Speech

speech at the launch of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute report

Ladies and gentlemen

Before I begin I would like to acknowledge the presence today of Solomon Islands High Commissioner Milner Tozaka.

I warmly welcome the key contribution being made by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute to public consideration of major foreign policy and security issues in Australia.

The report being launched today, dealing with the situation in the Solomon Islands, is an important part of that contribution.

So I would like to acknowledge also the presence today of the director of the Institute, Dr Hugh White, and the principal author of the report, Dr Ellie Wainwright.

This is a topical and very timely report, particularly given last weeks visit to Canberra by a high-level delegation led by Prime Minister Kemakeza.

I am often struck by the relatively low profile of South Pacific issues in the Australian media and in the wider community.

From time to time the Government is accused of not paying enough attention to the South Pacific.

This claim is somewhat bemusing, given the frequency with which Pacific issues are considered in Cabinet; my six visits to the Pacific in the past three years; and the overall level of engagement by government agencies with the Pacific.

I suspect that it is actually the media, with some notable individual exceptions, rather than the Government, which is not paying attention.

Be that as it may, the publication of reports such as this helps focus attention on the very serious developments occurring in Australia's region.

I, for one, would like to encourage more public debate of these issues.

As I said in an article published in The Australian in January, and which is quoted at the beginning of this Report, the situation in Solomon Islands is one of the most troublesome issues we face in our immediate region.

It provides us with a difficult set of issues which we, our friends in Solomon Islands and our other partners - particularly New Zealand - have been grappling with for a number of years.

We are facing a comprehensive and seemingly inexorable grinding down of the countrys institutional and economic fabric.

This is occurring in spite of substantial efforts on the part of ourselves and others, who have been tireless in supporting peace, reconstruction and good governance.

There is a good summary of these efforts in the Report itself, so I wont repeat them verbatim.

The highlights, however, are:

• negotiation of the Townsville Peace Agreement, which saw the warring parties pull back from full-scale civil war;
• the Peace Monitoring Council, now called the National Peace Council which, supported by the International Peace Monitoring Team, enabled peace efforts to become established
• and which collected and destroyed some 2,000 weapons
• the 2001 elections, which only came about through donor support
• and finally - what is not often talked about, but is crucial nonetheless - the maintenance of a basic level of government functions, including the health department and clinics, the finance ministry, and the police.

Our help has certainly had an impact.

But it has to be acknowledged that Australia's aid alone has been unable to turn around the situation.

Aid alone is not the answer.

It is almost impossible to assist development in the absence of security.

Ethnic fighting is not the current problem.

Instead, Solomon Islands faces chronic lawlessness and economic decline.

Lawlessness caused the banks to close for several days last month.

A former Police Commissioner was assassinated in February.

The economic slump which followed the crisis in 2000 has worsened.

Business confidence is very low.

I was in Solomon Islands late last year and the human cost of this trouble is obvious.

There are high numbers of unemployed young people wandering the streets.

Children are not receiving the education they need because teachers are not being paid on time and schools lack sufficient funding.

Without donor help, there would be no health services in the provinces.

Last month there was another tragic incident involving the murder of an Australian missionary.

Economic activity will not revive without an improvement in law and order.
Unfortunately, given current circumstances, neither appears likely in the short to medium term.

This Report clearly identifies the resulting policy challenge for Australia.

We rightly insist on the need for Pacific island countries to take full responsibility for their futures.

They are sovereign states.

The only solutions that will work are those of which the island countries have full ownership.

But that does not mean to say that Australia will sit back and watch while a country struggles.

In some countries of the South Pacific, our assistance might need to take a more proactive form than in others.

Direct engagement, including security assistance, might be needed.

Such engagement would involve cooperative intervention - working with and at the request of the relevant government, together with other partners in the region.

We do not rule out such engagement. But each case is different, and it would be foolish to apply a uniform framework.

Australia is undeniably big, with influence and resources.

The hard question is how to use that influence in a positive and constructive way.

Both sides have responsibilities and we need to work them through carefully, depending on the situation concerned.

As you know, Prime Minister Kemakeza visited Canberra last week.

We talked at length about these issues and about what more Australia might be able to do for Solomon Islands, initially in the form of strengthened security assistance, but also in terms of broader support for key arms of government.

We agreed that while improved law and order is an essential precondition for economic recovery, there is little point in helping to strengthen civil order if it is not accompanied by practical steps to stabilise government finances and revive the economy.

As a result of Prime Minister Kemakezas discussions last week, an inter-agency team of Australian and New Zealand officials will arrive in Honiara today to examine areas of possible follow-up.

We have made no decisions, but we are examining options.

We need to weigh up carefully questions of likely impact, effectiveness, resource needs and time-lines.

This is not a simple matter and we are not going to rush into this.

Whatever we do will be at the request of and in full cooperation with Solomon Islands.

I should emphasise here that the focus of our possible assistance will not be to settle old scores nor to right the wrongs of the past.

We are realists.

Our task will be to look forward, to build a stable future within the framework of the Constitution and laws of Solomon Islands.

This cannot be a solo effort.

We will have to ensure that any strengthened assistance we decide to provide is part of a multinational effort - including New Zealand, our other partners in the Pacific Islands Forum, and the international donor community.

Such an approach is feasible now in a way that it would not have been at the time of the upheavals in 2000.

At that time, the country was on the verge of civil war, with the support of large segments of the population.

The legitimacy of the government was questionable.

Our involvement would have meant imposing an external solution by force.

Truce negotiations were only just beginning and these had to be given time to work.

We had some optimism that our support for these reconciliation efforts, including the IPMT and substantially more aid, together with the strong desire for peace within the Solomon Islands community, would bear fruit.

Three years later, we were partly right the ethnic conflict did stop, 2000 weapons were removed from the community, proper elections were held, and the voice of community groups, including the churches, was greatly strengthened.

But a different set of security challenges has arisen, which is preventing national recovery and driving the country to ruin.

And the Solomon Islands Government appears powerless to stop the downward spiral.

We should not stand by and allow this state of affairs to continue.

That is why we are considering a strengthened approach - or cooperative intervention - as canvassed in this very timely Report.

I commend this Report to you.
It is an eloquent and well-argued examination of Australia's interests in Solomon Islands.

And it canvasses a number of possible responses, and makes recommendations on a strategy for increased Australian involvement.

I assure you it will be a reference point in our policy development process.

I take great pleasure in launching it.

Thank you.