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Most senior health workers in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) are aware of the brain-drain, push-pull factors, cost benefits, etc. The general opinion amongst senior health workers is that PICTs should produce more health workers. For example, compared to 2012 there is an increased number of medical graduates across the region because of an increased number of medical schools (FNU, UPSM [Fiji], NUS [Samoa] and UPNG [PNG]) and an increased number of international graduates (Cuba, Taiwan, China, etc) apart from the traditional providers (Aust, NZ). One of the Pacific Reset options is to strengthen the academic institutions in the PICTs to produce more quality postgraduate training in all health fields. PICTs have moved on from the term brain-drain to brain-rotation whereby health workers from the PICTs are working in other PICTs to address their shortage of health workers. We welcome the academic debate but we don't need more studies to tell us our problems. We need solutions. * a Pacific Health Worker in the PICTs for 25 years and still learning

Thanks Dr. Sinclair Dinnen and Grant Watson, this is indeed a area that needs to be carefully appraised and discussed at the highest levels of the Government of Papua New Guinea. There is without doubt that the SIA as regulator of the private security industry in PNG has become weak and lacks teeth. But also there are many weaknesses too in the public police force in Papua New Guinea. I think there is opportunity for collaboration between the RPNGC and the Private Security Industry particularly in people-smuggling, child trafficking, and human smuggling rings such as pedophile rings that operate in a clandestine manner across the globe.

The malaise of low exposure online seems common to many fields, mainstream interests and click-bait seem to rule the day as there's so much to draw people's attention. But of course this could potentially swing to the opposite extreme if they discover that a large scale looming hazard will unequivocally puts them 'on the spot'.

FAR TOO MANY otherwise responsible politicians are COMPLICIT, do nothing about known crimes.

The article mentions direct flights to Dili from Hong Kong, of which Macau is in easy reach as well as Greater China, but none at all about those from Singapore, which ended after nearly eleven years - this was not Air Timor's fault, as Singapore Airlines is looking to integrate Silk Air into the parent company. Perhaps the new Chinese-backed company could operate the Singapore-Dili route. The visa authorisation thing is a disgrace - it was bad enough when it was introduced at the border, meaning that visitors caught short had to go back to Kupang and then fly into Dili from Denpasar, but ending visa on arrival at Dili airport is ridiculous. As to the new international airport in Oecussi, it has white elephant written all over it - a greater priority should have been expanding Dili airport runway or developing Baucau airport, the only one in the country able to handle large long-haul aircraft. It could be to Timor Leste what Nadi airport is to Fiji.

Authentic pacifica wear Tapa. Sulu is made from waitman fabric. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282645764_A_holistic_picture_of_Austronesian_migrations_revealed_by_phylogeography_of_Pacific_paper_mulberry

Would reclassifying PNG as part of South East Asia improve its fate?

I quite disagree with Martyn Namarong. Firstly, his view is formed based on his attendance of an "one off event" a Pacific Night in the highlands of PNG. No reference is made to the ethnicity of the peoples and their origins to substantiate this trend of thinking. Ethnically, culturally, Papua New Guineas can identify 100% no problems with the Solomons, ni-Vanuatu, Fijians. Even Samoans and Tongans customs, cultures, and languages can be identified 100% along the Papuan coastline, and onto the New Guinea Islands. Linguistically, a whole range of similarities in spoken languages of the Fijians, Samoans, and Tongans with the coastal communities of the Papuan coastline, and the New Guinea Islands. Pronunciation and meanings of spoken words establishes beyond any reasonable doubt the we are the same group of people that somehow got shifted around through early migration patterns. The linguistic composition of the highlands of PNG could be an exception to this commonality of languages that exists even now between the coastal regions of PNG and the rest of the Pacific islands - due to extreme isolation of the highlands regions based on geographical huddles that left the interior communities isolated from the coastal and the offshore islands migration and interaction patterns. I totally disagree with Martyn Namarong's analogy in attempting to link a one-off social gathering with something that is more profound in other established and documented opinion on this matter.

