Albanese has found out nailing down Pacific agreements is harder than expected

"To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

Lady Bracknell's immortal rebuke of orphaned Jack Worthing in Oscar Wilde's sparkling The Importance of Being Earnest might have an uncomfortable resonance for Australian diplomats in the Pacific this week.

The prime minister was meant to emerge from his recent flurry of Pacific diplomacy holding no fewer than two major agreements triumphantly aloft — a landmark defence treaty with Papua New Guinea and a sweeping Nakamal Agreement with Vanuatu.

Instead he is returning home conspicuously empty-handed, with plenty of promises, communiques and plans for further action, but nothing that is yet truly signed, sealed and delivered.

It's a sharp break from the last few years, where the gov