E&OE
31 July 2008
Joint media conference with Nauru Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Kieren Keke
Subject: Australia-Nauru Memorandum of Understanding
STEPHEN SMITH: I firstly welcome Dr Keke to Australia again and can I start by publicly offering belated congratulations on Dr Keke’s re-election and reappointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs. I did that personally over the telephone some weeks ago but it’s nice to see you here again.
Today we’re signing the Memorandum of Understanding which reflects Australia’s development assistance to Nauru. And, rule of thumb, the Memorandum of Understanding caters for nearly $20 million worth of funding and when you add to that the other development assistance that Australia provides through other programs, rule of thumb, it’s nearly a $30 million contribution.
The reason we’re signing the Memorandum of Understanding today is that of course with the closure of the Offshore Detention Centre this led to a decline of income so far as Nauru was concerned. So we had to ensure that the Australian Government’s policy of closing the Offshore Detention Centre didn’t leave Nauru in a difficult situation.
So Dr Keke and the two Parliamentary Secretaries, Mr McMullan and Mr Kerr, have been working very hard over the preceding weeks and months to bring this Memorandum of Understanding to conclusion, and I take this opportunity of thanking the two Parliamentary Secretaries for their good work.
The Memorandum of Understanding reflects the fact that Australia and Nauru have a very good relationship. It’s not just development assistance – Dr Keke and I have had a number of bilateral meetings and the relationship between Australia and Nauru is very strong, very friendly and very firm. And I look forward to continue to work closely with Dr Keke.
The development assistance, of course, reflects Australia’s commitment to want to be a good international citizen in its region and to do its bit to ensure that nation-states in the Pacific have the chance to build their capacity of institutions to provide decent health and education services for their people.
In his first visit to Papua New Guinea, the Prime Minister, in the Port Moresby Declaration, indicated we would be moving to Pacific Partnerships for Development with our Pacific Island Forum partners and today I’ll be later handing over to Dr Keke a letter from me which invites Nauru to commence discussions and negotiations for a formal Pacific Partnership for Development.
So both the Memorandum of Understanding and the invitation to commence discussions on a Pacific Partnership for Development reflect the good relationship between Australia and Nauru and reflect Australia’s commitment to give Nauru every assistance.
So Kieren, we are very pleased to see you here again. I look forward to signing the Memorandum of Understanding and look forward to continue to work closely with you in the best interests of Australia and Nauru.
KIEREN KEKE: Thank you Minister Stephen Smith, ladies and gentlemen. Omo yoran ea kamie memak. Good morning to you all. It is indeed by distinct honour to represent the Republic of Nauru in signing this Memorandum of Understanding between Nauru and Australia. Minister, Australia and Nauru do – as you say – enjoy very positive and close and strong relations. However, despite Nauru once being under Australian colonial administration, our relations have not always been so close. It was disappointing that at the time when we were slipping into a major economic crisis in the last decade, which almost saw Nauru totally collapse, that earlier Australian Governments seemed to sit by and simply watch. Given our long intertwined history it is difficult to understand the lack of a helping hand at the time which could have averted the worst of our economic and social woes.
However, when we first met earlier this year, not long after you took up office as Minister for Foreign Affairs, I stressed to you at the time the gravity of the crisis that Nauru has been through over the last decade and the efforts our new breed of leaders have taken to stabilise Nauru. I stressed that Nauru needs ongoing support if we are to cement in place the reforms and the recovery we have achieved to date.
Nauru does not want to remain dependent on external aid but I ask you to appreciate that assistance now will enable Nauru to achieve economic stability in the future. It is therefore extremely pleasing to recognise the now very close and constructive relations between Australia and Nauru and in particular the Rudd Government’s commitment to development assistance for Nauru as demonstrated in the signing of the MOU today.
I must also express my gratitude to you and your Government for the way in which you have responded. You have reacted to the issues we discussed earlier this year and there has been ongoing communication. Minister, I truly appreciate your frequent correspondence and your phone calls.
My President, His Excellency Marcus Stephen, also asked me to convey his personal appreciation through you to your Prime Minister for the frequent communication they have had since your Government took office. Your Government has demonstrated a clear desire to work closely with Nauru.
In fact the commitment of your Prime Minister and your Government to improve relations with the whole of the Pacific has been obvious and I believe has been very positive and effective to date. Over the last week I have spent some time with Parliamentary Secretaries Bob McMullan and Duncan Kerr. I trust they will echo to you my feelings that are nothing but positive not only for Nauru but also in terms of their interactions with all nations of the Pacific represented at the meeting we attended last week.
