Mr Keating said Australia would pay for the upgrading of the shack that serves as a war museum at Kokoda and that he would consider seriously a request to build a clinic for the local population and a hostel for those who walk the “Kokoda Trail.

There was no public reference to the fact that PNG authorities say they can no longer guarantee the safety of people walking the trail because of robbers and thugs.

In a speech to thousands of local people and the PNG Prime Minister, Mr Namaliu, Mr Keating said: “It was here that young Australian men fought for the first time against the prospect of invasion of their country ...

“Never before, though we fought in many conflicts, mostly imperial conflicts, in conflicts where we felt pangs of loyalty to what was then known as the mother country of Britain and the Empire, to fight in Gallipoli with heroism, in Belgium, Flanders, France and other places.

“This was the first and only time we fought against an enemy to prevent invasion of Australia and to secure the way of life we had built for ourselves ...

“The lesson of this place is that those young men believed in Australia and we need to give Australians - all Australians, particularly young Australians - an Australia to believe in ...

“We can’t deny young Australians their birthright to a past with meaning for them.

“It has to be a future with meaning... there can be no deeper spiritual basis for the meaning of the Australian nation than the blood that was spilled on this very knoll, this very plateau, in defence of the liberty of Australia.”

• In Canberra, the Treasurer, Mr Dawkins, has added his weight to the Prime Minister’s call for a new Australian flag which dumps the Union Jack and breaks “nostalgic” ties with Britain and Europe.

Mr Dawkins said yesterday that removing the Union Jack from the flag could play an important part in making Australians realise they were part of the Asian region.

He said many Australians falsely believed that “someone” in London or in Europe was looking after the country’s political and economic interests.

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“The whole point about the present flag is that it carries with it that nostalgic attachment with Europe and, particularly, with Britain, and I think there are a lot of Australians who haven’t gone through the process of making that break,” Mr Dawkins said.

The Treasurer was reinforcing Mr Keating’s call in Jakarta last Wednesday for a new flag which enabled Australia to respect itself as “a country of independent minds and spirits”.

Mr Keating’s comments prompted an outcry from senior Opposition figures, who have described his conduct during the Indonesian visit as disgraceful and a new form of cultural cringe.

The Opposition leader, Dr Hewson, said at the weekend that he advocated closer economic links with Asia but did not see any reason to change Australia’s symbols and structures now.