Speech - Australia New Zealand School of Government - Pacific Executive Program closing dinner.
10 September 2009
Australia New Zealand School of Government - PACE Program
Deputy Dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), Professor Peter Allen.
Distinguished Guests. Ladies and Gentlemen.
I begin this evening by honouring the traditional owners of this land and by paying respect to their elders, past and present.
I'm delighted to be taking part in this dinner for the 2009 PACE program participants and the five PACE extension program participants.
The PACE program - now in its third year - is making a singularly valuable contribution to capacity building in the Pacific.
That fact that you have been chosen for this program is a recognition of your talent and potential.
The fact that you are here reflects your drive to strengthen your own capabilities and make a greater contribution to the department or agency you represent.
As future public service leaders, I know you'll have opportunities in the years ahead to apply the practical skills you are acquiring through this program to a broad range of policy and management challenges in your home countries.
Whether your area of expertise is public expenditure and budgeting or human resources management, the quality of your advice to Ministers and the skill with which you implement policies will help deliver higher living standards and better health, education, and justice systems.
Moreover, in helping to build stronger nations you are also contributing to national and regional security.
Meeting Challenges
Strong public sectors are a prerequisite for the development of successful free-market democracies. To a great extent, your countries and the region as a whole are relying on you to promote good governance and ensure services are delivered efficiently and effectively.
The public sector has a central role to play in the direct delivery of essential services such as education and health. It also promotes good governance and competition, fostering micro-economic opportunity and ensuring macro-economic stability.
The Private sector, on the other hand, creates jobs and is a source of wealth, innovation and knowledge. Over time it creates a tax base to fund the programs, services and infrastructure that your communities deserve and need.
By governance, I mean giving the best, evidence-based advice, making fair decisions and implementing government policy in an efficient and non-partisan manner.
Good governance is essential to reducing poverty and creating sustainable development. Where governance is poor, corruption can creep in and in such conditions inequality and social breakdown thrive.
This is important because Pacific countries are facing a range of tough challenges at present, from climate change to the global economic crisis, from poverty to basic health care.
The latest statistics paint a stark picture of these challenges:
- About 2.7 million people in the Pacific are living in poverty.
- About 700,000 children in the region do not finish primary school.
- Out of every 1000 children born, approximately 40 die before the age of five.
But that is precisely what makes this PACE program - and your involvement in it - so important.
The skills you are acquiring and the professional networks you are forming can and will make a difference.
Good management, transparency and accountability are fundamental to good governance, and good governance is a driver of economic growth.
The point is that we can learn a great deal from each other by sharing our experiences, including lessons learned.
This learning - I would add - is a life-long process for dedicated public servants.
The Australian Public Service has a well-earned reputation for efficiency, professionalism, and probity and for providing high-calibre, independent policy advice.
Yet as the Prime Minister announced a week ago in the Paterson Oration, as strong as the APS is, the Government is about to embark on a further reform of the APS in order to rejuvenate it.
As public servants you are crucial to developing long-term, sustainable solutions to the challenges facing your countries and our region. But you won't face the challenges alone. Australia will support your efforts and celebrate your achievements.
Australia's Approach to the Pacific
Working with the Foreign Minister and Trade Minister, my job as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs involves the framing and delivery of the Australian Government's policy priorities in the Pacific.
The Australian Government came to office 21 months ago with a plan to reinvigorate Australia's relations with the region.
Our agenda is broad, our commitment strong, and our ambition great.
And I'm pleased to say that we've had some real successes to date in strengthening ties with Pacific Island countries across the spectrum of our shared interests.
Prime Minister Rudd's Port Moresby Declaration in March last year signalled Australia's ambitious and co-operative new approach to our Pacific relationships. Since then we've been developing individual Partnership for Development agreements with each of our Pacific Island neighbours.
These Partnerships commit us to increased assistance over time that is tailored towards Island countries' individual development needs. Importantly, they also embrace commitments from our Pacific partners to improve governance, increase investment in economic infrastructure and achieve better outcomes in health and education.
These are areas of policy that relate closely to the many of the specific work projects you are undertaking as part of this program.
Prime Minister Rudd signed Pacific Partnerships with the leaders of Papua New Guinea and Samoa in August 2008, with the leaders of Kiribati and Solomon Islands in January this year, and with Vanuatu's Prime Minister in May.
Last month Partnership agreements were signed with Tuvulu, Tonga and Nauru in the margins of the highly successful 40th Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns.
Again, the Pacific Islands Forum addressed themes that resonate with your program's work projects and objectives - including building economic resilience for future growth, addressing climate change and strengthening development cooperation.
Important outcomes were achieved in each of these areas, and I would like to take a moment to reflect on the key achievements from an Australian Government perspective:
First, Forum leaders agreed the Cairns Compact on Strengthening Development Coordination to improve the efficiency of donor coordination.
The purpose of this Compact is to drive more effective coordination and use of development resources, with the aim of making better progress on the Millennium Development Goals.
It calls on all donor countries to effectively coordinate the inflows of our development assistance to avoid overstretching small island countries, and it encourages donors and recipients to work together on the basis of agreed national priorities of economic development.
Second, leaders also issued a Call to Action on Climate Change. As this audience appreciates all too well, Pacific island countries have contributed little to the causes of climate change, but are among the most vulnerable to its effects.
As the Prime Minister noted in Cairns, some 50 per cent of the populations of the Pacific Island countries lie within 1.5 kilometres of their coastlines.
Australia's approach is set out in a new document, Engaging our Pacific Neighbours on Climate Change, Australia's approach, which I highly commend to all of you.
This policy framework will guide Australia's engagement with the Pacific on climate change to 2015, drawing together our efforts on mitigation and adaptation and collaborating with our Pacific partners nationally, regionally and internationally.
Leaders at the Forum also agreed to commence negotiations on a new regional trade and economic agreement, PACER Plus, that will create new opportunities for Pacific island countries to grow their economies and engage with the world.
We expect to hold the first round of PACER Plus negotiations no later than November, when Forum Trade Ministers will meet to decide how to take this initiative forward.
In addition, agreements were reached on strengthening protection and management of regional fisheries resources, which is fundamental to the well-being and stability of the Pacific region.
To this end, Australia will host a meeting early next year of Pacific Island Forum Ministers responsible for both fisheries and law enforcement and justice, and provide up to $18 million over four years to improve Pacific fisheries management and development.
On renewable energy, Australia will work with key Forum agencies and development partners to look at ways to improve access to clean and affordable energy in the region.
We will also discuss how best to deliver Australia's commitment to provide $25 million over four years for clean energy initiatives in the region.
Leaders also agreed to focus on conflict prevention and peace-building, strengthening cooperation to address terrorism and transnational crime, and consolidating regional stability.
Another priority among the Forum outcomes was achieving stronger national development through better governance.
The 2009 Tracking Development and Governance in the Pacific report, produced by AusAID and released by Australia at the Forum, reveals that despite continued high levels of development assistance over many years, the Pacific region is not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
To turn this around, priority is being given to improving development coordination, strengthening accountability and integrity institutions, tackling corruption and improving record keeping and data collection.
But to turn this around, in the end, it will also require commitment, dedication and leadership from each of you, and from those who will follow in your footsteps on this PACE program.
Conclusion
I would like to conclude by offering my congratulations again to all PACE program participants, and wish you good luck in the years ahead.
I would also like to applaud ANZSOG and AusAID for their work in making this important program possible.
Thank you.
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