Transcript E&OE
3 June 2009, Nuku'alofa
Press Conference, The Hon Stephen Smith MP, and Tongan Prime Minister Dr the Hon Feleti Sevele, Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Subjects: Pacific Partnership for Development; Fiji; Pacific seasonal worker scheme; constitutional and electoral reform; small Pacific Island countries; PACER Plus; reconstruction of Nuku'alofa.
Mr Smith: We have a very strong and good Pacific Partnership Agreement with Tonga. I've just come back from one of the projects which support the police project this morning.
With the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers we spoke about the strength of that development assistant program, the building and recovery aspects of it, health and education. Later this afternoon I will be having a session with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health on the assistance that we are giving so far as the Health programme is concerned.
We are also looking forward to signing with Tonga a Pacific Partnership for Development, which further enhances the development assistance area. We are looking forward to Prime Minister Sevele and Prime Minister Rudd signing the agreement within the margins of the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum in Cairns, Australia in August.
In addition of course to our bilateral relationship we work together very closely and strongly in the Region. We value very much Tonga's counsel in the Pacific Islands Forum. We also work closely in RAMSI and we value that very much, not just Tonga's participation and Ministerial oversight of RAMSI but also Tonga's contribution to RAMSI. And of course both Tonga and Australia have been part of the Ministerial Contact Group on Fiji. It's been a very difficult issue which the Pacific Island Forum Australia and Tonga have had to deal with.
Part of the reason for my visit reflects not just the key relationship that Australia has with Tonga in the Pacific Islands Forum, but also to do the preparatory work for the meeting of the Leaders Summit in Cairns in August.
This morning we had a conversation with the Prime Minster about the adverse effect of the global economic crisis which is adversely impacting not just Tonga and Australia but our friends and partners in the Pacific.
We've also had a discussion about the move towards Constitutional and Electoral Reform in Tonga; we welcome of course very much these moves. It is of course a matter for Tonga itself to determine. I've made the point to the Tongan Prime Minister that Australia stands very willing and able to render whatever assistance we can as part of that process. But we welcome those developments and look forward to rendering whatever assistance we can.
So Prime Minster it's great to be here, we have had visits from Australia to Tonga in recent times, a range of high level visits. My college Simon Crean the Trade Minister was here recently for discussions on PACER Plus which we regard as very important. And our Parliamentary Secretary Mr. Kerr also visited.
So the high level of visit reflects the importance of our relationship and I know that the Prime Minister is looking forward to seeing you in Cairns, where we look forward to welcoming you to Australia as part of the Pacific Islands Leaders Summit.
Again, thank you Prime Minster for your kind remarks and kind welcome.
Prime Minister Sevele: Just want to react on what Mr Smith has said it's been a very good morning. His visit again stresses the importance of our warm and close relationship with Australia. We value the assistance we've had from Australia and the high level visits over the past two months and this visit shows the importance of that relationship, not only to Australia but to us as well. So this is an opportunity for you people to ask questions of Mr Smith on the issues I have mentioned and of course the forthcoming Forum in Cairns.
Pesi Fonua/Matangi Tonga: How urgent do you need this partnership to go ahead?
Mr Smith: When we first came to office we wanted to, as a new government, re-establish Australia's relationship and partnership with the Pacific. The truth is, when we came to office Australia had a difficult relationship with Papua New Guinea and a difficult relationship with the Solomon Islands, and we've certainly rectified those.
We now have very strong and very good relations in the Pacific generally, and that's been very important to Australia. Part of that has been focusing on our development assistance arrangements in the Pacific. The Prime Minister announced in his Port Moresby Declaration that we would enter into Pacific Partnerships for Development with a range of our Pacific Island friends and colleagues. We've signed up four or five. What they do is to concentrate in a much more focused way on how we can build capacity in a Pacific Island Forum nation state.
