China's influence played no part in Australia increasing aid to the Pacific region - Bishop Featured
Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop.Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop. Photo: AFP
10 May, 2018. China's rising influence in the Pacific played no part in Australia increasing aid to the region, its foreign minister says.
Australia's $US970 million Pacific contribution now represents 30 percent of Australia's total aid budget which remained frozen at $US3.1 billion dollars in the government's annual budget announced this week.
Commentators such as New Zealand academic Anna Powles said the sub-text for Australian Pacific aid projects, including under sea internet cable to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and a new Pacific Security College, was China and concern over an "increasingly contested regional order".
The cable deal killed off an earlier plan for the Chinese firm Huawei to build a submarine link between the Solomons and Australia, while the college reflected "concerns that Australia has about a loss of influence in the region and the need to really spearhead and be the Pacific primary security partner", Dr Powles said.
But the minister, Julie Bishop, said commentators got it wrong.
"Ever since I became foreign minister I have made the Pacific a foreign policy priority," she told the ABC.
"Back in 2013, the commentators weren't talking about China's influence in the Pacific but I was talking about Australia's influence and engagement in the Pacific."
-RNZI
1 comment
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China's active role in the Pacific has woken up Australia and NZ. Australia in particular has anti-Tongan and anti-Pacific Islands immigration policies still. Forget sugar coding Australian contributions to Pacific Islands because corrupted governments stuff their own pockets first.
2 years ago I asked her in a Press Conference in Tonga why Australia lacks behind NZ on allowing more permanent residents? At the time I quoted her statistics showing 65,000 Tongans residing in NZ, and U.S. respectively, but only 20,000 Tongans residing in Australia.
Her stupid answer was: "We cannot control where people want to migrate." She was addressing an uneducated Islander who is supposed to be ignorant of why only 20,000 Tongans are permitted to immigrate to Australia. I wrote at the time, "The Madam Minister must have no idea of people's migration trending." Her European ancestors came to Australia for sure on special visas for white people. And Australia still does have "white people preference" immigration laws.