By Brian Stoddart, University of Melbourne
Amid the ongoing bad news about Manus Island has come the revelation that the Australian government hasapproached Cambodia with a view to resettling some asylum seekers in the impoverished nation.
So far, foreign minister Julie Bishop has provided no public details of the request; the Greens immediately condemned the idea in line with their established policy position; while Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the opposition may be open to the proposal:
We’ve got to see exactly what is being proposed … and the opposition will have a good look at whatever that proposition is.
Despite the lack of available detail, this development raises several issues worth reflecting upon.
Spreading soft diplomacy
The move is predictable in one respect. Cambodia is a long-time beneficiary of substantial Australian foreign aid; the AusAID office in Phnom Penh was one of the now-defunct organisation’s largest anywhere.
In the current financial year, the official Cambodia aid figure is A$85.3 million (as against $84 million in the previous year). That figure will leap dramatically should this proposal proceed – as the Papua New Guinearefugee resettlement arrangement demonstrates.
That base figure will be boosted by other special considerations, such as additional payments for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, which has faced persistent financial problems as the ruling Cambodian government seeks to delay proceedings. Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr visited Cambodia several times to announceadditional funding.
Australia, along with myriad aid agencies and NGOs around the world, continue to pour billions of dollars into a troubled country still trying to deal with its post-Khmer Rouge genocide history and culture.
Relationship implications
Australia’s long interest in Cambodia aside, the Coalition government will undoubtedly (or should) be thinking hard about the possible ramifications of this proposed relationship.
The first is that since the widely disputed elections last year, the Cambodian government – led by prime minister Hun Sen – has been under pressure for a number of reasons. These include:
- the validity of the country’s democratic process;
- the leakage of aid monies (the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank are just two of the most notable agencies trying to confront this);
- the relatively slow pace of development among the bulk of Cambodia’s 14 million population;
- the minimalist progress in vital areas like health and education.
