By John Kerin, The Australian, July 23, 2003
JOHN Howard unveiled an ambitious plan to create a South Pacific economic union to head off terrorism, corruption and decay, as federal cabinet yesterday approved Australia's contribution to a 2200-strong force to restore law and order in the Solomon Islands. The Prime Minister, who in July recast Australia's foreign policy to put greater emphasis on intervention, said he would urge barely viable Pacific nations of fewer than 100,000 people to move to pool resources such as airlines and policing, because they were simply uneconomic.
As the National Security Committee of cabinet formally approved the dispatch of an Australian-led intervention force, Mr Howard said he would raise the regional plan at the Pacific Island forum in New Zealand next month. "It's just not possible if you've got an island state of fewer than 100,000 people to expect it to have all the sophisticated arms of government," he said. "It applies with airlines, it applies with policing, it applies with a whole lot of other things. "(We have to) encourage as many opportunities as we can for countries in the region to pool what they need to do and what meagre resources they have." The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which recommended military intervention in the Solomons, said last night Mr Howard appeared to be backing a "European Union of the South Pacific". Analyst Ellie Wainwright told The Australian: "Basically, small states agree to cede some of their sovereign responsibilities in order to ensure their long-term economic viability." She said small states in the Balkans were opting to join the EU for similar reasons. Nations with fewer than 100,000 people in the South Pacific that could benefit from the plan include Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Kiribati. Mr Howard said it would be ultimately up to the countries concerned to decide how to organise their affairs and dismissed suggestions that his idea smacked of colonialism.
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