Australia Must Confront Its Past as a Colonial Power in the Pacific
Anthony Albanese’s Labor government claims that it views Australia’s neighbors in the Pacific as “partners.” For this to be more than hollow rhetoric, Australia must face up to the injustices it has committed as a colonial power in the region.
A crowd gathers in New Guinea as a proclamation of British annexation is read in 1884. The territory then became an Australian colony in 1902. (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales via Wikimedia Commons)
After winning the federal election in May this year, Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has devoted considerable attention to strengthening Australian relations with Pacific island nations. Only days after being sworn in, foreign minister Penny Wong visited Fiji. Then, in July, Australia sent a strong delegation to the Pacific Islands Forum, led by the prime minister himself.
In part, these diplomatic endeavors represent an implicit criticism of the previous Liberal-National Coalition policy. Pacific island governments frequently criticized the administrations of Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and Scott Morrison over their weak stance on climate change and their insensitivity toward Pacific Islanders. Wong, by contrast, has claimed that Labor’s foreign policy is different, and that Albanese’s government sees Pacific island governments as “partners.”
While the new government’s rhetoric suggests a respect for Pacific island interests, a look at this shift’s geopolitical context raises doubts. Recently, China has also taken a renewed interest in the Pacific. And indeed, Australia’s history is full of moments when governments have “discovered” the Pacific after fearing that an external rival would displace Australia’s dominant position.
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