INQUIRY INTO STRENGTHENING AUSTRALIA’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH COUNTRIES IN THE PACIFIC REGION Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade by the Office of the Pacific, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) June 2020

CONTENTS

INQUIRY INTO STRENGTHENING AUSTRALIA’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH COUNTRIES IN THE PACIFIC REGION

INTRODUCTION 3

CONTEXT 4

IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON THE PACIFIC AND AUSTRALIA’S ENGAGEMENT 5

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STEP-UP: ECONOMIC PROSPERITY, SHARED SECURITY & PEOPLE CONNECTIONS IN THE PACIFIC 7

REACHING OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE STEP-UP 10

REFLECTING THE PRIORITY NEEDS OF THE PACIFIC 12

CONCLUSION 14

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INTRODUCTION

Australia’s relationships with its neighbours in the Pacific region are anchored in our common interests and values, our shared history, decades of sustained engagement and our collective interests in a stable, resilient and prosperous Pacific. In partnership over many years with the countries of our region, Australia has worked to help grow economies, to build resilience and to enhance regional stability through our development programs, our defence, policing and border security cooperation and our humanitarian and disaster responses in times of need. As a long-standing partner, Australia has recognised the need to do more to support our Pacific family. The Pacific Step-up is a commitment to lift the ambition and scope of Australia’s engagement, elevating the Pacific to one of our highest foreign policy priorities and making it a central component of Australia’s long-term objective of shaping an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific. At the time of writing this submission, Australian and Pacific governments and communities are grappling with the health and economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia has made it a priority to work with Pacific partners to prepare for and respond to the virus, as well as to plan for recovery. Australia is re-orienting our Pacific development assistance and Step-up initiatives to do this. The challenge is unprecedented, events fluid and our approach evolving. We are continuing our discussions across the region on how we can best chart a path to economic recovery and build resilience to future pandemics. This submission outlines Australia’s enduring approach to the Pacific and the current status of Australia’s Step-up initiatives. Our current work with the Pacific in the face of the pandemic benefits from the enhanced levels of cooperation we have been building through the Pacific Step- up. This submission also sets out how we have adapted many Step-up programs given travel and other restrictions, and how we have reprioritised our engagement to support our region’s pandemic response. The Office of the Pacific (OTP), DFAT, would be happy to engage further with the Committee as the inquiry proceeds and our COVID-19 Pacific response evolves. OTP would also be pleased to provide further details on any of our Step-up programs at the Committee’s request.

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CONTEXT

As articulated in Australia’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, the stability and sustainable economic progress of the Pacific is of fundamental importance to Australia. Many Pacific island countries face significant development challenges. Small formal economies, distance from major markets, high costs, and rapidly growing young populations hamper economic sustainability. Governance and capacity constraints in some countries limit their ability to deliver services and manage broader regional challenges, such as illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and transnational crime. Climate change has been identified by our region as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of Pacific peoples (in the 2018 Boe Declaration on Regional Security). Up to 60 per cent of Pacific women and girls have experienced violence at the hands of partners or family members and women and girls in the Pacific face significant challenges as a result of gender inequality. Under the Step-up, Australia is both pursuing new approaches to work in partnership with our region to strengthen our impact, and making our highest-ever contribution to Pacific development – reaching an estimated $1.4 billion of development assistance in 2019-20. No single country or organisation can tackle the challenges in the Pacific on its own. Strong bilateral and regional partnerships are necessary. Australia continues to advance Pacific regionalism, including through our membership of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). We welcome and support regional efforts to ensure a stronger collective Pacific voice on the international stage. How we engage is just as important as what we do in the Pacific. OTP, led by a Senior Executive Service Band 3 Head, has been created within DFAT to coordinate and deliver this ambitious whole- of-government agenda. The Step-up has been embedded across government. Regular close consultation with the Pacific, through dialogue between leaders, officials, business and civil society representatives and the expansion of our diplomatic network (already the largest across our region), helps align our work with regional priorities. OTP has supported Ministers to sustain a high tempo of engagement through virtual and other means even when COVID-19-related restrictions impede travel. Our efforts are helping to underline Australia’s deep, long-term commitment to our region.

