Advice to the 46th Parliament: Integrity and Accountability
Professor AJ Brown on his Top 5 Integrity and Accountability issues that the 46th Parliament need to address.
When it comes to connections with the Pacific islands region, Queensland is the Australian state that can lead the way. By virtue of geography, history, demography, cultural links, sporting connections and much more, Queensland has a wealth of resources to draw on and share to build deep and meaningful relationships with the Blue Pacific continent.
Among the Australian states, Queensland is the one best placed to take the lead on expanding and deepening links with Pacific island countries. Queensland’s historical connections with the Pacific are problematised as a result of blackbirding, the legacy of which remains and requires further attention. However, the existing links between Queensland and countries in the Pacific islands region are many and varied. They provide a strong basis for future engagement and there are many opportunities to be explored and capitalised upon.
One of the biggest assets that Queensland has is the number of Pacific islanders (and those who claim Pacific islander heritage) who live in the state. Within this broad and diverse community are individuals and groups who are maintaining important links with their countries of birth and heritage. This takes many forms, including:
And the Queensland government has a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Papua New Guinea. This is a good starting point and there are opportunities to build on this to develop stronger relationships with that country and across the region more broadly.
There are certainly some very strong indications that in Pacific island countries, there is appetite for greater engagement with Queensland. When the Hon. Jeremiah Manele, Foreign Minister of Solomon Islands came to open his country’s Consulate General in 2019, he referred to Brisbane as “Solomon Islands’ gateway to Australia”. This was a nice dovetail to PM Scott Morrison’s speech at Lavarack Barracks in 2018, where he described Queensland as the ‘gateway’ for Australia’s Pacific step-up.
Since then, we have already seen that Queensland will play a pivotal role in supporting an increased focus on regional security as a defence industry hub.
There are several business councils that work to promote business linkages with Pacific island countries, and they all have their secretariat in Brisbane making them particularly accessible to businesses in Queensland. It is no secret that the Federal government sees the Australian private sector as having a significant role to play in taking forward relationships with Pacific island countries. From a Pacific perspective, this needs to be increasingly structured around how Australian businesses can include Pacific products in their value chains. There are numerous examples of this already happening in Queensland and Trade and Invest Queensland has a huge opportunity to do more and better in this space.
A significant component of the “Pacific step-up” is the role of labour mobility via the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP) and the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS). In the 2018/19 financial year more than 60% of the visas awarded under the SWP were for workers who had been approved to take up roles in Queensland. As expected, the resumption of labour mobility from the Pacific to Australia has been an early and significant part of economic recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 in Australia and in sending countries in the region. Queensland has been at the forefront of this. Whilst it is reasonable to expect that the benefits of these programs will spread to other states over time, it is likely that Queensland will remain at the forefront of labour mobility for the foreseeable future.
Dr Tess Newton Cain is the Project Leader for the Griffith Asia Institute’s Pacific Hub.
Tess is a dual citizen of Vanuatu and the United Kingdom. She is a former Lecturer in Law at the University of the South Pacific. She has lived and worked in the Pacific islands region for almost 25 years, with most of that time spent living in Vanuatu.
Tess’ research interests focus on politics, policy and development in the Pacific islands region. She has provided research. strategic advice and policy support to national governments, regional organisations (including the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat) and development partners (including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations, and the governments of Australia and New Zealand).
In 2019, Tess led a research team on behalf of Peacifica and the Whitlam Institute which led to the report: Pacific perspectives on the world published in February 2020. She has recently co-authored two policy briefs with Dr Wesley Morgan, published by the Griffith Asia Institute—Activating greater trade and investment between Australia and Pacific island countries and Strengthening Australia’s relationships with Pacific island countries.
Professor AJ Brown on his Top 5 Integrity and Accountability issues that the 46th Parliament need to address.
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