1. Iraq: AWB Faces Writ over Racketeering Claim
2. Defence Admits It Snubbed Iraqis
3. Downer Resolved to Reduce Timor Force
4. East Timor: Too Many Men with Too Many Guns
5. Pacific: Guest Workers Are Already Here
6. Solomon’s Central Bank Governor Warns of Economic Disaster
7. Australia: Maritime Security and Illegal Fishing a National Disgrace
8. Indian Test Further Highlights Australian Exposure

Austral Policy Forum 06-22A: Suggestions for the Next United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste – Charles Scheiner

1. AWB Faces Writ over Racketeering Claim, Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker, Age, 2006-07-11

   US wheat farmers are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from AWB as part of a class action accusing the wheat exporter of engaging in a global campaign of racketeering, money laundering, fraud and bribery. Wheat farmer Veryl Switzer, 78, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit which claims AWB’s conduct in Iraq and other countries breached US laws.

    

2. Defence Admits It Snubbed Iraqis, Cynthia Banham, SMH, 2006-07-12

   No Iraqis were interviewed as a part of the ADF’s original inquiry into the shooting of the bodyguard of Iraq’s trade minister. A spokesman for the Iraqi Trade Minister, Abdul Falah al-Sudany, said this week Iraq would reconsider its trade relationship if the Defence Force refused to interview the wounded Iraqi survivors of the incident.

    

3. Downer Resolved to Reduce Timor Force, Cynthia Banham, 2006-07-12

   Australia will shortly consider reducing troop numbers in East Timor despite pleas from the country’s new Prime Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, for forces to remain until the end of the year.

    

4. East Timor: Too Many Men With Too Many Guns, Carmela Baranowska, New Matilda, 2006-07-12

   Things were complicated. So-called ‘spontaneous’ events had been planned. There is credible evidence that renegade police coordinated lootings and transported Easterners living in Dili back to the East. And there were questions about who in the leadership (political, military and police) had known what and when. And questions about the intelligence they had, and who provided it.

   • Transcript of Press Conference, Ian Martin, UNOTIL, 2006-07-09

      

5. Guest Workers Are Already Here, Mr Costello, Peter Mares, APO, 2006-07-12

   The question for the treasurer is this: does it make more sense to have well-heeled Canadians and Danes and Japanese cutting grapes in Mildura and plucking tomatoes in Shepparton or should we offer these jobs to Pacific Islanders who are desperate for work, income and experience? After all, it is Australian peacekeepers that will be called up to restore order if unemployed youth riot in Honiara or Port Vila.

   • Push to Bring in Overseas Truckies, Farmhands, Victoria Laurie and Paige Taylor, Australian, 2006-07-13.

      

6. Solomon’s Central Bank Governor Warns of Economic Disaster, RNZI, 2006-07-13

   Solomon Islands Central Bank Governor, Rick Hou says the country’s dependence on logging is leading to an economic disaster. He said at the current rate of harvesting, Solomon Islands forests will last for only six years. He said the issue is what happens when the country runs out of trees to cut since it has already reached the point where the country is over-dependent on the forest sector.

   • Pacific 2020: Challenges and Opportunities for Growth, Ausaid [Web Site]

   • Pacific Politicians Turn Blind Eye, Unattributed, Age July 8, 2006

      

7. Maritime Security and Illegal Fishing a National Disgrace, Report of ALP Transport and Maritime Security Taskforce, 2006-06-06 [PDF]

   After years of neglect, the number vessels entering Australian territory has reached crisis point. In 2005 Coastwatch recorded 13,018 sightings of illegal vessels in Australian waters, a 35 per cent increase from the previous year. Only 280 illegal vessels were apprehended and a further 327 boats had their fishing gear and catch confiscated representing just 4.6 per cent of all sighted vessels.

    

8. Indian Test Further Highlights Australian Exposure, Greg Sheridan, Australian, 2006-07-11

   Regarding the test-firing of the Indian Agni-III missile at the weekend: traditionally, Australia’s greatest defensive asset has been its “strategic depth” – or, to put it another way, we are too far away to be threatened by most people. Two aspects of modern conflict erode that advantage. The first is terrorism, which comes in on a tourist visa. And the second is missiles, which have growing ranges.

   • Agni Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, GlobalSecurity.org

   • Snag in India’s Agni-III Missile to Be Examined: Defence Minister, IRNA – Islamic Republic News Agency, 2006-07-10

      

Austral Policy Forum 06-22A: Suggestions for the Next United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste – Charles Scheiner

Charles Scheiner of the Timor-Leste Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis (La’o Hamutuk) argues that,

“the next UN mission is being designed in an emergency atmosphere. Although immediate humanitarian and security concerns must be dealt with, there are deeper-seated causes of the current problems, and crises will recur if they are not addressed. The millennium’s first new nation was a “poster child” for successful (albeit belated) international intervention, but it has also been a guinea pig and training ground for experimental projects by the UN and other multilateral institutions.”

Scheiner also says “we are particularly troubled by Australia’s desire for exceptional status in the international community’s involvement in Timor-Leste.”

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