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IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON THE PACIFIC AND AUSTRALIA’S ENGAGEMENT

Australia has been monitoring closely the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 across our region since its emergence in early 2020, mindful of the limited capacity of many Pacific island country health systems to handle a major outbreak. At the time of writing, there have been few cases of COVID-19 in the Pacific. As at 23 June, there had been 27 confirmed cases in Pacific countries1. However, the pandemic will likely have a severe economic impact in our region, in particular for those countries that rely heavily on tourism and commodity exports. While the COVID-19 virus does not discriminate, its impacts do. Women are overrepresented in the hardest hit economic sectors, including tourism, services, hospitality, and the informal economy. It is harder for women to access critical health services, including for sexual and reproductive health services, because the prioritisation of COVID-19 among weak health systems limits remaining health services. Women comprise the majority of the health workforce, and also take on the majority of unpaid care work at home, which not only impacts health workforce capability, but also increases women’s exposure to infection. All around the world, including in the Pacific, marked increases in gender-based violence have followed the onset of quarantine and social distancing measures. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is one of Australia’s highest aid investment priorities, globally and in the Pacific. The new depth to our Pacific partnerships delivered through the Pacific Step-up has positioned Australia well to support regional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia moved quickly to provide substantial support to countries in our region to respond to their acute needs. We are redirecting our development assistance program and Pacific Step-Up initiatives, bringing forward funding for critical health services and working with our partners to help mitigate the economic impacts. We are also helping to plan for recovery. Since January, we have responded to over 80 requests from Pacific island countries and Timor- Leste2. We have provided support for public information campaigns, laboratories, medical supplies (including COVID-19 testing supplies and personal protective equipment), health expertise and for the World Health Organization’s regional preparedness plan. The Pacific is benefiting from new regional health security partnerships, involving many of Australia’s premier health and medical research institutions, focused on laboratory strengthening, disease surveillance, field epidemiology and infection prevention and control. In the early stages of COVID-19, Australia also assisted students from Vanuatu and PNG to leave Wuhan, China and complete quarantine in Australia so they could return to their home countries. Building on this early response, the Australian Government’s Partnerships for Recovery policy redirects over $280 million from within existing development program resources, including over

1 Excluding US and French territories. 2 Timor-Leste participates in a number of the programs Australia is delivering through the Pacific Step-up such as the AIFFP and labour mobility initiatives.

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$205 million for the Pacific and Timor-Leste. This consists of $100 million to manage health, economic and social impacts, $44 million to immediate response and recovery efforts, $45 million for an essential services and humanitarian corridor and community responses, and $17 million on other initiatives including for multilateral responses in the region and investments focused on responding to the differential impact of COVID-19 on women and girls. Additionally, we have adapted Australia’s bilateral aid programs to prioritise partner country COVID-19 response efforts. Australia is working in partnership with other members of the Pacific Islands Forum to deliver the Pacific Humanitarian Pathway, which is helping to ensure humanitarian and medical supplies can be moved to where they are needed most in the Pacific. We are providing $5.5 million to the World Food Programme to support efforts to manage COVID-19 in the region. This includes air transport, logistics services and food security monitoring for the Pacific Humanitarian Pathway, the delivery of humanitarian and critical medical supplies, including Personal Protective Equipment, and assessments of the impact of COVID-19 on food security in the Pacific. Alongside this targeted financial support, and recognising Australia’s status as a transit country to much of our region, we have established an Essential Services and Humanitarian Corridor to support the movement of essential services, supplies and personnel to the Pacific and Timor-Leste. The Essential Services and Humanitarian Corridor has been designed to complement the Pacific Humanitarian Pathway for COVID-19. For example, the corridor has to date helped: o deliver life-saving supplies to Vanuatu and Fiji in response to Tropical Cyclone Harold, o facilitate the return home of over 500 Australians and permanent residents, over 400 Pacific island and Timorese nationals, and over 600 third-country citizens and, o enable the shipment of new rapid diagnostic tests to help Pacific countries more effectively detect and prevent the spread of the disease. Australia is the largest provider of core funding for the Pacific Community (SPC), which provides scientific and technical expertise to Pacific countries. Since COVID-19 began, Australia has partnered with SPC on procurement of testing kits, and support for surveillance regimes, laboratories and public health messaging for Pacific countries. Australia is providing an additional $3.5 million to SPC to deliver equipment and training to strengthen critical care and laboratory capabilities in 14 countries in the region. SPC will also play an important role in supporting regional economic recovery through its work on fisheries, food security and economic inclusion. As to be expected in this unprecedented situation, some of Australia’s Step-up initiatives and other programs have had to be reoriented and adapted to address the priority needs of Pacific communities in this changing environment. For example: • The Pacific Women program is expanding support for remote crisis centres to provide remote counselling and frontline service support, including counselling, for survivors of domestic violence. • The Pacific Fusion Centre, established to build technical analytical capacity to help inform responses to our region’s major security challenges, has been focussing efforts on delivering targeted and timely information on COVID-19 to support Pacific decision-makers. • We are working on how the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP) can further support our Pacific and Timor-Leste partners to respond to the economic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic. We are assessing potential projects that will maximise local

