The word is 'lien' not 'lean'.

The authors claim that "Our aid programs, generous though they are" is rubbish. Australia's foreign aid as a percentage of GDP has been in decline ever since the Coalition took office; "(Foreign aid is) the disproportionate victim of the Coalition governments budget savings measures since forming government in 2013. As Fairfax’s Matt Wade reports, while only about 1% of budget expenditure it has made up around 25% of all budget cuts".

Speaking with a friend in Fiji recently where coronavirus has had a big impact, not on the health front so much, that's been very good, but on the economic front. Millions of Australians have enjoyed a fabulous holiday in Fiji over the years, with ever smiling low paid Fijian workers catering to their every need to ensure they do have a great holiday. Unfortunate Fiji's largest industry, tourism is suffering badly. I asked my friend "How's things in the village?"...okay he tells me, but there's no not much money coming in with no work, no cash for staples (bought food), electricity, phones etc. With things as tight as they are, maybe Fiji, and I'm sure other small Pacific nations are in the same boat, they will have to seek more foreign aid to relive the economic problems. Should Australia and New Zealand for that matter, continue their stingy approach to aid, then the Islanders would do well to look to alternate sources. AND the alternate sources are very willing to help out, at a price of course.

Australia can stop the groaning and gnashing of teeth when it comes to the Pacific if we are not willing to step up to the plate, and do our bit.

Paul1405,

It's too late in the game of geopolitics for Australia get the Melanesian nation-states on it's side.

They have gone over to China and will be absorbed into the Chinese sphere of influence all to the exclusion of Australian interests.

It won't be long before we see a string of Chinese military bases stretching from the South China Sea to the western edge of Polynesia.

This will cut Australia off from China's main Pacific enemies: The US, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

When the invasion comes it won't come from the north like the Japanese attempted but will come from the south. The Chinese will basically be able to walk in through the back door.

Come on Paul, you want to try to buy the friendship & loyalty of the pacific islands by out bidding China. Do try to get a grip on it mate, you appear to have left reality.

As for stingy, what good has foreign aid ever done us, or the general public of those it has been given to, SFA. Better to keep the money at home to help our own, we sure as hell are going to need it, if only to salvage what a lefty government has done to Victoria, & the rest by what it is going to cost us to fix.

How many of our men died keeping the communists out of Malaysia? How much gratitude did that earn us.

We need all the cash we can get to start arming ourselves with enough nuclear arms to make us just too costly to invade. If it is cheaper to buy us than invade us, china will use the common sense that our & all western lefties have lost.

We had better get in quick. The only source of suitable arms is the USA, & if the coming election goes wrong, they may be no more use than Europe within a very short period.

Lien;
tks ttbn, I knew the spelling was wrong but could not remember what was correct.
There is no way we can increase foreign aid, we are at our borrowing
limit now and remember that interest rates might well increase.
I do not know whether the money we borrow is a variable rate and if
it is we are already in big trouble if the rate moves up.
Bonds will follow also.
The conversation is rather meaningless unless we know about the rates.

Correction noted ttbn. Yes a lien and a lean as well. Reckon that would look like a permenantly stationed and fully equipped covid, dingue and malaria vaccinated battalion/citizen soldiers on station! Indefinately!

Try and reneg and guess what? A few well placed VLT stealth, hover-capable, aircraft-launched missiles would send a tsunamis of a flood downriver? After most of the battalion was repatriated! And the mission flown out as the tidal flood took away the dam and all downstream infrastructure! Now that is a lean, ttbn. Didn't think I'd need to be so specific?

Our Navy needs to be refitted/reequipped as nuclear powered and nuclear-capable. And part of the negotiating backdrop if all our requirements are to be agreed to?

Just a friendly visit or two! Replete with a visitor's day! As the sailors describe the awesome, (Port Moresby annihilating, e.g.) firepower of the inboard weaponary!

We've got a lot of catching up to do with our weapons and weapon's platforms! And money has never been cheaper! And equipment will never ever be cheaper! We need to do this because the potential sabre rattling adversery, is so equipped an has no respect for our current military or its arsenal!

The more we can do of this rearming at home the more jobs and economic flow through jobs we can and must create. And given the current youth unemployment, never ever a better time to reintroduce, compulsory conscription.

And more time spent outdoors resulting in better mental health/immunity outcomes! And the usual benefits of overseas service. Leave it with you.
Alan B.