AID
AUSTRALIA CLOSE YET SO FAR FROM PACIFIC ISLAND NEIGHBOURS

The Australian government's dismissive attitude toward its nearest neighbours in the Pacific, including its forcible relocation of unwanted asylum seekers to small island nations there, is sowing resentment from that region. This is what witnesses from both business lobby groups and non-government have been telling a public hearing of the Senate's foreign affairs, defence and trade committee.

By BOB BURTON

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The Australian government's dismissive attitude toward its nearest neighbours in the Pacific, including its forcible relocation of unwanted asylum seekers to small island nations there, is sowing resentment from that region. This is what witnesses from both business lobby groups and non-government have been telling a public hearing of the Senate's foreign affairs, defence and trade committee. For starters, the National Council of Churches urged the government to abandon its controversial practice of forcibly relocating asylum seekers who arrive in Australian territorial waters to neighbouring Pacific countries.

Dubbed by the Australian government the 'Pacific solution', community
groups in the region have warned that it has soured how Pacific Islanders
view Australia, the heavyweight in the region.
"Far from creating the impression that Australia is trying, in a
cooperative manner, to find solutions to alleviate the circumstances that
drive people to flight, the 'Pacific solution' creates the impression that
we are seeking to dump our 'problems' on small less-developed and/or
dependent nations," the churches said in a statement to the committee.

The Senate committee is inquiring into Australia's relationship with Papua
New Guinea (PNG) and the Pacific region, and is completing its public
hearings this week. It will issue the final report in June.
As part of the 'Pacific solution', Nauru was promised an untied grant of
17 million US dollars beyond funding for the construction and running of
detention centres to hold the asylum seekers.

The National Council of Churches in Australia, which comprises 15 major
Christian churches and works closely with its Pacific counterparts,
believes that the offers of funding to Nauru and Papua New Guinea have
seriously damaged Australia's standing in the region.
"It is clear that these financial inducements have heightened feelings of
neo-colonialism, and the sense that Australia has impinged upon the
sovereignty of Pacific island nations" James Thomson, director of the
National Programme on Refugees and Displaced People, submitted to the
committee.

The business community is also unhappy with the Australian government's
attitude towards the Pacific.

The Australia-Fiji Business Council, the Pacific Islands Business Council
and Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council expressed dismay at the
lack of leadership by Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
"It is our view that with the single exception of the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Mr (Alexander) Downer, the current government and successive
parliaments have failed to provide this leadership" they wrote in their
submission.

Of particular concern, they note, is that Howard has only attended three
of the six annual meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum, the annual
meeting of heads of government of Pacific island countries.
"We believe that no other Australian prime minister in the last 25 years
has attended just 50 percent of possible meetings. We believe that in the
13 years prior to the election of Mr Howard, the Australian prime
ministers of the day had missed just one or two forums," the business
councils submitted to the inquiry on Thursday.
"It should be indelibly marked in the diary of every Australian prime
minister," they argued.

The non-government organisation Australian Volunteers International (AVI),
which organises the placement of skilled Australian volunteers in
communities throughout the Pacific, agrees that the failure to attend the
Pacific Islands Forum meetings is damaging.
"It appears to reinforce the perception that, apart from its interest in
maintaining trade relations, Australia is distancing itself from the
region rather than identifying as an integral part of the region," Dimity
Fifer, AVI chief executive officer, submitted in evidence on Thursday.
Equally significant, Fife warned, is "the continuing insistence of much of
the media in portraying negative and narrow images of PNG and other
countries in the Pacific without providing well-founded analysis of the
global and regional issues which impact on the development of the region".

A simplistic portrayal of issues in the Pacific region, Fife argued,
"limits understanding of the region and Australia's role and
responsibilities within it".

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Australian government
funded public broadcaster, was the only media organisation to make a
submission to the inquiry. It noted that radio is the dominant medium of
the region, with newspapers and television restricted to urban areas where
only 20 percent of the population live.

While Radio Australia (RA) broadcasts throughout the region, including
three hours a day in PNG 'pidgin' as well as 24 hours a day in English,
funding constraints limit its ability to report stories. To "fulfill its
mandate effectively, RA needs to be represented more effectively with
local reporters on the ground in key countries," ABC told the committee.
ABC pressed its case for greater funding to allow the development of a
dedicated training and mentoring programme with broadcasters throughout
the region, saying it would benefit not only Pacific media but Australian
journalists too.

"Journalists and broadcasters are usually much more sensitive to the
nuances of events in the countries where they have worked and are less
prone to the 'parachute journalism' of which Australian reporters are
frequently accused, particularly in the Pacific," they submitted to the
committee.

Independent reporting in the Pacific, though, it not all plain sailing.
The ABC noted that over a 10-month period, the ABC's 'Foreign
Correspondent' programme had submitted a number of applications for
journalists' visas to cover various stories in PNG. "All of these
applications have either been ignored or rejected," it said.

Bob Burton is a correspondet of InterPress Service.