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employment and invest in local contractors, alongside investment in a range of key economic and social sectors such as critical health infrastructure (see next section for more detail). o Australia’s aim to build climate and disaster resilient infrastructure and to maximise local content and employment opportunities will help make the AIFFP an important platform for our region’s economic recovery • Supporting Pacific and Timorese workers unable to return home to remain in Australia with new visa measures (see next section for more detail). With the outlook for the post-COVID landscape in the Pacific remaining uncertain, Australia is actively developing plans on how we can best support our region over coming months and years. We are now working with Pacific nations to manage the rapidly expanding fiscal challenges, support the most vulnerable and build a pathway to economic recovery. We are cooperating with international financial institutions to ensure financing and technical expertise is available to the Pacific. This will help Pacific island countries recover from the shocks of the pandemic while remaining secure and able to protect their sovereign interests. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STEP-UP: ECONOMIC PROSPERITY, SHARED SECURITY & PEOPLE CONNECTIONS IN THE PACIFIC

Prior to the virus, the implementation of measures under the Step-up to strengthen economic resilience, enhance our security cooperation and deepen personal and community connections across the Pacific had been well advanced. Established in DFAT in early 2019, the new OTP has brought an unprecedented whole-of- government focus on our region, delivering a stronger, more coordinated policy effort. The Head of the Office of the Pacific coordinates our efforts to build stronger relationships with Pacific leaders, governments and peoples, as well as with regional organisations and institutions. OTP is responsible for coordination of activity across government to deliver the Pacific Step-up, including the full range of economic, security and people-centred initiatives. With up to 13 government departments and agencies represented in the Office at a given time, this has brought a new whole-of-government approach to policymaking to strengthen our Pacific partnerships. OTP is also responsible for the delivery and coordination of Pacific Step-up measures which complement and build on bilateral and regional programs. We are committed to promoting inclusive economic growth in Pacific island countries, increasing economic participation by the most disadvantaged, including people living with a disability, indigenous peoples and vulnerable groups no longer with livelihoods. We are making good progress on our major economic investments. For example: • Australia’s Pacific labour mobility initiatives continue to provide opportunities for Pacific workers to find employment in Australia, and make a real contribution to Australia’s workforce needs in regional and rural Australia. Prior to COVID-19, demand was growing for both the Seasonal Workers Programme and the Pacific Labour Scheme. o the Government announced in April 2020 new visa measures to enable Pacific and Timorese workers unable to return home due to travel restrictions to remain in Australia