I visited East Timor in 2014 through the Catholic Church. The trip was made easy for me because I had the necessary connections to do home stays with priests, who were well established and supported by the international Church. While I was looked after, let me give you a few reasons why the average tourist would not fare well in Timor. -The driving along the main coastline loop that wraps around the country (the road that connects most of the country), is treacherous. At times, it is nothing but a dirt road. You cannot do it without a properly kitted out 4WD, and they are very expensive to hire in Dili. The cost of travel alone for a tourist is incredibly prohibitive. -You also need a driver who has the necessary skills to manage the roads (unless you yourself are capable), and you definitely need a guide with you because there is very little in way of street signs in Timor. -Public transport when travelling the coastal loop consists of small mini-buses. They are often overcrowded (people will even ride on top of them) and are not for the faint of heart. The capital is fine for public transport in so far as taxi's goes, but forget travelling anywhere else without the aforementioned 4WD unless you're game enough to try the mini-buses. -Tap water is not safe anywhere in the country, and that's if you can find a running tap. The infrastructure in a large portion of the country consists of cement block and straw hut homes with no, or very little, running electricity and water. -Infrastructure just in general, outside of the capital, is virtually non-existent. -Timor is the one place you would not want to get sick or injured. There is a serious lack of medical care available. -Hotels outside of the capital Dili, and the old capital Baucau, are very hard to come by. Tourists are limited by lack of suitable accommodation. Forget about Timor as a tourist destination in its current state. The basic issues of accommodation, access, lack of infrastructure and general safety from a medical standpoint need addressing. Until these basic necessities are addressed, the tourist industry will remain dead. Here's a little experiment you can do. Go online and try to organise a holiday to East Timor, visiting various locales around the country. Ask yourself these questions: Where will you stay? Where will you eat? How will you get around? Try to answer these simple questions, and you will soon see why Timor cannot accommodate tourists (outside of the capital).

Thought provoking article. There might be some element of truth in your post but I would rather think that PNG has a cultural blend that is part Melanesia (Pasifika) and part Asia. The attitude of our people can be categorized into two major groupings attesting to that. First type of attitude cluster is that of our coastal peoples from Western Province to Sandaun on the mainland coastline and the maritime NGI provinces. Our people from these areas are generally less aggressive and more accommodating in their approach. The second cluster is of those who are generally from the hinterlands of the country. People from these parts of the country demonstrate more aggression and tend to be generally protagonistic in their attitudes. So why take the trouble of identifying these attitude clusters? The attitude clusters form the basis of the complexity of the society we have presently. Our successes, ills and woes form an integral part of our challenges as a nation going forward. Of course every country has its own unique set of challenges but PNG's development charter is very much different from the rest of the Pasifika nations. Ours is one where cultural synergy is more a dream than reality and without a stronger uniting force the country could easily fall into fragmented parts. This scenario is not too dissimilar to the Chinese and other nations experience. Whilst we can still benefit from being a member of Pasifika there is also much much more that we can learn from Asia in terms of positioning ourselves well to unlock and then harness our potential as an economy. We must position ourselves well to make best use of our relationship with both sides of the ocean we live in.

Dear Ryan Thanks for your feedback and sharing. I really enjoyed your points and the articles shared, going to show that the narrative of presumed harms is a little off the mark and that interestingly, some of the national responses to the “brain drain” have resulted in net gains for the nations on both sides of the ledger. I look forward to following your analysis and the quantitative evidence about the impacts of our various labour mobility and skilled migration schemes on our Pacific neighbours.

Bula Abdul and thanks for further insights on the great strides made in Fiji for sustainable medical workforce. I too am heartened that the salary rises and the foundation of UPSM in Lautoka have led to increases in local medical practitioners and their retention to serve their compatriots. For clarification, I was not advocating for the punitive measures so much as listing them in what was a fairly broad discussion of what has been written in largely medical and public health literature about brain drain. The links below in Ryan Edwards response provide a great nuanced discussion from the economics literature and I’m grateful that they highlight the limitations of my own brief writing above. Fundamentally, the point of my article was to encourage reflection on Australia’s - and particular the Aid program’s - contribution to brain drain in the Pacific. I’ve fallen into using some popular tropes to make the point but thankfully responses like yours and Ryan's highlight that the agency of “recipient” nations is seeing benefits on both sides of the ledger, and in time Fiji will be a net medical expert exporter, which will benefit neighbours in the region and Fiji itself. Thanks for some great sharing!