Minister, this MOU is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, the degree and range of assistance Australia is committing to support Nauru’s development is significant. Nauru has in recent years faced major challenges and has undergone reforms across many sectors. This has been a necessity but has also largely only been possible due to the strong support of our development partners, most notably Australia. This fifth MOU supports Nauru’s own national sustainable development strategy and will work to develop Nauru’s long term viability.
The considerable level of funding provided for under this MOU will address a range of needs and sectors. This includes governance reforms, financial management, public sector reform, health, education, key infrastructure – such as power, water, telecommunications – law and order, as well as private sector development. This wide range of inputs and assistance is obviously critical to Nauru’s own recovery efforts.
Of further significance is the fact that since the original MOU signed in 2001, this fifth MOU is the first one that’s not dependent on cooperation in the management of asylum seekers.
In effect, by not linking it to the hosting of an Offshore Processing Centre, Australia is now recognising Nauru’s very real need for development assistance. A stable and viable Nauru is important for the region and for Australia. Just as we have seen in other Pacific nations, weak governance and economies in the Pacific have led to civil unrest and opened the region up to the risks of organised transnational crime and terrorism. Nauru does not want to see these risks in our region.
Minister, of greater significance to me, is that this MOU represents a renewed commitment by Australia to Nauru and indeed the Pacific. The Port Moresby Declaration released by your Prime Minister sets out the new relationship Australia is seeking with the Pacific. I wish to commend the Australian Government for this new approach and its very clear efforts to improve relations with your Pacific neighbours on a basis of partnerships and mutual respect and responsibility.
This fifth MOU is a precursor to developing a new long term Partnership for Development between Australia and Nauru. Nauru welcomes this development and I look forward to working together in the coming months to build on our recent experiences and to develop this new partnership that will assist Nauru address our long-term sustainability challenges and our development goals.
Minister, as we discussed earlier this year and since then, there are a number of wider issues which extend beyond the direct assistance provided for under the MOU. I’m pleased again to note how responsive you and the Australian Government have been on a number of these issues. For some years now Nauru has had no banking services and the need to re-establish full commercial banking services is critical for our development. Nauru is seeking interest from the major Australian banks to establish a presence in Nauru just as they have a presence in many other Pacific islands already.
Finally, we have discussed the issue of our high unemployment and Nauru’s keen interest in labour mobility and access to unskilled and skilled labour opportunities for our people in Australia. We have recently taken steps to facilitate the up-skilling of a small number of Nauruans in welding to gain access to skilled employment in areas of need in Australia under the existing rules. I look forward to the Pacific Forum Leaders’ meeting next month and the discussions Pacific leaders may have with Prime Minister Rudd on the issue of labour mobility and a possible pilot program for the Pacific.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience and attention. Minister, thank you for your time today and please accept Nauru’s gratitude for Australia’s much improved commitment to Nauru and the Pacific as demonstrated in the MOU we are signing today. Ma tubwa kor. Thank you.
SMITH: Thank you.
[MOU signed]
SMITH: We’ll take questions from the media if there are such questions.
QUESTION: Mr Keke, what does it mean for Nauru that this MOU is not tied to detention centres?
KEKE: I guess in the past, as I mentioned there was a concern from Nauru that the relationship with Australia had weakened and it was . . . the interaction had increased due to the presence of the processing centre on Nauru. But I think we are very much appreciative of the new approach where there is no such link or reliance on the presence of the processing centre on Nauru and it’s really based now on mutual respect and understanding and a move towards a Partnership for Development.
QUESTION:Minister Smith, what hope can you offer your counterpart on the suggestion of a pilot program on workers coming to Australia skilled or unskilled?
SMITH: Well we’ve made it clear that the Prime Minister will advise the leaders at the Pacific Leaders’ Forum in Niue about our attitude to a possible pilot program for labour mobility purposes. We came to office indicating that we would carefully examine the New Zealand pilot program which has been up and running for a couple of years. We have been doing that. I’ve been to New Zealand and had discussions about that pilot program as have both the Parliamentary Secretaries, Mr Kerr and McMullan.
So we’ve been giving very careful consideration to that and we’re expecting that the Prime Minister will be able to indicate to the leaders at the Forum in August what we’re proposing to do so far as a possible pilot program is concerned. Any announcement will be from the Prime Minister either in the run-up to or at the Forum itself.
QUESTION:Dr Keke, would you have been hoping for more . . . [indistinct] . . . considering that the Processing Centre in Nauru contributed a significant amount to the . . .
