Australia and the Management of Risk in the South Pacific

Abstract

Since attaining independence, most Pacific island states have relied on Australia as a major source of foreign aid and development assistance. Pacific island nations such as Papua New Guinea (PNG), a former trust territory of Australia until 1975 and, more recently, East Timor and Solomon Islands have relied heavily upon Australia for aid funding and support. In turn, Australia has focused heavily on liberal notions of good governance as the pre-requisite for economic development and social and political stability in the Pacific island states.1 Despite this, until recently Australia’s policy position on development aid was largely centred on a ‘hands-off’ approach — provide aid funding to Pacific island states and allow their respective governments to formulate and adopt their own development agendas.2 The point was to avoid any suggestion that Australia was interfering in the internal affairs of these states or was seeking to establish itself as a neo-imperialist regional power.3 KeywordsForeign PolicyGood GovernanceSolomon IslandInstitutional CapacityAustralian GovernmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.