Papua New Guinea and Regional Security Address to Australian Institute for Progress
Brisbane, Monday 16th September 2024
By Hon. Peter O’Neill, CMG, MP
INTRODUCTION
I am honoured to be addressing you today, about Regional Security on this day, the 49th Independence Day of my country, Papua New Guinea.
A long time ago, 200 million years ago, our two lands were one, Gondwanaland. Our two nations were not two separate lands but one.
While borders may have been established and we are separated by a narrow sea in the Torres Strait, Papua New Guinea and Australia remain bound to each other. We have a close and symbiotic relationship.
49 years ago today, the Australian flag was lowered, and the Papua New Guinea flag was raised in Port Moresby.
Independence was granted, not fought for.
Many argue that independence was given too quickly, but given it was. My country’s leaders at the time, did an incredible job of setting the young country on its independent feet with side-by-side help from Australia. PNG, prior to independence, had prospered as an Australian Territory.
Literacy, health care, infrastructure and law and order were progressing, and government were organised. My father, Brian O’Neill, was an Australian government officer and met my mother when establishing the government station at Pangia in the Southern Highlands in the early 1950s.
Many Australians in PNG, like my father, were adventurous, purpose driven, capable and
committed to carrying out their duties. They were courageous and overall, very well-liked, and respected by the people.
My father stayed on after independence and became a Magistrate in Goroka. He is buried in Goroka and like many Australians who fell in love with PNG.
There are millions of reasons for our two countries to keep our relationship in good order.
With an estimated one million Australians living in Northern Australia, North of the Tropic of Capricorn in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
What Northern Australia lacks in population it makes up for in productivity and its criticality to Australia’s security. It has 40% of Australia’s land mass but less than 4% of the population
and our nearest neighbour.
Timor Leste has around the same, one million, just an hour or so flying time from Darwin.
The Pacific Islands, not including PNG, have a combined population of two and a half million but occupy a whopping 15% of the Earths’ surface.
PNG has a population estimated at seventeen million – more than three times the population of New Zealand or Queensland and with the added advantage of sharing a boundary with Asian powerhouse, Indonesia.
In the age of increased geopolitical tensions, PNG’s problematic foreign policy has led to a weakening of our own sovereignty and not improved peace and security in our region.
In fact, it probably has led to increased tensions as it attempted to trade-off between foreign powers.
Stating the obvious, but PNGs geographic sweet spot and substantial underdeveloped
resources, make it very attractive for those who may wish to have the upper hand in regional security.
We only must cast our minds back to the Second World War for a reminder of just how strategically important PNG is to Australia. How Papua New Guineans and Australians working together in PNG changed the course of the war for our region.
Up until five years ago, PNG had only one security partner, Australia. No other nation, despite size or might was able to come alongside or between our two countries.
The multiple agreements and juggling for power that has disappointingly been facilitated by the current PNG Government, this foreign policy approach is unnecessary.
Today however, PNG has four significant security partnerships in place – all of them opaque.
The United States, China, Indonesia, and Australia have over the past three years, inked security arrangements with PNG.
The facts are that Indo-Pacific tensions are high, PNG and Australia, as the two largest democracies in the Pacific region, need to do more to provide leadership and dial down tensions, not ramp them up.
Geopolitical tensions are ramping up and PNG is in the crosshairs again of unwanted and unnecessary global attention. These attentions are damaging and demoralising for Papua New Guineans who feel we are watching a feeding frenzy in our waters between superpowers who are increasingly focused
on security rather than the welfare of our citizens.
The Proliferation of Security Agreements has coincided with a Decrease in Good
Governance and a Worsening Quality of Life for Papua New Guineans. Frustratingly, despite the billions being poured into PNG by foreign powers to gain the upper hand in the geopolitical pre-battle manoeuvres, our people are significantly worse off and not benefiting of the unnecessary attention.
And it does at least to me, that any of the foreign interested parties, including Australia, are not securing substantial advantage either.
