The signing of a $204 million memorandum of understanding between a Chinese government-backed fishery company and the Papua New Guinea government to build a ‘comprehensive multi-functional fishery industrial park’ on the Torres Strait island of Daru has triggered starkly different responses in PNG and in Australia.
Daru is the administrative hub for PNG’s impoverished and underdeveloped Western Province (also known unofficially as Fly River Province). It’s one of the few islands in the Torres Strait that’s not Australian territory, and it’s only a short dinghy ride from the Australian border.
Since I wrote about the MoU in the regional Far North Queensland newspaper