Aid for the South Pacific

Press, 11 August 1982, Page 12

Aid for the South Pacific

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper, acknowledges that the increase in New Zealand’s aid to South Pacific countries has not kept up with inflation. This year the total vote for aid is 6 per cent higher than last year. In a year of 3 per cent cuts in State spending, aid might have fared much worse. The Government is still giving priority to the South. Pacific in its distribution of aid. This year the region will receive $3B million of the total of $64.8 million. The Government is making an effort to maintain. spending on development assistance. Domestic criticism might have been expected had it adjusted aid to match New Zealand’s inflation rate in a year when many programmes in New Zealand, are being reduced. Restraints on spending' in New Zealand are an incentive to make sure that aid money is spent in the most effective way. New Zealand continues to fund its external aid year by year. Australia has adopted a method of funding its aid in blocks of three years and, in the announcement just-made, for five years. The $3OO million that Australia will spend in the South Pacific in the next five years does not include the aid that will be given to Papua New Guinea, which last year amounted to $250 million. The total of the Australian Official Development Assistance is much greater than New Zealand’s. Last year it amounted to sAust62o million. In the three years .ending in July, 1983, Australia will have spent $l2O million on the South Pacific, and $lOO million of this on bilateral aid. Both New Zealand and Australia are going, to contribute to shipping services provided by the Pacific Forum Line for Kiribati and Tuvalu.

New Zealand has been withdrawing its aid from Africa and South America to concentrate on the South Pacific. Aid to South-East Asia, an area -of immense need and one reasonably close to home, is being maintained. If New Zealand and Australia did not make a special point of giving aid to the South Pacific, the area might well be overlooked by other sources of international aid. A country from outside the- region might well consider that political gain was to be had from giving aid, with undesirable results. As it is, both New Zealand and Australian assistance has been available to the islands since their independence. They look first to New Zealand and Australia for aid and for development advice, and sometimes as places to take overflow of' their populations. The islands of the South Pacific are important to New Zealand’s security. The idea of security includes economic security as well as military security. The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, made this point when he spoke to the American VicePresident, Mr George Bush, in May. Commenting on A.N.Z.U.S., Mr Muldoon said that among its aims the treaty included the intent “to strengthen the fabric of peace in the Pacific area.” Mr Muldoon added: “That is no small task. It is not one that can be carried out by military activity alone. Rather, it is the slow, painstaking processes of fostering, developing, endeavouring to lift living standards, and constant consultation which most surely secure peace.” In this sense the aid that New Zealand and Australia give to the South Pacific is helping security. The needs for aid show no signs of diminishing. • '