E&OE
30 March 2008
Television Interview with Jim Middleton, Newshour – Australia Network
JIM MIDDLETON: Stephen Smith, welcome back to Newshour.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks very much, Jim.
MIDDLETON: Today's communique expressed concern about the 'slow progress' quote, unquote, of Fiji's military regime in living up to its commitment to hold elections within a year. Do you now really believe there will be a poll?
SMITH: Well, we have to wait and see. There was unanimous and considerable concern around the forum table that the interim government in Fiji was dragging its feet; that we weren't seeing enough action so far as the election timetable and planning was concerned.
And the forum is absolutely of the view that the Interim Fiji Government has to live up to the faithful undertaking it gave the Pacific Forum Leaders' Meeting in Tonga in 2007 that they would hold an election by the end of the first quarter of 2009. That election would be a full and free election, and they would respect the outcome.
And there's a lot of scepticism that they are doing enough work to meet that commitment and we want to make sure that they do meet that commitment.
MIDDLETON: That does sound pretty pessimistic. What happens if the Bainimarama regime does not live up to today's promise to provide a detailed election timetable by the middle of next month?
SMITH: Well, as my New Zealand colleague, Winston Peters, said today in the aftermath of the meeting, we're compelled to be optimistic about it. We want very much democracy and human rights to be restored in Fiji. We're prepared to give the Fiji Interim Government the chance to effect that, but we also want to hold them accountable.
And we thought the best way of holding them accountable was to get from them a detailed timetable but also, for the first occasion, to set up what we've described as a Ministerial Contact Group to monitor their progress and be in a position to report to the leaders' forum in Niue in August of this year. And by then we think we'll have a pretty clear understanding about whether they're prepared to hold an election or whether their heart is not in it and it's all talk and no action.
We think it's very important for Fiji and very important for the region that the undertaking the interim government gave to the Pacific Forum in 2007 is met and met in full. And that's what we're trying to achieve.
MIDDLETON: What commitments did you get from the military administration today to end human rights abuses as well as the threats to judicial independence and freedom of the press?
SMITH: Well, we raised those matters and they're raised in the statement of the outcomes of the meeting. Of course we're concerned about human rights, of course we're concerned about independence of the judiciary, and of course we're concerned about the peremptory action that we saw with the expulsion of the editor of The Fiji Sun.
The assurances that we were given by the Interim Fiji Foreign Minister was that the government - the Interim Fiji Government - remain committed to meeting its undertaking. And, as part of that, in due course, those other issues that we were concerned about would be attended to.
Now we want to see Fiji return to a democratic state and to a position where those human rights and freedom of expression are met as ordinary day-to-day human rights and individual capacity. So that's what we want to achieve.
But we were frankly sceptical about a couple of things: we were sceptical that the interim government was using the so-called People's Charter Process effectively as a ploy to either distract from or to deflect or defer from the election, and also concerned about the lack of apparent planning that was going into the election process with now 12 months to go.
MIDDLETON: On the broader issue of press freedom, and this concerns China, how worried are you that the Chinese Foreign Ministry is now quoting the Australian travel advisory for Tibet as a reason for not allowing foreign journalists access to Lhasa?
SMITH: Well, our travel advisories are there for the benefit of Australians who are thinking of travelling. And in recent days and in the last couple of weeks we've of course changed some of the details about Tibet. But in general terms, so far as China is concerned, our travel advisories for China are at the lowest level. But obviously recent events in Tibet have caused us to make some adjustments there.
But we have not been backward in coming forward in making the point that we believe the Chinese authorities should have acted with restraint in Tibet, that the way forward for China on this matter was openness and transparency, which included access to diplomats but also access to the international media.
We think that's the most constructive and best way forward for China. We've made that point to them privately, we've made that point publicly, and it's clearly going to be one of the issues which will be raised when Prime Minister Rudd visits China in the next days and weeks ahead.
MIDDLETON: How strongly will Kevin Rudd press the case that China respect human rights and civil liberties when he meets Hua Jian Tao in China shortly and, indeed, do you believe the Howard Government before you was forceful enough in pressing the human rights agenda with China?
SMITH: Well, I don't want to reflect on the previous government, but I make a couple of points: firstly, when Foreign Minister Yang was in Canberra in early February I raised, as we do consistently, questions of human rights with him, including issues about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Secondly, as a general proposition, Australia has a human rights dialogue at officer level, at officials level, with China, and that's ongoing. And, as the Prime Minister himself has made it clear, either in the past as Shadow Foreign Minister and in the future, he proposes on a regular basis to raise questions of human rights, as we should, as the Australian Government should and particularly as a Labor Government should.
And what we hope the Chinese will understand is that if we do differ on issues that we believe are important, if we do differ on these issues then the relationship that we have with China, the maturity of the relationship is such that it can bear that burden. But these are important issues which we've raised in the past, and we will exercise our own judgement in the future about whether we raise them privately or publicly, or both.
MIDDLETON: Stephen Smith, thanks very much for your time.
SMITH: Thanks, Jim. Thanks very much.
Ends
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