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for up to 12 months, so they are able to continue to support themselves and their families and communities back home, and businesses in rural and regional Australia. This greater flexibility recognises the increased importance of remittances for families and communities in the Pacific following the impact of COVID-19, and the value of Pacific workers for businesses in regional and rural Australia. Remittances are critical to many households across the Pacific and have been a relatively stable source of income as isolation measures cause economic activity and jobs to decline across the region. o the Government has also stepped up its support for the welfare of the almost 8000 Pacific workers currently in Australia during the pandemic, including health advice on COVID-19, greater pastoral care and support for the redeployment of more than 3100 workers (as at 15 June) so they are able to continue to work in Australia, support themselves and provide needed workers for Australian businesses. • The $2 billion Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP) has generated interest. The AIFFP Board has endorsed eight projects in its first year. These are primarily in the telecommunications and energy sectors - four for project preparation and four for large infrastructure. These are subject to final approval and negotiations, which we expect in coming months. o the AIFFP was developed off the back of the successful completion of the Coral Sea Cable System and the Solomon Islands Domestic Network, examples of Australia stepping up in the Pacific. These systems are providing high-quality infrastructure, with both systems available for customer use in PNG and Solomon Islands since early February 2020. o as noted above, as we move towards a post-COVID-19 recovery, AIFFP will focus on high-quality, climate resilient infrastructure that maximises local content and promotes local job creation, building local capacity and increasing employment opportunities – it will be an asset for economic recovery in the Pacific and Timor-Leste. • The Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus will build regional economic integration and harmonisation, support a stable rules-based system with increased transparency, reduce trade costs and help tackle trade constraints. Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Birmingham advocated the importance of PACER Plus at the PIF Trade Ministers Meeting in February 2020 in Fiji. o PACER Plus will also play an important role in economic recovery following COVID-19; while the pandemic delayed country ratification and entry into force, momentum is building with two countries ratifying the agreement in recent months (Tonga and Solomon Islands). It has now been ratified by six countries (Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga and Solomon Islands). A further two ratifications are required to trigger the Agreement’s 60 day lead to entry into force, which we anticipate will occur in late 2020. Our enhanced security cooperation with our region under the Step-up builds on Australia’s strong history of engagement in defence, policing and border security, and in ‘non-traditional’ aspects of security. This work will help address the increasingly complex regional security environment identified by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in the 2018 Boe Declaration. For example:

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• An interim Pacific Fusion Centre has been established in Canberra, staffed with secondees from a range of Pacific government agencies including immigration, fisheries, justice, and prime minister and cabinet and working alongside Australian government representatives, including from DFAT and the Department of Home Affairs. It works to improve regional information sharing and domain awareness. As noted above, the Fusion Centre is currently focused on informing key-decision makers on important developments and the potential regional security impacts of COVID-19. The initiative responds to calls by Forum leaders over many years for improved information sharing to strengthen our collective response to major security threats, including non-traditional security threats facing the region. • The Australia Pacific Security College (launched by Minister for International Development and the Pacific Hawke on 13 November 2019) is delivering targeted courses on strategic analysis and interagency collaboration, including to Pacific Fusion Centre secondees. It is transitioning to virtual platforms for course delivery during the pandemic. The College’s independent Advisory Board, chaired by former Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal (Ret’d) Mark Binskin AC, and comprising senior representatives from the Pacific, has met three times in 2020, including twice virtually, to discuss the widespread and prolonged implications of the pandemic for Pacific island countries, in particular for economic recovery and health security. • Six of the 21 new Guardian-Class patrol boats have been delivered to our neighbours under the Pacific Maritime Security Program (PMSP), with aerial surveillance operations undertaken to support the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), based in Honiara, to monitor fishing activity across our region. The Royal Australian Navy is undertaking more deployments to the Pacific to conduct maritime training exercises with our neighbours. • Complementing the AIFFP and bilateral country program funded infrastructure projects managed by OTP, the Department of Defence is delivering high-quality security infrastructure support to our partners in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. • The AFP has supported Pacific policing priorities through the provision of capacity building, leadership training and executive development, advice and technical assistance under the Pacific Faculty of Policing, Pacific Community for Law Enforcement Cooperation and PNG-Australia Policing Partnership Program. o during COVID-19, AFP has been working closely with partners to help them prepare for and deal with the pandemic’s security elements. Our work to deepen personal connections recognises the importance of our relationships with Pacific communities, building on the deep historic links and common values Australia shares with our region. For example: • Recognising our shared love of sport, the Pacific-Aus Sports program supported 27 sports matches and events in 2019, with long-term design planning continuing under COVID-19. • The Pacific Church Partnerships Program works to build the leadership capabilities of Pacific island church leaders to contribute to development outcomes. It has been reoriented to meet Pacific community needs, including assisting the priorities of the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), in response to Cyclone Harold and COVID-19. • OTP successfully conducted the inaugural round of applications for the new Pacific Secondary Schools Scholarships Program. COVID-19 will delay the start of the first intake of students

