E&OE
13 July 2008
Press conference
Subjects: Fiji, Pope Benedict XVI, Zimbabwe, $50 million contribution to the World Bank
STEPHEN SMITH: A number of matters this morning. Firstly, tomorrow I leave for Fiji and subsequently the Solomon Islands. My trip to Fiji is the first visit to Fiji by an Australian Foreign Minister since the December 2006 coup, and the first visit by an Australian [sic] to Fiji since October 2006. My visit to Fiji is as part of the Pacific Island Forum Foreign Ministers ministerial contact group, and the objective of the contact group as charged by the Pacific Island Forum Foreign Ministers is to make a judgement about Fiji's preparedness for an election.
The interim Fiji government gave a faithful and unconditional commitment at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting in Tonga in 2007 that it would have an election in Fiji before the end of the first quarter of 2009 - before the end of March next year. And the role of the contact group is to make a judgement about Fiji's preparedness for that.
The contact group comprises of foreign ministers from Tonga, PNG, Samoa, Vanuatu, New Zealand and Australia; and the contact group is chaired by the Tongan foreign minister, Foreign Minister Tu'a.
The purpose of the trip will also be to establish some dialogue with the interim Fiji government. Australia, as you know, has been very critical of the conduct of the interim government, and I have in the past recorded my scepticism of the interim Fiji government's willingness and preparedness to conduct an election by the end of March next year. But I welcome very much Fiji's appointment of an election supervisor, which occurred in recent weeks, and I also, as you may recall, on 30 June, indicated Australia's preparedness to receive as diplomatic representatives from Fiji to Australia, a Consul-General in Sydney and an acting High Commissioner in Canberra.
I've recently agreed the appointments, and the Fiji interim government will announce these appointments in due course. But this will also add to the dialogue between Australia and Fiji. So we very much hope that the contact group, the ministerial contact group, will not only be able to make a judgement about Fiji's preparedness, but will also open up a dialogue with the interim government.
Following upon my visit to Fiji, I'll be visiting the Solomon Islands later in the week, for the second ministerial review meeting of the RAMSI contribution to the Solomon Islands. The first meeting of the ministerial review group of the Solomon Islands RAMSI commitment was effected earlier this year, and it was a very successful meeting and showed the very good cooperation between the Solomon Islands and the RAMSI contribution and the Australian government.
On other matters, can I welcome very much His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Australia. This is the first papal visit to Australia since Pope John Paul II in 1986, and of course, the Australian government is very pleased that His Holiness is visiting Australia. The Australian government has of course made a financial and other contribution to the holding of World Youth Day, so we very much welcome His Holiness to Australia. We certainly expect and hope that World Youth Day will be a tremendous success, both for the church, for Sydney and for Australians. And so we welcome his presence here very much indeed.
On Zimbabwe, can I just indicate how disappointed the Australian government is at the use of the veto by China and Russia on the resolution before the United Nations Security Council in the last couple of days. That resolution was co-sponsored by Australia and it underlined Australia's very strong resolve for progress in Zimbabwe. As you know, Australia, the Australian government, has been very critical of the brutal Mugabe regime. We have applied sanctions to the regime, and are currently reviewing whether there's more that we can do. And we were very disappointed that the resolution was not supported before the Security Council and failed as a result of the use of the Security Council veto by China and Russia.
Yesterday, under instructions from me, officials in Beijing and Moscow relayed the Australian government's disappointment through our embassies in Beijing and Moscow, to the Chinese and the Russian authorities. The ball now is very much in the court of Zimbabwe's neighbours - South Africa, the African Union nation-states and the Southern African Development Community states. And we again call on those nation-states to put pressure on the Mugabe regime, to see a political solution in Zimbabwe which goes someway towards respecting the will of the Zimbabwe people.
Mr Mugabe's regime has no electoral or democratic legitimacy, and should be treated accordingly.
