Reality beyond the whiteboard

These blueprints were powerfully shaped by changes to the Australian state that had occurred over 20 years. In line with much of the rest of the developed world, Australia has pared back its welfare state to a much more minimalist “regulatory state”.

The Australian state has withdrawn from the economy and many areas of service provision, shifting the role of government from that of generating social and economic outcomes to that of establishing, through regulation, parameters of acceptable conduct and manipulating incentives, the appropriate conditions for social, political and economic forces to generate desirable outcomes.

The state is conceived as separate from the distinct spheres of the economy, politics and society - each of which, in Friedrich Hayek’s terms, is seen to be constituted as a “spontaneous order”, with an inner, autonomous dynamism. The philosophy of the regulatory state is that government’s role is to foster the inherent dynamism within the economic, political and social spheres in positive directions, not to attempt to replace those forces or compete with them in creating desired outcomes.

The blueprint for the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) consisted of three overlapping phases. The first phase arrived on the morning of July 24, 2003 at Henderson Airfield, Honiara, in a flotilla of 13 Royal Australian Airforce C-130 Hercules transport planes and in the HMAS Manoora which had anchored off Guadalcanal Beach before dawn. Three hundred police and 1,700 soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea deployed in an intentional display of overwhelming force.

The objective of the first phase was to restore law and order, disarm the militants who had terrorised the society, and resurrect the justice system to punish violent and criminal elements. RAMSI put its military prowess on prominent display, staging public demonstrations of military manoeuvres involving helicopters, troops and sniffer dogs finding buried weapons.

Such intimidation was crucial to restoring calm, encouraging Harold Keke to surrender, and collecting and destroying 4,000 guns - including 700 high-powered military weapons - by November 2003.

Phase two centred on governance reform. Australian officials, drawn from the Australian Federal Police, DFAT, the Department of Finance, the Treasury, the Attorney-General’s Department, the Defence Department, the Australian Office of Financial Management, the Australian Customs Service and AusAID, were placed both in line positions within the Solomon Islands bureaucracy and in advisory roles.

It was hoped that placing experienced Australian public servants within the bureaucracy would not only impart administrative skills and culture, but would also lead to enduring institutional links. Because of problems with public service recruitment in the Solomon Islands, Australian officials initially intended as advisers often found they had no counterparts in the Solomon Islands public service, and had to slot into line roles instead.

Australia’s assistance focused on the public service, cabinet, accountability institutions, parliamentary processes and the electoral system.

Significant emphasis was given to inculcating public servants with bureaucratic culture and knowledge of administrative regulations and role delimitations. Training was provided in merit selection procedures, effective leadership skills, the tracking, monitoring and storage of documents and records, and communicating within the public service and between the public service and Cabinet.

Phase three focused on establishing the conditions for economic development. Initial work was targeted at the economic functions of state. There was a heavy initial focus on budget support and financial management processes. The key areas for reform and capacity-building were identified as budget, audit, treasury, inland revenue, customs, payroll and debt management.

By mid-2005, Australia appeared to have shown the world what a successful state-building mission looked like. The military element had been drastically reduced, law and order had returned to the streets of Honiara, and over 5,000 criminal charges had been laid.