Pacific aid set to be given a $900m boost

Labor will increase government aid in the budget to $900m for the Pacific out to 2025-26, up on the $525m promised at the election.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong with Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown. Picture: Department of Foreign Affairs / NCA NewsWire.

Labor will increase government aid in the budget to $900m for the Pacific out to 2025-26, up on the $525m promised at the election, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong saying the greater investment would help prevent Australia from losing out in the growing contest for influence in the region.

Senator Wong will flag the upgraded assistance in a speech in French Polynesia on Friday, with nearly $140m over the next four years going towards enhancing ­security and engagement in the Pacific.

“This budget is a major step toward the goal of making Australia stronger and more influential in the world,” she said.

“Our assistance will help our regional partners become more economically resilient, develop critical infrastructure and provide their own security so they have less need to call on others.

“Without these investments, others will continue to fill the vacuum and Australia will continue to lose ground as we did under the Liberals and Nationals.”

More than $45m will go towards supporting Australian Federal Police deployment in Honiara through the Solomon Islands’ International Assistance Force amid concerns over the tightening security relationship between the Pacific Island nation and Beijing.

Labor will also use the budget to deliver on other key election commitments including $30.4m to upgrade aerial surveillance capability under the Pacific Maritime Security Program; $6.9m to establish the Australia-Pacific Defence School; and $18.6m to establish a network of Australian Border Force officers across the Pacific.

The ABC will receive $32m to expand its content and transmission in the region.

“We are working to make ­Australia a partner of choice for the countries of our region, to ensure our security and economic strength and to shape the world for the better,” Senator Wong said.

Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy said that the government’s additional investment in Official Development Assistance would be the “biggest increase over four years since 2011-12”.

“It will advance Australia’s interests by tackling poverty and supporting stability, prosperity and security in our region,” he said.

The budget will contain further details on the government commitment to create a new Pacific Engagement Visa, allowing up to 3000 nationals of Pacific Island countries and East Timor to migrate to Australia each year.

An extra $500m will be allocated over 10 years from the existing ODA program to support grant and loan packages from the proposed Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.

Projects to be funded by the facility include airport, bridge and road works in Fiji.

The unveiling of extra support for the region came as Australia and Fiji signed a Status of Forces Agreement on Thursday in a bid to streamline defence engagements and enable the faster deployment of personnel in crisis.

The agreement establishes a framework dictating how each nat­ion’s forces interact, train, exercise and visit each other.

It will also grant visa exemptions to travelling personnel and promote expeditious entry and exit to each country.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the agreement would ensure both countries could respond to “common” security challenges. “We share an interest in a peaceful, secure and resilient Pacific and need to work together to effectively respond to common­security challenges, traditional and non-traditional,” he said.

Fijian Defence Minister Inia Seruiratu said the agreement would help the nations respond to humanitarian threats. He heralded the deal as a “new height of ­security co-operation.”