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You're welcome Dr. Hukula Thank you for reading this blog.

This election was more about health and education than China. The DCGA ignored and underfunded health in favor of the Pacific Games. The turn over of incumbents shows voters want change including leadership that addresses social programs. Throughout the campaigning and horse trading containers full of medicines and medical supplies have continued to accumulate on the wharf awaiting the Ministry of Finance to pay for their release. Nothing new, an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed. China may represent development through its grants, loans and construction but that is simply another form of cargo cultism that will more than likely fail to change the on going aid dependency in the country and region.

Thank you for another informative piece Minetta.

Thanks, Nemat. A sad litany of attempts, with unintended and harmful consequences. There has been one shining and continuing light of success, though, since 1990. Through the International Committee of the Red Cross, Dr Alberto Cairo has been providing prosthetic services to the disabled and victims of the blasts from mines and bombs. He directs seven centres - for all sides. More here https://www.icrc.org/en/document/helping-disabled-afghanistan. Through times of changing governments - working for the betterment of the Afghan people. To find the strength within themselves to not only walk, but also to hope, again. When I last contacted him, he advised on 31 August 2021, that he "was fine and working".

There was a clear mood for change among Solomon Islander people on my several visits there last year. Moving around Guadalcanal, Western, Honiara I encountered few if any people who thought that the current government was performing well. Ambivalence or mild opposition to the government were probably the most common reactions. My sense from my visits was that these feelings were mainly driven by economic and social factors. Economic factors much as Terence describes, while social factors are in part driven by that economic weakness and also by the continued fear of recurrences of violence. There is such a wide spectrum of feeling on China that it would be hard to discern any trend that might arise out of it. While many people are still unhappy about the process (or lack thereof) behind the switch, that's not the same thing as being hostile to China. Some people are hostile, worrying about its influence on the country's Christian and democratic traditions. Many are indifferent, while others see the opportunities that come both from China and from the international competition that has arisen. So for me the question has been whether the mood for change was sufficient to overwhelm the bounce that came from a successful Games (and there surely would have been one) alongside Mr Sogavare's political tenacity and the power of incumbency.

I do agree with you with appropriate funding to the LLGs. The third tier government should be given funding directly from the national government. National Gov't should now think of abolishing that DDA, another white elephant.

Outstanding. Structured well.

May I suggest that cultural imperative will always trump (intentional small “t”) public service ethos. And may I suggest that with few exceptions, this applies across all of PNG and the Solomon Islands. The impact of the public service system may be envisioned as a wafer-thin layer of one world view imposed over kilometres thick strata of another. If this analogy is valid, and I believe it is, then the outcomes nearly half a century after independence should come as no surprise. And given the way things are going in relation to the creation of economic opportunity for youth and the delivery of basic services, instability is going to get worse. Having said that of course I believe there is vital role for the public service. But in addition to responding to the whims and fancies of politicians also places equal weight on, listens to and formulates policy that responds directly to the needs of people at community level. Because when you refer to politicians as bound by clientelism, in truth that might have worked from a cultural perspective had it not been for the fact that all too often a politician’s client base is essentially me, myself and I. And some public servants are the same. It has been my observation that real governance, social capital and a sense of the common good exists in spades. Not with politicians, not with public servants but in the communities, especially with women, where people are bound to each other by kin, custom and the rigours of day to child rearing and survival imposed by the environment. It is also my observation that people at community level are crying out to be heard and listened to. And it has reached the point where youth in particular are not listening to their elders, whose faith in a “system” since independence they believe has failed them. So, is it time to devolve a great deal more agency, skin in the game and responsibility for the outcomes to the level where people have lived and governed themselves quite ably for millennia? I believe it is.

Ford, thank you for your question on the number of PNG workers currently in Australia. Unfortunately, this information has not been made public by the Australian Government. However, we have been informed that data on PALM workers will be available shortly on the Australian Government's data repository website at https://data.gov.au/.

Dan, Many thanks for your feedback on my blog. It is important for readers to know that you are speaking from your experience as a major licensed recruiter of ni-Vanuatu seasonal workers to Australia. However, we need to note the differences between the two data sources. You are reporting from your recent knowledge of seasonal worker recruitment numbers for Vanuatu. My blog reports (1) the data on worker numbers only up to the end of February 2024 and (2) the data are for workers from all sending countries. Your estimate of the decline in worker numbers is closer to that from the survey of SWP employers who said they expected a reduced demand for seasonal workers of between 17 to 25 per cent. The decline in worker numbers is limited to horticulture where a range of conditions can disrupt harvest work. These seasonal disruptions do not apply to meat processing work, the largest and expanding employer of long-term PALM workers.

What if this isn't a seesaw but a long-term trend driven by rural entrapment and increasing impoverishment, the post-Independence reactionary ruralism?

Hello Sir, I'm from PNG, Central province. My question is, currently now how many PNG seasonal workers are in Australia currently?