PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

By Dev Nadkarni

SUVA, Fiji (Islands Business, May 2008) – Australia’s bold and pragmatic new approach in the Pacific islands is poised to upstage New Zealand on its long-standing status as the islands’ best friend.

After a slew of festering issues that all but broke down diplomatic relations between the Howard administration and several Pacific islands nations -- particularly in its last two years in power -- prominent Melanesian leaders had openly said that only a change in the political dispensation in Canberra offered hope of any rapproachment between Australia and the Pacific islands.

Early in the run-up to last year’s election, Labor began building momentum on improving relationships with the Pacific neighbourhood as one of its key regional foreign policy planks. That greatly raised expectations in the islands’ leadership of a new era in their relationship with Australia and the Labor win was welcomed with a sense of great anticipation.

Kevin Rudd’s first 100 days in power have amply affirmed his government’s willingness to walk the talk. Days after taking up office, he appointed Duncan Kerr, a former dean of the law faculty at the University of Papua New Guinea and a minister in a previous Labor Government, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs.

"I would suggest having a dedicated parliamentary secretary and someone with such extensive experience as Duncan (Kerr), charged with that responsibility, will help rebuild the fabric of personal and political relationships with the governments of the South Pacific," Rudd said on the occasion.

Kerr followed up with a whistle-stop tour of a representation of Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian countries gauging the pulse of the region before accompanying Rudd to Papua New Guinea on his first Pacific islands visit. It was during that visit to Port Moresby that Rudd unveiled Australia’s new Pacific Partnerships Framework.

The policy, which has come to be known as the Port Moresby Declaration and has been welcomed throughout the islands, has important differences from previous years’ approach to the islands which was more in the manner of one size fitting all. It acknowledges that each island has its own set of unique problems while identifying common ones that link them to one another and the larger region and even the world.

In the new thinking, aid is now linked to specific projects under the programmes identified in the policy and, as well as general infrastructure, there is a substantial allocation to the development of human resources --both basic and technical education; the social sector -- health and community welfare -- and economic development.

Boosting access to microfinance has been identified as a key activity. Countries like Papua New Guinea, Fiji and some other smaller nations have been trying hard to emulate Bangladesh economist and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank idea with moderate success. Economic management expertise from Australia’s highly developed financial sector is sure to boost this extremely important grassroots sector for the Pacific islands.

Also, equally importantly, all aid-related development goals will dovetail into the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to help the islands achieve targets in healthcare, education, water and sanitation and other goals on time if not before their fulfillment schedules. The visiting Prime Minister also signed Australia’s first ever carbon trading agreement with an island nation. PNG and Australia have inked a carbon credit deal to reduce carbon emissions from deforestationŃa major boost for a Pacific Islands nation in the new global scheme of things relating to carbon economics.

It is still too early to predict how the Pacific Partnership will shape up; but Rudd’s Pacific affairs team has acted with infectious enthusiasm on existing prickly issues, managing to soothe ruffled feathers in the Solomon Islands on RAMSI and dealing at the brass tacks with developing ones like the economic crisis in Nauru after Australia’s decision to close down the refugee detention centre.

Kerr and his team also spent some time in New Zealand studying its successful Seasonal Employer scheme that has brought in some 5000 temporary workers from the Pacific to work in the country’s farming and horticulture sectors. The Howard administration was opposed to the idea of admitting seasonal workers from the Pacific despite a severe shortage of workers in Australia’s agricultural sector.

In a major victory towards the end of last month, Labor got at least one major union to support the guest worker scheme after the government earlier declared its intention to try out a scheme similar to New Zealand’s after studying all its implications. Pacific Islands leaders greeted Labor’s announcement with great glee.

In all its Pacific pronouncements, the Rudd administration has shown restraint and patience with the situation in Fiji while yet sending clear signals of disapproval of the December 2006 coup and the events that followed. It has also said that Fiji will not be part of the seasonal employment scheme -- quite in line with New Zealand’s stand.

But unlike New Zealand, it has down played the Fiji factor in its Pacific policy focusing on the future potential of the region as a whole, while New Zealand’s outlook in the Pacific seems overwhelmed by Helen Clark’s incessant obsession with Fiji.

Its stridency in dealing with Fiji over the past two years in a couple of cases leading to the relocation of sporting events because of its decision not to allow Fijian players and an unconvincing flip-flop policy on entry parameters for ministers and officials have drawn criticisms from leaders in both Melanesia and Polynesia.

In the run-up to this year’s elections neither Labour nor the National has so far come out with a Pacific policy. And while Labour continues to overlay its rudderless approach to the Pacific with its Fiji obsession, Australia has stolen a quiet march over its long stated appellation as the islands’ best friend.

And Labor-led Australia’s Pacific approach goes far beyond the good neighbourly ideals of mending fences and ensuring a clean, peaceful and secure environment. It is underscored by a real world practicality dictated by several of its research organisations’ recent findings which say the Pacific Islands economy is set to grow at the impressive average of 4.5% every year across the next few years.

For some reason, the practicality of such an approach seems lost on New Zealand, which is fast losing ground to Australia in partnering with the islands.

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