So in the case of Tonga as I mentioned earlier and as the Prime Minister and I discussed, and as I discussed with the Deputy Prime Minister at the Police Training Centre, we have a good relationship already. We do a lot of good work together in the development assistance area. But we sat down and the Prime Minister himself, Prime Minister Sevele, has been very very intimately involved in looking at what we do.
We have, in principle, struck upon a number of areas that we think we can do more and better work in: further and technical education, so vocation educational training is one area. Enhancing what we do in healthcare is another. Building the capacity of the state institutions, public sector reform is another area. So the partnership for development will focus on those areas and we'll try and bring those strands together. It's effectively a formal agreement between Australia and Tonga and we hope that we can sign that agreement up at the Cairns summit in August this year.
Matangi Tonga: Does that mean Australia will be more involved in these programs?
Mr Smith: It's called a partnership in development because we do it in partnership. So we sit down, have a conversation about what we see are the areas where Australia can assist that reflect the priority of the Tongan Government and then in detailed way work out how we can advance that. For example one of the areas that we currently work very well cooperatively together is in education - the provision for example of scholarships to young Tongan students to Australia or elsewhere in the region.
One of the things we agreed upon was that historically those scholarships have focused either on university or on schools, and there is now a need for vocational and technical education. So one of the focuses of the partnership for development would be technical or vocational education. The strength of it is that we do it together.
One of the things that Prime Minister Rudd and Prime Minister Sevele, of Australia and Tonga, agree on is that the best form of assistance is something which builds the capacity. So if you look at the areas where we're doing, we think, good work together, it's building the capacity of the Tongan institutions. I, for example, as the Prime Minister indicated, have just come from the Police Training centre where Australia and New Zealand jointly sponsor both providing resources but also skills and training, so building the capacity of law and justice administration is very important.
Building the capacity of the public sector is important. Building the capacity of the education system is important. So we try and focus on those areas where we leave a lasting, long-term, enduring benefit for additional capacity in important areas.
Sophie Price/Tonga Chronicle: What is your current position/view on Fiji?
Mr Smith: Well the Prime Minister and I had a good conversation about Fiji. Obviously we strongly support the unanimous decision of the Pacific Island Forum which is on the basis that Fiji has not shown any movement towards democracy to suspend Fiji from the councils of the Forum. But what we both want, and what the region wants and needs, is for Fiji to come back into the fold and return to democracy.
So I think one of the issues that we need to think carefully about is that, whilst on the one hand we need to continue indicating strongly to Fiji that it's abrogation of the Constitution is walking away from democracy, and is very strongly disapproved by the international community, how do we get back into a dialogue with the Pacific Island Forum, a dialogue with its neighbours and friends and partners.
Our ambition is to get Fiji back into the fold. One of the things we worry very much about is that it's clearly the case that since military intervention Fiji has suffered both socially and economically. There's been a very serious decline in Fiji's economic circumstances. That will be compounded by the global recession, the global economic crisis, so Fiji will have very significant economic difficulties.
So somehow we're going to have to find a way to get Commodore Bainimarama and Fiji back into a dialogue which will see it returning to democracy. And that will clearly be a conversation that the Foreign Ministers of the Pacific Island Forum will need to have in the run-up to the Forum itself. But we had a good conversation about Fiji. Our shared aspiration is to get Fiji back as a fully-fledged partner and member of the Pacific Island Forum.
Tonga Chronicle: When you actually say dialogue do you mean that you've had them (with Fiji)?
Mr Smith: I am a member of the Forum Ministerial Contact Group, I've been to Fiji twice, and as Tonga's former Foreign Minister Tu'a discovered, because he was the Chair of the Contact Group before his appointment to New York, we found it very difficult to make progress with Commodore Bainimarama. We had very civilised and polite meetings, but once we left Fiji, we would then see the Interim Government effectively regress, and the most vivid example of that of course was the abrogation of the Constitution.
We need to somehow find a dialogue with Fiji that puts them on a process where we get them back to democracy as soon as possible. Currently the Commodore is saying he's going to have an election in 2014 and that's that. Well, that's not an acceptable response, either to the Pacific Island Forum or to the international community.
