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The first two decades of Nauru’s Independence were far from disastrous, although it must be said that Hammer DeRobert’s foray into the airline and shipping businesses put the country onto what turned out to be the top of a slippery slope and an eventual downhill slide exacerbated by the collapse of phosphate prices and the failure to adjust royalty payments from a fixed amount to a percentage of the FOB price. Today things look rosy, but the question is: are they really? The country relies on revenues that are far from predicably reliable over coming years. From the outside we tend to overlook the vulnerability of the country that has, since 2013, moved, perhaps inexorably, toward an authoritarian-type regime. The original constitutional structure of the country has been eroded by the creation of Deputy Ministers who, together with an expanded Cabinet control the Parliament to the extent that of the 18 members (excluding the Speaker) there is at present a government of fourteen, consisting of the President, eight Ministers and five Deputy Ministers – Parliament scarcely counts. With a national average salary of $24k, (which takes account of the large salaries paid to government and its employees), the salary of $90k for a Minister, $85k to a Deputy Minister, $75k for an ordinary member and the $110k of the President, pushes the average well above the true wage level of the average Nauruan. None of this would be possible without the larges of Australia and others providing funds to keep the country onside. I suggest that closer examination of the spread of the ‘wealth’ would find it done carefully done to maintain a power structure that looks after itself first. How things will pan put if David Adeang leaves power is another question I suggest there is far more to Nauru than Australian money tells us – particularly when we really don’t know where it is all going.

Exactly remarkable, Dr Howes. I was part of the educational reforms funded by DFAT and NZ Aid from 2006 to 2012. Building the education sector to get more of their students then into the employment sector. 14 years on and this impact is felt across the smallest republic in our world today.

Thanks Cian, for the violence pre-ACLED, is this publicly available?

Congratilatoins tai Vola and your team. Very interesting data here. My human rights advocacy network members are already using this data for our advocay and GBV awareness rasing. Much appreciated. Keep doing what you do. Means alot!

Very saddened to hear about Ron's passing. I worked with him for a number of years in the 2010s to think through Australia's role in more sustainably supporting the smaller Pacific island countries through closer economic and institutional relations. Like the tributes above, he was just fabulous to work with. He was generous, he listened, he provided such clear and helpful advice - his depth of knowledge of the Pacific and his commitment to region was unparalled. I am very thankful to have met and worked with him.

Thanks Lee, Details on the sample size and question wording are beneath the first chart. Aid amounts to 63 cents out of every hundred dollars of federal government spending in Australia. The volume is tiny, in other words. I think Australia is wasting a lot of money on military spending too. My colleagues have done some great work comparing the yawning gap between Australia's aid budget and its defence budget: https://devpolicy.org/the-defence-development-divide-from-gap-to-chasm-20250417/ https://devpolicy.org/2026-aid-budget-breakfast/2026-aid-budget-breakfast-Slides.pdf [scroll down to slide 1].

An analysis of ILGs and ‘clans’ can be found here. Social Mapping and Landowner Identification in PNG Oil and Gas Projects: Law, Policy, and the Failure of Imported Templates https://www.academia.edu/170070591/Social_Mapping_and_Landowner_Identification_in_PNG_Oil_and_Gas_Projects_Law_Policy_and_the_Failure_of_Imported_Templates_Vailala

I want to thank everyone including those who have commented here and others who have reached out to me and the Duncans personally for their kind words on Ron. Let me also thank the many friends, family, and colleagues who attended the funeral service last Friday.

Thanks, Satish. Vale Ron

Dear Satish, our excellent obituary is a fitting and heartfelt tribute to our great colleague and dear friend. Congratulations! Chandra

Congratulations Satish on a terrific piece (and likewise your speech at the service today) about a great Australian.

Can I please ask what the sample numbers were and who was sampled? Perhaps the fact that we are spending $486 on a nuclear program we don't want with all money going to USA and UK, and there is very little being spent locally to address issues in this country I am surprised that you are surprised and disappointed. Deal with the issues of war we are being dragged into and the reasons so much foreign aid is needed. We are sick of handing money over when our own country is in chaos. And who is helping us - certainly not our government or any government or country. Australian tax payers are not a limitless pitt of money.