Australia opposition pushes new Pacific plan after Solomons pact
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People in Honiara on November 2021. PM Scott Morrison said that the nation is entitled to make its own diplomatic decisions.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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CANBERRA (BLOOMBERG) - Australia would open a defence school to train its Pacific Island neighbours and fund aerial surveillance across the region, under an election policy announced by the opposition Labor Party that aims to boost the country's soft power.
Labor has been critical of a new security pact between China and the Solomon Islands, accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of making Australia "less secure" by failing to prevent the deal. Labor's shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong described the pact as the "worst failure of Australian foreign policy in the Pacific since the end of World War II".
Morrison dismissed Labor's new policy as "farcical" on Tuesday (April 26) morning, while Foreign Minister Marise Payne said much of the policy announced so far was already being undertaken by the government. Morrison has maintained the Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation which is entitled to make its own diplomatic decisions.
Under the proposed policy, if Labor wins the national election on May 21 it would establish an Australia-Pacific Defence School to provide training for the defence and security forces of Pacific nations. The opposition would also double Australia's funding for the Pacific Maritime Security Programme which helps Pacific nations watch for illegal fishing in their exclusive economic zones.
In a push to burnish Australia's soft power in the region, the Labor policy would also increase funding for a larger public and commercial media presence in the Pacific, including expanding the transmission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"Labor's plan will restore Australia's place as first partner of choice for our Pacific family," Wong said in a statement Monday. "Scott Morrison has dropped the ball in the Pacific, and as a result Australia is less secure."
Prime Minister Morrison's centre-right Liberal National coalition government is campaigning for a fourth term in power ahead of an election due to be held on May 21. But despite a strong economy and record-low unemployment, Morrison's party is trailing Labor in opinion polling.
