Rough ride ahead in Timor-Leste?

More than a month after elections in May, Taur Matan Ruak has been sworn in as Prime Minister of Timor-Leste. But how much policy room will he have to take action on the serious issues facing the country?

3D images offer clues to the loss of Australia’s first submarine

Australia’s first submarine, HMAS AE1, was lost at sea for over 100 years, but advanced 3D processing of new photographs of the wreck may offer clues towards understanding its fate.

Pacific report card highlights threats from climate change

The first Pacific Marine Climate Change Report Card outlines the worrying effects which global warming, sea level rises and ocean acidification are wreaking on fragile ocean ecosystems and the island nations which rely on them.  

Hello, 21st century, Australia calling

Reviving shortwave should be one part of a much bigger project: to revive the ABC as an international broadcaster and to create a 21st-century voice for Australia across the Asia–Pacific.

The First Pacific Connect Business Network Dialogue – Communiqué to key stakeholders

The Communiqué from the initial Pacific Connect Business Network Dialogue, held in March in Port Moresby, has been released, outlining new projects in PNG based on blockchain and digital identity.

Resources curse PNG communities’ future

Two recent reports on the massive ExxonMobil-led PNG LNG project have brought renewed attention to the undesirable economic and social impacts of Papua New Guinea’s largest-ever resource extraction enterprise.

ICDP and Pacific Connect join ‘Together for a Digital Pacific 2018’ Conference

Members of the International Centre for Democratic Partnerships recently travelled to Apia in Samoa to attend the ‘Together for a Digital Pacific 2018’ conference co-sponsored by the Samoan Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

World cultures and the Western Pacific at the South Australian Museum

Turning away from the colonial notion that a museum looks at human cultures through an ethnographic lens, the South Australian Museum now aims to think about human cultures as part of a global ecology in which we all participate.

Pacific Connect – Digital connectivity and collaborating networks

Digital connectivity is a high priority in Papua New Guinea and the PNG government is working with the private sector to build a modern high capacity fibre-based network throughout the country. Mary Koisen, a member of the inaugural Pacific Connect Business Network Dialogue in Port Moresby, explains some of the challenges involved.

Australia needs to reset its Pacific policy

Australia tends to pay attention to the Pacific when it is perceived as a source of threat, but the quest for better relationships requires a more holistic and sustained approach.

To each their own ‘Indo-Pacific’

The concept of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ is a framing device, not a geographical reality. Its proponents shape what they mean by the term around their different interests and so, far from talking about the same thing, each country has its own ‘Indo-Pacific’.

PNG to push out Facebook, taking a sharp turn into cyber censorship

PNG’s Communications Minister Sam Basil, a regular Facebook user himself, has announced that PNG will shut down the social media site for a month so that his department can research how the network is being used. Whether or not it actually happens, the announcement bodes ill for the nation.