Leaked text puts Australia's Solomon Islands offer at A$980 million

Australia has offered Solomon Islands more than A$980 million under a treaty still being finished, according to a text message from High Commissioner Geoffrey Roach that ABC News published on 8 September. The note, sent to Deputy Prime Minister Francis Sade, split the money into A$280 million over the next two years and A$700 million after that.

Inside that envelope Roach listed 820 million Solomon Islands dollars, about A$142 million, for Prime Minister Matthew Wale's free-education policy. Another 275 million Solomon Islands dollars, about A$47.8 million, was tied to visa changes and security requests. The message also raised the cash that Honiara sends straight to MPs for constituency work: 5 million Solomon Islands dollars per seat by the end of this year, 3 million in 2027 and 500,000 in 2028. With 50 constituencies, ABC put those constituency payments at about A$43 million this year and about A$25 million across the next two.

Wale took office promising to review the China security pact signed by his predecessor and to negotiate a wider treaty with Canberra. A no-confidence motion against him collapsed just as officials were closing the text. Anthony Albanese's government treats Wale as the Pacific partner it wants to keep. The two men already issued a joint statement on 3 June committing to a comprehensive treaty. Officials had aimed at a year-end signing. The next chance is a meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

The leak does two things at once. It tells Honiara, in writing, how large Australia is prepared to go. It also tells Beijing and every other Pacific capital the price Canberra is putting on a government that has said it will look again at the China security arrangement. Constituency slush is the politically raw line in the message. Education and visas are easier to defend in both parliaments.

Nothing is signed. A text from a high commissioner is not a treaty. It is a bargaining position that is now public. If Albanese and Wale initial a document in New York, the test will be whether the published numbers survive contact with both treasuries and whether the China pact review is written into the same paper or left as a speech.