PROTECTING AUSTRALIAN PROTECTED PERSONS: STATELESSNESS AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S INDEPENDENCE SAVITRI TAYLOR* AND JODIE BOYD** This article examines the changing concepts of racialised citizenship in two intertwined nations: the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (‘PNG’) and the Commonwealth of Australia (‘Australia’), PNG’s former colonial ruler, as the latter sought to shake off the legacies of its recently abandoned ‘White Australia’ policy. It examines the historical intersection between PNG’s developing citizenship criteria, with its racialised articulation of who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’, and Australia’s efforts to recast its image on the international stage as a multi-racial, nonracist and anti-imperial nation. Specifically, it demonstrates how the intersection of these policy choices impacted on a particular cohort of so-called ‘Australian Protected Persons’ (‘APPs’). APPs who happened also to fall outside PNG’s citizenship criteria were left stateless at PNG’s independence. Drawing on newly released Australian archival material, this article casts light on the particular historical moment that allowed for this outcome. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................................................................................... 213 Australian Administration of TPNG and the Question of Nationality .................. 217 Race and the Thorny Issue of PNG Citizenship ................................................... 221 A Responsibility to Prevent Post-Independence Statelessness? ........................... 225 A The International Law Position ................................................................ 225 B Deciding the Australian Approach ........................................................... 227 Australian Protected Persons after PNG Independence ........................................ 233 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 235 INTRODUCTION On 16 September 1975, the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (‘PNG’) came into existence. Its constitution conferred automatic PNG citizenship on most, but not all, of the people living in the country on Independence Day. Prior to 16 September 1975 (‘Independence Day’), PNG was governed by the Commonwealth of Australia (‘Australia’) as a colonial power in relation to the part known as the Territory of Papua and as a United Nations Trust power in relation to the part known as the Territory of New Guinea. During the period of Australian rule, birth in the Territory of Papua conferred the status of Australian * ** Dr Savitri Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Law School at La Trobe University and a Chief Investigator on the research project titled ‘Protecting Non-Citizens: An Australian Legal and Political History, 1945–89’ from which this article arose. The project was supported by grant DP160101434 made under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme. Dr Jodie Boyd was employed by La Trobe University as a Research Assistant on the ‘Protecting Non-Citizens’ project at the relevant time.