Good Will Hunters

Welcome to Episode 91 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to the Honourable Dame Carol Kidu. Dame Carol Kidu was a Member of Parliament in PNG from 1997 to 2012, including a stint as Minister for Community Development. Carol has lived a remarkable life. At age 19, Carol moved to Papua New Guinea and married Sir Buri Kidu, the man who would become the country’s first Indigenous Chief Justice. Carol and Buri brought up their children in Buri’s village in Port Moresby, where Carol faced a multitude of challenges integrating into traditional village life, but says her unwavering love for Buri and their children, and a very supportive mother in law, got her through. Following Buri’s untimely death, Carol entered politics, where she remained from 1997 to 2012. For much of this time, Carol was the only female member of Parliament. She was the driving force behind a number of important legislative reforms including the repeal of the colonial Child Welfare Act, c

Welcome to Episode 90 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Fiona Hukula, Miranda Forsyth, and Philip Gibbs. Our speakers today are on the front line of the battle against sorcery accusation related violence or SARV in Papua New Guinea. Dr Fiona Hukula is a Senior Research Fellow at the Papua New Guinea National Research Institute (PNG NRI). Fiona represents the PNG NRI on high level national committees such as the Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee and the National Action Plan against Sorcery Accusation and Related Violence. Dr Miranda Forsyth is an Associate Professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU. Miranda is a chief investigator in a major four year project investigating how to best overcome sorcery accusations and related violence in PNG. Lastly, Dr Philip Gibbs is a Divine Word Missionary priest serving in Papua New Guinea since 1973. Currently he is Vice-President Research and Higher Degrees at Divine Word University, Madang

Welcome to Episode 89 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Leonard Blazeby. Leonard is the outgoing Head of Mission for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICRC, in Australia. At the end of our interview, you’ll hear about the very big and exciting role that Leonard is taking on next. Since joining the ICRC in 2000, Leonard has held a variety of positions across Africa, Europe and the Pacific. He worked for eight years in Africa, serving as Deputy Head of Delegation in Southern Africa, legal adviser in Zimbabwe and communications coordinator in the Horn of Africa. He then served in the ICRC’s Geneva headquarters for more than four years. He has been the Australian Head of Mission since 2012. In the episode Leonard and I discuss Leonard’s distinguished career working with the ICRC in vulnerable communities around the world, the challenges that he’s faced in his work, and how the international humanitarian sector has evolved, or in Leonard’s wo

Welcome to Episode 88 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Jemma Mackinnon and Kerry McCarthy, about their experience of the Seasonal Worker Programme, as farm owners and managers. The Seasonal Worker Programme is a scheme that allows Pacific Islanders and Timor-Leste citizens to come to Australia to pick fruit. It’s incredibly popular in the Pacific, and has been growing rapidly reaching above 10,000 workers last year. Especially in an era of tight aid budgets, looking at alternative ways to partner with the Pacific is key, and labour mobility benefits both Australia and the Pacific. Jemma is the Human Resources and Seasonal Worker Programme Manager for Mountford Berries in Langford Tasmania. The farm employs approximately 60 seasonal workers from Timor-Leste and Tonga. Kerry is the Co-owner of GraceKate Farms which is located on the Darling Downs in Queensland. The farm has employed workers from Solomon Islands through the Seasonal Worker Programme sin

Welcome to Episode 87 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Joanna Lindner Pradela. Joanna is the Director of Knowledge Translation at the International Women’s Development Agency, the IWDA, overseeing research, policy, advocacy and movement strengthening work as well as IWDA’s flagship program to redefine how poverty is measured, Equality Insights. The IWDA is the leading Australian NGO focused on women's rights and gender equality in Asia Pacific. In the episode Joanna and I discuss feminist foreign policy, why it has yet to be implemented in Australia, and what an Australian feminist foreign policy might look like. We also discuss the IWDA’s Individual Deprivation Measure , as an innovative gender-sensitive poverty measure. https://devpolicy.org/a-feminist-foreign-policy-for-australia-establishing-australia-as-a-global-leader-on-gender-equality-20200420/ https://devpolicy.org/gender-in-the-2019-20-australian-aid-budget-20190507/ The Development Policy

