Pim Opinion

For much of last month the diplomatic chambers of Canberra, and capitals around the Pacific, have hummed with anxious, and also sometimes angry, discussion of the Jackson Report, a document commissioned by the Hawke government to advise it on how Australia’s aid money should be spent.

The report, produced by a committee headed by the former chairman of CSR, Sir Gordon Jackson, will not be made public until May, although many of the people most concerned seem already to be remarkably well-informed on much of its contents.

What most concerns Pacific Island countries, to whom Australia’s annual handout is of prime importance, is Jackson’s recommendation that within five years aid grants be tied to specific projects or programmes. Jackson says Australia’s increasingly burdened taxpayers will begin opposing foreign aid unless there is evidence that it promotes social and economic development. They could also begin questioning the fitness of recipient governments to administer aid, and turn querulous about their general attitudes, habits and performance. Even so charismatic a figure as Bob Hawke, would be unwise to ignore such public feeling. Dealing specifically with Papua New Guinea, the Jackson Report suggests that future aid may need to be contingent upon the Port Moresby government’s ability to handle its currently very difficult law and order problems.

PNG’s prime minister, Michael Somare, who happened to be in Sydney at the time the report “leaked” to the daily press, reacted with charactistic vigor. He was, he said, “bloody angry” over what he had read of the report. “My government is seriously disturbed that there should be any change in the form of Australian aid,” he said.

Australia’s aid to PNG is in fact quite straight-forward budgetary support. The money is paid into the treasury and spent as the PNG government sees fit. It amounts to nearly $3OO million and represents more than a quarter of PNG’s total government revenue. It is also more than 30 per cent of total Australian foreign aid.

Jackson’s report to some degree revives the rather bitter argument which occurred just before PNG independence about where Australian aid should be applied, and how it should be administered. Since then it has been a basic of Australian policy that aid should not be tied, and that, thereby, any appearance of Australian interference in the affairs of its small, developing, neighbors could be avoided. It is a policy which has excited a good deal of discussion, and not a little opposition from Australians critical of the sometimes myopic, sometimes clumsy and wasteful, but also sometimes inspired workings of bureaucracy.

Very probably the Jackson report reflects a good deal of Australian public opinion or, to be somewhat more realistic, a lot of Australians not directly involved in the conduct of foreign affairs will agree with its general tenor. Australians generally feel their government should be accountable to them. It is but a small step, if it is any step at all, for them to demand an accounting of foreign aid spending. And yet, an objective look at Papua New Guinea’s performance over the last few years, shows how well it has done, even through the recent very difficult recession.

That PNG faces many very taxing problems is obvious. That Mr Somare and his government are doing something about them is also clear. Inflation is reduced, wage rates have been held and the country’s product is growing, reportedly at something like 2.5 per cent which, at this moment, puts quite a number of similar countries right into the shade.

The only real questions for any Australian to ask are: why is money put into foreign aid? and, what would be the result of a change in current practice?

Obviously there is an element of self-interest in the policy. A Papua New Guinea bankrupt and chaotic would not be to Australian advantage. Australia is itself a developing country, although vastly more prosperous than any of her neighbors.

Australian prosperity alone requires action as a good neighbor and responsible member of the Pacific community.