Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I begin by acknowledging this motion and saying that Labor does indeed support this motion and we thank the member for bringing it here. The impact of COVID on the Pacific highlights more than ever the importance of Australia working with its Pacific neighbours to deliver a region that is secure and sovereign. This pandemic has also highlighted the multidimensional nature of security challenges in this region. There are not just traditional challenges but also challenges to human security and to the health and welfare of Pacific islanders. There is also the profound security challenge of climate change, which poses an existential threat to low-lying Pacific island nations.

Pacific countries are being hit hard by COVID-19. Most countries in the region are able to avoid large outbreaks by taking steps to control the spread of the virus. However, several countries are experiencing second waves. The number of confirmed cases in Papua New Guinea has risen to more than 350. There have also been significant outbreaks in French Polynesia and the US territory of Guam in the northern Pacific. COVID-19 is also having a devastating impact on the economies of the Pacific countries, which rely heavily on tourism and on earnings from Pacific islanders working abroad, including in Australia.

Australia needs to show that the Pacific step-up is real. We need to provide assistance, not only with immediate health impacts but also with medium-term economic recovery and development. This is a time to boost Australia's development assistance along with our diplomatic and Defence engagement with Pacific countries. Unfortunately, this government has cut more than $11.8 billion from Australia's official development assistance since it came to office in 2013. The government's assistance for Pacific countries with COVID-19 has not been supported by any new funds. These measures are paid for by cuts to other areas of the federal budget. If you are concerned about security in the Pacific, you cannot ignore the development, economic and human dimensions of security. This has been recognised in the Pacific Islands Forum's Boe Declaration on Regional Security. The Boe declaration refers to an expanded concept of security, inclusive of human security, humanitarian assistance, prioritising environmental security and regional cooperation in building resilience to disasters and climate change. One important way for the Australian government to support this expanded concept of regional security in the Pacific would be to increase official development assistance in the coming budget.

The motion focuses on defence and security cooperation between Australia and its Pacific partners. Labor supports the Pacific Maritime Security Program. We support measures like the Pacific patrol boats and the cooperation with Fiji at the Blackrock Camp and with PNG at Lombrum. The Pacific patrol boats program would deliver 21 new Guardian class patrol boats to Pacific Island nations in Timor-Leste. This is an important initiative, so it is disappointing that the incompetence we have seen from the government in major projects has been on display in the Pacific patrol boat program. The Auditor-General's Major projects report revealed that the Morrison government delivered a new patrol boat to PNG before finishing construction of the new wharf facilities needed to ensure that the boat could dock safely. Let me repeat that: they delivered the boat before they had the wharf built to dock the boat. The Major projects report also revealed that the government failed to provide enough funding in the Pacific patrol boats program for upgrading wharf infrastructure in receiving countries. Defence had to scramble to pay for wharf upgrades by raiding funds from the wider Defence Cooperation Program.

Then there is the government's promise of a new Australian Navy vessel for providing humanitarian and disaster relief support to the Pacific. This is an important initiative and will be critical in coming years as Pacific countries feel the brunt of climate change. Prime Minister Morrison announced the new vessel in November 2018. Nearly two years later, no action has been taken to acquire the vessel. Yet again, we have a grand announcement from the government but zero delivery. This vessel is pencilled in Australia's latest Defence Force Structure Plan for delivery by 2024, but no further details have been provided by the government on when and how this vessel will be acquired. So, when it comes to security in the Pacific, this government says the right things but, all too often, does not live up to its rhetoric when it comes to delivering on the promises.

Let me repeat where I began. If the coalition government is serious about supporting security in the Pacific, they would take action on climate change and they would restore the cuts to official development assistance. If they don't advocate those opposite for increasing the aid budget and actually taking action on climate change, they are betraying themselves as hollow hypocrites and are betraying the Pacific and they showing the Pacific step-up is rhetoric only.

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