Australia's Pacific Policy Called Counterproductive

By Bob Burton

CANBERRA, Australia, February 19, 2003 (ENS) - Nongovernmental organizations have told a series of Senate inquiry hearings into Australia's relationship with Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region that government policies are failing to appropriately deal with the biggest environmental challenges facing the region.

Alan Ferguson, Senator for South Australia chairs the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. (Photo courtesy Parliament of Australia)

However, Greenpeace is critical of the proposal in a report by the government's aid agency AusAid - that the wastes be incinerated. "At a time when Australia is actively seeking to reduce the number of medical incinerators and has banned the development of high temperature incineration for POPs waste, it seems incongruous to say the least, for an Ausaid report to propose incineration for other Pacific island states," Greenpeace submitted.

"Foisting second rate technology that Australia itself would not use onto its neighbors can do little to enhance Australia's relationship with the Pacific," Rattenbury argued. "Non-incineration must be the technology of choice for the destruction of Pacific POPs waste. Disposal by incineration would not only contravene the Stockholm Convention but also the objectives of AusAid, that is, to strive for environmental sustainability."

The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs). POPs are chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms, and are toxic to humans and wildlife.

In its submission Greenpeace argued that a specific focus of the Australian government aid to Papua New Guinea should be to "seek to counter corrupt government practices, particularly those in the forest sector."

It proposed support for key institutions including an independent commission against corruption, and improved capability of the Ombudsman Commission and the Solicitor General's office investigate and "to deal effectively with corruption and non-compliance in forests and land matters."

It is a view upheld by the Papua New Guinea based Eco-Forestry Forum (EFF) an umbrella group of 20 local national and international non-governmental organizations who support environmentally sustainable forest management. In its presentation of evidence to the committee by phone on Tuesday afternoon, The EFF identified corruption in the forest sector as the most important issue to be addressed.

Logging in Papua New Guinea is often done by harvesting all trees of a certain size without considering harvesting intensity or canopy gaps. (Photo courtesy FAO)

Australia's aid to PNG comprises approximately one-fifth of the total aid budget. It is the largest of Australia's bilateral aid programs.

While Australia currently contributes $US200 million a year to PNG's budget, to the dismay of environmentalists, it has backed away from supporting World Bank proposed reforms to the allocation of logging.

"Unless the corruption is stopped and the logging industry brought into line, then Australia's aid dollars and international development assistance will not arrest the social and economic decline of Papua New Guinea," Bisa bluntly submitted to the inquiry.

With most land in the Pacific owned by customary landowners, former researcher with the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre in Fiji, Nic Maclellan, argued there is a need to focus aid programs on training and support programs for landowners. Projects he suggested in evidence to a hearing of the committee late last year, should include, "legal support; and creating alternative development strategies to avoid reliance on funds from unsustainable practices such as clear-fell logging."

"A crucial weakness in many Australian government programs is the dismissive attitude to the community sector in the Pacific, but many church and non-governmental organizations are long established and well respected, and play a crucial role in development, governance and national policy," Maclellan noted.

The Maisin tribe of Papua New Guinea has resisted logging on traditional lands with the help of Greenpeace (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

While environmental issues are increasingly important in the region, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Australian government funded public broadcaster, told the committee that the ability to report on them to the wider regional public was severely constrained by limited resources.

While Radio Australia (RA) broadcasts throughout the region including three hours a day in PNG pidgin as well as 24 hours a day in English, lack of funding limits its ability to effectively report stories on the ground. To "fulfil its mandate effectively, RA needs to be represented more effectively with local reporters on the ground in key countries," the ABC submitted to the committee.

The ABC - the only media organization to make a submission to the inquiry - noted that within the Pacific region radio is the dominant medium as newspapers and TV are restricted to urban areas where only 20 percent of the population lives.

The ABC pressed its case for funding for a dedicated training and mentoring program with broadcasters throughout the region. While such a program would have benefits for regional media outlets, the ABC argued that it would improve the quality of work of Australian journalists too.

"Journalists and broadcasters are usually much more sensitive to the nuances of events in the countries where they have worked and are less prone to the parachute journalism of which Australian reporters are frequently accused, particularly in the Pacific," they told the inquiry.