitutional Planning Committee recommendations”.

Author Mr Keimelo Gima (University of Papua New Guinea) says “The fiftieth anniversary of Papua New Guinea we can read what was in the hearts and minds of members who represented the villagers, the towns, the Highlands and the islands of our nation, born on 16 September 1975.

Australia’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea and Special Envoy for the Pacific and Regional Affairs, Mr Ewen McDonald, wrote the book’s foreword. At the event he congratulated the authors for capturing the voices, debates and aspirations that guided Papua New Guinea to independence fifty years ago.

“The extracts from the Third House of Assembly debates between 1972 and 1975 show the rich democratic tradition that guided Papua New Guinea’s journey to independence; a tradition that remains a cornerstone value of modern Papua New Guinea,” he said.