Welcome to Episode 86 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Jacqui De Lacy. Jacqui is the Managing Director of Abt Associates Australia, one of Australia’s major development contractors. Prior to joining Abt, Jacqui was the head of AusAid in Indonesia, and she’s had a range of other high level roles in the aid program. Jacqui is also on the board of UNICEF Australia. Jacqui and I discuss the criticisms of facilities and managing contractors, in particular in the context of PNG. We also discuss the reform that’s required in our aid program, to promote partnerships over economic dependence. Jacqui shares her strong views on why aid to Indonesia should not be reduced. Finally, Jacqui reflects on her extensive career in development and how she remains positive, as well as her advice for the next generation looking to forge their careers. Jacqui’s advice is some of the most tangible and actionable advice I’ve ever heard so definitely stay tuned until the end! S

Welcome to Episode 85 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Elizabeth Peak. Elizabeth currently serves as the Co-Head of the COVID Development Response and Recovery Taskforce and First Assistant Secretary of the Human Development and Governance Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Prior to this she was Minister-Counsellor (Economic) at Australia’s at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade embassy in Beijing, China. She has previously held the role of Assistant Secretary South-East Asia Services and Investment Branch. Elizabeth has been instrumental in the Australian Government’s recent development policy Partnerships for Recovery — Australia’s COVID-19 Development Response and performance framework, which outlines Australia’s approach to tackling COVID-19 in our region, pivoting our development program to focus on the virus, together with our partners. This interview is an exciting and rare opportunity to unpack the new policy with

Welcome to Episode 84 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Jonathan Pryke and Roland Rajah from the Lowy Institute. The Lowy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan international policy think tank located in Sydney, Australia. Jonathan is the Director of the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program, a program that investigates the contemporary challenges facing the Pacific Islands region in areas including sustainable economic development, governance and leadership, and poverty alleviation. Jonathan’s research is interested in all aspects of the Pacific Islands, including economic development in the Pacific Islands region, Australia’s relationship with the Pacific, the role of aid and the private sector in Pacific Islands development and Pacific labour mobility. Roland is the Lead Economist and Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Economics Program, a program that aims to explain developments in the international economy and influence policy by u

Welcome to Episode 83 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Ofa Guttenbeil-Lilkiliki and Konnie Yoifa. Ofa is a women’s rights activist and filmmaker from Tonga. She has advocated for equality in women's economic and educational empowerment, in their political involvement and representation, in land reform, protection from violence, and has advocated for the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women for over a decade. She has twice been nominated for the U.S. Secretary of State International Women of Courage Award (2012,2013) recognising her work in advocating for women and childrens rights in Tonga. Ofa and I discuss the Women and Children’s Crisis Centre in Tonga, and their work to support women who have experienced violence, whilst simultaneously advocating for policy reform at a national level. You can learn more about Ofa and the Centre via these links: https://www.spc.int/sdp/70-inspiring-pacific-wom

Welcome to Episode 82 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I speak to Martha Macintyre. Martha is an anthropologist who initially studied History at The University of Melbourne and then moved on to postgraduate study in Anthropology at The University of Cambridge (UK) and gained her PhD at The Australian National University. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2012. Martha has undertaken research in Papua New Guinea for over 30 years. Martha has combined anthropological and historical scholarship with practical and policy concerns as an advisor and consultant to the Papua New Guinea government and several multinational corporations. She has particular interest in questions about changes in women’s power, health and well being in the context of rapid social change and has written extensively on gender, human rights and violence against women. In this episode, Martha and I discuss why healthcare in PNG continues to be inadequat

