Australia and Papua New Guinea: Shared history, complex relationship
Australia and Papua New Guinea: Shared history, complex relationship
WRITTEN BY ALAN TIDWELL
8 September 2021
The neighbours, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia share an intertwined and complex relationship. Australia displaced Germany during World War I and governed PNG as a colony until PNG’s independence in 1975. World War II saw Australians battle the Japanese Imperial Army along the Kokoda Trail. Over the years Australia and PNG have built a deep and vibrant bond. Economic figures tell part of the story. In 2018 bilateral trade was valued at A$6.7 billion and Australian investment at A$17 billion. For the 2020-21 fiscal year Australian bilateral aid to PNG neared a half-billion A$. Together this makes Australia PNG’s number one trade, investment and development partner. Marking the deep economic relationship between the neighbours, the Papua New Guinea-Australia Comprehensive Strategic and Economic Partnership was signed in April 2020.
The dispute puts Australia in a difficult spot, pitting its northern neighbour against its Quad partner. Perhaps this might be a moment in which Canberra reaches back into its peacemaking bag to help heal the rift.
These neighbours are very different. According to the World Bank, PNG has a population of just under 9 million, with a population density of 20/Km2. Two-thirds of the country is forested and it is cut by deep valleys and high mountains. Its economy mixes subsistence agriculture with mining and gas extraction. PNG is home to roughly 850 languages, making it the most linguistically dense place on the planet. According to UNDP, PNG’s HDI is .555, placing at 155th out of 189, whereas Australia has an HDI of .944 placing it at 8. Australia is overwhelming an English speaking country despite the presence of roughly 250 indigenous languages. Its population is about 25 million, most of whom live in urban settings along the coast. The population density of Australia is 3/Km2. Despite these differences, these neighbours have often helped one another.
The political domain
Politically, Port Moresby has come to Canberra’s aid more than once. In 2001, as part of John Howard’s “Pacific Solution” Australia opened an offshore processing centre for asylum seekers on PNG’s Manus Island. The first Rudd Labor government ended the policy of off-shore processing for water-borne asylum seekers in 2008, only to see the policy revived in 2012 by Labor PM Gillard. In 2019, the asylum seeker processing closed again, which according to one local observer led to roughly 3000 people being forced out of work.
The separatist conflict in Bougainville, on the east of PNG, erupted in 1988 and lasted for a decade. Sparking the conflict was one of the world’s largest copper mines, the Australian-owned Panguna mine. Disputes emerged over land use, compensation, and access to jobs among others. In the earliest days of the conflict, Canberra supported the PNG government, but soon shifted ground and sought a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Australia played a pivotal role in the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement. The agreement included provisions for weapons disposal, the creation of local autonomy and an eventual referendum on independence. That final step happened in 2019 with 98 per cent in favour of independence. On 6 July 2021 Bougainville president Ishmael Toroama and PNG's PM James Marape agreed to a timetable culminating in independence in 2027.
Negotiating challenges and priorities
PNG’s capacity to handle the COVID-19 crisis has at times been tested. Canberra has made efforts to help address PNG’s challenges by providing funding for PNG Provincial Health Authorities, Australian NGO’s and church groups involved in community outreach, vaccine roll-out, as well as A$144.7 million for the Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative. Perhaps the greatest challenge in PNG today is not vaccine hesitancy but what some development practitioners are calling vaccine apathy, where patients and healthcare workers are vaccine sceptics. PNG’s COVID challenges are not entirely domestic. In late August 2021 a spat, concerning the repatriation flight from New Delhi to Port Moresby, erupted between PNG and India. PNG Police Commissioner David Manning, who leads his country’s COVID response, accused the Indian government of helping unauthorised passengers — four of whom were COVID infected — to fly to the PNG capital. Manning even went so far as to ban any flights from India. The dispute puts Australia in a difficult spot, pitting its northern neighbour against its Quad partner. Perhaps this might be a moment in which Canberra reaches back into its peacemaking bag to help heal the rift.
Quad members, Japan and the US have also joined with Australia to undertake projects that would both aid PNG, as well as strengthen their hand in the context of strategic competition with Beijing. In November 2018 at the APEC Leader’s summit in Port Moresby the US, Australia, Japan and New Zealand announced that they would provide financial and technical assistance to expand the electrification of PNG from 17 per cent of the country to 70 per cent. Also announced was the upgrading of Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island, funded by PNG, Australia and the US. In June 2021 Australia pushed ahead with the awarding of a A$175 million contract for upgrading Lombrum. When asked about the significance of the upgrade of Lombrum Naval Base PNG's Defence Force, Major General Gilbert Toropo noted it would improve his country’s maritime security capacity.
A central challenge for a fishing nation like PNG is controlling Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing in its EEZ. Lombrum Naval Base, along with the four Guardian-class patrol boats Australia will hand over in 2023 form the backbone of PNG’s reply to IUU fishing. The other challenge concerns the growing presence of China. Toropo commented that “...when we don't have an effective and strong security force element, then we are vulnerable to that country's presence....” For the people on Manus Island, the Australian contract brings with it the promise of much-needed employment. Australia and Papua New Guinea demonstrate that neighbours should be there for one another. That's when good neighbours become good friends.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Alan C. Tidwell is a Professor of the Practice and Director of the Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Image credit: Flickr/Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.