Pacific Islands

In March, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill declared his intention to return to a first-past-the-post (FPP) electoral system. He said his government would introduce legislation to replace the limited preferential voting (LPV) system that had been in place for three general elections,

French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Australia was a frank success, although some observers were puzzled after he raised the idea of a “Paris–New Delhi–Canberra” diamond within an Indo-Pacific axis.  Yet this proposal is clarified by French national objectives

Jo Chandler examines the complex natural resources saga in Papua New Guinea in The Monthly, as fallout from the February earthquake continues. A controversial report from Australian NGO Jubilee Australia has also questioned the economic benefit of PNG’s largest natural resource project.

Greg Colton’s Safeguarding Australia’s security interests through closer Pacific ties sits in a long tradition of mainstream thinking about the significance of the Pacific for Australia’s national security.  It is a tradition that draws on intertwined anxieties: on the

Last week, the UK announced it was establishing diplomatic representation in nine countries: Lesotho, Swaziland, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. From an Oceanian perspective, this might be a game changer. There

The coverage of China’s engagement in Vanuatu has continued in Australian news outlets, despite denials from all sides about the (pun intended) baseless claims. This attention has resulted in some quality commentary from Pacific watchers. Dan McGarry writes in the Vanuatu Daily Post

“There is no closer friendship than that between Australia and New Zealand,” Malcolm Turnbull and Jacinda Ardern declared after their leadership meeting in Sydney in March. Their language reflected many such statements over the years. And it’s true. Our communities understand each

The decision to terminate a long-standing arrangement that saw the Australian High Court act as a partial appellate court for Nauru, as reported last week, has heightened concerns about Nauru’s appropriateness as a venue for an Australian immigration detention centre. The timing of the

I thought Tonga had dealt with this issue when the Prime Minister’s Office issued a media release in March stating that all students should have access to all sporting opportunities in schools. The message was clear: there should be no discrimination in terms of access and participation

The United States used to think regularly about the islands of the South Pacific. On her tour of the region in 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt had a message for Americans troops stretched out across the Pacific Islands. “Every day”, she told them, Franklin Roosevelt “goes down to the map

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. Almost a month after Papua New Guniea’s deadly earthquake, aftershocks and damage to essential infrastructure are still hindering aid delivery to remote communities. American missionary

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. New Caledonia’s Congress has approved 4 November as the official date of the territory’s independence referendum. Denise Fisher, in The Strategist, explains the tensions between pro- and anti

In mid-2015 I was approached to work as a claims assistance provider at the Manus Regional Processing Centre. Initially, I was hesitant because I did not want to be part of an arrangement I believed was morally, if not legally, reprehensible. The processing of asylum seekers was of concern

Sensitivities have heightened as New Caledonia prepares in earnest for an independence referendum by November. Despite pro-France pressure, Emmanuel Macron’s government has now stated categorically that it won’t take sides. The mainstream independence group has sent a warning of its own.

In a speech delivered on 1 March at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters launched the country’s most significant shift in foreign policy towards the Pacific Islands region in decades. The speech followed Prime Minister Jacinda

It’s not often that Australian media carry a good news story about Papua New Guinea. But that’s what happened last Tuesday, when the ABC’s Eric Tlozek reported that PNG’s health authorities were stopping the spread of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in communities in Western Province

Diarrhoea is a common illness for more than a third of people in Honiara, the coastal capital of Solomon Islands, where informal settlements with poor sanitation and water dominate. But the risk of diarrhoeal disease increases in the annual wet season, from November to April, and escalates during

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. The clean-up following Cyclone Gita continues in Tonga. With shelter and electricity in short supply, it could be several months before the rebuild is complete. ABC looks at how Tongans are

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. Tonga and Samoa have been hit hard by Cyclone Gita, with Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa and its 100-year-old Parliament building destroyed by the storm. Australia and New Zealand have already

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program. Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Dame Meg Taylor is in Canberra to discuss Australia’s new Foreign Policy White Paper and Biketawa Plus, the expanded agreement on collective responses to

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program. More than 100 people are still missing after an overloaded ferry sunk in Kiribati on 18 January. Seven people on board the ferry were found in a dinghy on Sunday. Australian, New Zealand, and US

By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has reportedly contacted Pacific leaders to clarify, but not formally apologise for, remarks made by International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells about Chinese aid, which