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PNG, a forgotten neighbour

Richard Marles

by Richard Marles

15 Oct 05:35am

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Filed under: Foreign Aid, Papua New Guinea, Png, Trade

13 comments

It has a population of 6.3 million. It is one of Australia’s two really large recipients of aid.

PNG, just up the road

We are its largest trading partner. It is our 19th. It’s about 400 times closer to us than New Zealand.

Yet for some reason our media and public discourse doesn’t seem to rate the importance of Papua New Guinea. On this website a search on Papua New Guinea yields 23 hits compared to 35 for Spain, 76 for South Africa and 94 for Iran.

For much of the twentieth century Australia had responsibility for the administration of some or all of PNG. Aside from the historical connection that establishes, at a human level it now means that almost everyone knows someone who has spent time in PNG. 

Battles have been fought on PNG’s soil which go to the core of the Australian identity.

With the exceptions of New Zealand and the UK there is no other country in the world with which Australia has such a deep historical and social connection.

With that connection PNG deserves our attention. PNG deserves to be understood. And the bilateral relationship at a government level deserves all the public scrutiny that great matters of policy need.

There is much in this relationship that is worth talking about.

Australian aid in recent years has provided 539,000 primary school text books around the country. It has been part of a push which has seen an increase in the rates of primary school participation from 41.5 to 56.9%.

60% of the programme to combat the spread of HIV is funded by Ausaid with more than 6,000 people having been supported by antiretroviral therapy by the end of last year.

More than 2000km of roads are being maintained with the support of Australia, providing invaluable infrastructure. This includes the Lae-Goroka road: the busiest highway in PNG.

But, of course, the expenditure of $470million in aid must come with an obligation to ensure that Australian taxpayers are getting value for money and that Papua New Guineans are seeing real benefits. Both Governments have commissioned an independent review of our aid partnership which is an intelligent document (http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/PNGAustralianAidReview.pdf) that will ultimately see the spread of our aid narrow and a greater emphasis on grass roots service delivery. We have agreed to consider an Economic Cooperation Agreement – an important step to changing the paradigm of a relationship previously based on aid.

A sign of this change is PNG’s resources boom and in particular the Exxon-Mobil LNG project.

This is a US $15 billion project that at the height if its construction will employ 12,000 people and increase PNG’s GDP by up to 20%.

In its own right the LNG project has the potential to transform the country.

Already it’s transforming our bilateral relationship. Australia has extended a US$500million loan facility to the project: not as an act of aid but rather a commercial decision in the Australian national interest. Australian companies have won A$1.3billion worth of contracts in the construction of the project with many more opportunities still to come.

A project of this size generates its own gravity. It needs, for example, the same number of truck drivers as there are in the whole of PNG. Thankfully Exxon-Mobil appears to be approaching this with a view to training more truck drivers rather than simply poaching all the existing ones.

Yet it highlights that if the LNG project is not done right it could be as much of a curse for PNG as a blessing.

The resources boom has seen PNG’s GDP grow by 5.5% last year and an expected 7.5% in 2010. These are numbers that would be the envy of any country in the developed world.

But it is essential for PNG that the growth in this wealth is translated into real prosperity for ordinary Papua New Guineans. It is a challenge which will be difficult to meet and in this regard Australia has a role to stand by PNG as a friend and to lend a hand.

PNG has an emerging economy, an emerging population and is already a significant emerging nation in the Pacific.

Australia welcomes this. It is in our interest to have another large partner to help us and the region assert our position in the world. And as a close friend we will stand side by side with PNG to help it meet its national aspirations.

With so much going on in our northern neighbour now is the time for the Australian media to emerge with a rightful degree of attention to Papua New Guinea.

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13 comments

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    • Macca says:

      06:36am | 15/10/10

      I’ve always wondered why, up until 1975 when PNG gained full independence, more infrastructure was not built.

      Britain did an increadible job in Australia, NZ and Canada, and to a lesser extent, India and South Africa, in providing services that would help local communities grow. And yet, PNG has none of this and is about as internationally relevant as Fiji.

      seems like a missed opportunity, and now is as timely as ever to make up for that.

      Reply

    • pete says:

      06:57am | 15/10/10

      If you have ever visited PNG, you would know why there is an infrastructure problem.  The terrain there is unbelievably difficult their smallest mountain makes our largest look like a slight rise in ground level. Not only are they tall, but also steep sided all round. So logically, it places huge prices on infrastructure costings and with most people living remotely in small communities coupled with a developing economy, PNG is really up against it.

      Reply

    • John Jones says:

      07:16am | 15/10/10

      I invite everyone to read the Post Courier on line over a period of two to three weeks. if they do so they will discover why the country is gradually sliding into what may become a failed nation despite all the resource wealth. Is the Australian Government helping them solve their problems? In a word NO it seems that they allocate the money and just as Labor did at Independence and now promptly forget about them. Law and Order is failing the Government is failing corruption is rife so I call upon Gillard to start consultations ( she is good at that) with the PNG Government to find a solution and bring the Country back from the brink ( that is if she is not too busy proping her own government up).

      Reply

    • Mari Pirimitipi says:

      10:57am | 15/10/10

      I agree in full as a citizen of PNG. I strongly suggest full Australian control of the infra-structure immediately. We could not and still cannot manage this rich land, Australia did total injustice by presenting Somare independence on behalf of PNG on a golden platter too and too early….ie, my district was only 10 years old trying to build roads and bridges with hands and sticks when you guys left.  Early so called kiaps / gods were here mainly to satisfy their exciting exploration desires for that short period and disappeared without apealing for us, they would have told Canberra and the world at large that they needed to accomplish what they came for before leaving instead of leaving us in total night mare….....you didnt do it right do it right now if you can and we would much apprecaite it because Somare and his mob still does not know the way

    • Charlie Lynn says:

      08:16am | 15/10/10

      More than 11 million people live in the Melanesian island chain to our immediate north - West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, The Solomons and Fiji. 