Can I also indicate today on two others things: the Australian government today confirms it will be making a further contribution to world food and world food security crisis, with a $50 million contribution to the World Bank. This follows on Australia's contribution of $30 million to the World Food Program. The $50 million contribution to the World Bank is aimed at stimulating and increasing production in developing countries, and the contribution is a direct result of a request made by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to me, at a meeting I had with the Secretary General in Rome last month, at the Rome Food and Agricultural Food Security High Level conference.
Australia is very well placed to address food security issues. Our initial contribution of $30 million for immediate food assistance was an appropriate contribution for Australia to make. We made the point at the Rome conference that further trade liberalisation in the agricultural area was important to ensuring ready access of food to developing nations, and we also very strongly believe that Australia's expertise in this area, particularly a capacity to apply science and research to increase the productive and agr... productive yields to increase agriculture yields is a very significant role that Australia can play in the future.
Finally, the UN Secretary General has formally announced Mr Downer's appointment as envoy to Cyprus. As I have in the past, I indicate our support of that appointment. We wish Mr Downer well, and I've also taken the opportunity today of announcing that I've appointed Australia's ambassador to France, ambassador David Ritchie, as Australia's special representative to Cyprus, to add his expertise to seeking to find a diplomatic and political solution to the longstanding Cyprus issue.
For many years, Cyprus has been regarded as an intractable sol... as an intractable problem. We might just see a glimmer of hope now in Cyprus, and we very much wish Mr Downer well in his role as the UN Secretary General special envoy, and we hope that ambassador Ritchie can also see Australia play formally its role in hoping to bring about a long term political solution to the Cyprus issue.
I'm happy to respond to your questions on those or other issues.
QUESTION: Just on your trip to Fiji, you mentioned that it's important that you're going, as they're heading towards an election next year: as we're moving closer, can you elaborate on any specific [indistinct]?
SMITH: Well, the interim government, through Commodore Bainimarama, gave to the Leaders meeting, the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting in Tonga in 2007 - September 2007 - a faithful and an unconditional commitment that the interim government would hold an election in Fiji before the end of 2009. And for some time, indeed for all of this year, I've expressed my scepticism about the willingness of the interim government to discharge that commitment, and also its preparedness.
In Auckland, in February of this year, the Pacific Island Forum foreign ministers met to consider Fiji and established the ministerial contact group, of which Australia is one of the members. And the objective of the ministerial contact group is to visit Fiji, have discussions with the interim government, and make a judgement about the government's preparedness and willingness to hold an election, and its readiness. Recently it appointed an election supervisor, which is a step in the right direction, and Australia, as do other Pacific nations, stand ready, willing and able to render whatever assistance is required to see that election held, by way of electoral - expert electoral assistance and the like.
I think the starting point will be to ascertain whether there's actually a willingness on the part of the interim government to conduct such an election, and if there is a willingness, to make a judgement about their state of preparedness, and what assistance Pacific Island countries can give.
I've been very sceptical; we've seen in recent times in Fiji the expulsion of newspaper proprietors and editors, which Australia and other nations have been very critical of. But it's the first formal ministerial contact that Australia has had with Fiji since the minister... since the military coup in 2006. It'll do two things: make those judgements I've referred to, but also open up a dialogue. It's in Fiji's interests, and in Australia's interest and in the Pacific's interest that Fiji return to democracy, that Fiji return to a state where democracy, human rights and the rule of law is respected. And it's not in Fiji's interests, it's not in Australia's interests, it's not in the Pacific's interests, for Fiji to continue in its current states. It's not good, for example, for bilateral relations between Australia and Fiji: we want those relations to improve, we want there to be a good relationship between Australia and Fiji. But our view that can only be truly effected if and when Fiji returns to a democratic state.
QUESTION: So essentially, it's their willingness to conduct an election and ensuring that media censorship isn't going to be an issue in the lead-up?
SMITH: Well, it's their willingness to conduct an election, their willingness to respect the rule of law, and respect human rights; but also their preparedness to conduct a full, free and fair election. And in that respect, Australia and other Pacific nation-states are well placed to render whatever technical or other assistance is required.