Welcome to Episode 81 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. I’m your host Rachel Mason Nunn. Today I’m speaking with Graham and Glenyys Romanes. This is the last of our interviews recorded at the Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre in partnership with the Asia Foundation back in February. Through their long careers, and through their lives, both separately and as a couple, Graham and Glenyys have been trailblazers in a range of areas from gender equity, to disaster response, to Indigenous progamming. In the 70s, Graham became famous for being a stay-at-home Dad, a rare species even today, but practically unheard of then. In the 80s, the couple took the equally radical step of job sharing the role of Victorian State Secretary of Oxfam Australia In the early 80s, Graham led Oxfam’s response to the famine in the Horn of Africa, a pivotal event for Australia’s development NGOs. He again became a media figure, this time exposing the fact that the Ethiopia

Welcome to Episode 80 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. The focus of today’s episode is Chinese Aid, with our guests Ji Hongbo and Denghua Zhang. China’s aid has been on the rise for years, not only in the Pacific, but around the world. And with China-US rivalry taken to a new level as a result of COVID-19, China’s aid is set to become more important and more controversial than ever. We often hear from experts on China about Chinese aid, but rarely from Chinese experts themselves. Yet given China’s complexity, not to mention the language barriers, hearing from those who understand the country and its systems is obviously critical In this episode I chat with two experts who have both worked in the past for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ji Hongbo is the Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in China, in Canberra for the year at the ANU, but normally based in Beijing. Hongbo’s prior experience includes 5 years of diplomatic experience with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Welcome to Episode 79 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the program we have Richard Curtain and Elizabeth Naru Pechan. Richard is a Research Fellow with the Development Policy Centre, with a focus on Pacific Labour Mobility. Liz is the Founder and Co-Owner of the multi-award winning resort The Havannah in Vanuatu. Within four days of Australia closing its borders to international travel, Liz’s resort had zero income. Over the last two months, she’s been contributing to Vanuatu’s response to both Covid-19 and Cyclone Harold by devising a tourism sector recovery plan. Liz, on the Devpolicy blog - https://devpolicy.org/vanuatu-a-tourism-sector-perspective-on-potential-recovery-from-covid-19-and-tc-harold-20200506-1/ Richard, on the Devpolicy blog - https://devpolicy.org/a-travel-pathway-to-revive-pacific-tourism-20200522/ In this episode Richard and I discuss the Trans-Pacific Travel Bubble, including whether the benefits outweigh the risks for Pacific Island countries. We

Welcome to Episode 78 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show we have Diana Fernandez and Faisal Bin Seraj. Diana is the Deputy Country Representative for the Asia Foundation in Myanmar and Faisal is the Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Bangladesh. Myanmar and Bangladesh, like all countries, have been hit by Covid-19. At this stage, the economic impacts are outweighing the health impacts, despite both countries having fragile health systems. Diana and I discuss Myanmar’s economic dependence on China, and how this has impacted on Myanmar’s response to Covid-19 including the closure of their borders along with the emergence of Chinese NGOs. We discuss why Myanmar’s healthcare system is ranked as one of the worst in the world, and why the Ministry of Health recognises that it cannot cope with a Covid-19 outbreak. We also discuss the internet blackout occurring in Myanmar, as revealed by a private telecommunications provider, Telenor, who was ordered by the Minis

Welcome to Episode 77 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today we’re bringing you two experts from Port Moresby, to give a snapshot of the state of PNG at this unprecedented time. First, I speak with Michael Kabuni, Research Fellow in Politics at UPNG and contributor to the Devpolicy blog. Michael and I discuss the prevalence of police brutality outside of Covid-19, and the role of policing in containing the pandemic. We also discuss the impacts of Covid-19 on crime rates, including in the settlements, which are being hit the hardest. Following Michael, I speak to Maho Leveil, Economics Lecturer at UPNG, and we look more closely at the economic impacts of Covid-19 on informal sector workers, as well as the income guarantees made by the Government of PNG. We discuss the popularity of the Marape Government and the likelihood they’ll get through 2020 without a Vote of No Confidence. Maho raises some interesting points about the lack of investment in health infrastructure in PNG and the

