South Pacific Studies Group - ‘PNG and Australia 40 years on’
Presented by Sean Dorney, Former Pacific Correspondent, ABC/Australia Network
About the presentation
Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia on September the 16th 1975. While Australians who lived and worked in PNG are often passionate about the place, the level of knowledge and understanding in the general population was never high but has probably never been lower than it is today. Sean Dorney has been commissioned by the Lowy Institute to write a Lowy Paper on the relationship which will be published by Penguin in the coming months. In his seminar at Griffith, Sean will outline why he believes Australia needs to pay more attention to its former colony.
About the speaker
Sean Dorney is a former Pacific Correspondent for the ABC and Australia Network. One of the ABC’s most experienced and respected correspondents, he is an acknowledged authority on the region and is the author of two books on Papua New Guinea. Sean lived and worked in PNG for almost 20 years and is, remarkably, the only foreign correspondent to have been both deported and awarded honours by PNG. He was also deported from Fiji in 2009 when Prime Minister Bainimarama, angered by a Fiji Court of Appeal ruling that his government was illegitimate, abolished the Constitution, sacked all the judges and imposed strict media censorship.
Date: Wednesday 21 October 2015
Venue: Building N16, room 1.44 , Nathan campus
Time: 2.00 – 4.00pm
To RSVP please contact Natasha Vary on (07) 3735 5322 or n.vary@griffith.edu.au by 5.00pm Friday 16 October