It's a big week for Papua New Guinea in Australia. Prime Minister Peter O'Neil is in town for talks with Tony Abbott, there's a big PNG mining and petroleum investment conference underway in Sydney, and the Lowy Institute is hosting the Australia-Papua New Guinea Emerging Leaders Dialogue.
Former ABC reporter Sean Dorney, who has been observing and reporting on the Pacific Islands region for 40 years, has joined the Dialogue, and earlier this afternoon I talked to him about Australia-PNG relations and the future of PNG (it's fair to say Sean is a realist rather than an unalloyed optimist). Listen also for Sean's thoughts on the ABC's budget cutbacks, and what it means for coverage of the Pacific.