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VIII. The Response of Australia and Others in the International Community

Over half of Papua New Guinea’s development budget, including a significant portion of the police force’s budget, is made up of donor funds. Australia is, by far, the largest and most influential international donor, reflecting its proximity, colonial history, and continuing special relationship with Papua New Guinea, among other things. Other bilateral donors include China, the European Union, Japan, Germany, and New Zealand. Of these, only Australia (and, in Bougainville, New Zealand) has focused on policing; UNICEF has taken the lead on juvenile justice, with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) funding several recent reforms.⁴²³ Other bilateral donors, as well as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have focused on areas such as health (including HIV/AIDS), education, infrastructure, agriculture, and financial reform.

Papua New Guinea is the largest per capita recipient of Australian aid, receiving a total of $A 492.3 million (U.S.$367.4 million) in development aid in 2005-2006.⁴²⁴ AusAID has been directly aiding the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary for more than fifteen years: from 1998 through 2005, AusAID’s total contribution to the police was around $A 120 million (U.S.$89.6 million), which went to “almost every part of the Constabulary: operational policing, many aspects of management and selected Infrastructure (both capital and maintenance).”⁴²⁵ Australian assistance constituted more than 20 percent of the police force’s operational budget (around $A 10 million (U.S.$7.5 million)) in 2004,⁴²⁶ and nearly all of the police force’s development budget from 2000-2005.⁴²⁷ Training has been a significant element of Australia’s assistance to the police, costing approximately $A 4 million (U.S.$3 million) from 2000 to 2005.⁴²⁸ However, as explained above and as AusAID officials admit, training appears to have had virtually no effect on police violence.⁴²⁹

AusAID rejects a rights-based approach to development, but maintains that their activities contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights.⁴³⁰ Human rights principles are not listed among the guiding principles of Australia’s aid program to Papua New Guinea, the focus of which is: “fostering sustainable economic growth, particularly in rural areas; building stronger governance, including supporting state-building; developing institutional capacity at all levels of government; and addressing HIV/AIDS.”⁴³¹

In 2004, the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea launched an aid package that dramatically expanded Australia’s assistance to the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. A significant component of the program—the deployment of Australian Federal Police in Papua New Guinea—stalled in May 2005.

The package, known as the Enhanced Cooperation Programme (ECP), originated in part in response to growing instability in Papua New Guinea and out of concerns that the country was a weak link in Australia’s anti-terrorism strategy. The ECP has the stated aims of addressing rampant law and order problems, improving border and transport security, and reforming aspects of the weak public sector.⁴³²

The ECP was originally scheduled to run for five years (from 2004 to 2009), but some expected it would be extended. Over the five year period, the program was to cost

$A 906 million (U.S.$676.1 million), of which an estimated $A 805 million (U.S.$600.8 million) was to be new funding to cover the program’s policing elements.⁴³³ This included direct assistance to police infrastructure, training, equipment, and recruitment.⁴³⁴ The remaining money was to come from the existing $A 300 million (U.S.$223.9 million) bilateral aid program under AusAID.

The program envisioned more than 200 Australian Federal Police being deployed to work alongside the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, initially in Port Moresby and the island of Bougainville, with deployment from the capital to Lae, Mt. Hagen, and the Highlands Highway planned for early 2006. The first joint patrols began December 2, 2004, and as of May 2005, there were around 150 Australian officers in Port Moresby and Bougainville.⁴³⁵ The officers were withdrawn in May, however, following a Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruling holding the provision of the agreement providing immunity for Australian officers unconstitutional. Although the countries were engaged in bilateral negotiations at the time of writing, Australian police had not been redeployed.  The decision followed protests by the police union shortly before the ruling.⁴³⁶

In addition to joint patrols, Australian police officials were to take up positions in the Papua New Guinea government in police headquarters, criminal investigations, general duties, prosecutions, communications, forensic services, transnational crime, and fraud and criminal records. Around sixty-four other specialists were to be placed in other branches of the justice system, in government economic agencies, and in border protection and transport agencies.⁴³⁷ Following the May withdrawal, around forty specialists remained as advisors.

There are no human rights conditions built into the Enhanced Cooperation Agreement⁴³⁸ (although Australia has recognized the utility of attaching conditions generally to aid under certain circumstances).⁴³⁹ Nor is there “anything specific for juveniles,” the head of the Australian Federal Police in Papua New Guinea, Barry Turner, told us in September 2004 (before the impasse on the immunity issue), “just the broad aspects of seeing juveniles as part of the community.”⁴⁴⁰ The ECP’s first aim is establishing law and order, he explained. After that, it is intended to build the police force’s “skills and professional standards.” Turner noted that this second component includes changing police behavior, first by “bolstering internal investigations” by providing advisors, moving the department to a building separate from the police station to give them autonomy and neutrality and make it easier for people to report to them, and trying to give the department the capacity to investigate at least the most serious offenses by police officers, such as assault and rape.⁴⁴¹ Second, he said, would be setting standards and values, “like not beating people up.” According to Turner, “We’re not here to change policies. Those are sound. We’re just here to give effect to them. We’re using their general standing orders.” The Australian government has strongly emphasized that its officers would have no command and control over the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, that they were working alongside them.⁴⁴² “All we can do will be by influence,” Turner said.⁴⁴³

When asked how the ECP would influence the rest of the country, as most police and trainers were to be concentrated in Port Moresby and, later, in a few other urban areas, Turned replied: “It will be difficult in the short term. There will be indirect benefits from better governance. I’m hopeful that they will get new recruits and feed them out. It will be at least a year.”⁴⁴⁴

In addition to direct assistance to the police, AusAID gives project-based assistance to other parts of the law and justice sector, for example to support the operation of village courts and the Department of Justice.The Australian government also provided $A 60 million (U.S.$44.8 million) from 2000-2005 for activities through the National HIV/AIDS Support Project.⁴⁴⁵