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(initially planned for July 2020), but we look forward to welcoming Pacific scholarship students to Australia as soon as circumstances and travel rules allow. DFAT will continue to place priority on the safety and welfare of Pacific students engaged in the program. • Australia is expanding our diplomatic presence in the Pacific, with two new missions in Raratonga, Cook Islands, and Koror, Palau, commencing operations in December 2019. A third new mission will open in Niue in 2020. A new High Commission in Funafuti, Tuvalu, commenced operations in November 2018 ahead of the country hosting the 2019 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting. Australia will soon have a diplomatic presence in every Pacific Islands Forum member, with the opening planned for next year of new posts in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Papeete, French Polynesia. • Prior to the pandemic, we helped to facilitate travel to Australia by Pacific leaders through the development of a new Pacific Australia Card to improve the travel experience of eligible visiting Pacific leaders through priority immigration processing and longer validity for specific visa categories led by the Department of Home Affairs. The distribution of the Pacific Australia Card has commenced, with over 1,300 invitations sent and 367 cards issued. As travel restrictions ease, we will continue to identify and distribute cards to Pacific leaders. REACHING OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE STEP-UP

The Step-up is not just about government-to-government engagement - people and communities are at the heart of Australia’s unique connections to the Pacific. Australia’s relationships with our Pacific partners have been forged over decades of sustained engagement, shared history, common values and cultural affinity for family, religion, sports and more. The Pacific Step-up aims to draw on these links with the Pacific and foster new connections. We continue to draw on these in new ways in the face of COVID-19 travel and social distancing restrictions. OTP has worked closely with domestic and international partners to develop specific programs to deepen Australia’s personal connections with our region. For example, the PacificAus Sports program supports teams and athletes from the region to play and train in Australia. The program recognises the amount of talent and passion in Pacific sports and makes targeted interventions to connect them with Australian coaching, facilities and fans. The Step-up recognises the role of diaspora communities as ‘living bridges’ to develop and deepen economic and social ties between countries. The 200,000-strong Pacific diaspora in Australia offers valuable connections and knowledge of local markets in their countries of origin, providing an important opportunity in facilitating increased trade and overcoming barriers to investment with Pacific island countries. In Cairns, the large PNG diaspora population has facilitated strong trade and investment links with Papua New Guinea, including in education, property and tourism. Australia’s Pacific labour mobility schemes provide further opportunities to engage diaspora, community groups and churches to support workers. The Pacific workers in Australia under the Seasonal Workers Programme and the Pacific Labour Scheme (as many as 8000 workers from the Pacific and Timor-Leste as at May 2020) work in sectors including meatworks, horticulture,

