Office of the Pacific
Pacific Engagement
Cairns stands at the geographic nexus of Australia’s multilateral engagement with the Pacific in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment. Australia’s engagement with our near neighbours has deepened significantly in recent times, building understanding of the increased capacity of Far North Queensland, the nation’s northern gateway, to play a greater role in enhancing and building our strategic and people-to-people ties with the Pacific. Cairns has the geographic adjacency, structures, business, defence, capacity building, education and cultural ties, and relationships to become the operational base to deliver many of the programs related to our nation’s Pacific engagement.
The Office of the Pacific (OTP) plays a central role as the “custodian” of the nation’s deep relationship with the region. It is a cross-departmental Office drawing upon a range of policy and operational programs in its co-ordination of this role. A key function of the OTP is the delivery of the Australian Government’s suite of initiatives across the Pacific, including labour mobility and capacity building. Reflecting Australia’s close engagement and commitment to the Pacific, OTP employment numbers have grown to around 100, yet staff, including operational personnel whose role it is to deliver these programs, continue to be based largely in Canberra.
OTP operational teams currently fly more than six hours to Port Moresby from their Canberra base compared with a flying time from Cairns of just one hour and 30 minutes. Establishing a core operational presence and basing personnel in Cairns would allow the OTP to deliver its initiatives with greater efficiency, timeliness and ease of access, and would act as a key enabler for the Office to more effectively engage with our Pacific partners.
This recommendation goes deeper than questions of increased efficiency and effectiveness alone. Cairns’ large Pacific diaspora which includes a growing number of PNG-born residents (the third highest ranking overseas born population at 2,361 or 1.4% of Cairns’ total population[i]) and has deep cultural, business and sporting ties across the Pacific. Cairns is home to the Exchange Innovation and Information Centre (EiiC), which works in partnership with PNG to promote business and educational links between Cairns, PNG, and the Pacific. The EiiC is unique within Australia and houses the offices of Tradelinked Cairns PNG Pacific, and of PNG National and Provincial agencies. Cairns also hosts 12 foreign consulates, and through existing business links, is engaged with and supports the Pacific Labour Scheme. In addition, Cairns Regional Council is working with a Papua New Guinean consortium to help progress a proposal for the inclusion of a PNG-based team in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition reflecting a broad desire to further cement these ties.
The opportunity to build trusted and enduring people-to-people ties can best be achieved by the establishment of a core presence of the Office of the Pacific in Cairns to build sustainable
[i] Cairns Regional Council, Community Profile – Cairns Birthplace, https://profile.id.com.au/cairns/birthplace?WebID=10
Benefits to the region
• Establish an operational or front-line team of the Office of the Pacific in Cairns to improve service and program delivery by proximity to the market and engagement with the local business and the diaspora community.
Recommendation
The Australian Government commits to establishing a core operational Office of the Pacific presence in Cairns to enhance cultural and business engagement and to provide for improved delivery of services into the region.
Last updated: February 2024
Advocacy
