BY KEITH JACKSON

THIS IS THE 5,000^th POST PUBLISHED ON PNG ATTITUDE

A VISIT TO THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL marks the start of two crowded days in Canberra for Martyn Namorong as he moves into the second and final week of his Take the Truth to Australia tour.

In the chill of a Canberra Autumn morning, he will visit the newly-installed Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Memorial in the AWM grounds, accompanied by Don Hook, a prominent member of the Society under whose auspices the memorial has been constructed.

The memorial will be officially unveiled on 1 July, the seventieth anniversary of the sinking of the prison ship Montevideo Maru and the deaths of all 1,000 plus trrops and civilians who had been serving in Rabaul.

Immediately after, accompanied by Ben Jackson, his program organiser and ‘minder’, Martyn will be interviewed on Alex Sloan’s Morning Program on 666 ABC Canberra before heading to Parliament House.

Here he will have his first political meeting with Nick Champion MP, ALP Member for Wakefield (SA) and chairman of the foreign affairs sub-committee.

As with all of the meetings at Parliament House, discussion will focus on the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea and how it might be improved in the interests of the PNG people. [See our earlier story here.]

Martyn will then head across Canberra to the campus of the Australian National University where he will lead a seminar for the State, Society & Governance in Melanesia Program before returning to Parliament House for a meeting with former leader of the Australian Greens and friend of PNG, Senator Bob Brown.

The intense day’s activities will finish with discussions with Richard Marles, the parliamentary secretary for Pacific Island Affairs.

During this meeting, Martyn will propose to Mr Marles (as he will do also later to shadow foreign minister Julie Bishop) that the Australian and PNG governments jointly initiate an exchange program for young Australian and PNG professionals to get to know the other country and to build better relationships.

 If you would like to meet Martyn Namorong in Canberra there will be an informal opportunity at the Hotel Kurrajong from 4-5.30pm tomorrow (Tuesday). Call Ben Jackson on 0417 407 565