THE CORPORATE media and foreign policy elite have deceitfully sold the lie that the Australian military’s Operation Helpem Fren is a “humanitarian intervention” for the Solomons people.
However, this is clearly contradicted by the July 23 editorial of the Financial Review: “Success in stemming the collapse of the Solomon Islands … would send a clear message to the neighbourhood about the priorities that parliaments and governments need to observe”, ie, “maintain the stable framework in which businesses will invest …”
The August 14-16 Pacific Islands Forum summit was dominated by Howard’s proposal for the poor PIF countries to pool resources, starting with a regional police that Canberra will train.
Canberra’s aim is to eventually integrate the PIF into a single economic zone under Australian and New Zealand domination. Already, the poor PIF countries have begun to implement a free trade agreement. A second agreement stipulates the inclusion of Australia and NZ within eight years of this first agreement.
Reflecting the broader thinking of Australia’s ruling elite, the Senate foreign affairs, defence and trade committee tabled a report on August 12 calling for a “Pacific Economic and Political Community” that would use a single currency – the Australian dollar.
The media view is that Australia has lost patience after taking a hands-off approach, accompanied by a cornucopia of aid. But the roots of poverty in the region are the double burden of a legacy of long colonial oppression and neocolonial exploitation.
For example, the formerly Australian-owned Gold Ridge mine in the Solomons, which opened in 1998, doled out a mere 3 per cent of royalty payments to the Solomons, divided between three parties: 1.5 per cent to the central government, 0.3 per cent to the Guadalcanal province, and 1.2 per cent to the landowners.
As the majority of PIF countries gained formal independence in the 1970s, they barely had a chance to even try to get on their feet before they were caught in a hail of neoliberal programs from the IMF, World Bank, and the Australian and NZ governments.
In June 2002, the Solomons government asked the IMF/World Bank and “donor” countries (ie, Australia and NZ) for a substantial injection of funds. However, the Australian government led the charge in demanding, in return, a further slashing of jobs and government spending.
That same month, Honiara ceded control of its finances with the appointment of a New Zealand “public sector and economic reform” consultant, Lloyd Powell, as Permanent Secretary of Finance. Powell heads a NZ company with a history of overseeing neoliberal “reform” in more than 20 Third World countries, including the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga and Kiribati. At Powell’s recommendation, Honiara retrenched 1300 public sector workers in November 2002.
Australia’s aid to the region has also been self-serving. As AusAID admits: “The objective of the Australian aid program is clear. It is to advance Australia’s national interest ... The Australian private sector plays a significant role in helping to achieve that objective … the program and its success relies heavily upon Australian expertise to identify, design and implement aid projects.”
According to Aid/Watch, 70 per cent of aid flows to Australian corporations. In 1999, consultancy firm Hassall & Associates won an $8.5 million five-year contract to “reform” Fiji’s tax and customs departments.
Another aid-sucking consultancy ACIL received over $250 million in AusAID funds in 2001-02. ACIL rose to notoriety during the 1998 waterfront dispute when it was revealed that the company had written the secret report advising the Howard government on how to smash the MUA.
Kerry Packer’s consultancy company, GRM International, won a $5 million four-year contract to undertake “public sector reform” in Samoa.
Whether it’s aid or World Bank loans, they work hand-in-glove to open up the economies of the south-west Pacific to Australian corporate domination.
And now, with the danger that the local elites cannot get away with continuing to administer ever-harsher neoliberal policies, Canberra has opted to bash down the Pacific’s borders to enable more direct economic, political and military control over Australian imperialism’s own “patch”.
Iggy Kim is a member of the Canterbury-Bankstown branch of Socialist Alliance.