Pacific Union

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In 2004, a committee of the Australian Senate called for the formation of a Pacific Union to comprise the member-states of the Pacific Islands Forum, but with a common charter, institutions and currency. Although Prime Minister of Australia John Howard has also spoken of a Pacific Union, his government's emphasis has been on bilateral relations and agreements with the individual states of the Forum.

Several forum states joined together in the RAMSI initiative to intervene in the Solomon Islands in 2004, to deal with problems of lawlessness and corruption. Nauru, Kiribati and Tuvalu already use the Australian dollar. The Constitution of Australia gives New Zealand the right to become a state of the Commonwealth of Australia at any time, although there is little political support for an Australia/New Zealand union. One reason for the currency of the issue is that environmentalists believe that some of the low-lying island states could become uninhabitable within a relatively short time due to global warming.

[edit] See also

• Caribbean Community
• Continental union
  • African Union
  • Asian Union
  • European Union
  • North American Union
  • South American Union

[edit] External links

• The Pacific Plan
• A Pacific Engaged: Australia’s Relations with Papua New Guinea and the Island states of the South–West Pacific
• Whose Oceania? Contending Visions of Community in Pacific Region-Building
• Howard push for Pacific union
• Secretary General of Pacific Islands Forum calls for a Pacific Union