[Source: ABC]

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong is this week leading a bi-partisan parliamentary delegation to the Pacific to demonstrate Australia’s unwavering commitment to the region amid growing strategic competition.

Labor and Coalition frontbenchers will first visit Vanuatu, where Australian officials have recently been dispatched after a devastating cyber-attack that’s crippled the nation’s critical infrastructure, including hospital systems.

Later the bi-partisan delegation, which includes Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham, Minister for International Development, and the Pacific Pat Conroy and his Opposition counterpart Michael McCormack, will fly to the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.

A cross-party visit to the Pacific region last occurred during the Turnbull government and Minister Conroy says it’s timely that the practice is now resuming.