      PNG, with 7 million people, was a former mandated Australian territory. It is our closest neighbour, wartime ally and fellow Commonwealth member. The country has more than 800 languages, enormous mineral wealth and great agricultural potential.  The rugged terrain, cultural diversity, isolated village life and complex social/economic relationships are significant challenges for modern development.

      Since independence in 1975 our realionship has drifted.  Many of our Aid projects are micro-managed out of Canberra in accordance with the politically correct culture that now pervades our national capital.  It is a patronising relationship and it irks many of our friends in PNG.  We are regarded as a ‘Big Brother’ in the Pacific.  New Zealand have a much more empathetic relationship and are regarded as their cousins.

      China and Japan now have a significant political and economic interest as do Malaysian logging companies.  They are not limited by the constraints of politically correctness.

      Most of Australia’s Aid to PNG is one-way.  We send people - highly paid consultants with well padded allowances and significant taxation concessions to PNG but we don’t allow them to come to Australia on long term engagements.  Australia has agreements with more than 60 countries around the world for seasonal workers - but we do not allow PNG citiizens to come and work on our farms.  We plough more than half-a-billion dollars worth of fruit and vegetables back into the ground because our farmers can’t get enough seasonal labour.  This is unskilled work that PNG citizens are skilled in doing - they have centuries worth of practice.

      We know nothing about their country, their culture or their politics.  Melanesian studies should be part of our educational system to encourage more young Australians to learn more about our neighbours. 

      The area is so significant to our future that it deserves its own Minister for Melanesia and a specialised department to forge empathetic relationships and establish a free-trade zone, a Pacific currency, etc. etc.

      Our future relationship with our Melanesian neighbours will pose enormous challenges but we cannot afford to shirk them.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      12:40pm | 15/10/10

      ‘We plough more than half-a-billion dollars worth of fruit and vegetables back into the ground because our farmers can’t get enough seasonal labour.’
      Is that what we use the water for?  I understand that we export 60% of what we produce, and farmers in the Goulburn Valley have a 25% reduction in their quota this year.  How much gets ploughed under because we have limitted labour?

    • Jan says:

      08:34am | 15/10/10

      Yet another country unfortunately held to ransom under corruption.  I am not surprised PNG has largely ignored when most of Australia regards the Northern States as another country as well.

      When cyclones and flooding (almost yearly events) have caused state of emergency conditions in North Queensland most of the rest of Australia is blissfullly unaware.  The residents of FNQ were quick to respond to appeals to assist southern states during the Black Saturday fires, even though many had suffered great losses due to floods.  Many donated the government hardship funds they received due to the floods to help their southern neighbours - As I said, the Southern States were not even aware of the predicament they had also been through. 

      About time Australia became united once more and recognised their northern neighbours; within this Country as well.

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      12:32pm | 15/10/10

      Bob, is that you? How is the banana season going?

    • Jan says:

      12:58am | 16/10/10

      No Adam, it’s not “Bob.”  Called by a few names, but not that one (My name is actually Jan)!  Going by the banana prices down here in Melbourne recently the season (all year I might add) must be a good one and the banana benders have been kept busy.  Ahh - Mango Season!

    • Tezza says:

      10:58am | 15/10/10

      Yes it’s true that Australia could have done more to prepare PNG for independence, but the colonial administration didn’t know independence was about to hit them out of the blue. A large part of the blame must be carried by Gough Whitlam. He abandoned PNG almost overnight. There was no transition to independence, and the politicians who took over were thuggish, corrupt and blinkered. A decent government and a bit of law and order would do wonders. One of the world’s richest mines on Bougainville was closed down and billions of dollars worth of production lost because the government couldn’t deal with a hill-billy rebellion by a bunch of bare arsed fanatics armed partly with bows and arrows and home made galvanised pipe guns. The spectacular scenery, tribal pageantry, art and carving, birds of paradise, animals, orchids, tropical beaches and rainforests of PNG would undoubtedly attract tens of thousands of tourists and millions of tourist dollars, were it not the case that the word has got out to all those potential tourists that large parts of the country are “no go” areas where anybody crazy enough to walk around without armed guards is likely to be bashed robbed raped or murdered (or all four). It sure takes the shine off the attractiveness of a “tourist paradise”.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      12:16pm | 15/10/10

      Totally agree, and the fact that your AGW Labor hero Ross Garnaut was able to get away with environmental blue murder in PNG as chair of Lihir is a testimony to what a great big dirty hypocrits he and your whole party really is.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      07:23pm | 17/10/10

      Are you suggesting that we are part of a larger ignorance : America and South America, and England and Ireland etc ?
      Well I think you’re right, and I’ve often said that we ignore these closer states at our disadvantage.
      One of the signs of cultural ignorance (and indeed immaturity), is a nation’s (or for that matter a person’s) insistance on ..‘the big issue’ : the predilection to relate only to big and imperative things at the expense of insubstantive yet cumulative things.
      The South Pacific is ours - and of course, theirs -  for the taking.

      Reply

    • Fred says:

      09:38am | 18/10/10

      Why are we the big wealthy neighbour not helping more to integrate the 10 000 asylum seekers on the border with the west?

      Reply
 
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