Coalition promises extra $2bn for Pacific, Timor infrastructure fund
The Coalition has committed another $2bn of funding by way of campaign promises, this time to build infrastructure in the Pacific Islands and East Timor.
The money has been earmarked to wrestle back influence from China and comes after US President Donald Trump stripped away $388m from US Pacific support.
“Infrastructure financing has become yet another battleground for influence in our region,” Coalition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman said.
“Australia’s financing supports infrastructure capability, jobs and better services for Pacific Island nations and their communities in a way that is both transparent, and in the interests of those communities,” he said in a statement.
An elected Coalition government would boost the government’s Pacific infrastructure fund by $2bn, to $6bn.
The Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific was established under the last Coalition government and is funding new seaports in Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Tonga, and airports and energy grid projects dotted across the region.
The campaign promise would lift the fund’s lending capacity from $3bn to $5bn, with the remaining $1bn available through grants.
Since its creation, the fund has loaned about $1.1bn.
Alongside Australian infrastructure, Chinese-built infrastructure is prevalent across the cities and regions of the southern Pacific.
In 2022, China and the Solomon Islands signed a security pact that allows Chinese ships to stop and replenish.
Later that year, the Pacific nation accepted a US$66m loan from Chinese telco Huawei to build cell towers.
A new security arrangement between the Solomon Islands and Australia, signed in December, does not require Chinese forces to leave the islands.
Anthony Albanese used the 50th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence to back an NRL team in the footy-mad nation.
Also announced in December, the yet-unnamed $600m PNG NRL team will enter the league in 2028.
At least 40 Chinese state-owned enterprises operate in PNG, the Australian Institute of International Affairs says.