Australia's proximity to and cultural ties with the Pacific will be leveraged by Labor under a new plan to lift engagement in the region and challenge China's expansionism:
Australia's proximity to and cultural ties with the Pacific will be leveraged by Labor under a new plan to lift engagement in the region andUnder the plan to be unveiled on Tuesday, the ABC would get $8 million a year to deliver Australian content to Pacific nations and a $6.5 million Australia Pacific Defence School would be set up to train personnel from regional neighbours.
"What we have to do is leverage Australia's strengths and our strengths are our closeness, our proximity, our people-to-people engagements, our cultural ties," she told ABC Radio National on Tuesday. Increased funding for the public broadcaster is one of seven key points in the party's plan to step up in the Pacific.
The election promise will be unveiled on Tuesday by senior Labor members who say the prime minister "dropped the ball" in the Pacific after a security pact was inked between the Solomon Islands and China. "China has more money than Australia does to put into development assistance or other forms of infrastructure grants and the like ... but the whole package is designed to leverage Australia's strengths," she said.
On a two-party preferred basis, 50 per cent would vote Labor and 42 per cent the coalition, while eight per cent of respondents were undecided.
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