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accommodation and aged care in rural and remote areas for up to three years. In combination with our comprehensive safeguards for employers and workers, OTP has piloted community engagement events with churches and Pacific diaspora groups to provide pastoral care and to help workers integrate with the local community and maximise their experience of living and working in Australia. OTP is working on a range of other ideas to draw further on the unique contributions of our Pacific diaspora in Australia in support of our media engagement, church partnerships and sporting links with our region. OTP acknowledges the importance of building opportunities for Indigenous Australians to be contributing partners in the Step-up. Many Pacific governments, communities and businesses are interested in expanding their links with Indigenous Australia. New sports, church partnerships and other programs will aim to build on these opportunities. Under an ‘Indigenous engagement plan’ being developed by OTP, we hope to further advance Australia’s relationship with our region by better harnessing the connections between Indigenous Australians and Pacific islanders. An example of our work to build these relationships was a 2019 visit by a delegation of seven Melanesian church leaders, who met Indigenous church leaders in Australia and visited a remote Aboriginal community in Queensland. Recognising the unique story of Australian South Sea Islanders in our nation’s shared history, OTP is also currently developing an engagement strategy to build cultural connections and to support the Pacific Step-up. Given the importance of policymakers, academia and Pacific specialists working together, in 2017, DFAT joined with the Australian National University and the Lowy Institute to launch the Pacific Research Program. The program, building on years of Australian Government support for Australian academic excellence on the Pacific, works to produce high-quality policy-relevant research, facilitates a strong research network in the Pacific and seeks to increase Pacific literacy and understanding in the broader Australian community. DFAT has also supported personal and academic connections in Australia and the Pacific through the respective exchange of students under the Australia Awards and the New Colombo Plan. Since 2014, the New Colombo Plan has awarded 5,864 scholarships and mobility grants for Australian undergraduates to undertake study and work-based experiences in the Pacific. We have also supported 2,115 Australian volunteers to the Pacific since 2011. Alongside initiatives working across education, labour mobility, sports and churches, this is helping build Pacific knowledge in Australia. Under the PacificAus TV initiative, FreeTV is helping to deepen Australian connections with Pacific audiences. It has started work to deliver Australian television content to seven Pacific countries, through local free-to-air broadcasters. Programs include sport, children’s shows, news and drama. To help strengthen the reach and effectiveness of the region’s media, we are also providing support through the long-running Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS). This program, delivered by ABC International Development, trains journalists, deepens engagement between Australian and Pacific counterparts, and supports production of local content and broadcast infrastructure.

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REFLECTING THE PRIORITY NEEDS OF THE PACIFIC

Australia is determined to ensure our work reflects the priority needs of the region and the evolving challenges facing our region. Our work is guided by frank, respectful dialogue with Pacific governments. The breadth and depth of our consultations with our Pacific partners is extensive, at all levels and across many sectors. This approach extends to Australia’s response to the impact of COVID-19 in the region where our support for, and partnership with, our Pacific family is essential for our region’s health security, and for our long-term interest in a stable, prosperous and resilient Pacific. We recognise that the priorities and needs of the Pacific vary greatly between countries. The region is diverse. Papua New Guinea had a population of 8.4 million in 2018, and benefits from a large landmass with abundant mineral resources. By contrast, Tuvalu had a population only 11,000 in 2018 and has a limited resource base on which to seek to diversify its economy. Australia works hard to respond quickly to direct requests from Pacific governments and communities. When crises strike, we have responded to requests for help with substantial humanitarian assistance for response and recovery – most recently for COVID-19, and assistance to Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu after Tropical Cyclone Harold in April 2020. Following a direct request from the PNG government in late 2019, Australia provided a loan of USD 300 million (AUD 440 million) to help meet its financing shortfall and help deliver much needed long-term economic reform.

Climate change and oceans Australia also works as part of the region through the Pacific Islands Forum to identify and address shared challenges. The Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Action Now, which Australia signed alongside other Forum members at the 2019 Forum in Tuvalu, called on all countries to take action to address the challenges of climate change. This declaration was the strongest statement the region has made on this issue and reinforces the Boe Declaration on Regional Security, which recognised climate change as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of Pacific peoples. Australia has committed to investing $500 million in activities to support climate and disaster resilience in the Pacific over five years from July 2020. This builds on our previous $300 million investment in climate and disaster resilience (2016-2019). We are integrating climate and disaster resilience outcomes across all sectors of the aid program in the Pacific, as committed in the Climate Change Action Strategy (2020-25). The AIFFP has a dedicated climate infrastructure window that will support renewable and lower-emissions energy generation and transmission. Australia is also supporting Pacific economies to recover from COVID impacts, in a manner which builds both economic and climate resilience. The $140 million Asia-Pacific Climate Finance Fund will leverage private sector investment in low emissions, climate-resilient solutions for the Pacific and South-East Asia.

