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Labor has released more detail on their proposed labour mobility reforms, including information on how airfares will be paid, family accompaniment conditions and what the Pacific Engagement Visa would look like. You can read them all here: https://www.alp.org.au/policies/pacific-australia-labour-mobility

thanks alot of information

Sad to hear of his untimely passing. As an amateur, he kindly published two of my stories relating to diabetic eye disease in Fiji. A gifted writer and an honoured friend.

Racist? That for sure ,if Australia offer Asian countries the same jobs as Pacific and Timor-Leste, why do they name the visa differently, why do they bother themselves creating a new visa with a lot of controversies and arguments among themselves. If they use the same visa's name I believe Ag visa's worker had arrived in Australia since last year.

This blog is very helpful.

Cambodia could be a good example of China's Aid which it received for more than 10 years with loads of success stories like : May 7, 2022 Cambodia benefits immensely from China’s BRI projects https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501070809/cambodia-benefits-immensely-from-chinas-bri-projects/

Fa'afetai tele lava for your thoughtful comment Ropati. We have featured it in a recent blog: https://devpolicy.org/pacific-labour-mobility-growth-winners-and-losers-20220506/ Evie

Thank you for your honest comments re the seasonal workers. I think that the labor companies be cut out of the process altogether. So many deductions, it really kills them.

Thank you for the very clear analysis, Mercy. You mention the principle of gender equality and note that SDG 4.1 refers to ensuring that all girls and boys complete primary and secondary education. However, your theme is to reprioritise girls education and note some of the gendered impacts of COVID on girls, but not boys. Can you clarify how you can assert the principle of gender equality and then argue for prioritising the education of girls? In an earlier blog you argue for focusing on the needs of all children which I agree is the only moral way to proceed.

Thank you Prof. Van Donge for taking time to comment on this blog piece. This is also my last post on the matter. The original blog is about New Ireland politics, the main character here being Sir Julius Chan. Because you assumed that the Solwara One project in 2013 instigated the autonomy agenda for New Ireland, the point of clarification was made. Provincial autonomy is one of several policy levers used by Sir Julius Chan in pursuit of his natural resource policy positions. Now to aspects of your rebuttal. Sir Julius’ positions on natural resource policies are definite, and he has advocated that consistently. When he was Member for Namatanai and Prime Minister from 1994 to 1997, he had a hand in the negotiations that resulted in the 1995 Lihir MOA (MOA Re. Lihir Project between State and New Ireland Provincial Government MOA Re. Lihir Project between State and LMALA). He pursued the renegotiation of this MOA since coming back into politics in 2007. As Party Leader of PPP, his party has been part of coalition governments since 2007. PPP has consistently lobbied during government formation for the Mining Ministry. Three consecutive terms of Parliament the Mining Ministry has been held by a PPP MP. The autonomy agenda he pursues is linked to mining in his province. His party is going into the 2022 elections with the agenda of reforming the resources laws of PNG. These are definite policy positions and a track record of advocacy to show for these positions on natural resources. A random statement from Charles Abel can hardly qualify as definite positions on natural resource policy. You said it yourself: “the policy positions of Charles Abel are not known”. Maybe this is because he may not have any to begin with. Therein also lies the problem with PNG politics: politicians say many good things that people will no doubt want to hear. But with no meaningful track record of voting on legislation and using their positions as legislators to consistently advocate a policy, identifying their actual positions is unrealistic. Natural resource policies are what you perceive as the key driver of PNG politics (for mine, it is one of many drivers and factors). If that is your premise in studying PNG politics, it interests me that you came back full circle to conceding that personality politics (and might I add, the perks and privileges of remaining with O’Neil) was the likely explanation for O’Neil commanding the loyalty of Polye’s party members during the split (Your own quote: “The ability to keep together a fractious lot of people is a necessary skill in PNG politics”). If a commonly shared position on natural resources was the factor that allowed Peter O’Neil to command the loyalty of other MPs that would have made sense, by your line of reasoning. Finally, patron client relations and personality politics are two specific themes to explaining the New Ireland situation. If positions on natural resource policies was the basis for the behavior of voters and MPs alike in the New Ireland province I would have noticed it and written about it in the original blog post.

A last comment on my part: Whether there are connections between local and national politics is a researchable question. It is according to me likely. For example iPNC parliamentarians may leave PNC and join Pangu Party. That has implications for the camp/coalition they will join after the election. Whether they follow O’Neill or Marape has consequences for supporting particular natural resource policies I want to raise attention for matters that are overlooked in the study of PNG politics, That is evident when the policy positions of Charles Abel are not known. Abel argues consistently against taking equity/shareholding in natural resource companies. In Paul Flanagan and Luke Fletcher’s Double or Nothing: the broken economic promises of LNG/PNG you can read on p.32:”There are some in PNG who are aware that mistakes have been made. Once again, (the then vD) current Treasurer Charles Abel made these comments in 2017:We need to develop a mineral and petroleum regime where we take a smaller equity for free and a higher royalty rate, introduce domestic market obligation and local con-tent. We need to understand why a large current account surplus (from mineral and petroleum exports) still leaves us with a foreign exchange shortage.” That is a policy agenda. A stress on patron client relations overlooks a crucial aspect of PNG politics. Patron client relations suggest a stable structure It is clear from parliamentary practice that followers in PNG are quite fickle. When Don Polye left the government, his party did not follow him.The PNC disintegrated under O’Neill when Marape succeeded.. Pruaitch’s party split beween his followers and government supporters when he joined the call for a vote of no confidence, The ability to keep together a fractious lot of people is a necessary skill in PNG politics. O’Neill was good at it but may have found his master in Marape. It is not a topic for study in PNG politics I regret that Patrick did not notice my sympathy with his contributions.

Well stated brother, I hope this will help and change our country in such ways as that.