Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the guest-of-government visit by Prime Minister James Marape this weekend. Papua New Guinea is one of Australia's most important partners and we are proud to be an economic, security and defence partner of choice for PNG. Our strong people-to-people links with PNG were, in part, forged by a brave group of forgotten Australians called the kiaps. Kiaps were Commonwealth patrol officers who helped administer Papua and New Guinea on behalf of, first, Great Britain and, later, the League of Nations and the United Nations from 1878 through two 1978.

The mortality rate of kiaps doing their duty for our nation was high: 4.25 per cent compared to just over one per cent in Vietnam. It was dangerous work. Of the 2,000 kiaps who served, 88 died from violence, disease, drowning or executions by the Japanese during World War II. Their remains were not repatriated by the Australian government. PNG leaders, including former prime ministers Sir Julius Chan and Sir Michael Somare, have recognised the kiaps' contribution to nation-building, and it's time that Australia did the same. The kiaps deserve recognition for their work such as through a national monument at Lake Burley Griffin, which the kiaps support.