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The ocean is central to the identity, livelihoods and the future of people across our region: the ‘Blue Pacific’ connects people, feeds communities, drives economies and is central to the culture of our Pacific family. The fisheries industry alone contributes around USD1 billion each year to Pacific economies. Australia provides significant support to the region for integrated ocean and fisheries management, by helping address pressing ocean issues such as marine plastics, and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Our support strengthens regional governance and aligns with the priorities articulated by the region though annual Pacific Island Forum Leaders Communiques. Australia provides core funding to the Forum Fisheries Agency ($5 million per year) to strengthen sustainable fisheries, and provide legal advice and operational support ($4.4 million, 2017-2021) for Pacific island countries to ratify and implement the Niue Treaty Subsidiary Agreement to help combat IUU fishing. We are working with the Pacific Community (SPC) to examine the impacts of sea level rise on maritime zones and develop innovative, Pacific-led responses ($3.5 million, 2019-2023). We are supporting the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to help members reduce single use plastics ($16 million, 2019- 25). Prime Minister Morrison signalled his recognition of the importance of oceans by joining the leaders of Fiji, Palau and 11 other nations on the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. The Panel is an important platform for driving the sustainable management of oceans and will encourage transformative action towards a sustainable ocean economy.

Mechanisms for engagement Australia has, under the Step-up, increased the tempo of high-level engagement with the Pacific, to help deepen our partnerships and mutual understanding and ensure our efforts are coordinated, appropriate and effective. In the 12 months following Prime Minister Morrison’s 8 November 2018 Step-up announcements, there were 56 Ministerial-level visits to the Pacific (including by the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Payne, and Minister for International Development and the Pacific Hawke), compared to 31 in the preceding 12 months. We have established new formal architecture for many of our bilateral relationships to facilitate regular, high-level consultation. For example, the ‘Vuvale’ (family) Partnership signed with Fiji in September 2019 includes annual meetings of Foreign Ministers, Defence Ministers and senior officials. With COVID-19 preventing face-to-face contact, we are pursuing innovative ways to stay connected. Foreign Minister Payne, for example, co-hosted with Samoa’s Deputy Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa on 29 May a region-wide Pacific Women Leaders’ meeting to discuss COVID- 19’s impact on women and girls in our region. The Head of the OTP holds regular teleconferences with Pacific heads of mission based in Australia to consult on key issues. Our diplomatic missions in the Pacific work closely with partner governments to ensure their views and priorities are reflected in policymaking back in Canberra. For instance, prior to COVID-19, in an average week Australia’s High Commission staff in Suva would conduct around 90 meetings with local counterparts and policymakers. With 16 Pacific missions, Australia has the most extensive diplomatic representation of any country in the Pacific. By the end of 2021 our representation will grow to 19, and will stretch for the first time to all 18 members of the Pacific Islands Forum. This

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enables close consultation on all aspects of our Pacific engagement, from diplomatic relations to development, trade and security. The delivery of Australia’s overseas development program is prioritised and designed in consultation with partner governments to meet their development objectives. This occurs through annual high level consultations and over the next few months will occur through partnership discussions on COVID-19 Response Plans to reprioritise assistance for 2020-21 to 2021-22. On security cooperation, the Department of Defence holds annual bilateral Defence Cooperation Program meetings with its Pacific partners, alongside other formal dialogues and ongoing engagement on the ground. The Australian Federal Police works with its counterparts through the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police. This constant dialogue in the region ensures our engagement is responsive and relevant. We are maintaining ongoing, open and respectful dialogue with our Pacific partners to make sure our policies and investments are working and addressing priority needs. The success of the Step-up will be measured over the long-term; the messages we receive from Pacific partners, together with our performance processes, will help us evaluate our success. These exchanges will be central to assessing our initiatives and, where necessary, adapting them further, including in the face of COVID-19. CONCLUSION

The Pacific is at the centre of Australia’s foreign policy and a central pillar of our Indo-Pacific strategy. Implementation of the Pacific Step-up proceeds at pace, building on decades of work in the region. Many Step-up initiatives are achieving good results, but will need to keep evolving in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia’s relationships with the region are strengthening. The Pacific’s response to the bushfire crisis in Australia showed an increasing sense of partnership and reciprocity. Not only did communities and governments donate funding for bushfire response and recovery but, for the first time, military personnel from Papua New Guinea and Fiji deployed to Victoria alongside the Australian Defence Force to support affected communities. Now, as our region faces the COVID-19 pandemic together, Australia’s support has been closely coordinated with and well received by Pacific governments. We will continue to work together to ensure we continue to respond to the region’s priorities.

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