The Pacific needs our help – and it needs it now

While Australia's primary regional focus has to be Papua New Guinea, it is absolutely critical that we do not neglect the rest of the Pacific and especially the South Pacific.

It is beyond coincidence that China is very active in the countries in our immediate region – PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.

All have signed up to the "Belt and Road" program which China is effectively, and in instances ruthlessly, to tie the governments of the region to China – principally by "concessional loans" for infrastructure, education, health, communications and other public services.

Papua New Guinea recently signed up "in principle" to two loans for electricity infrastructure with the Exim Bank of China that will further burden the PNG Government and its state owned corporations by over K6 billion. The PNG Government debt level, principally but not only, with China is already probably unsustainable.

The same applies to the debt levels of Vanuatu and Fiji, through Belt and Road and other PRC loans. In the wider region, the position with regard to Tonga and Samoa is as bad if not worse.

So more Australian "lending" to the region is most definitely not what is needed.

Australia needs to maintain its generous aid program – around $600 million a year to PNG and probably another $700 million in direct assistance that is non-repayable, including special Covid-19 related grants.. On top of that Australia has given long term loans to PNG supposedly to help it "balance" its budget. In 2019 that amounted to $400 million.

There is also the Pacific "Step Up" program headed by a $2 billion Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility. This is a worthy project, given the regions infrastructure needs and China's focus on loans for infrastructure projects. But it is being implemented too slowly given the direct and current challenge from China across the region.

What needs to happen, and happen as a matter of priority, is to maximise the actual benefits of our aid program in the region in a way that enhances our bi-lateral relationships and more effectively counters the growing debt-burden laden People's Republic of China influence.

The first step needs to be to enable travel between Australia and regional neighbours where Covid-19 numbers are very low to resume as soon as possible. The most obvious example is Fiji, which has been heavily reliant on tourists from Australia for many years, and in which there is considerable Australian investment in tourism and other businesses.

If we don't facilitate Australians resuming quarantine free travel to Fiji and Vanuatu in particular, China will do so.

A return of Australian tourists to Fiji will boost the Fijian economy immediately, Depending on virus levels, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and other popular tourist destinations need to be included as soon as possible.

Our South Pacific aid program is generous by any measure, and it is growing. It is questionable just how effective it is in countering the Chinese presence and dominance in key regional neighbours.

It is also important the Australian taxpayer be encouraged to be supportive of the regional aid program in its various forms. Our historic, and especially people to people, links with the region have been and largely remain substantial. But China is doing all it can, diplomatically, politically and financially to undermine our relationship.

One way the federal government could enhance support for our aid program would be to shift as much as possible of the actual aid "delivery" to the regions of Australia that are closest to the aid recipients.

The most obvious is Far North Queensland, centred on Cairns. But to that can be added North Queensland as a whole, including Townsville and Mackay.

The economic benefits for Cairns in particular which has been hardest hit by the absence of international visitors for the last year would be substantial if properly formed and delivered.

A substantial proportion of our regional aid is actually "boomerang" aid – with funds being spent in Australia and not in the recipient countries.

That "boomerang aid" would be more palatable if it was delivered by private sector contractors, and government agencies, contributing to the Cairns, and wider north Queensland economies.

That would mean encouraging aid delivery companies, and public sector agencies, to re-locate their South Pacific operations to Cairns and North Queensland generally.

There would need to be "incentives" for them to do so….provided by the federal government. The provision of health services, education, sport, training, and support for important industries such as fishing and agriculture come readily to mind.

Cairns, and to a lesser extent Townsville, are the hub for services provided for indigenous and Torres Strait Island communities. That fact makes these centres well-suited to better deliver as much as possible of our generous aid programs to the region – especially Papua New Guinea but also Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji most obviously and readily.

If that requires the re-location of key DFAT development assistance (aid) staff from Canberra to Cairns and NQ then all the better!

If this happens and it needs to happen without delay then our relations with our immediate region will be enhanced, and sections of our own domestic economy in real need will benefit significantly.

We should not be afraid to take steps that "value add" to our generous taxpayer-funded aid programs. Indeed doing so ought to be in the Australian national interest.

In countering China's aggressive and debt-laden driven approach in our immediate region we must be bold, and we must be innovative.

Linking development assistance or aid delivery closer to the countries and communities that benefit from them makes good sense.

There will be vested interests who will try and undermine this strategy.

But we need to get better value from the support we give our region – support that is easily the most generous of any donor country.

Better value in terms of the quality, and relevance, of the programs that are delivered, and better value where the actual domestic benefits of "boomerang aid"

Our aid has to be a key component in our fight to counter China's regional influence, and in some countries that is close to dominance.

It needs to be better delivered, and if better delivered it will enjoy the greater support of the Australian community, and be even greater appreciated in our neighbours.