Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow minister for overseas aid and Pacific island affairs in opening the matter of public importance spoke of Kokoda, Milne Bay and Buna—names which are redolent in Australian history, names which people would associate with some of the attributes that Australia would like to identify with. But where I am confused about the position of the Australian Labor Party is: how is it consistent to turn a blind eye to someone who is wanted by the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for child sex offences? Is the Labor Party suggesting that, when the Papua New Guinea government uses a Papua New Guinea defence force plane to transport Julian Moti from Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, we should say nothing, or we should say that this is okay? When the problem in the Pacific islands is in maintaining the rule of law, addressing and reducing corruption and making sure that they have strong governance so that aid and development assistance is effective, the Labor Party criticises and makes a personal attack on the Minister for Foreign Affairs for saying that this is not on.

As I said, the shadow minister mentioned some places of importance. I have some new names that people will remember from the last 10 years: Bougainville and the peace monitoring group; East Timor and INTERFET, the Solomon Islands and RAMSI. These are examples of the interest that Australia takes in the South Pacific and the help that we are prepared to offer when needed. They are examples which Australians should be very proud of. They are examples that have given the people of Bougainville, East Timor and the Solomon Islands the chance for a new beginning.

Australia is the largest donor to the Pacific. It is estimated that we will be giving $766 million in aid in 2006-07: $332 million going to Papua New Guinea and $434 million going to Pacific island countries, including $223 million to the Solomon Islands. It is a lot of money. Our constituents expect that we will make sure that this money is spent effectively and they expect that we will do what we can to reduce corruption and improve governance in these countries.

As outlined in the white paper on foreign aid, in East Timor half of children under the age of five years old are so malnourished that they will have their growth permanently stunted. In Papua New Guinea, life expectancy is 56 and there is a serious HIV-AIDS problem. Australia’s values are reflected in our aid program. We are a compassionate and generous country and we believe that people should have a fair go. Some of the countries in the South Pacific face great challenges. For example, if Papua New Guinea grows over the next 20 years at about 3½ per cent per year, in 20 years it will have a per capita income where it was 15 years ago. If the Solomon Islands grows for the next 20 years at the rate it has over the last couple of years, it will have a per capita income where it was in the early 1980s.

I support the Prime Minister who, in September 2005, announced at the United Nations that Australia would be doubling the amount of overseas aid that it spends to $4 billion by 2010. When we look at our aid, we see that over the last 20 years half a billion people have come out of poverty in the Asia-Pacific area. The most stunning increases have been in East Asia with countries like China, Vietnam and Thailand, which all saw dramatic increases in the proportion of their population coming out of poverty.

Sadly, that is not the case in the South Pacific. What we have seen, if anything, is that these countries’ performance has actually gone backwards. Governance and corruption are serious problems. When the Labor Party were in office, they had budget aid. They would just give the money to Papua New Guinea and in the end it was hard to see where the money was being spent. The Australian government—the Howard government—does have a good track record in the South Pacific. With the involvement of the peace monitoring group, we have now had peace in Bougainville since late 1997. INTERFET, of course, was also very important in seeing that that country had an opportunity to become a new country. In Papua New Guinea, we have the Enhanced Cooperation Program, which was originally to provide Australian police in Papua New Guinea. That treaty was struck out by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea but, even so, there are 40 Australian officials working under this program to ensure that these governance and corruption concerns are addressed.

The Howard government takes the Pacific Islands Forum very seriously and sees this as the appropriate way for addressing efficiencies between smaller countries, making sure that there is mobility of labour and that technical assistance can be provided where those countries want it. The appointment of Greg Urwin as Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat is a very significant appointment and it shows how seriously Australia does address the issue of the Pacific islands. Last year I had the opportunity to be the parliamentary adviser to the Australian mission at the United Nations and in that forum, the various committees—the second and third committees—and the General Assembly, it was Australia and New Zealand who were always raising examples from the South Pacific. We talked about women in the peace building process: in the peace monitoring group in Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands and in East Timor. It was something that we were very focused on. Rick Nimmo, one of the deputies, went to Georgetown to speak about RAMSI. This is something that Australia is very focused on and which we are seen internationally as being very focused on.

If you look around the region, what has been the reaction to this? The Acting Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Don Polye, said that the suspension of ministerial contacts by Australia was ‘understandable but regrettable’. We have had two ministers resign from the Sogavare government after differences with Sogavare over his handling of the spat with Australia. We have these ministers saying:

I am not happy with how the Prime Minister is handling things. It’s like he’s pulling things backwards.

So what we have are members of the governments in these countries who are more supportive than the Australian Labor Party of the Australian government’s decision. I cannot understand the position of members of the Australian Labor Party on this. It is almost like they want to go to Suva or to Waigani and say, ‘We are really on your side. We would handle things much better.’ But, in the end, we have a good track record and a good story to sell. Australia has been very effective in cooperating with countries in the region on a whole range of issues, such as counter-terrorism, people trafficking and drug smuggling. This is something that we are very proud of. But it is not acceptable to have someone who is wanted for child sex offences spirited out of a country with the help of the Papua New Guinea government and a Papua New Guinea Defence Force aircraft. That is not acceptable, and when it is not acceptable, you should say so.

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