Elon Musk’s big move in Pacific nations
The world’s richest man Elon Musk has spotted an opportunity right on Australia’s doorstep. And it’s not without its potential issues.
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When David Main first moved to Samoa, he was on a two-year sabbatical tasked with connecting the remote island nation with the internet.
Now, he watches on as tech billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink spreads through the Pacific Islands offering a new frontier in connectivity.
“The internet is an essential service in this day and age,” he says.
“You try to do anything without the internet and your communication just shuts down. You can’t do anything without the internet.”
Main has been working with Starlink representatives locally and said they had indicated a genuine desire to plug gaps in connectivity in the island nation.
But there was nothing stopping Musk – who has become an increasingly polarising figure –from using his growing access to the Pacific for political gain.
“The Starlink product its geolocated so, when you move your dish, they can just turn you off – so if there is any political strife, they can just turn it off,” he said.
“I don’t think they want to do that but the option is there if they want to.”
Starlink’s arrival in Samoa and other Pacific nations like the Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Fiji will unlock new opportunities for locals.
But it also presents an opportunity for “capricious” and politically motivated Musk to spread his influence in Australia’s backyard.
This can be problematic in the context of Australia’s ongoing “arm wrestle” with the man Anthony Albanese labelled an “arrogant billionaire”.
Musk fired back describing the Labor government as “fascists”.
The PM struck up a feud with Musk last year after the eSafety watchdog took X to court demanding it take down footage of a horrific stabbing in Sydney’s southwest.
The court case was eventually dropped with both sides firing off attacks at the other and X vowing to fight for the freedom of speech for Australians.
Since then, Albanese has announced the world’s toughest crackdown on social media with a ban for kids in the works alongside a controversial crackdown on misinformation online.
This week Musk was expected to deliver a business address virtually at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa – featuring at the event alongside dignitaries like King Charles III and Queen Camilla, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Anthony Albanese.
He sent a Starlink representative to the Wednesday meeting instead but, on Friday, excited locals were still talking about Musk’s potential arrival at the event in a sign of his star power.
At the sidelines of the CHOGM summit, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Saturday Telegraph that Pacific nations must think carefully about which technology they will invest in if they want to protect their economic “sovereignty and security”.
She said Australia had worked with Pacific nations to support their digital connectivity through “trusted technologies”.
“The choice of technologies and how countries regulate their digital infrastructure will be critical in protecting their long-term economic sovereignty and security,” she said.
“Australia has been working with Pacific Island nations to support their digital connectivity and ensure they have choices and access to trusted technology.”
The Saturday Telegraph understands that the Albanese government is not concerned about Musk’s expansion into the Pacific from a national security point of view but his ability to undermine our neighbours’ economic sovereignty and evade paying taxes to the countries they operate in.
There are also concerns about small island states now having the laws and systems in place to properly regulate his products.
Strategic Analysis Australia defence expert Michael Shoebridge said the right-wing businessman’s growing influence in the region would complicate the lay of the land for the Albanese government given the two parties have been embroiled in a bitter public battle.
“He’s a complication for the Australian government’s Pacific strategy,” he said.
“Musk’s personal views shape what Starlink and X do. If he’s having an arm wrestle with the government over X and the misinformation laws, it would complicate what we want in the Pacific.”
Mr Shoebridge said, unlike issues with countries like China or Russia, dealing with a tech billionaire was a bigger challenge for the government given Musk’s pattern of using personal politics to shape business decisions.
“He is a very capricious individual,” he said.
“He can just change his mind about something or make a decision on grounds a government would not. Like providing Starlink to Ukraine where his personal views factored into what his business would do.”
Mr Shoebridge said Musk’s growing dominance in the Pacific through Starlink served both his political and business motivations.
“On the business side there is a definite market in the Pacific because it’s hard to put a lot of physical infrastructure such as our NBN, so satellite connectivity makes a lot of sense,” he said.
“It’s also a part of his aim to create an internationally dominant company.”
Melissa Conley Tyler, executive director of Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue, said it’s more important than ever for the Albanese government to continue investing in Pacific media organisations to fight the influence of Musk.
“It’s a massive challenge for Australia. We want a healthy information environment everywhere particularly in our smaller neighbours,” she said.
“In one of the smaller islands there was a major measles outbreak because of a misinformation campaign so we would see this as against our interests.
“It’s something Australia needs to be working with our Pacific neighbours on.”
Ms Conley Tyler said initiatives like Australia’s Indo-Pacific broadcasting strategy could play a key role.
“Tech companies have positives and negatives. We could look at what Starlink is doing as fantastic because of the increased connectivity ... Pacific Islands are some of the least connected places in the world,” she said.
“In some of these islands, even basic things like banking are starting to disappear ... Starlink was a lifesaver in Tonga.
“But some of the Pacific leaders would feel differently about the tsunami of disinformation (on X).”
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Dr Malcolm Davis said Musk’s prominence could be boiled down to his support of Donald Trump in the US election.
If Trump wins, Musk’s power and politics grows, he predicts.
“If Trump does win, Musk’s role will certainly grow, potentially beyond his role on X-Twitter, into other areas ... this can have good and bad implications,” he said.
“For the Pacific Island states, as with Australia, they have to make up their own minds in terms of how they relate to people like Musk, and how they manage some of the negative contributions he might make, without stifling the opportunities to promote the good things he’s doing as noted above.”
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