The Pacific needs our help – and it needs it now

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.