Comments

Thanks Tim, appreciate your comment, and really glad to hear that it has been useful for you!

Excellent initiative and very useful resource! Thanks for setting this up, Rohan. I'm doing quite a bit of research on PNG but I'm not affiliated with an academic institution, so lack access to their academic subscriptions. I did some trial searches on your OARP and already got some good results that would have taken me a fair amount of time to find using the regular Google approach or individual open access portal browsing.

thanks Kerry and family for your kind contribution to seasonal welfare towards the Solomon islanders.

What a great testament to the Seasonal Workers Program! It's been a pleasure for the Australian High Commission in Honiara to work closely with the McCarthy family here and on the Darling Downs. Kerry and Simon are superb ambassadors for the program, and the bond they and their children have formed with a small village in rural Malaita is a terrific bonus. I hope that other Australian farmers will discover the great benefits of employing the strong and reliable workers of the Solomons. As Kerry notes, it's a win-win.

Great story Kerry. Good reminder of all the positive things that can come from the SWP and why we should be aiming for a level playing field for Pacific workers compared with backpackers. Is our priority to support grass roots sustainable development, or holidays?

Great post and a moving story! I cannot wait to see the SWP scaled up. More stories of this nature will prove valuable in convincing policymakers and the public of the mutual benefits of a bigger labour-mobility scheme.

I am reminded of a similar assessment by a Zambian economist, Dambisa Moyo who saw aid in Africa as a real 'toxin'. She was upfront in calling this aid "dead aid". Some years earlier an Australian iron lady Helen Hughes saw the same plot in Pacific island countries. I hate to say that unless aid is turned upside down to allow a ground up view, more 'unstable' regions will fall into never ending cycle of corruption, poverty and aid dependency.

This is a really important story that captures some of the detail of how SWP can have meaningful effects on people’s lives so thank you for sharing it. The relationship here mirrors the most positive examples we have seen in Vanuatu with the RSE program in New Zealand. Tanna Farms presents a particularly good example of how this can mature to good effect.

As someone usually buried in the very detailed numbers of gains to GDP of remittance flows, I really loved the personal elements of this post. Thank you Kerry and family! Congratulations to the Development Policy Centre for promoting this as a policy priority. Pleased, as noted by Professor Howes, that this area is getting more prominence in the Government's White Paper. Let's beat the Kiwis! Not just in cricket, netball and in rugby, but also in our labour migration scheme support!

What a exciting and positive story. I really enjoyed reading the story and am thinking, just imagine if more farmers could do that. More Pacific communities could be changed. There is already a strong development process taking place here and both sides are winners. A good development approach when you consider it. Thanks Kerry and your family for your contribution towards this community.

Jim, Thanks very much for this review of an important book. I hate to spoil the plot, but I think it's important to point out that Edwards' conclusion that aid was toxic applies to the period 1961-81. For this period, he gives aid (or donors) a grade of F. For 1981-1994, he gives aid a grade of B-, and for 1996 to 2010, he gives it a grade of B+. This mixed assesment makes it very hard to understand the choice of "Toxic Aid" as the book's title. One can only assume that it was to help promote sales. It's certainly not a fair summary of the book's various verdicts.

Frankly, it is interesting to read this article from a technical advisor from the department of Justice & Attorney General in the previous and current governments of PM Peter O’Neill touching on corruption. As a right person in the knowledge of laws governing law and order in PNG, it would be better if the discussion touches on the factors and limitations affecting the work of the current law enforcing and prosecution bodies. The ordinary citizens of PNG are made to believe that the Ombudsman Commission, Public prosecutor, the police and fraud squad, the Taskforce Sweep and courts are not able to effectively address corruption in PNG, especially white-collar corruption. How good is ICAC to address corruption? The technical advisor to government see corruption as the big elephant in the room, how about limited funding and extreme political interference into the work of the law enforcing and prosecution bodies, is this the scary thing in the room? Leave corruption; focus on improving the mechanics of these organizations to exercise their mandated roles and responsibilities without fear and favour, is this simple or difficult thing to do. As an advisor to government, that was your input into these. What we hear often is that, the above law enforcing and prosecution bodies are often under resourced to effectively carry out their mandated tasks, the team leader for Taskforce Sweep said that one time, Ombudsman Commission and Police fraud squad office expressed the same another time so what is the point of creating ICAC and not funding it. Or are we undermining the current bodies and raise hope into ICAC to address corruption. In the last Alotau Accord, the government included fighting corruption as one of the key development priorities that leads into setting up the Taskforce Sweep. In the current Alotau Accord, no mention of addressing corruption and in fact most PNGans were aware that corruption would not be part of the 2nd Alotau Accord. The ICAC was part of the last Alotau Accord. What was your advice to government then? However, ICAC does not have solution to corruption in PNG, the real problem is the underfunding and extreme interference from top down into the work of existing law enforcing and prosecution bodies that inhibits the work of addressing corruption in PNG. That is everyone’s knowledge and concern, how your government advisory roles incorporates measures to address the existing problem will go a long way to improve corruption then creating new agency and not funding it or, quickly dismantle it when it investigates those who created it just like Taskforce Sweep.