Australia aid fails to help PNG: report
Updated
![Papua New Guinea still classed as poor despite millions of dollars of Australian aid. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/png_poverty_rtrs_261005.jpg?<BR> "Papua New Guinea still classed as poor despite millions of dollars of Australian aid. [Reuters]")
Papua New Guinea still classed as poor despite millions of dollars of Australian aid. [Reuters]
Australian aid has failed to help the Pacific, particularly Papua New Guinea, according to a new report.
The report, Bipolar Pacific, by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney says despite huge amounts of money in aid going to PNG since independence, it's still classed as stagnant and poor.
The report says other Pacific Islands states that have not progressed, including Solomons Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu.
But it says places like Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga, have improved in the same time frame.
The report says rampant corruption in PNG has led to civil unrest and crime and discouraged job-creating private enterprise, with Port Moresby now one of the most violent cities.
One of the report's authors, Gaurav Sodhi, has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program the differences between Pacific nations that succeed and those that don't, has nothing to do with aid funding.
"It looks like the big factor is education, because education is what allows people... to be able to demand better politics from their leaders and also to build a degree of social capital," he said.