The US achieved a security arrangement and shortly after China secured a security arrangement. Its tit for tat. And despite the chest beating at the signing of each security agreement, I do not believe the agreements will be honoured when push comes to shove.
Throwing money at PNG political elites does not shore up certainty of allegiance between nations and it is doing absolutely nothing for the lives of Papua New Guineans who are
genuinely struggling.
To make matters worse, tensions are increase, not decrease with every new security or Policing arrangement. Recent example of, four hundred million (A$400 million) regional policing initiative announced at last month’s Pacific Island Forum meeting is a clear example of how tensions ramp up, not down as the posturing for control and influence continues.
Media, no doubt carefully primed, described it as a strategic win for Australia. While details of what the A$400 million initiative would achieve were scarce, the announcement was enough to illicit a strong response from China.
A response that will no doubt lead to another initiative by China to ensure their influence in the Pacific continues.
Unlike the Australian or AUKUS led initiatives, a China response, may not come with the same media fanfare but is likely to be just as if not more effective in influencing some Pacific
political elite.
In this polarising and divisive contest to be PNG and the Pacific Islands best friend, the policing initiative, at least immediately, managed to ramp up tensions with Australia as the “winner” and therefore China must be the “loser”.
There are no winners only losers in this strategy, where foreign powers seek to control and influence, initiative by initiative.
To the wealthier, larger, nervous foreign powers, PNG and the Pacific are becoming
properties on a Monopoly board for wealthier, stronger nations to land on only to be edged out weeks or months later as a new deal is done by the “other side”.
This approach is doing more harm than good.
Perhaps, a more successful approach, would be to look to our Melanesian Way, where the tradition, is not about winning but about resolving conflicts for all.
I remember growing up in the village, if there was a conflict, every Sunday after Church,
everyone in the entire community would gather and everyone would be given a turn to have their say until the conflict was resolved. This might take weeks or months.
There was never a winner or a loser but always the end result of a peaceful community.
Today for Papua New Guinea as tensions tick up. The political elite are becoming more corrupt with each passing year of geopolitical tensions and sadly, our people, worse off.
I believe that Australian politicians are acting with genuine intent believing their
initiatives are overall for the betterment of the region including Papua New Guinean, but the facts are that it is having a devastating impact on our PNG democracy.
Surely the Australian government must not be so naïve to think that without robust institutional frameworks to uphold good governance, that the billions pumped into PNG in the last four years was going to reach the people who needed it most?
The Australian Cabinet must have known when they committed two and a half billion Australian taxpayers’ dollars into the grossly mismanaged PNG National Budget, that the
Auditor General office has not completed an audit on any PNG Government books since 2018?
PNG people would loudly applaud efforts if the Australian government at least insisted that some of these funds go to re-establishing a proper national audit function.
It would have been prudent to protect Australian taxpayers’ money and ensure benefits flowed to Papua New Guineans, if in year one when six hundred million was retrospectively deposited into the PNG Budget, if Australia had of insisted that audits of key Ministries and Departments were completed before they funded another six hundred million in year two.
Instead, four consecutive years of six hundred million Australian dollars each year, has been dumped into the slush bucket of a corrupt government without any checks and balances for Australians or
Papua New Guineas.
The incumbent PNG government has been aided and abetted by these funds using Australian taxpayers’ money to stay in power. Instead of applying sanctions and conditions on financial support, the Australian government and the IMF have simply facilitated corruption and decline of democracy in Papua New Guinea.
Exacerbating the situation is that every Papua New Guinean knows this weakening and
creating confusion in the minds of our people as to why Australia has watered down its good governance.
This in turn makes our challenge of achieving regional security much harder not easier.
We all know that, it’s the people, not political elite who we will need to stand up for PNG and Australia in the time of conflict.
If the PNG populace are let down now, how does Australia expect them to rally behind Australia should geopolitical tensions worsen?
The Australian cabinet would have known this. How could they not.
