Australia's Ties to Papua New Guinea
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Situated only kilometres north of Australia, Papua New Guinea is our geographically closest neighbour.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) was initially made up of two colonial outposts, with Germany occupying the north and England holding the south. The British territory was transferred to Australia in 1906, and the northern German territory was trusted to Australia through the League of Nations in 1945.
The Whitlam Government declared PNG an independent democratic nation on December 1st, 1973. Australia has provided $1.2 billion in budget support for PNG since 2019, including a $650 million loan in 2021.[1]
This week, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, the Hon. James Marape, MP, addressed the Australian Parliament on the floor of the House of Representatives. This is the first address from an international leader of the Albanese Government and the first ever from a Pacific nation leader.
In his address, Prime Minister Marape emphasised the strong bond between Australia and PNG throughout his speech, stating, “we are joined at the hip”. He also expressed gratitude that Australia granted PNG’s independence and for Australia's continuing support of his young nation.
Prime Minister Marape also addressed a number of issues that concern PNG today, including its landscape of mountains and rainforest, a multitude of languages and tribes, and its status as a young nation that started on poor economic footing. He encouraged Australia to be steadfast in its support of PNG and noted that the nation continues to develop its economy towards self-sufficiency. He said this is in Australia’s interests, with a strong PNG meaning a strong Australia and a stable Pacific.
Australia supports several sectors in Papua New Guinea.
In 2022, Australia was estimated to contribute $602 million in official development assistance (ODA). The spending by sector of this assistance is broken down below:
Sector
Governance - $ 180,600,000 AUD - 30% of ODA
Health - $ 162,540,000 AUD - 27% of ODA
Economic and Infrastructure Services - $ 120,400,000 AUD - 20% of ODA
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Education - $ 72,240,000 AUD - 12% of ODA
Multisector and General Development Support - $ 36,120,000 AUD - 6% of ODA
Agriculture - $ 24,080,000 AUD - 4% of ODA
Humanitarian - $ 6,020,000 AUD - 1% of ODA
Total $ 602,000,000 [2]
Bilateral partnerships and trade define PNG and Australia’s relationship. This includes petroleum, gold, and silver imports to Australia and meat and wheat exports to PNG. The Papua New Guinea-Australia Defence Cooperation Program is Australia’s largest deference cooperation program with another country. In March 2022, Australia signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cyber Cooperation with PNG and gifted the HMPNGS Francis Naval vessel in 2021.[3] Moreover, other areas of Australia and PNG’s strength in partnership include programs such as PacificAusSports, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme, and Australia’s role as PNG’s biggest trading partner.
Australia continues to work closely with PNG through the Papua New Guinea-Australia Comprehensive Strategic and Economic Partnership (CSEP) signed in 2020. This partnership “reinforces the strong bonds between [the] two countries”[4]. Prime Minister Marape ended his address by urging parliamentarians to “plant trees that they may never sit in the shade of” and to use the shared history of PNG and Australia as a tailwind into a shared future.
With Australian Members of Parliament from all sides of politics visiting and building relationships with the Parliament and the people of PNG, it is evident that this neighbourly bond will continue to grow and prosper over the coming years and decades.
[1] Australia’s development partnership with Papua New Guinea | Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (dfat.gov.au)