Sir Julius Chan, ‘founding father’ and former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea twice over, passed away on 30th January 2025. Associate Professor Helen Gardner reflects on the significance of his career.
Born on a Catholic Mission on a small island north-east of New Ireland to a Chinese father from Guangdong Province and a New Ireland mother, he was named Julius after a half-German sea captain admired by both parents. Chan’s family on his mother’s side were respected Methodist pastors and missionaries. His father’s family were in the shipping business in China, but several members emigrated to New Britain before the Australian administration took over from Germany and enacted White Australia policies. His father moved to New Ireland to establish a coconut plantation where he met Chan’s mother. Within three years of his birth, the Chan family were sent to New Ireland by the Japanese invaders who made Rabaul the most fortified Japanese base in the South Pacific. His father was forced to labour for the Japanese and the family sheltered with Filipino and Chinese friends. As with Sir Michael Somare who was educated by the Japanese in Rabaul, Julius Chan felt his life under the occupation was relatively stable, the danger came from the frequent bombing raids by the Allied forces. His schooling began in Rabaul after the war ended, at the Catholic mission under Chinese lay teachers, then Australian and German nuns. It was here that Chan first excelled at sport and developed the attitude that would characterise his life in politics and give title to his autobiography: Playing the Game, Life and Politics in Papua New Guinea. His schooling continued in Australia at Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane where his skill in rugby and his quick mind allowed him to ‘gain some respect from all these “whities”’. His multicultural upbringing and his facility with languages allowed him to move readily between groups and in his own words, to ‘be adventurous, to score the try, and to do it differently’.
A motorcycle accident cut short his university education in Brisbane and on his return home he joined the public service in the Australian administration. Transferred to Port Moresby he encountered the overt racism that politicised many of the independence generation. His work in the co-operative section of the Department of Native Affairs was enhanced by his voracious reading, frequent travel round the Australian Territory of Papua and New Guinea and eventually six months training in Fiji. He returned to Rabaul to help run the family shipping business and married Stella Ahmat, of Malay, Chinese, Spanish, Filipino and Papua New Guinean heritage. His flourishing business and local connections ensured his success in the 1968 House of Assembly election for the Namatanai Open seat for New Ireland under the slogan ‘Chan is the man’. The second parliament was still largely run by Australians and Chan recalled that he mostly followed the directives of the colonial administrators, but he also travelled extensively round the territory in his role as Vice Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and developed a particular respect for the Australian businessmen of the Highlands. He befriended a former kiap (Australian patrol officer) who became his speechwriter.
Chan was a key minister in the Somare coalition government, which took the country to self-government in 1973 and then independence in 1975. Following the 1972 elections, Somare persuaded Chan and his centre right People’s Progress Party to join with the Pangu Pati and other smaller parties to snatch victory from the conservative United Party. Chan saw himself as the referee between the Pangu Pati, which he believed was moving too fast towards independence, and the United Party, which was going too slowly. Appointed the minister for Internal Finance, he delivered the first budget by a Papua New Guinean man. It was a moment of great pride for the House and did much to assure the people that they were ready for self-government. The deputy Australian administrator addressed the house with these words:
‘Sir, the introduction of the 1972-73 Budget by the Honourable Minister for Internal Finance was an historic and exciting event, historic because it marked the end of the officials’ era. It was exciting because here you have a man, elected by the people, controlling the purse strings of the country, and this is when you really start to govern’.
As part of the gearing up process towards decolonisation, Chan formed the Bank of Papua New Guinea and established a national currency, named the kina after the shell money of the coast also respected in the highlands, and the toea after the shell money used in Papuan bride-price and trading.
After independence Chan was prime minister twice during the hurly burly years of the PNG parliament when fragile governments were subject to frequent votes of no confidence. He held the post from 1980 to 1982, after the coalition fell apart, then again from 1992-97, during the Bougainville crisis. The shut-down of the huge CRA copper mine by the Bougainville rebels cut off the biggest revenue stream for the PNG government. Chan sought to end the conflict, firstly, by diplomatic means and, secondly, through the PNG defence force. The protracted war led to great suffering for the Bougainville people and threw the country into financial crisis: development projects were halted, and the government reach into the provinces was curtailed. When all efforts failed, Chan recruited Sandline, an international mercenary company, over the objections of PNG Defence Force chief General Jerry Singirok. When the troops and their equipment arrived in the country, Singirok enacted ‘Opareisen Rausim Kwik’ and arrested both the leader and the soldiers. He demanded the Chan government resign and PNG teetered on the edge of a political and constitutional crisis. It was averted when Chan finally stood down following riots in Port Moresby.
Chan became governor of New Ireland in 2007 and held the position until his death on 30 January 2025 at the age of 85. His autobiography proves the measure of the man. His prose is direct and decisive. Sporting metaphors show his desire to win, to play the game according to the rules and to deploy his agile mind in the service of his nation and his people. His legacy for Papua New Guinea is very large. Yet his is an Australian as well as a Papua New Guinean story. Julius Chan’s long life stands as a strong reminder of Australia’s shared history with its nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea.
Chan, Julius. Playing the Game: Life and Politics in Papua New Guinea, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2016.
Dorney, Sean. Papua New Guinea: People Politics and History Since 1975, Sydney: ABC Books, 2001.
Newman, A. O. J. House of Assembly Debates: Fourth Meeting of the First Session
18 Sept to 22 Sept 1972 Vol 3 no.7.
