The Crown remains an important regional link for Australia

Royal visits to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands had been diminishing in frequency before the pandemic restrictions. That was not for a lack of interest or enthusiasm, but simply because of the high cost of modern royal visits.

But when the last royal visits were made to Papua New Guinea the crowds were as big as they ever were, and the enthusiasm as genuine as ever.

Even though Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare introduced PNG's own honours system in the early 2000s he took great care that in doing so the Imperial honours system was retained. That remains the position today…..a dual system.

Sadly, royal visits to the Crowned Countries in our region, as well as other Commonwealth Nations, are going to be off the agenda for at least this year, and probably next year.

But as soon as they can safely be made Australia should work with the Commonwealth countries of the South Pacific to help facilitate visits by members of the Royal Family, and especially Princess Anne who is highly regarded in PNG and of course Prince Charles who represented the Queen at PNG's Independence, and earlier visited PNG when he was at school in Australia.

It is known and accepted in PNG and the Solomon Islands that the Queen will no longer make visits but support for Her Majesty appear s to me to be undiminished.

There are no substantial republican movements in either country today, and I do not sense that will change tomorrow.

It is an important, continuing, link Australia should look at building on to enhance our engagement with our closest neighbours.

There are many "counter offers" China trots out to undermine our influence – such as so-called low interest loans, scholarships for school and tertiary students and the like. But the unique link we have as Crowned countries cannot be matched!

One of the outstanding features of Prince Philip's service to the Commonwealth was the Duke of Edinburgh's International Awards Scheme. Hundreds of thousands of young Australians have participated in it since Prince Philip founded it.

The "median age" of the population in PNG is just 22 years. It is similar in the Solomon Islands and not that different in Fiji or Vanuatu.

The Australian Government should look at the effectiveness of The Duke of Edinburgh Awards and consider promoting and funding a similar scheme in our immediate region.