February 04,
2012
THE tragedy of the Papua New Guinea ferry disaster,
with the loss of more than 100 lives, has brought home the closeness to
Australia of its neighbours.
Like New
Zealanders, with whom we mourned after the Christchurch earthquake, Papuans are
part of the South Pacific family.
Given the recent leadership instability in PNG
namely Michael Somare's flouting of the supremacy of parliament, which duly
elected Peter O'Neill as his successor as Prime Minister it is unfortunate that
Australia's relationship with PNG has been allowed to fade, reflecting a
disengagement that began with independence in 1975.
The
relationship has not been helped by a self-lacerating sense of embarrassment
over Australia's colonial era in PNG, about which fewer and fewer Australians
now know anything.
Leadership is needed to reinvigorate this relationship a
need underlined not just by the ferry sinking, but by the political crisis.
Such leadership must start from the top.
Kevin Rudd is an impressive, erudite and
well-connected figure in world diplomacy.
The Foreign Minister cuts a familiar figure at the
UN, in Brussels and other distant places. And it's important that Australia is
well-represented when and where the big decisions are made. Getting
relationships right in the neighbourhood is also a core task for an effective
foreign minister.
And there are no short cuts.
Gestures of familiarity at international gabfests
are no substitute for putting the time in to visit regularly, to get to know
and to be known.
Chest jabbing
and megaphone diplomacy do not work. Nor does strident interventionism,
especially in a former colony where sensitivities naturally run strong.
Yet that is no excuse for standing aside, or for
focusing instead on secondary goals such as securing a temporary seat on the UN
Security Council.
This weekend, Mr Rudd is in Munich for a security
conference.
Naturally, diplomats and diplomatic ministers can
always claim that they are working away "behind the scenes", subtly,
of course, the odd whisper here or raised eyebrow there conveying apparently
important messages.
When a neighbour such as PNG suffers the anguish it
has in recent months, our Foreign Minister should have been on the front foot
in a bipartisan way offering solutions, seeking to broker deals, being visible,
leveraging off his familiarity.
Mr Rudd, however, was missing in action,
engaged elsewhere
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