For geopolitical reasons, Australia has perhaps deliberately chosen to water down their good governance so as not to cause problems with the ruling government in PNG, who have threatened on record and publicly, that if Australia does not give them the money they will go to China.
It is hard to believe but that is exactly what has happened. These four years of six hundred-million-dollar payments have come on top of the already half a billion Australian dollars given to PNG each year. It is tough to get the balance right between securing borders and upholding good governance.
Did Australia realise this and subsequently tried to appease my people with a NRL team?
Another poor decision when anyone who spends time among grassroots communities in PNG will realise that what Papua New Guineans need and want most is medicines in their health clinics and quality education for their children.
Let us get our priorities right and focus on lives, not footballers for the time being.
The negative unintended consequences of Australia’s current strategy towards PNG, has been nation changing and not for the better for Papua New Guineans.
The pace of progress and development has slowed to a halt in PNG and regression is
underway in every area of the economy and society. On no measure is PNG better off
despite the extra attention and billions coming our way from foreign powers.
Statistics are deliberately difficult to obtain in my country. The national Census is two years delayed and failed for instance. Apart from on the ground hard evidence that most people
have a life of struggle, I can tell you:
- Only around 60% of our people are literate, that is around seven million of
Australia’s nearest neighbours cannot read and write - Around 60% of our population is made up of people under the age of 25 and almost all do not have formal employment.
- 85% of Papua New Guineans do not have access to electricity
- Violent crime is at its worst impacting individuals, families, communities, and
businesses - Foreign Direct Investment is in negative territory with major resource projects such
as the Total Energies 12 billion US dollar Papua LNG project stalled - Average life expectancy for men and women is 65 years compared to 83 years in
Australia - Minimum wage in PNG is three Kina and 50 toea (K3.50) or $1 per hour. It takes a minimum wage earner about two and half days of work to earn enough for one extended family 10kg bag of rice.
- Infrastructure, which was a focus of my government, is caught up in corruption with
progress slow or not happening at all - In terms of corruption, PNG now ranks the 133rd most corrupt out of 180 countries,
consistently falling in the last five years - Despite the large contingent of Australian Federal Police now living and working in PNG, transnational drugs crime is mushrooming between PNG and Australia.
It is in this environment that foreign powers are targeting their financial support to the
political elites not the people.
The money and support are not reaching our people in PNG, and this is hurting not helping the Australian to Papua New Guinean relationships.
Our people have always looked up to Australia like a big brother or sister, witnessing how good governance in democracy has created an incredible way of life for Australians.
But now everyday Papua New Guineans are sensing something is not right.
Australia and its multilateral partners like the IMF, are plunging unprecedented financial support into PNG but it is not reaching the everyday Papua New Guineans whose life is
much worse off.
Let us end with some solutions
Australia should look harder to find ways to directly impact the lives of Papua New Guineans to channel much needed financial and technical support.
Perhaps there are more learned development practitioners and economists than I but considering the smooth foreign relations and the effective management of our Australia PNG relationship during my nearly eight years as PNG’s Prime Minister, I will attempt to
suggest some ways in which Australia can improve regional security and engage more meaningfully with PNG.
There are many worthwhile approaches, but I am going to focus on four big initiatives
today:
In place of retrospective funding into the National Budget, directly fund Provinces and Districts placing Australian expertise and money closest to where our people live. While financial support at the District and Provincial level can be targeted, prioritised, and monitored for impact, perhaps the greatest benefit would be the people-to-people relationships that would be built.
PNG is the second least urbanised country in the world, and as such our people are not in the capital of Port Moresby and the government suburb of Waigani, yet this is precisely where almost all Australian government personnel live and work. This might be beneficial to some extent, but a fundamental shift of the background and skills of Australians is needed to ensure that Provincial and District Direct Funding is
matched with Australians who have experience in regional development with local governments. Practical, rural Australians who have the right approach to living
and working in rural, remote communities. It would be a positive counterbalance to
the most Port Moresby and Lae based bureaucratic and development professionals
and inspire thousands of new friendships and engagements between Papua New Guineans and Aussies.
