The horrifying destruction resulting from the tsunami that hit the north coast Papua New Guinea was met with an immediate and effective response from Australia. The Australian Government, through its aid agency Ausaid and the military, organised immediate help. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, announced that Australia would do whatever if necessary to help, both in the short-term and longer term.
We are neighbours.
Mercifully, our Foreign Minister did not think for a moment that all the social and economic problems in Australia must be fixed before we can send foreign aid. Mr Downer did not think that all Australian farmers must be provided with cheap loans before we could afford to stretch a hand to help.
How could aid be sent so quickly and effectively? It is because Australia is engaged in our region and engaged with the world. It is because Australian aid agencies — both government and non-government — and the Australian military have trained and are prepared for these sorts of natural disasters. We can help in varying degrees according to our capacity and ability, according to the proximity of disaster and according to what others in the world are doing.
We are engaged with the world.
Our efforts in Papua Guinea are quite rightly greater than those of other nations. We are neighbours. Other nations make greater efforts when disaster strikes closer to them. They are neighbours.
The words of John Donne in the 17th century apply now (with minor changes).
“”No nation is an island, entire of its self. If a clod be washed away by the sea, the world is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the tsunami tolls. It tolls for thee.”
But our reaching out has in the past, and must in the future, go beyond the immediate response to disasters.
Several Hercules aircraft from Australia and New Zealand have already arrived in PNG. Alas, there is doubt whether they can land very close to the disaster area. So with the best will in the world, the instantaneous response to a disaster can be partially thrawted. It highlights the need for continued development and infrastructure aid. Long-term transport infrastructure aid is needed.
Shortly after the disaster struck, medical facilities, such as they are, were stretched beyond their limits. Indeed, the local health care centre had closed shortly before the disaster for lack of funds. The importance of health infrastructure is made evident. That is not just a question of buildings and equipment but the far more enduring help in the form of education.
The disaster itself will result in long-term needs in addition to the immediate medical and food needs.
The huge waves caused by the undersea earthquake crashed into a 30-kilometre stretch of coast. In addition to the 1000 or more dead, at least 6,000 people are homeless. These people must not be forgotten after the initial media blitz is over. Long-term aid, after the immediate popular rescue missions are over, will be needed to help these people rebuild their villages and their lives.
The disaster also shows the need for continue research about earthquakes and the hope that one day they might be more predictable. It is so easy to dismiss this sort of pure research and ivory-tower irrelevance.
As this disaster struck, Mr Downer spoke about foreign aid. He pointed to recent research showing that a very large majority of Australians were in favour a foreign-aid program and that he and his government were opposed to calls for a reduction or abolition of aid.
It is an important stand. It is a question of morality which should not be measured in dollars and cents. It should not be measured in terms of trade links, as Trade Minister Tim Fischer did, though in a way that might be forgiven as an enthusiastic, disjointed asides that have become one of Mr Fischer’s hallmarks in that portfolio.
Sure, Papua New Guinea is an important trading partner. Today, though, Papua New Guinea is a friend and neighbour.
Australians have responded as individuals immediately. Individuals have offered cash help. This is not a mean country. It is not an insular country. We have our difficulties, but they pale beside the horror of a tsunami taking away lives and homes.
The taking away of untimed local calls is insignificant compared to whole villages, where there are no phones in the first place, being taken away.
The disaster in Papua New Guinea should help make us reflect. Most of us, by mere accidents of birth, have been born in an affluent country. Comparatively speaking, Australians have access to some of the best health, education, housing and diet in the world. We are fortunate to be in a position where we can be generous in our aid.
The response the Australian people and Government have made to the disaster in Papua New Guinea and the stark contrast between the condition of people in the disaster zone and the relative comfort in Australia should put paid to the insular, selfish views of people who begrudge helping people outside Australia. It is an easy, populist thing to appeal to people to shun helping others beyond our shores. Those who have done so should now feel ashamed.
Mr Downer’s response was the proper one: “”The Australian Government will do everything it possibly can to help Papua New Guinea in this crisis and so we will provide whatever is needed.”
That is more in tune with the view of the Australian people than an insular approach which begrudges foreign aid and seeks insularity rather than engagement with our neighbours and the world.