Australia-China relations: Pacific Defence School proposed by Australia’s opposition Labor Party if it wins election

Labor has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of making Australia ‘less secure’ by failing to prevent a security pact between China and the Solomon Islands

The opposition party’s policy proposal also includes more development assistance, regular diplomatic visits and increased funding to police illegal fishing

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Solomon Islands police train with officers from a Chinese police liaison team in this undated handout picture. Photo: Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Handout via AFP

Published: 1:17pm, 26 Apr 2022Updated: 3:20pm, 26 Apr 2022

Australia would open a defence school to train its Pacific Island neighbours, increase foreign aid and support climate mitigation projects across the region, under an election policy announced by the opposition Labor Party that aims to boost the country’s soft power.

Labor has been critical of a new security pact between China and the Solomon Islands, accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of making Australia “less secure” by failing to prevent the deal. Labor’s shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong described the pact as the “worst failure of Australian foreign policy in the Pacific since the end of World War II”.

Morrison dismissed Labor’s new policy as “farcical” on Tuesday morning, while Foreign Minister Marise Payne said much of the policy announced so far was already being undertaken by the government. Morrison has maintained the Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation which is entitled to make its own diplomatic decisions.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, right, with opposition Labor Party Leader Anthony Albanese last week at the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election. Photo: AAP/Toby Zerna via Reuters

“We’ve been very focused on our investment in the Pacific to keep Australians safe. And what we’ve done around the world has been acknowledged,” Morrison said on 2GB Radio on Tuesday morning.

Under the proposed policy, if Labor wins the national election on May 21 it would establish an Australia-Pacific Defence School to provide training for the defence and security forces of Pacific nations. The opposition would also boost development assistance for Pacific countries by A$525 million (US$376.5 million) over four years, create a financing body to support climate adaptation and clean energy projects in the region and double Australia’s funding for aerial surveillance to police illegal fishing in their exclusive economic zones.

In a push to burnish Australia’s soft power in the region, the Labor policy would also encourage regular diplomatic visits to Pacific nations and increase funding for a larger public and commercial media presence in the Pacific, including expanding the transmission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.