For The Guardian.
In a budget filled with winners, there were a few notable losers.
There was our university sector. Already languishing, the government dealt our unis the twin blows of a sustained “fortress Australia” – prohibiting a revival of the international student market – and a reduction in funding.
Then there was Australia’s aid budget, the chief recipients of which are our Pacific neighbours. While receiving scant attention, the budget included a 3.2% reduction to overseas development assistance.
While they have been spared the worst health impact of the pandemic, Pacific countries have been hit by Covid-19 travel restrictions, leaving them isolated and devastating their tourism-dependent economies.
The Australian government has safely brought some Pacific islandworkers into Australia to pick fruit. The relative lack of Covid in the Pacific suggests this could be replicated. Given the treasurer’s assumption that our borders will be closed for another 12 months, carefully expanding mobility to our nearest neighbours is the logical first step to re-opening Australia – and the Pacific Islands – to the world.
But instead of just bringing in workers from the Pacific to pick fruit, the government should explore more productive and long-term means of support. It should focus on tertiary education.
Government data shows that, in 2020, just 0.37% of international tertiary students remaining in Australia came from Pacific nations.
The bulk of these were from Papua New Guinea and Fiji, with 1,175 and 891 students studying in Australia, respectively. But only 138 Solomon Islanders were studying in Australia. There were 65 from East Timor, 52 from Tonga, and just 22 from nearby Vanuatu. Kiribati, one of the Pacific’s largest countries by population, had just nine students here.
The government does support some Pacific students through its Australia Awards (AA) program, which had a budget of $295m in 2019/2020, which will drop to $225m in 2020/2021. Overall, Pacific students make up 40% of the AA program.
Pacific Island nations have modest population bases: their student numbers will always be lower than those from elsewhere. But there is an unmet appetite among Pasifikas for higher education in Australia.
In late 2019, I reported on the case of 103 Solomon Islander students who were being coerced into studying in mainland Chinese universities. Having previously been awarded scholarships by Taiwan, these students’ had their educational futures shattered when their nation cut ties with Taipei, instead extending diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
These 103 students – the best and brightest in Solomon Islands, destined for future leadership roles – pleaded with the Australian government to transfer into our tertiary sector. Their ask was ignored, leaving many to accept positions in mainland China.
Australia has already announced a commitment to investing in infrastructure in the Pacific region. Morrison has made a $2bn infrastructure pledge to the Pacific, the central pillar of which is the awkwardly named Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific, or AIFFP.
The AIFFP was launched nearly two years ago with a clear mandate. It would help alleviate the Pacific’s infrastructure deficit, while serving as a strategic bulwark against Chinese encroachments on a region the prime minister considers “family”.
Lurking on page 276 of Budget Paper 1, however, was an embarrassing admission: the AIFFP is yet to spend a cent in the region. While it has struck some agreements, its portfolio remains modest: to date, the AIFFP has more words in its title than projects under its belt.
Australia can be smarter in the Pacific. It should invest in the region’s physical infrastructure, but also in its human capital. The Morrison governments needs to be nimble in this new Covid-19 world, and find creative ways to support the Pacific, instead of simply waiting for the pandemic to end so it can recommence its original, pre-pandemic strategy.
A generous Australian-funded scholarship program should be considered by the government, creating places in Australia’s tertiary sector for students from the Pacific, while facilitating their safe passage into our country – as the government has proven possible with seasonal fruit pickers.
It would provide some relief to our ailing tertiary sector, breathe life into our distracted Pacific step-up, and serve as an important milestone on Australia’s long path to global re-engagement.