Tevita Motulalo/Talaki Newspaper: What's your view on the Pacific seasonal worker scheme?
Mr Smith: I didn't mention that in my opening remarks, that was an oversight. Again that was a matter the Prime Minister and I spoke about. There's been, for a number of years, a program for seasonal workers to go from the Pacific to New Zealand, and when we came to office we came to office with an election commitment. We said that we would establish a pilot program on the New Zealand model, for seasonal workers, particularly in the horticulture area. And we started that program last year.
We've got a number of Tongans involved in that program and to date it's working well. We have had a particular problem with about 50 Tongan seasonal workers because the employer who was employing them has run into financial difficulty but we're looking to address that problem.
But to date we've been happy with the way in which the pilot program has proceeded and of course we want to use the experience of the pilot program to see whether we can take that forward.
Of course one of the things that is very important to the Tongan economy are remittances from overseas, from Australia, from New Zealand, and from the United States. And one of the adverse consequences for Tonga, has been given the downturn in the United States economy, and the difficulties with the global recession, remittances are down. So that's one of the things that we've had a discussion about and one of the things that both Tonga and Australia need to address from a development assistance point of view, to see if there is some way in which we can assist in the medium term.
But we've been pleased to date with the trial. We have a fair way to go before coming to a final judgement about whether we could take that forward in any permanent way into the future.
Katrina Ma'u/Ministry of Information: You touched on your discussion on the Constitutional and Electoral Reform - what was the outcome of your discussion?
Mr Smith: I think, not so much outcomes, but we had, the Prime Minister and I, had a good discussion. It was raised around the Cabinet table. I reinforced Australia's position, which is we welcome very much Tonga's move to both constitutional and electoral reform, and ultimately an election. But of course the outline of that or the framework for that is entirely a matter for Tonga, entirely a matter for Tonga and the Tongan people. So we leave that essentially to the Prime Minister and his colleagues and the Tongan political leadership and the Tongan community.
The final point I underline and reinforce is of course that Australia has well-established electoral procedures and lots of electoral experience through our independent Australian Electoral Commission and also our various state and territory electoral commissions. If at some stage we can render some assistance, either technical assistance to the conduct of an election or observing an election, whatever assistance the Tongan Government believes is helpful, useful, or appropriate, then of course we will respond to that.
But we welcome very much the moves for constitutional and electoral reform but the shape of that, the final decisions about that, of course are entirely a matter for the Government and the people of Tonga.
Matangi Tonga: With regard to the Forum, is there any issue where Australia would like to focus upon regarding small Pacific Island countries?
Mr Smith: Well one of the things the Prime Minister and I spoke about and one of the things Australia hopes can be a focus of the Pacific Island Forum Leaders summit in Cairns in August, is that Australia, of course, is a member of the G20. The G20 has been the international institution which has been driving the global community's response to the economic crisis.
Australia, of course, is the only Pacific country that is a member of the G20 so one of the things that we're talking to our Pacific Island Forum colleagues about, is making the global financial crisis, the G20's response, and the needs and difficulties of the Pacific, a focus of the Pacific Island Forum in Cairns in August.
Two respects, one, to get a detailed account of the difficulties that individual countries are facing, which was one of the conversations we had today, in terms of Tonga of course is remittance difficulties. But also to see how Australia can bring that into the G20 discussions and make sure, as part of our Pacific role, we are inputting into the G20 deliberations the difficulties our friends and partners in the Pacific are having as a consequence of the global economic downturn.
Tonga Chronicle:...discussions regarding PACER Plus and the Forum
Mr Smith: Well again the Prime Minister and I had a conversation about it. Australia's view is the sooner we start having a serious discussion, by way of negotiations the better. Everyone will be able to make subjective and informed judgements on what PACER Plus might offer individual countries and also the region.
