February 20, 2003	Thursday	Zul Hijjah 18, 1423

CANBERRA: The Australian government’s dismissive attitude toward its nearest neighbours in the Pacific, including its forcible relocation of unwanted asylum seekers to small island nations there, is sowing resentment from that region.

This is what witnesses from both business lobby groups and non-government have been telling a public hearing this week of the Senate’s foreign affairs, defence and trade committee.

For starters, the National Council of Churches on Wednesday urged the government to abandon its controversial practice of forcibly relocating asylum seekers who arrive in Australian territorial waters to neighbouring Pacific countries, a move Canberra has done to nations like Nauru and Papua New Guinea in recent years — in exchange for cash.

Dubbed by the Australian government the ‘Pacific solution’, community groups in the region have warned that it has soured how Pacific Islanders view Australia, the heavyweight in the region.

“Far from creating the impression that Australia is trying, in a cooperative manner, to find solutions to alleviate the circumstances that drive people to flight, the ‘Pacific solution’ creates the impression that we are seeking to dump our ‘problems’ on small less-developed and/or dependent nations,” the churches said in a statement to the committee.

The Senate committee is inquiring into Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Pacific region, and is completing its public hearings this week. It will issue the final report in June.

As part of the ‘Pacific solution’, Nauru was promised an untied grant of $17 million beyond funding for the construction and running of detention centres to hold the asylum seekers.

The National Council of Churches in Australia, which comprises 15 major Christian churches and works closely with its Pacific counterparts, believes that the offers of funding to Nauru and Papua New Guinea have seriously damaged Australia’s standing in the region.

“It is clear that these financial inducements have heightened feelings of neo-colonialism, and the sense that Australia has impinged upon the sovereignty of Pacific island nations,” James Thomson, director of the National Programme on Refugees and Displaced People, submitted to the committee.

The business community is also unhappy with the Australian government’s attitude towards the Pacific.

The Australia-Fiji Business Council, the Pacific Islands Business Council and Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council expressed dismay at the lack of leadership by Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Of particular concern, they note, is that Howard has only attended three of the six annual meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum, the annual meeting of heads of government of Pacific island countries.

The non-government organization Australian Volunteers International (AVI), which organizes the placement of skilled Australian volunteers in communities throughout the Pacific, agrees that the failure to attend the Pacific Islands Forum meetings is damaging.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.