Transnational crime constitutes a challenge for even the most advanced industrial nations. The Pacific Islands are culturally, educationally and socially diverse, geographically isolated and sparsely populated. There is a degree of heterogeneity in their respective levels of governance, corruption and law enforcement capacity. Economic weaknesses and their impact upon infrastructure, poverty and general instability may...

The competition for diplomatic recognition between China and Taiwan is destabilising Island states in the South Pacific, making Pacific politics more corrupt and violent. The Solomon Islands provides the clearest evidence of what happens when an island state becomes a battleground in this contest. Australia is in the front line in the South Pacific. Australia...

Extraterritorial asylum policies – initiatives that seek to ‘deterritorialize’ the asylum system by providing protection to refugees and processing asylum claims outside the territory of the state implementing the policy – challenge fundamental features of the global refugee regime. Why did extraterritorial asylum policies in the UK and Australia rise to prominence in the early...

Pacific 2020 highlights major challenges facing the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and East Timor in the next 15 years. It emphasises the importance of economic growth to surmount these problems and provides practical policy options in nine key sectors to maximise growth. The report was produced as part of the Pacific 2020 project in collaboration...

This report argues that there is no labour shortage of such seriousness as to threaten the prosperity of the horticultural industry, worth $6.6 billion in 2003-04. It argues that measures to increase the labour force - including allowing seasonal contract labour from the Pacific islands - are not needed at this time. Nonetheless, the committee...