Australia has a strong view that the suggestion for PACER Plus is a good one for the region to pursue. Our view includes not just notions of trade but also of capacity building for individual countries and the region. If we build capacities in individual countries, economic capacities in individual countries, than we'll have a greater economic capacity in the region itself which will add to economic growth, add to trade, add to prosperity.
We believe that in conjunction with the Pacific Islands Forum, the Forum should make a decision that we start negotiations about PACER Plus. And just because someone starts negotiations doesn't mean they are compelled to sign up to any particular agreement. But there are different views, some members of the NGO community are critical of PACER Plus. We think the best way of people coming to a complete understanding and have objective views is to start negotiations and have the discussion.
We've also indicated that to make sure that each of the individual nations have a capacity to form objective judgements, that there'd be assistance for them to be provided with independent expert advice and that's a program or a policy approach that we've previously indicated. So we think that the best way to resolve any differing view about PACER Plus is to formally start negotiations and see what happens.
My colleague Simon Crean our Trade Minister has been making this point throughout the region including here recently and my memory is that I think in Samoa in a few weeks time there's a meeting of the Pacific Island Forum Trade Ministers to have such a discussion.
Prime Minister Sevele: Just to add to that the Tongan Government's standing is that it supports what Australia is now wanting, is that we agree at the Forum to move forward with negotiations. There are some concerns but for Tonga it's best that we start. Let's see the differing areas, see if we can move forward. But it will be best for the Pacific to move forward on that as the Minister has said. So that is our position. There are some concerns among the NGOs but take note that often times the NGOs are not conversing on the issues as Government is.
Tonga Chronicle: Will NGOs be given a chance to take part in the discussions?
Mr Smith: We're very happy for them to put their views out formally or informally, we hold no fears in that respect. But my observation to date is they haven't been shy about putting forward their point of view. We're very happy for people to put forward a point of view. Australia sees from a Pacific Island Forum perspective, from a regional perspective, we should just seize the moment, formally start negotiations and that's the best way in our view, in everyone's view, for it to be carried out in a sensible, coherent, objective way.
Matangi Tonga: Is there a deadline for these schemes?
Mr Smith: No we haven't got a fixed deadline on that. We'll see how the experience goes and make judgements in due course, there's no firm timetable.
Prime Minister Sevele: We hope it will continue. But as Mr Smith said, there are issues to be considered, we're both working together and we hope that we can iron out the little problems of the moment.
Talaki: There has been some criticism on Australia and your part in aiding the reconstruction of Nuku'alofa after the riots of 2006 - how do you respond to that criticism.
Mr Smith: The only people in life who are never criticised are people who never do anything. There is a very serious problem and there had to be a response. From our perspective, we've been very pleased with our contribution to what we call the building recovery project or what other people call the Reconstruction Project. I have to confess I got here late last night so when I drove down the main street it was quite dark, but I did see a brand new shiny ANZ building about to be reopened, that's a good thing.
So we thought there was a role for Australia to play in terms of reconstruction. We think that role is ongoing and are happy to play our part in assisting that, and that's one of the aspects, or the subsets if you like, of the general development assistance. There was a need for recovery and reconstruction and as a good neighbour we've been able to play our part.
Prime Minister Sevele: The Government of Tonga has been very grateful for that assistance from Australia. We're very happy. Most of the funds have now been committed to about seven or eight owners of businesses or land who are redeveloping their premises.
Mr Smith: Can I just add on that front: from time to time any nation is the subject of adverse events. Only this year Australia was subject to our worst bushfires on record and we needed help, and we're very grateful Prime Minister, and I'd like to put this on the public record, when Tonga rendered assistance to our bushfire victims. This was gratefully appreciated and very warmly received by Australians. Regretfully all nations are affected from time to time in some manner or form and it's on those occasions when you gratefully appreciate the support of your friends and we gratefully appreciated the support from Tonga when we were facing, or in the aftermath, of the bushfires.
Thanks very much.
[Ends]
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