Australia’s ‘shameful’ cocaine habit prompts $600 million Pacific package

Australia is putting $600 million behind a Pacific-wide campaign to confront a drug trade that its own police chief has called a national shame. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to announce the package as Pacific leaders prepare to endorse a new regional initiative against transnational crime.

The funding will support aerial surveillance to track suspected drug vessels and provide additional help to police in Fiji, one of the countries hit hardest by the rise in smuggling. Australia’s federal police will also increase cooperation with South and Central American countries to target the trade closer to its source.

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The Pacific is our home and our family. That’s why it’s in Australia’s interests to work with our Pacific partners to combat organised crime.

The regional plan, called Waqa Moana after a large, sturdy canoe, would improve coordination among existing resources. It would include the 23 Guardian-class patrol boats Australia has supplied to Pacific countries, as well as stronger maritime patrols and intelligence sharing.

“The Pacific is our home and our family. That’s why it’s in Australia’s interests to work with our Pacific partners to combat organised crime,” Albanese said. “For the good of every country in the region, including our own, we need to work together to stamp out the illicit drug trade.”

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For the good of every country in the region, including our own, we need to work together to stamp out the illicit drug trade.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said in May that “it is our nation’s shame that Australians consume too many illicit drugs and pay high prices for them”. She said authorities had seized 17 tonnes of illicit drugs, mostly cocaine, in the Pacific since January. That compared with less than five tonnes seized during all of 2025.

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it is our nation’s shame that Australians consume too many illicit drugs and pay high prices for them

Barrett warned that “greedy and ruthless narco-gangs are trying to make more money by identifying new ways to traffic illicit drugs”, including semi-submersible vessels known as narco-submarines. She described the scale of maritime trafficking to and through the Pacific as a serious national security threat for the region and Australia.

A multinational police investigation involving 11 Fijian officers accused of colluding with drug traffickers was sent to prosecutors in May. In June, Fijian police confirmed that 76 parcels washed ashore in the country had been found.

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greedy and ruthless narco-gangs are trying to make more money by identifying new ways to traffic illicit drugs