Papua New Guinea 1975
The Papua New Guinea constitution of 1975 was the founding document for the new state after gaining independence from Australia. The new constitution was part of a formal, negotiated decolonization process. Although Australia was not a major contributor to the process or the text, the drafters of the constitution followed a process established by a democratically elected legislature established under Australian and Common Law.
Fifteen delegates representing all parties in the legislature formed a Constitutional Planning Committee. The CPC developed its own procedures to prepare the initial draft of the constitution. Before the drafting process began, the CPC launched a two-year government funded education campaign in all parts of the country to inform citizens about the constitution writing process and elicit their views. Citizens and civic groups came out strongly for independence. The CPC considered examples of constitutions from other countries, consulted foreign advisors, and then, with a staff to provide drafting assistance, it wrote the initial draft. The initial draft played a large roll in establishing form and content of the constitution passed. The CPC handed their draft to the “Assembly House” which using its own pre-existing procedures, examined the CPC report overruling many of the CPC recommendations. The government introduced a draft containing its responses to the CPC draft. Both drafts were tabled at the same time in the legislature.
The ultimate responsibility was with the constituent assembly of the regular, unicameral legislature. Members were popularly elected to the legislature and could hold concurrent appointments to the judiciary or executive branch. All parties were represented and were permitted to run in the next election after ratification of the constitution, but the future electoral strength of the parties was unclear. Sitting in a special session in the capital city, the delegates developed their own rules and procedures while debating and passing the constitution drafts that resulted from the Assembly’s instructions. Delegates could propose individual provisions. Voting was on individual provisions. The final draft was ratified on August 11, 1975 and went into effect on September 16, 1975.