But the starting point is, making a judgement about the interim government's willingness to conduct an election in accordance with the unconditional and faithful undertaking it gave to Pacific Island leaders in Tonga in 2007.
QUESTION: On the issue of the Security - the UN meeting.
SMITH: Yes.
QUESTION: If they've sort of gone to water on an issue that's as seemingly clean cut as something like Zimbabwe, what sort of resolutions do you think that the Council might be able to make on a topic like climate change?
SMITH: Well, let me deal with Zimbabwe first. We are very disappointed that China and Russia have applied the veto to what Australia believed was a very sensible resolution. We co-sponsored it in the run-up to its consideration by the Security Council. And such is our disappointment that yesterday I instructed officials from our embassies in Beijing and Moscow to relay that disappointment direct to the Chinese and Russian authorities.
The resolution, in our view, said all that needed to be said about Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe - the Mugabe regime has no electoral or democratic legitimacy; the international community should move to examining sanctions, as Australia has applied sanctions, both financial sanctions and travel sanctions. And in the failure of the Security Council, through the use of the veto, to pass that resolution, as I said earlier, the responsibility now falls fairly and squarely on South Africa's neighbo... on Zimbabwe's neighbours - South Africa and the Southern African Development Community states - to put maximum pressure on the Mugabe regime.
We of course understand that discussions may well be underway between Mr Tsvangirai's party and the Mugabe regime. But maximum pressure is now required to be placed on the Mugabe regime to arrive at a situation where the political will, or the democratic will of the Zimbabwe people is respected.
So far as climate change is concerned, I don't think that climate change is an issue that people have contemplated going before the Security Council. We saw a successful Bali conference, and we've seen any number of international discussions about climate change. Climate change will be a difficult area, but an area where it's absolutely essential that the international community, including both developed and developing nations, agree about its response to abating greenhouse gas emissions, to confronting dangerous climate change. And Australia is certainly playing its role in that respect.
QUESTION: Does Kevin Rudd have a potty mouth?
SMITH: [Laughs] Well, I've seen that suggestion. In my experience, Kevin deals with - the Prime Minister deals with people in a dignified and civilised manner. And from a personal point of view, I would be the last person to criticise anyone from - for, from time to time, swearing. That may well occur in moments of frustration.
In my experience, the Prime Minister deals with people with civility and dignity. From time to time, he may well get frustrated, as all of us do. These things occur from time to time, but I think - I've seen the references to that. Having noted them, I think we should simply move on.
QUESTION: And just briefly though, you haven't overheard him speaking in a way like that to any of his staff members or anything like that?
SMITH: Well, whatever conversations I have with the Prime Minister or whatever conversations I hear with the Prime Minister, I regard those as private, so I'm not proposing to comment on those.
Look, from time to time, I'm sure the Prime Minister has used language that he would regret. In my experience, he deals with people with civility and dignity, as he should. From time to time, we all get frustrated.
And I'd be the last person to criticise anyone for swearing.
QUESTION: Just another one - there's been a slight development on Schapelle Corby and the origin of the drugs that were found in her boogie board bag: are you concerned that revelations in the Australian media about who was responsible for putting the drugs in the bag, and that kind of thing, are going to cause ongoing damage to relations with the Indonesian government?
SMITH: Well, no. Australia's relations with the Indonesian government are first class - that's the first point. Secondly, I'm not proposing to engage in a running commentary, every time there's a reference or a report to Ms Corby. And that's not said critically.
So far as the comments or the reports today, if there are anything in those reports which are of interest to either Australia or Indonesian authorities, I'm sure the appropriate police authorities will examine them.
But the Indonesian Supreme Court earlier this year determined on the basis of appeal, its view of the sentence that should be applied to Ms Corby. Whether Ms Corby wants to pursue any other legal actions, will be a matter for her and her legal advisers. And whether there's anything which is said publicly or reported publicly, or which comes to light, which is of interest to Indonesian or Australian police authorities, will be a matter for them to pursue.
Okay, everyone happy? Thanks very much, thank you. Cheers, thanks.
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