Greg Barns: Neighbour lacks compassion

Claims this week by some South Pacific countries that Australia is the region's bully might be a little wide of the mark but there is no doubt that Australia's track record in its relations with Pacific countries over the past five years has not been unblemished.

Compared with New Zealand, Australia comes off second best when it comes to compassionate leadership in the region.

Take, for example, the so-called Pacific Solution, devised by Australian Prime Minister John Howard in 2001 to deal with desperate asylum-seekers - mainly from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan - who were trying to reach Australia's coastline.

Howard and his Government cajoled and bribed Nauru and Papua-New Guinea into housing asylum-seekers who would otherwise have had their refugee claims processed in Australia.

Howard, facing a general election that year, decided to get tough on 400 asylum-seekers who were fleeing the Taleban regime in Afghanistan, and who had been rescued from their leaky boats by the Norwegian merchant ship Tampa.

Australia paid the impoverished Nauru Government a staggering $A20 ($23.2) million in aid for agreeing to house the refugees.

At the same time, Australia struck a similar deal with Papua-New Guinea to establish a processing centre on Manus Island.

New Zealand, on the other hand, was prepared to resettle asylum-seekers housed on Nauru and Manus Island. Fast forward to this year and once again it's the issue of refugees, this time in the context of climate change that sees the Australians behaving in a less than cordial fashion towards some of its Pacific neighbours.

A report earlier this month from the Australian Government's scientific research organisation, the CSIRO, and aid groups that included Oxfam, said millions of people in the Asia-Pacific region - including Tonga, Fiji and Kiribati - are likely to be displaced over the next 40 years because of rising sea levels caused by global warming.

Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell says it is highly unlikely those people will be allowed to resettle in Australia. He wants to encourage Pacific nations to work with Australia on measures that will help those countries adapt to climate change.

Australia believes that Pacific Islanders "would much prefer to stay on their own islands and I think that is where the focus should be", Campbell said.

Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia of Tuvalu - whose 10,000 inhabitants are in the front line for the impact of rising sea levels - sought a meeting at this week's South Pacific Forum with Howard, but it seems he was too busy.

On the other hand, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has indicated that she is "very sensitive" to Tuvalu's expected predicament.

Not only is Australia unlikely to extend a helping hand to environmental refugees in the Pacific, nor is it prepared to help boost struggling Pacific economies by allowing guest workers in Australia.

Howard told the forum this week that Australia will instead help Pacific Island nations to build their own technical colleges.

Given that globally remittances from foreign workers back to their families and communities in developing world countries are a bigger source of aid than official funds, Australia's refusal to establish a guest-worker programme seems mean-spirited and designed to avoid a domestic political backlash.

By contrast, Clark announced a plan to allow 5000 seasonal workers to enter New Zealand.

* Greg Barns is a former Australian government adviser and a columnist with the Hobart Mercury.