Aust and NZ are determined to achieve better co-ordination in the delivery of assistance to the Pacific. This is because, as Foreign Murray McCully contended in a speech ahead of this week’s Pacific Island Forum, regional organisations are making too little progress. He noted while the regional institutions rake in hundreds of millions of dollars annually from donors, progress in confronting the serious challenges is too slow. He cites the need for a bulk fuel purchase plan, identified in the 2004 Pacific Plan as one means of helping small Govts counter rising prices, as an example where five years on, nothing has happened.

On the “big picture” issues of fishing, energy, transport services and the environment, those institutions charged with advancing collective interests have too little to show. Last year, fish worth $2.6bn were caught in Pacific EEZs yet island Govts took only $380m in revenues and $120m in licence fees. One of the quickest ways of improving the wealth of smaller states would be to take a higher percentage return from fisheries. McCully says it is “hard to overstate the shared determination” of NZ and Aust to lift the game in the Pacific. NZ’s increasing its ODA budget despite seven quarters of negative economic growth indicating its commitment to the region.

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