Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is reminding South Pacific nations of the aid that Australia has bestowed, as a China tries to make diplomatic, economic, and possibly military inroads in the region.

Ms. Bishop is on a mission to Papua New Guinea and Tonga, reminding Pacific islands that Australia's neighbours are its biggest beneficiaries. She announced a $3.4 Million aid package for the earthquake-ravaged highlands, with programs to improve the province's disaster readiness, and to build wells and toilets for women and girls in isolated villages.

"We are the partner of choice, along with New Zealand, for the islands of the Pacific and that's demonstrated here in PNG where we work across a whole range of areas," Ms. Bishop said in PNG's New Ireland province.

But the FM is swimming against a pretty strong tide.  The earthquake aid represents something the government has been moving away from, and Australia has overall slashed aid to Papua New Guinea to record lows while investment has stagnated, according to a report by the ABC.  At the same time, China has increased both aid and investment by levels that clearly have attracted attention in Canberra.  With a new suitor from Beijing in the region, some PNG officials are taking stock of their relationship with Oz.

"I actually told Australia that it is very, crucially important that we keep the lustre between our friendship, which was established during the war years and thereafter, but now we're losing that lustre," said Julius Chan, PNG's former PM and current governor of New Ireland.