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

This question arises in my mind – does Australia have the available funds, and skills capacity, to really make a difference. In other words, do we have the capacity to go "bigger and bolder"?

The answer on funding can clearly be "yes". Australia could weed out the corruption, waste and fraud in the health and hospitals system if given the mandate to do so. That means the additional cost above and beyond the existing PNG health budget would be manageable.

Given the state of Australia's public hospitals, and state health systems, "capacity" would be a challenge. But it can be met by harnessing the wonderful resources of Papua New Guinea's churches, which already deliver up to half the hospital services across Papua New Guinea. To that can be added NGOs such as Youth With a Mission (YWAM) with the capacity to do even more than they do already.

I have come to the conclusion the enormousness of the problem simply cannot be addressed by only "resourcing" the existing health bureaucracy and hospitals alone.

There has to be a "clean sweep" beginning with the cancellation of the widely criticised drugs and medicines supply system the Public Accounts Committee has been scrutinising. Australia until 2013 delivered most of the drugs and medicines the PNG health system needed, but when the PNG health department chose a non-Australian supplier, that ended – and the system has been a disaster ever since.

Then we must consider providing the maximum resources we can spare to run major hospitals, oversee the nation's thousands of health centres as much as possible AND work with the PNG Government to develop and implement a health education, and public assurance campaign, focussing on not just Covid-19 vaccinations, but also vital vaccinations for infants.

Now it might be argued that what I am proposing amounts to an effective takeover of the PNG health and hospitals system.

Well if we want to make a real difference, and help restore a "failed" system, and one that is failing even more, then an effective takeover, with the full agreement of the Papua New Guinea Government, might be the only solution.

Australia can make a compelling case given our historic association with Papua New Guinea, our enduring people-to-people relationship, and the fact we are easily the most generous aid contributor to our closest neighbour.

But surely the time will come when the very social harmony and cohesion of Papua New Guinea, and the impact that will have on Australia's security and strategic interest, requires Australia to be "bigger and bolder" to help Papua New Guinea rebuild a "failed" health system right on our northern border?