Avoiding a Pacific Lost Decade: Financing the Pacific's COVID-19 Recovery
The Pacific's post-pandemic economic revival will rely on an internationalmulti-year recovery package of grants and loans led by Australia
Tuesday 26 Jan 2021 | 08:19 | SYDNEY
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Keeping West Papua on the agenda
When Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Bob Loughman addressed the UN General Assembly last month, he echoed a concern that has often been expressed by his predecessors, not about the Pacific directly, but about alleged human rights abuses in West Papua.
“The world is taking a selective approach
By Dan McGarry
Vanuatu: A real test for local emergency response
Rated as the country with the highest disaster risk worldwide, Vanuatu is no stranger to severe tropical cyclones. When Tropical Cyclone Pam struck the country in 2015, it affected around 166,000 people and left a trail of destruction.
Similarly, Tropical Cyclone Harold, a category 5 cyclone that
West Papua: The Issue That Won't Go Away for Melanesia
West Papuans continue to fight for independence with the support of many Pacific nations. Despite Indonesia’s opposition and the recent impact of COVID-19 on the region, the resolution of West Papuan grievances may have stalled but nationalist sentiment has not been quelled.
China, media freedom in the Pacific, and the great Australian silence
The refusal of the Vanuatu government to allow high-profile Vanuatu-based journalist to fly home on Saturday has given a sharper edge to concerns about a wider trend of attacks on media freedom in the Pacific and highlights both China’s influence and Australia’s policy failure in broadcast and
China-Taiwan: Solomon Islands’ switch and a “new normal”
“A vacuum simply offers opportunities for others to fill it up.”
That observation was offered by Vanuatu Member of Parliament Johnny Koanapo in a recent Facebook post. The Opposition MP is a former Director General of Foreign Affairs, and has been instrumental in several bilateral and
By Dan McGarry
The many questions about China’s Vanuatu ambition
What to make of the extraordinary story in Australia’s Fairfax newspapers on Tuesday about reported discussions between China and Vanuatu that could allow the People’s Liberation Army to establish a presence in the South Pacific nation?
If true, there would be significant cause for
By Rory Medcalf
Vanuatu: flailing, not drowning
On Monday The Australian published an article titled “Pacific nations drowning in Chinese debt”. It suggests that a large number of recent “white elephant” projects are becoming an unsustainable burden on Pacific Islands countries.
Although this contains a kernel of
By Dan McGarry
Pacific island links: PNG snapshots, the French PM in New Caledonia, Mini Games and more
By Euan Moyle, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program.
The Lowy Institute has released Papua New Guinea: Seven Snapshots of a Nation, which analyses PNG’s political, social, economic and security trends. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has kicked off his four-day
Pacific island links: Manus closure, Evara's death, caretaker mode in New Caledonia and more
By Euan Moyle, an intern in the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program.
With the Manus Island Detention Centre set to close at the end of the month, hundreds of remaining asylum seekers and refugees will be moved to government-run accommodation and hotels until they are settled in
Pacific island links: PNG politics, Ambae, Tsai’s visit and more
By Euan Moyle, an intern in the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program.
Sam Basil, leader of the Pangu Pati, has been appointed a Minister for Communications, Information Technology and Energy in the PNG Government, several weeks after he defected from opposition. PNG opposition MP Bryan
Pacific island links: Ambae evacuation, violence in Mendi, French Polynesia and more
By Euan Moyle, an intern in the Lowy Institute's Melanesia Program.
Vanuatu has completed the evacuation of 11,000 residents from Ambae Island as the Manaro volcano threatens to erupt. ABC’s Pacific Beat spoke with Red Cross aid workers on the massive operation and the future for the island’s
Tanna: Bare feet on the Oscars red carpet
The Pacific is abuzz with the news that the film Tanna, released in 2015, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Directed by Australian documentary-makers Bentley Dean and Martin Butler, the film was shot entirely on the island of Tanna in the southern
By Anna Kirk, Grace Kirk
Vanuatu's neglected international airport
By Jonathan Pryke, Research Fellow in the Lowy Institute's Melanesia Program and Matthew Dornan, Deputy Director of the Development Policy Centre
Vanuatu is the 9th most tourism-dependent country in the world. The tourism sector accounts for between 40% and 65% of GDP (measures vary by year and
Vanuatu election outcome: Can a new coalition government kick-start the economy?
The past year has tested Vanuatu’s economic and political resilience. Following the devastation wreaked by Category 5 Cyclone Pam in the island archipelago in March, economic recovery was elusive and made harder by months of political instability and constitutional uncertainty. October saw 14
By Anna Naupa
Vanuatu election may bring generational change
Vanuatu goes to the polls today in a snap election brought about by a parliamentary bribery scandal, which culminated in the jailing of 14 MPs in October last year. The MPs, including the Deputy Prime Minister, lost their seats as a result and early elections were announced on 7 December 2015.
By Anna Kirk
Vanuatu: Bribery scandal might yet improve politics
The saga over bribery and pardons in Vanuatu has brought out the worst and the best in the Pacific island nation's political-legal class.
Vanuatu's Supreme Court found 14 members of parliament guilty of the criminal charge of bribery on 9 October. Later that day, in flagrant disregard for the
Rebuilding paradise in Vanuatu
Cyclone Pam has been one of the worst natural disasters the Pacific has ever seen, and the small island nation of Vanuatu was hardest hit. The immediate disaster relief effort is crucial but it is important to realise that the devastating impact of this disaster will be felt in Vanuatu for years to
Post-cyclone aid to Vanuatu
By Jenny Hayward-Jones, Director of the Lowy Institute's Melanesia Program and Philippa Brant, Research Associate
The full extent of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and to a lesser degree Tuvalu, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, is not yet