A yawning gap in fighting COVID in PNG: where are the churches?

It is impossible to disagree with the assertion in The Australian by Ben Packham that China is outmanoeuvring Australia, and New Zealand and the United States, when it comes to "managing" the Covid-19 pandemic in Papua New Guinea and increasingly in the South Pacific generally.

Australia's initial response was reasonable, but I worry that the process seems to have slowed – either due to bureaucratic issues in Canberra, or Waigani – or both!

Our response has not been helped at all by the utterly duplicitous attitude of the European Union towards an eminently reasonable request from Australia to assist Papua New Guinea in its time of real and growing need.

Ever since PNG gained Independence in 1975 the European Community, in its various forms, has paraded itself as a strong supporter of PNG, and South Pacific countries as a whole.

While it is true that the region has benefited from EU support, through preferential trade arrangements, investment, and grants, the reasonable request from Australia that the EU release 1 million vaccines from what Australia has purchased on the condition that the 1 million will be made available to Papua New Guinea immediately.

Sadly, the real needs of PNG have become tied up in what is frankly an obscene campaign by the EU to limit the delivery of vaccines outside the EU, despite the legitimate and legal contracts that underpin them.

What Australia needs to do now is apply maximum pressure on the EU – and get the PNG Government, which has diplomatic representation in the EU structure, to release the 1 million vaccines immediately. And it needs to get other South Pacific countries, such as Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to support the request as well.

Sadly, there is really only one beneficiary from the EU attitude, and that is the Peoples Republic of China.! China is running a deliberate and highly organised campaign to force PNG to take the 200,000 vaccines it has offered – at least.

There is real division within the Marape Government over whether to do so. I have no doubt the deliberate statement on the offer by the retiring PRC Ambassador last week was all about applying pressure on PNG to go with China's vaccines offer and not Australia's. That fact just makes agreement from the EU even more urgent.

China knows that the longer mass vaccination funded and delivered by Australia is delayed the more its agenda is strengthened. That may seem cruel – but it's a reality!

In doing some checking on the status of vaccination and related virus management issues in PNG a glaring emission in the whole disorganised and shambolic process emerged.

The process in PNG would be much less disorganised and shambolic if the Christian churches were more directly involved in the whole process – from community education and information, right through to testing and hopefully vaccine delivery to as many PNG communities as possible.

I have long argued that the Christian churches are the most under-utilised and under-valued "resource" in Papua New Guinea. It wasn't until Julie Bishop became Australia's Foreign Minister in 2013 that the churches were given even a minor and tentative role in the delivery of Australia's generous aid program in Papua New Guinea.

When I last checked even the modest amount of financial support the churches get from the PNG Government for health services had been delayed. That is just not good enough.

There is no comparison between how influential and effective in the community the churches are in Australia with how they are in Papua New Guinea. Australia has a Christian "adherence" of less than 70 per cent whereas in PNG it is upwards of 90 per cent – and growing!

The churches of PNG have a proud record when it comes to serving the people – health care, family life support, education and vocational training.

They have a capacity not to be found in the government sector of delivering vital services honestly and efficiently……utterly without corruption, theft or abuse. Much of the church services are delivered by volunteers or religious and lay personnel on very low incomes.

The "missionary" zeal of the churches may have changed, but it is far from dead.

The historic links of the PNG churches date back to the early missionaries who went to the then separate entities of Papua and New Guinea in the 19^th century. If you visit areas where the early missionaries landed and served so diligently what stands out is the quality of the services provided to whole communities, and not just direct Christian followers.

Some of the missionaries had their origins in France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Australia. More recently missionaries have come from the United States, Canada, and the South Pacific.

My point is that they are a really valuable resource, one that Australia needs to be encouraging the PNG Government to utilise more and now.

Most Australian Christian churches have links with their PNG counterparts. The federal government could be convening a summit of Australian churches with PNG links to determine how the Australian churches can do more to assist not just in addressing the challenges Covid is creating, but also the impact of the pandemic on communities right across Papua New Guinea.

If we do that we will be setting an example the Papua New Guinea Government can follow.

And can you imagine how utterly apoplectic the PRC Government, and Embassy in PNG, would be if Christian churches and agencies were more directly and genuinely involved in working with Australian and PNG agencies to meet a challenge PNG is really struggling with.

I agree with Ben Packham that we are just not winning the battle both in PNG and the wider South Pacific. The strategies that have been employed so far – by Australia and our friends – are simply not delivering adequately.

We need to toughen up when it comes to getting the EU to respond positively to a very reasonable request regarding vaccines for Papua New Guinea.

But we also need to focus on the "community" of Papua New Guinea – nine million men, women and children. The long term consequences of the Covid pandemic, and a failed health system overall, have to be addressed.

No sector of the community is better equipped or committed to do that than is the Christian churches! Canberra needs to lead the way in getting them more meaningfully involved!