The federal government says it will spend more than $18 million over four years to support undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific, through a new Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre.

The centre, operating within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), will aim to improve connectivity in a region where Australia has already sought to limit the influence of China.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the centre on Monday while in Japan for a meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers with her counterparts from India, Japan, and the United States.

Wong said Australia's new centre was about “supporting the resilience of undersea cable networks in the Indo-Pacific, providing technical assistance and training, and bringing together governments and industry”.

The centre is also expected to commission research to support governments in the Indo-Pacific with policy development.

While China was not mentioned in the announcement, Wong said Quad leaders pushed for “a strategic balance in our region so that no one country dominates and no country is dominated”.

“For Australia, this Quad partnership is central to how we respond to the circumstances we face, and critical to how we influence the shaping of the region and the world in which we live,” she told a joint press conference.

“We want a peaceful, stable and prosperous region, where sovereignty is respected and in which competition is managed responsibly.”

Chinese company Huawei has previously been prevented from deploying internet cables and mobile networks in the Pacific, amid efforts from Australia and the US to keep Chinese firms out of sensitive infrastructure which is crucial to regional security.

US tech giant Google announced in October 2023 that it would provide two new undersea cables to connect Fiji and French Polynesia with Australia and the US.

‘Substantial vulnerabilities’ in Indo-Pacific

Undersea internet cables carry the vast majority of the world’s data, but can be vulnerable to things such as ship anchors, spying, and natural disasters.

Dr Amanda Watson, a researcher at the Australian National University’s Department of Pacific Affairs, said the January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano in the Tongan archipelago “perhaps accelerated” the Australian government’s work on its new centre.

An international internet cable connecting Tonga to the rest of the world was severed during the eruption, and it was five weeks before the connection was fixed.

“There was no communication in or out because the one cable they had had been severed,” Dr Watson told Information Age.

“That cable was the means through which international telephone calls were transmitted as well as internet."


Australia has spent years working with allies to enhance internet connectivity in the Pacific. Photo: Jesse Alpert, Belau Submarine Cable Company / Supplied

Dr Watson said internet connectivity in the Indo-Pacific was still “varied”, and was influenced by factors such as the number of cables, the level of market competition, and regulatory frameworks.

“There are some substantial vulnerabilities with some countries having no cable or only one cable,” she said.

“In some places there's backup satellite services, but that's not uniform, so there are definitely some vulnerabilities in the Pacific.”

Dr Watson said Australia’s new cable centre appeared to be “a welcome initiative”, but she did not see China’s influence as the major factor in its creation.

“What I do know from my interactions with Australian government officials — including those who've been working on setting up this centre for some months — is that it's something that those Australian officials are passionate about in terms of trying to provide connectivity, and trying to work out how to ensure that new cables drive down internet prices in the countries where Australia is providing that infrastructure,” she said.

" … I think this [new centre] is working with Pacific Island partners and others in the larger region, where Australia is situated to support them with what they want, and to assist with digital connectivity, which is so important these days for so many aspects of life.”