Funding should focus on the needs of the people as identified by the Provincial and District governments. The appropriate legislation is in place and there is nothing to stop Australia pivoting its targeted assistance quickly and reduce the opportunity for massive graft at the national budget level.
While it would not replace the National approach, I can envisage that in the short
term, 75% of Australia’s financial support – aid and loans – could flow directly to
Districts and Provinces.
- In collaboration with PNG and Pacific Island governments, accelerate improvements in education outcomes with a scale up to around 16,000 domestic classified university placements for Papua New Guineans and Pacific Islanders at Australian
universities. Placements to be focused on teachers and health care professionals to
ramp up health and education outcomes.
There are currently less than 7,500 PNG and Pacific Island students in Australia
compared to 153,000 Chinese students. This statistic needs to change rapidly if we are to see a more stable geopolitical environment in the Pacific.
Very often, Pacific
Island students cannot afford the international student fees of the excellent Australian universities, but this could be overcome with pointing Australia’s aid budget towards the initiative matched with contributions from the PNG and Pacific Island governments.
Scaling up to 16,000 students per annum as domestic students with equal co- contribution from home country governments, would have a profound impact on health and education outcomes back home with Australian trained graduates in mass numbers able to move the needle and translate their skills to their colleagues as well.
There are around 32,000 Pacific Islanders working in farm and other low skilled
labour jobs in Australia. We need to find ways to have professionals also in Australia gaining skills and returning home to make an impact on their countries.
While violence is becoming all too prevalent in our PNG society, evidence suggests,
that our PNG young people do not bring violence when they come to study and work
in Australia.
Similarly, our PNG people do not overstay their visas and are generally, homesick
and wish to return home to Papua New Guinea.
I applaud the initiative to increase employment opportunities for our young people by opening the Australian Defence Force to Pacific Islanders. I hope that this initiative can be scaled up quickly and evolve into joint PNG Defence and Australian Defence regiments based in Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia across all divisions.
I would also support a non-compulsory placement of PNG school leavers not able to move on to jobs or study, to be given the opportunity to serve as PNGDF officers in
the ADF for three years to give our young people discipline and a chance to
experience a career of service.
Support for Australian businesses is needed to increase the impact they can have in PNG and in doing so, spread the Australian way of doing business. In times past, PNG had a lot of Australian companies, but as tied aid was discarded by the Australian government and cheaper alternatives, emerged in PNG, Australian companies have significantly reduced.
This is to the detriment of both PNG and Australia, and we should actively seek ways
to subsidise the re-entry of Australian companies into PNG including co investments in critical areas of PNG government service delivery such as access to electricity; infrastructure ownership, construction, and operations; the transport sector; education and health care and agriculture.
In conclusion
- Papua New Guinea and Australia are symbiotic and as the largest democracies in the Pacific region, need to show leadership and unity in the face of rising geopolitical
tensions. - We need to see a winding down of the divisive approach and a more diplomatic and less chest beating genuine security agreement in place between Australia and PNG that is inclusive of development so that all Papua New Guineans, not just the political elite, benefit from a closer relationship with Australia.
- Aid and loans to Papua New Guinea must be delivered to benefit all Papua New Guineans and be less about money and more about people-to-people relationships.
- A return to Australians in regional and rural areas of Papua New Guinea, Australians who have the skills and capabilities to live and work in resource constrained areas, will undoubtedly have the most effect on our PNG people and better bind our nations than any security agreement.
Next year, Papua New Guinea will celebrate half a century of independence from Australia.
I hope that tensions in the region have normalised and there is a new way of delivering aid, business, and assistance between our two countries.
We have every reason to carefully examine the current issues and to improve and advance forward together.
Between PNG, Australia, the Pacific Islands, Timor Leste and New Zeland, there are fifty million citizens who are hoping that we can sail into calmer waters and step away from the brink of greater tensions.
Thank you.
Academia Nomad 