Few can deny that under the Albanese government, a Pacific-Australia integration agenda is in full flight. The landmark Papua New Guinea-Australia Mutual Defence Treaty (Pukpuk Treaty) signed earlier this month is just the latest in a suite of new policies intended to better integrate Australia with the ‘Pacific family’.
To be sure, if this is a family, things are complicated. Many of Australia’s big moves are vexed, with particular heat on its ‘security-first’ approach to the region that some say risks framing Pacific states as strategic pawns rather than equal partners.
Still, in other corners, there is great optimism about the potential that Australia’s deepened economic, security, infrastructure and diplomatic engagement may have on development outcomes, prosperity and stability throughout the Pacific.
With this agenda seemingly a-pace, we asked the experts: “Australia-Pacific integration– what's next?”
Health is a logical entry point, ripe for more collaboration, and deeper Australia-Pacific integration.
Pacific health systems are poor. Few Pacific countries have modern health systems. Brittle economies, disparate populations, and challenging geographies have neutered the rollout of health services. But it’s not just a lack of health capacity. Under resourced health institutions are also limiting health outcomes for Pacific Islanders. This is especially the case when it comes to medicines.
Australia’s medicines framework is an asset to be deployed. Australia enjoys one of the most robust medicines regulatory frameworks in the world. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is charged with assessing the safety and efficacy of medicines for Australians. The Australian Government should consider ways to leverage its robust medicines approvals framework, and purchasing power, to help Pacific nations achieve medicines access. Australia could work with Pacific countries on a scheme that allows Pacific countries to recognise Australia’s TGA approvals, and leverage Australia’s purchasing power to deliver WHO-listed essential medicines to Pacific nations at affordable prices.
Right now, Australia's Pacific policy is prioritising defence and security integration—The Pukpuk Treaty with Papua New Guinea being perhaps the most ambitious of these measures, promising the full integration of the PNG Defence Force with the Australian Defence Force. And, though two-way economic integration remains nascent, steps are being taken to expand the labour mobility scheme to other areas beyond agriculture.
But, these measures aren’t widely felt on the ground. These policies are ambitious, but touch few Pasifikas. Australia should be doing more to deploy its institutional capacity to the region in a way that materially benefits everyday Pacific Islanders. Health is a good place to start.
Edward is the CEO at The McKell Institute, where he leads research on a variety of issues. He has extensive experience in Australia and the US, and is a highly acclaimed analyst and journalist with published works including in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and ABC News. Ed is also the author of ‘Divided Isles, Solomon Islands and the China Switch’ (2023). At the Lab, we admire Ed’s commitment to public policy and drive to turn ideas into meaningful action.
At the 2024 Forum Economic Ministers Meeting, Baron Waqa, Secretary General for the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) affirmed that “We must advocate for freer movement of our people within the islands including Australia and New Zealand, to facilitate greater regional economic cooperation and integration”.
Since the inception of the Pacific Islands Forum in 1971, now comprising of 18 member states, greater economic integration has been a consistent agenda item. This includes access to more trade and labour markets, less visa restrictions to visa free travel, and security cooperations for mutual benefit.
In terms of access to more labour markets, two politically charged migration pathways have facilitated this. First, the expansion of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme that offers more decent jobs across a range of sectors to higher income opportunities. Second, the new Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) that annually offers up to 3,000 permanent residency visas to eligible citizens from participating countries.
What will the next frontier of genuine Pacific integration look like?
Building on the PEV, a formal European Union Visa-like arrangement would be the next natural progression. It would allow more visa-free travel— enabling Pacific citizens to work, live and travel to other Pacific countries without a separate permit. This would not only supercharge regional economic integration and cooperation efforts but consolidate a genuinely integrated Pacific family with Australia.
Natasha is a Papua New Guinean PhD candidate with the Department of Pacific Affairs and a Research Officer at the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University. Natasha is an expert on labour mobility and we’re excited to follow the progress of her PhD. At the Lab, we love Natasha’s ability to cut through and make her point, which is why she was the clear winner at the Australasian Aid Conference’s 3-minute aid pitch 2024. We think it should be mandatory viewing.
Australia’s ambition for regional integration is not new. It reflects a long-standing bipartisan Australian aspiration, visible not only in ministerial speeches but across multiple senate inquiries and recommendations, departmental rhetoric, policy papers, and partnership plans.
What does feel new is the pace and volume of runs on the board. In the past 18 months alone, we’ve seen the Falepili Union come into force, an expanded Pacific Engagement Visa, the PNG NRL Partnership, the roll-out of ABC Radio Australia across the Pacific, the Pukpuk and near-finalised Nakamal Treaties, and the passing by the Australian Government of a Pacific Banking Guarantee Bill– to name a few.
So what’s next? Without a crystal ball, it’s hard to say. Perhaps better questions are: Integration for whose benefit? And against what metrics will we judge it a success?
These questions matter because each integration activity pursues multiple objectives and may deliver contradictory outcomes. For example, the Pacific Banking Guarantee explicitly seeks to ‘reduce the need for PRC state-owned banks to enter the market’. On the one hand, it may help preserve critical correspondent banking services for remittance-reliant communities, on the other, some argue it could risk distorting local market outcomes. Similarly, while the Pukpuk Treaty may achieve Australia’s ambition of reducing the likelihood of a Chinese security presence in PNG, it does little to address sub-national drivers of conflict which also risk destabilising regional security.
Taken together, these policies amount to an increasingly complex web of intentions with limited scrutiny or definitions of ‘success’. We know each activity is grappling with trade offs: between security imperatives and more traditional development programming, or between integration with Australian markets and potential local distortions.
A critical next step for Australia’s integration agenda would be to articulate the objectives, tensions and measures of success— not just to ensure strategic coherence but to optimise long-term developmental impacts too.
Mira is a Senior Analyst at the Lab and a keen strategic thinker with experience in policy research, business development, program evaluation and design. Before joining the Lab, Mira was part of TetraTech’s Future Economies Practice. The team at the Lab love Mira’s ability to connect the strategic dots, and her commitment to understanding the perspectives of everyone in the room.
