Australia and the Pacific: An Unfair Relationship

Abstract

For Australia to remain the partner of choice to Pacific nations, they must become more receptive to them and allow them to exercise agency over their region. As China increases their engagement with the Pacific, they threatens Australia’s position as the partner of choice to Pacific island nations. This paper explores how Australia is not addressing the key concerns, priorities and goals of Pacific Island nations through their Pacific Step-Up initiative and military deterrence method. Australia’s Australian Financing Facility for the Pacific and Pacific Australian Labour Mobility program do not address key concerns and priorities of Pacific nations and have instead focused on projects that seek to benefit Australia more than Pacific nations. Australia’s military strategy to deter Chinese military presence in the region also undermines Pacific leaders' agency over the region they call home. Australia, instead of partnering with Pacific nations to address the concern of China in the Pacific, have decided to address this with other external partners and has ignored Pacific leaders' priorities and agency over how to handle this geopolitical competition. This paper finds that Australia’s Pacific Step-Up initiative and military engagement in the region don’t have a focus on the core issues that Pacific Island nations face, and ignores the agency of Pacific leaders. This could result in China offering a more receptive partnership to Pacific nations, and cause Australia to no longer be the partner of choice to Pacific nations.