The Australian Papuan Civil Rights Council Incorporated and its president, Ian Smith Ikowari, filed the case in the National Court in 2014.
They argued that pre-Independence Papuans are Australian citizens, so they have real foreign citizenship and therefore are not Papua New Guinea citizens.
Their claim was based on the following propositions:
(a) Papua New Guinea became a nation contrary to international law;
(b) Pre-Independence Papuans are Australian citizens under Australian law;