Welcome to Episode 76 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I’m speaking with Jonathan Glennie. Jonathan is the Director of the Ipsos Sustainable Development Centre. He is also a prominent writer and researcher on international development and cooperation, and has been a Visiting Fellow at the International Development Institute at King’s College London, as well as worked at the Overseas Development Institute, Save the Children UK and Christian Aid. I interviewed Jonathan in February - pre Covid-19 - at the Australasian Aid Conference hosted by the Devpolicy Centre in partnership with the Asia Foundation. Jonathon gave a keynote address on ‘The Future of Aid in the 21st century - five paradigm shifts’. Jonathan spoke at the conference about global public investment in aid and the future of concessional international public finance, as we move from what he refers to as the ‘old fashioned aid mentality’. In this interview, we take a deep dive into some of those poin

Welcome to Episode 75 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today I'm speaking with Odo Tevi and Dan McGarry. Odo is Vanuatu’s Representative to the United Nations based in New York, and Dan is an independent journalist living in Vanuatu since 2003. Both Odo and Dan contribute to the Devpolicy blog, on matters relating to development in Vanuatu and the broader Pacific region. It’s been a big month for Vanuatu. They’re one of the few remaining countries on Earth without Covid-19, but at the beginning of April, were hit with by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Harold, which caused widespread destruction through the North of the country. Due to travel restrictions, the usual surge response didn’t occur, and so Vanuatu has been left to deal with the aftermath of Cyclone Harold without the usual international actors flying it. At the same time, Vanuatu has formed a new Government and has a new PM as of a few days ago, and has announced a stimulus package to support the country to recover from the

Welcome to Episode 74 of Good Will Hunters, from the Development Policy Centre. Today on the show I’m speaking to newly appointed Oxfam Australia CEO Lyn Morgain, and Director of Programs Anthea Spinks. Oxfam of course is one of Australia’s and the world’s biggest and most influential development NGOs. But it’s had some rough times lately with a decline in donations, and in Australia the closure of the iconic Oxfam shops. In this interview, we discuss how the organisation is responding to the challenges it is facing. Lyn unveils Oxfam Australia’s new strategy that focuses on the connection between poverty and climate change, champions the integral role Indigenous Australians play in Oxfam, and outlines how Oxfam will transform its operating model as the world of INGOs continues to be “utterly redefined” as Lyn puts it. Of course, we also discuss COVID19. In the last few weeks, Oxfam Australia has called on G20 Leaders to cancel or postpone the debt repayments of developing countries to help their econo

Welcome to Episode 73 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Today’s guest is Shane McLeod. Shane is a Research Fellow working with the Lowy Institute’s Australia-PNG Network. Before joining the Institute, he was a senior editor at ABC News in roles where he managed its Sydney newsroom and the flagship radio programs AM, The World Today, and PM. He is a former foreign correspondent with postings in Japan and Papua New Guinea, as well as reporting assignments throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He has also worked as a journalist in regional Queensland, Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra. As we go to air today, PNG has two confirmed cases of COVID19. Whilst the first case was brought in by a foreigner who had recently arrived in the country, the second case is of a Papua New Guinean. In this episode, Shane and I discuss the relationship between Australia and PNG since independence in 1975, including whether Australia is in fact an “embarrassed" former colonialist. We also discuss, as we have

Welcome to Episode 72 of Good Will Hunters from the Development Policy Centre. Our guest today is Terence Wood. Terence is a Research Fellow at the Development Policy Centre, at the Australian National University. Terence undertakes research on Australia and New Zealand’s aid programs, in particular the domestic political economy of aid. He also undertakes research on Melanesian politics, with a focus on the Solomon Islands. We recorded this episode in late February, before COVID19 was declared a pandemic and before mass unemployment began in Australia, so naturally the context in which we had this conversation six weeks ago is very different to the context we find ourselves in today. None the less, we address some topical issues, including the effectiveness of aid in the Pacific versus in the rest of the world, and why many donors and NGOs find working in the Pacific more difficult than working in other regions. We also discuss Terence’s view that the main motivator behind Australia’s focus in the Pa