Australia’s 2020 Vision

Charles Tapp

Total annual Australian Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to the Pacific Islands region is A$955 million (US$720 million). Last September, Australian Prime Minister John Howard told the United Nations that Australia aimed to increase its total ODA to about A$4 billion (US$3.01 billion) a year by 2010--doubling its 2004 levels.

"The increase in aid will be conditional on strengthened governance and reduced corruption in recipient countries," Howard warned. "Ultimately, more than aid, it is through genuine free and open multilateral trade and investment that developing countries will be able to attain sustained economic growth and self-sufficiency."

This undertaking at the UN provides the context for the aid review and white paper to be publicly released in April. A core group, led by Professor Ron Duncan of the University of the South Pacific, has presented a report to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. It includes a series of recommendations for consideration in a white paper.

The core groups many suggestions are based on the premise that Australia's aid program should be organized around four interlinked themes: accelerating economic growth, fostering functioning and effective states, investing in people, and promoting regional stability and cooperation.

The report says the future of the Pacific lies in integration, particularly economic integration. It says "there is a case for substantially increased assistance for PNG, subject to good performance," suggests development of a Pacific Land Mobilization Program, increased emphasis on rural development and support for small and medium enterprise development and that Australia take the lead "in pursuing an international commitment to provide universal HIV treatment in the Pacific and PNG as soon as possible."

AusAID's Tapp is unwilling to comment on any of the specific recommendations made by Professor Duncan's team before delivery of the final white paper, except to say "we think the report is really good and provides some really interesting ideas that we are working and building on in the development of a white paper."

Running in tandem with the AusAID review is Pacific 2020. The Pacific 2020 report will highlight some of the major challenges facing the Pacific and PNG and suggest practical policy choices for the 15 years to 2020.

The thinking is organized around five productive sectors-agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism and mining and petroleum-and four areas enabling growth; the private sector, political governance, land and employment.

"There is quite a lot of research in some of these areas, but few offer clear and concise policy recommendations in an easily digestible form," Tapp says. "So what we have been looking to do is have a process that is not too hurried but is also not too academic, and try to get key actors together."

At press time, four background papers were available to public. Few of the ides they articulate are new, and little is available in the way of specific policies as yet. However, the background paper on "land" authored (in the main) by Development Law Consultant John Fingleton, does enter into delicate territory.

Fingleton writes that customary land tenure systems "need to be adjusted to the new demands being put on land by population increase, urban migration, the need for cash and people's raised expectations from life.

"'Doing nothing' is not an option in seeking increased economic growth… The most suitable development model may well be a middle ground approach under which the land ownership of groups is protected, while individuals are given the security they need to invest in land development."

At the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting in Port Moresby last year, Prime Minister Howard announced Australia's intention to fund a regional Vocational Training Center. Tapp says the response to this concept in the region has been positive.

"Many of the governments are pushing hard to have the training college headquartered in their country."

AusAID is currently working with Australia's departments of education and training, immigration and employment and workplace relations to develop a general concept for the college, "how it might operate, its possible occupational focus and how it might be able to work with some of the existing institutions," Tapp says. The prime minister will consider the outcomes of this work, and then present them to his Pacific Island counterparts. Then the second phase will work out the details of the design.

Says Tapp: "We've actually been very struck at how enthusiastic governments in the region are to be part of this and how keen they are to be involved in this program which will essentially enable Pacific Islanders to get Australian standard qualifications-so not only have qualifications which they can use within the Pacific, but also that would qualify them to come and work in Australia and a number of other countries."

When the vocational college idea was first mooted, some regional observers hypothesized that it was an idea borne out of the desire for Australia to deflect attention from calls for labor mobility, and in particular, access of Pacific Islanders to short-term jobs in Australia.

Tapp reiterates that the Australian government is focusing on skilled migration.

"The fundamental issue is that we need to be looking at how we increase the level of growth and breadth of growth within the Pacific region to be able to help to lift the incomes of the Pacific. That is the issue. The issue of unskilled migration is a side issue."