It was being labelled a ‘khaki election’ long before it actually became one. But we are now definitely into camouflage territory, with China having signed an alliance agreement with the Solomon Islands in week two of the Australian federal election campaign.
Both major parties seem to agree that there is a pattern emerging of Beijing creating a sphere of influence in the region. With that, a narrative has emerged that this will be at the expense of both Canberra and Washington: there are plans for significant Chinese state investment in a fishing port in Papua New Guinea and evidence that the superpower is also interested in Timor-Leste. PNG has also signed an agreement with China that commits both to non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, not dissimilar to the agreement Beijing and Moscow signed ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US is also expanding its influence in the region. However, China’s agreement with the Solomon Islands seemed a bridge too far for Australia’s politicians and may well have been even had it not been signed during the febrile atmosphere of an election campaign.
The ALP is accusing Foreign Minister Marise Payne of ‘hiding under her desk’ while Beijing and Honiara were signing on the dotted line. All the while, Labor is also insisting the government is trying to ‘bodgie up some kind of fake khaki election to camouflage for all of their incompetence’.
The government is yet to release its Pacific Strategy, but the ALP has promised to increase foreign aid, and to increase Australian public and commercial media content to audiences in the Pacific. The ALP strategy includes an $8m boost for the ABC to increase broadcasting in the region. In 2014, the Coalition cancelled a 10-year, $200m contract with the ABC for the Australia Network, leaving it to fulfill its charter duty to broadcast internationally - to 40 countries across Asia and the Pacific – on a shoestring budget. In 2017, China took over some of the ABC’s short-wave frequencies in the region, expanding its reach.
Jemima Garrett, the co-founder and co-convenor of the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative, says what the Pacific needs is co-productions and partnerships, so that Australia is talking with the Pacific, rather than at it. Garrett says that the money the ABC would receive under an Albanese-led government might not have stopped Honiara signing with Beijing, but it would certainly have influenced the conversation.
CMT Co-Director Monica Attard
This was featured in our newsletter of 29 April 2022 - read the full edition here. Or to subscribe, click here.
Listen in to the talk with Jemima Garrett, Co-Convenor of the Australia Asia Pacific media Initiative by clicking on the image below:
