by Allan Bird, MP.

My read on the PNGAUS Defense Treaty

Many media outlets are calling asking my view on the move by GoPNG from agreeing to Australia recruiting 10,000 PNG soldiers to a full on Defense Treaty.

My view on Australia recruiting 10,000 soldiers and giving them Australian citizenship is a very positive development for Australia and PNG. Simply because we have 30,000 young people finishing school every year and most of them are unable to find jobs.

And right now for me personally, I want our young people to have access to jobs anywhere in the world.birdbird

On the Defense Treaty that is a new development and I have not read the document so I won’t comment on it. I do however want to understand what each country will get out of it.

I believe PNG gets much more out of a defense treaty than Australia does. Simply because we are incapable of maintaining a military that is fit for purpose.

So whats in it for Australia? This is where it gets tricky. Is China that big an issue in PNG?

I don’t believe so. Right now Chinese businesses are popping up all over the country. I have had more visits from Chinese companies looking to invest than from anywhere else in the world. In fact 99.9% of investors I have met are Chinese. No one else is interested to invest in PNG apart from the Chinese.

So as far as trade is concerned within the next decade; most of our trade will be with China by far. Do they pose a military threat? For what reason? China’s only major war with another country occurred in 1979 when they fought a border war with Vietnam. They also fought over the border with India in 2020.

Why would PNG be of military interest to China when they can simply buy what they need from us through trade and investment? It’s much easier than going to war.

They can also buy whatever they need from Australia. So military options seem a little remote.

I believe the reason Australia wants a Defense Treaty with us is because they cannot trust our politicians. We are a corrupt country. There is no doubt about that.

If we look at Australia’s aid in PNG over the last 15 years and particularly over the last 6 years, the money has been spent largely for political rather than development purposes. The money is spent on keeping Government ministers happy. This is bad for Australia and PNG.

This defense treaty is all about trying to give Australia some comfort that PNG politicians will not play all sides like this government has been doing quite successfully for some time.

Australia should not give in to blackmail from corrupt PNG politicians. It needs to stand its ground. I am certain Australia could have a constructive relationship with China just like PNG can.

Australia should ignore the PNG politicians and focus on giving PNG citizens greater access to Australian opportunities just like it does for other Pacific countries.

The relationship between Australia and PNG would be much better if there were more people to people relationships than just politicians getting together and trying to stitch deals that look bad for Australia and PNG.

If Australia recruited 100,000 PNGans for either Defense or other jobs, that would help PNG and Australia more than trying to cut deals with PNG politicians who are already very tight with Chinese contractors. Why is Australia trying to placate 40 or 50 PNG MPs? Australia currently has 380,000 vacancies that cost Australia billions in lost taxes and income.

100,000 PNGans employed in Australia would add over A$10 billion a year to the Australian economy while remittances to PNG would be around A$1billion a year, which is 2% of our GDP.

It’s time we took policy measures that actually benefit both countries and not just PNG politicians.

PNG also needs to grow up and stop playing all sides. It makes us all look like a cheap tucker box operation.