KEKE: The economic activity generated by hosting the Processing Centre was a significant contribution to our economy. However the assistance that is provided under this MOU and I think importantly the long-term commitment that we now have and the long-term understanding that we have with Australia is of far greater value to Nauru. The assistance as provided under this MOU targets key areas of need both in the immediate term as well as developing a platform for our longer term sustainability.
So I think in dollar values this is still a very significant amount and is actually greater than our own internal revenues that we’re able to generate at this time. But importantly it provides a strong platform for the future combined with a longer-term commitment.
SMITH: Can I just add to that. When Dr Keke and I first met early this year, the thing which really impressed me about the attitude that Dr Keke had and the attitude that Nauru had was that they wanted to put Nauru onto a firm financial basis for the future, not dependent upon income that came either from development assistance or, as it had in the past, from the Offshore Processing or Detention Centre. So the aspiration that Nauru has is to seek to put Nauru onto a firm financial and economic basis for the future. Obviously we want to assist in that.
We came to office with a strong commitment to close down the so-called Pacific Solution, to close the Offshore Processing Centre at Manus and at Nauru, and we’ve done that. But we didn’t want that closure to cause a short-term difficulty for Nauru. And even more attractive to us was Dr Keke’s attitude of a firm financial and economic basis for Nauru for the future. And that’s what we’re trying to do both through the Memorandum of Understanding but also, importantly, through the Pacific Partnership for Development.
That attitude and the stability that we now see in Nauru is a very attractive outlook so far as Australia is concerned and it gives us optimism for the future. Of course there will be difficulties but we think that the Memorandum of Understanding starting the Pacific Partnership for Development process and in some respects most importantly the attitude of Nauru to want to get itself onto a firm financial and economic basis for the future really augurs well for Nauru’s future but also for our future relationship.
QUESTION: Mr Smith, what’s the latest information you’ve got about the two cousins and the incident in Mykonos?
SMITH: Well can I say firstly that we regard the incident as very serious and our concern of course is for the two men and to their families and our expressions of sympathy go to them. They’re receiving all the usual consular assistance, I’m satisfied of that. They’ve also been receiving medical assistance and we’re satisfied that appropriate medical assistance is being rendered. And we’re also very satisfied that the relevant police authorities are pursuing and investigating the matter.
It is a, frankly a disturbing event, a serious assault, and our thoughts and sympathy are with the two men and their families. But on the basis of the advice I have early this morning, everything that we are in a position to do is being done and we’re entirely satisfied with the response so far as the police authorities are concerned.
QUESTION:I had a question about the procedures today from Minister Fitzgibbon about potential military advisors in Pakistan. Have you spoken to your counterparts in Pakistan and what level can you regard that as being?
SMITH: Well I spoke to my counterpart, the Foreign Minister for Pakistan in Paris in the context of the Afghan Donors’ Conference. And I made a couple of points to him. Firstly that we regarded the circumstances on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border as having very serious implications not just for Australia and our forces in Afghanistan but also for the region – that in Australia’s view this was not just a bilateral issue between Afghanistan and Pakistan, it was an issue that had regional and international implications. And I indicated to Pakistan officials in Singapore recently that that remained our view, that we wanted to have a dialogue with Pakistan about that and we were open to considering what assistance, if any, we could bring to bear. That obviously, of course, not including a combat or a troop commitment.
So we’re giving consideration to what we might be able to do to assist. But as the Defence Minister made clear yesterday that’s at a very, very early stage of consideration. We have to go through our own processes of what we may be able to do to assist and then we’ve got to have a serious dialogue with Pakistan about that. So these suggestions are at a very early stage. What it does underline, though, is we have nearly a thousand troops in Afghanistan. We regard that area of the world – the Afghanistan-Pakistan border – as essentially being the hotbed of international terrorism at this point in time and it does require not just a response from Afghanistan and Pakistan but a response from the regional and international community. And we’re very conscious of that and we’ve made that point clear to both Pakistan and to the international community. What we can do in conjunction with Pakistan is, as I say, at a very early stage but we’ll be considering that both in the context of the Government’s own deliberations but also in future discussions with Pakistan.
QUESTION:Have you got any comment on what’s happened in China with internet access and [indistinct]?
SMITH: Well, I don’t want to comment or give a running commentary too directly on the International Olympic Committee and what it’s been doing. But to simply say that so far as communications into and out of China are concerned the Australian Government has made the point to China on a regular basis we believe China should be open and transparent. That includes its communications, and online communications, this point’s been made to China on a regular basis including as part of the regular human rights dialogues that we have with China.
I haven’t followed the matter with precise detail but I do see this morning the representatives of the Olympic Committee apologising for their conduct. On the basis of what I’ve read that apology seemed like it was well worth giving and required to be given.
[Ends]
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