Should Australia offer to take over Papua New Guinea’s failed health system?

The population of Papua New Guinea is around 8 million – about the same as the population of New South Wales. The number of vaccinations administered in New South Wales as of yesterday was 6.5 million!

There are a number of reasons why the PNG vaccination rate is so low. There is long standing traditional/cultural opposition to vaccinations generally; but there is also a lack of basic health services to administer vaccinations; and there is a total lack of adequate health education campaigns to counter hesitancy driven by traditional opposition and more recently online anti-vaccination campaigns.

The troubling level of Covid-19 testing and vaccination is symptomatic of a "failed" health system.

But there is even more recent evidence to confirm just how critical the position has become.

A few weeks ago the Australian Minister for the Pacific proudly opened Australia's largest development assistance project in Papua New Guinea – a number of new wards at Angau Hospital in Lae built at a cost of $200 million.

But just last week, a senior Morobe Provincial Health official revealed the Angau Hospital has effectively been out of basic medicines and drugs for most of this year. Patients have been given prescriptions to take to pharmacies to buy their own vital drugs and medicines!

His claims have been supported by patients, and I have been told exactly the same position exists in other major hospitals across Papua New Guinea.

As I have written about previously, it is utterly tragic that the worst area of corruption in the PNG public sector is in the health and hospitals area. The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee undertook an inquiry which confirmed the corruption, waste and abuse, but nothing seems to have changed.

What should Australia now offer to do about this appalling position, a position that if uncorrected will eventually threaten the Australian national interest as well?

I have long advocated Australia need to go "big and bold" in countering the China influence in PNG, and strengthening our government-to-government and people-to-people relationship.

But the state of the PNG health system, and the nation's hospitals, requires us to go well beyond countering the China influence. The crisis on our doorstep is really unrelated to China.

The PNG national health budget is around K1.7 billion a year. That is around $A700 million. Australia's "development assistance" support for Papua New Guinea is around $550 million a year.