cover image: New Caledonia’s independence referendum: Local and regional implications

20.500.12592/bs9011

New Caledonia’s independence referendum: Local and regional implications

8 May 2019

Key Findings
  • New Caledonia faces an uncertain future as it prepares for its last local elections under the Noumea Accord, and as it enters a four-year process ending 30 years of peace agreements.
  • The continued stark ethnic divide over independence revealed in the November 2018 referendum, the first of potentially three such votes, revives old tensions and complicates essential discussions about future governance, which will have consequences for France, Melanesian neighbours and the wider region.
  • While strategically Australia benefits from continued French regional engagement, its support should not be at any cost.

Authors

Denise Fisher

Published in
Australia