Lending a fist? Australia's new interventionism in the Southwest Pacific

Abstract

SINCLAIR DINNEN The year 2003 marked a significant change in Australia’s strategic relations with the island Pacific, including Papua New Guinea (PNG). Since gaining independence in the 1970s, the states of the Southwest Pacific have been largely left to control their own political and economic affairs. While providing substantial amounts of bilateral aid, Australia has been sensitive to charges of neo-colonialism and interference with national sovereignty. All this appears to have changed, however, with the Howard government’s adoption of a distinctly more robust and interventionist approach. The objective is to restore or enhance security and stability in the troubled Pacific island states. Although poverty reduction and sustainable development continue to be its primary goals, the Australian aid program is now being calibrated to reflect Canberra’s new strategic priorities. In practice, there is also an increasing reliance on the deployment of Australian personnel in key government agencies in recipient countries. The two principal manifestations of the new approach are the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) that was deployed to Honiara in mid2003 and the proposed Enhanced Cooperation Program (ECP) to Papua New Guinea. Australia has also become actively engaged in the nearbankrupt state of Nauru. Police Commissioners have been provided to both Fiji and Nauru. There has also been a focus on strengthening regional governance. In August 2003, Canberra secured the appointment of a former Australian diplomat as the new secretary general of the Pacific Islands Secretariat with a mandate to reform and invigorate this body. This reversed a longstanding convention that only Pacific islanders were eligible for appointment. John Howard has also made clear that future Australian aid to the Pacific will be linked to efforts by recipient governments to improve standards of governance and combat corruption. The new hands-on approach has inevitably ruffled feathers, not least among an older generation of independence leaders who resent Canberra’s stridency and the perceived threat this represents to national sovereignty. While Australia’s renewed engagement with its Pacific neighbours is to be welcomed, questions arise as to what lies behind this change of policy and its likely impact in the recipient countries. Calls for a new approach toward the Pacific have been coming for some time from Australian ‘think tanks’, such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Centre for Independent Studies, as well as from several prominent journalists with experience in the The contribution of AusAID to this series is acknowledged with appreciation. Discussion Paper 2004/5 State, Society and Governance in Melanesia THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY