In Tok Pisin, there is an expression: “tok stret”—to speak honestly and directly.
Good friends should be able to have tok stret.
Good neighbours should too.
The Torres Strait is one of the narrowest stretches of water in our region.
But sometimes it feels much wider than it should.
Australia has every right to decide who becomes an Australian resident.
Every nation does.
Papua New Guinea has every right to expect that its closest neighbour understands it better than almost anyone else.
Those two ideas are not in conflict.
Yet there is an uncomfortable contrast.
Australia is home to large communities of people born in countries such as India, New Zealand, China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Fiji. Together they have helped shape modern Australia and enriched its economy, culture and society. Together, these diasporas total over 3 million people, with India alone accounting for almost 1 million.
By comparison, the number of Papua New Guinea-born people living in Australia is remarkably small—around 30,000—and only about one-third of those are actually of Papua New Guinean ancestry, with many being Australians or their children who once lived and worked in PNG.
For two countries separated by only a few kilometres of sea, that is an extraordinary statistic.
It raises an interesting question.
Have we become close diplomatically, but distant personally?
Australia invests hundreds of millions of dollars in Papua New Guinea. We cooperate on defence, policing, health, education and infrastructure. Leaders meet regularly. Ministers exchange visits. Agreements are signed. Football teams are born.
Yet relatively few Papua New Guineans ever have the opportunity to build a life, a career or a future in Australia.
That does not necessarily mean Australia’s immigration policy is wrong.
But it does invite reflection on what partnership really means.
History has woven Australia and Papua New Guinea together in ways unlike almost any other relationship in our region. Australians administered Papua and New Guinea for much of the twentieth century.
Families were formed across cultures. Soldiers fought and died together on the Kokoda Trail and across New Guinea.
Thousands of Australians still regard Papua New Guinea as a second home.
Relationships are not measured only by aid budgets, defence treaties or football teams.
Sometimes they are measured by how easily ordinary people can cross the bridge between them.
Perhaps the future lies not in unrestricted migration, nor in maintaining barriers simply because they have always existed, but in creating more pathways.
More scholarships.
More skilled migration.
More professional exchanges.
More opportunities for young Papua New Guineans to study, work and return home with new skills—or, if they choose, to contribute to Australia as permanent residents.
More opportunities to support families and communities back home.
After all, strong relationships are built on strong human connections.
Governments can sign agreements.
People build friendships.
And friendships often outlast governments.
Kora. Another way of seeing.
Direction and editing by Glenn Armstrong
www.tlamediagroup.com
© 2026
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