Mari Pangestu address
The 2015 Harold Mitchell Development Policy Annual Lecture will be delivered on Thursday 12 March by Professor Mari Pangestu, one of Indonesia’s leading policy voices and intellectuals, and former Minister for Trade and Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy. Professor Pangestu will speak on the topic of “The new economy and development: an Indonesian perspective”.
There’s already been huge interest in Professor Pangestu’s address. Details and registration can be found here – sign up soon!
Aid to Indonesia in the headlines
Australia’s tsunami aid to Indonesia has been drawn into the debate around two Australians facing the death penalty for drug trafficking convictions. We’ve highlighted Richard Moore’s op-ed in Fairfax Media, which eloquently argued the value of Australian aid to Indonesia. Ashlee Betteridge also wrote on how bringing aid into this stouche could undo the quiet good it does for the relationship.
And as Robin Davies asked in a timely blog just before this topic made the news, given the overall budget cuts, is it time for Indonesia’s aid to be reduced? Robin’s piece was republished by The Guardian, and he also weighed in on this issue in an interview with the Australian Financial Review (paywalled).
Seasonal Worker Program: insights and change
Last week, together with the World Bank, we launched a report based on the most comprehensive survey yet of Australian horticulturalists. The results provide much greater insight into the views of the sector on the Pacific Seasonal Worker Program and bring forward many suggestions for improvement. At the launch, we heard from those working directly with the program, as well as from the government. You can read the views of one of our speakers, Grant Owen of Owen Pacific Workforce, here and here. Susan Jenkins of Ironbark Citrus will share her views shortly.
If you missed out on the event, the podcast is available through Feedburner or iTunes.
Last week was also a big week for the Seasonal Worker Program on another front—the places allocated to trial sectors that were being unused (a problem that Stephen Howes wrote about here), have now been opened up to the horticulture sector. This decision will potentially give 650 more Pacific islanders the chance to access the Australian labour market, and help horticulturalists to access more workers.
PNG Update call for papers extended
Our annual PNG Update in conjunction with UPNG School of Business Administration will be held in Port Moresby on 18–19 June. The deadline for papers has just been extended to March 31.
The PNG Update, which recommenced at UPNG last year after a gap of some years, is the premier forum for the discussion of research and analysis relating to contemporary economic and public policy issues in PNG.
More details on how to submit an abstract are available here.
People news
This week, we have welcomed Camilla Burkot, who has joined us as a Research Officer in a position funded by our Gates Foundation project on Australian aid. Camilla has a background in social anthropology and holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University.
We’d also like to congratulate Jonathan Pickering, a Visiting Fellow at our centre who will now be a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. We’re pleased he will also continue to stay involved in our work, and will remain a Visiting Fellow. We are also farewelling Nematullah Bizhan, who is heading back to Princeton after spending the summer with us as a Visiting Fellow working on the dilemmas of aid dependence.
Australasian Aid Conference
For those who couldn’t make it along to the Australasian Aid Conference, we are steadily making podcasts available of the main sessions. Download through Feedburner or iTunes. We also have some blogs coming up on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank session.
A feedback survey has also been sent to participants—we’d love to hear your thoughts so we can make the conference bigger and better in 2016.
Upcoming events
2015 Harold Mitchell Development Policy Lecture: Mari Pangestu
Thursday 12 March, 5.30–6.30pm. Register here.
2015 PNG Update
18–19 June, University of Papua New Guinea. Details here.
Blog highlights
What’s the future of the Global Fund?
Should multilateral staff pay tax?
Impending environmental disaster in Solomon Islands
On the blog
Reforming the SWP: a recruiter’s perspective by Grant Owen
Benefits of the Seasonal Worker Program: a recruiter’s perspective by Grant Owen
Labour and fish: making the most of the Pacific’s tuna resource by Matthew Dornan
Is Papua New Guinea heading for a crisis? By Stephen Howes
The future of the Global Fund by Stephen Howes and Mark Dybul
Gold Ridge standoff deepens by Matthew Allen
Lifters and leaners by Chris Peters
Where are all the seasonal workers? The most comprehensive survey of employers yet by Jesse Doyle and Stephen Howes
In brief
Weekend reading and listening: water wars, improving services, ISIS, Libya today, AIDS activism
Pacific regionalism…it’s tricky
New reports and a new look website for DFAT
Seasonal worker ‘own goal’ avoided
Australia’s aid to Indonesia: a quiet good, until dragged into a fight
Australian aid to Indonesia enters death penalty debate
Pacific regional organisations and disaster risk management
Corruption and collective action
A new debate on aid in Myanmar
This is the fortnightly newsletter of the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, published every second Friday.
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