{"id":54423,"date":"2020-03-23T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T19:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=54423"},"modified":"2020-03-22T13:22:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T02:22:08","slug":"the-south-pacific-mirror-reflects-tough-truths-for-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-south-pacific-mirror-reflects-tough-truths-for-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"The South Pacific mirror reflects tough truths for Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Merge a couple of fairy tales for some judgement lines on Australia\u2019s Pacific step-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canberra likes to think of itself as the handsome prince. The Pacific islands, though, can perceive a sleeping beauty or a slumbering giant\u2014part of the story, potentially important, but not always alive to what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

Playing on the \u2018step\u2019 theme leads to the fact that often Australia is seen as the ugly stepmother or selfish stepsister (think climate change and the \u2018Pacific solution\u2019<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Awoken, Australia pushes to be the king of the castle: the top economic and security partner for the islands. The self-proclaimed partner of choice is anxious to be chosen.<\/p>\n

Looking in the magic mirror, Canberra asks, \u2018Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?\u2019 Trouble is, the mirror replies that this is a complex question with different answers. And, by the way, China is looking good these days.<\/p>\n

The mirror offers Canberra a sharp instruction: \u2018Toughen up, princess! Time to get going.\u2019 This wisdom informs Australia\u2019s six inquiries and reviews touching on the step-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The toughen-up line also applies to the tough insights offered in the Whitlam Institute survey<\/a> of island attitudes to Australia in Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu, based on field research conducted in late 2019. The report, Pacific perspectives on the world<\/em>, shifts us from tales to the truth of poetry, rendered by Robert Burns: \u2018Oh would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!\u2019<\/p>\n

The Whitlam Institute said the focus groups and one-on-one interviews with 150 Pacific islanders offered these messages:<\/p>\n

\u2013 The quality of Australia\u2019s relationships matters more than the quantity of our aid or trade;<\/p>\n

\u2013 Our values, norms and ways of doing things are a vital part of how we conduct our engagement with the Pacific;<\/p>\n

\u2013 Australia, and its historical relationship, is valued but we are one of many partners for Pacific islanders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The institute\u2019s director, Leanne Smith, says the step-up is a step in the right direction, but it\u2019s \u2018perceived to be a unilateral Australian initiative, something being done \u201cto\u201d the Pacific rather than with countries of the region\u2019.<\/p>\n

Australia is seen as an important partner, but as Smith observes, there\u2019s also \u2018a perception of a certain level of racism and disrespect directed towards people from the Pacific\u2019.<\/p>\n

When I was reading the report, my mind went back to a conversation with a great Fiji journalist and fine bloke, Robert Keith-Reid, the founder of Islands Bu<\/em>siness <\/em>magazine. It was the year 2000 and Suva was under military rule because rebels had seized parliament, holding the prime minister and cabinet hostage (covering my third Fiji coup, I called this \u2018The strange saga of Speight\u2019s siege in Suva<\/a>\u2019).<\/p>\n

Keith-Reid\u2019s house near parliament had a temporary military post in its front yard; typically wry, he reported that his young daughter had been taught by the troops how to strip down a weapon in near-record time.<\/p>\n

After making what turned out to be accurate predictions about the ambitions of the military commander, Frank Bainimarama (he\u2019ll always be the supremo, to me), Keith-Reid mused on Australia\u2019s role in the South Pacific. We were drinking wine, but it should have been Fiji Bitter, because Keith-Reid delivered the tangy truth with characteristic Suva bite: \u2018Everyone around here [the South Pacific] knows that Australia is needed. But that doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll ever be loved.\u2019<\/p>\n

If I have a creed for Australia in the islands, that\u2019s it, in the words of Robert Keith-Reid. We\u2019re needed. The need cuts both ways. We need and want much from the region, just as the region needs much from us. The mutual needs offer a lot to work with.<\/p>\n

As ever, the islands know they need us, but it doesn\u2019t mean they have to like it, or us\u2014or like their dependence. It\u2019s what my grandpa called the 10 quid rule\u2014if you loan a mate 10 quid, he\u2019ll owe you, but he mightn\u2019t repay you with mateship. The Labor Party version of this goes: \u2018Why does he hate my guts? I never did him a favour.\u2019<\/p>\n

Australia wants the power and the central place in the South Pacific. Again, the need goes in both directions. We matter and what we do matters greatly. We\u2019re always a big target\u2014as we should be, because we want to loom large.<\/p>\n

Writing about Oz in the Pacific over five decades, I often use the line that Australia always presents as the leader, but has a lot of trouble getting followers.<\/p>\n

An easy demonstration of this\u2014a twin version of the islands conundrum\u2014is to look at the relationship we have with New Zealand. Here is the 10 quid rule writ large.<\/p>\n

The Kiwis are our brothers and sisters and often know what we should be doing in the region before we work it out for ourselves. But the push-pull, shove and biff, and slagging and sledging are constants. Again, the Kiwis know they need us but they don\u2019t have to like it\u2014or love us. Mutual need provides plenty of the needed glue.<\/p>\n

We should expect no more love and devotion from the islands than we get from the Kiwis.<\/p>\n

The security calculus tells the story. I jest that there\u2019s an envelope in the big safe at the centre of the NZ defence ministry with a single piece of paper giving their fundamental defence strategy: \u2018To get to us, they have to go by Australia. Take a deep breath, relax, put on your serious voice, and ring Canberra to check what they\u2019re doing.\u2019<\/p>\n

Works for the islands as well.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s security guarantee to the region doesn\u2019t buy much love, because it\u2019s a commitment to our interests as well as theirs.<\/p>\n

Australia is big enough and strong enough to roll all of that into our role. We had better, because that\u2019s the way it is\u2014and we must work to make it continue. We must put ever more breadth and depth and listening into our relationships with New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific\u2014plus Timor-Leste as the start of the arc.<\/p>\n

A lot of shared history, along with shared interests and values, should both drive and steady Australian approaches. Toughen up and get to work, prince.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merge a couple of fairy tales for some judgement lines on Australia\u2019s Pacific step-up. Canberra likes to think of itself as the handsome prince. The Pacific islands, though, can perceive a sleeping beauty or a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":54425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,285,99],"class_list":["post-54423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-foreign-policy","tag-south-pacific"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe South Pacific mirror reflects tough truths for Australia | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-south-pacific-mirror-reflects-tough-truths-for-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The South Pacific mirror reflects tough truths for Australia | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Merge a couple of fairy tales for some judgement lines on Australia\u2019s Pacific step-up. 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