Moti affair offers a lesson for a short-sighted neighbour

ONE could dismiss the Moti affair with a wry smile as just another of the bizarre and picaresque incidents that so often enliven Pacific island politics. But it has a serious side, as a sign of the failure of one of the Howard Government's most important foreign policies initiatives. In 2003, John Howard abandoned decades of benign detachment and committed Australia to become much more active and engaged in helping our Pacific island neighbours overcome the problems that threaten their viability, and potentially also Australia's security. The Moti affair shows how little credibility this policy has left.