Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Minister, what is Australia doing to ensure that the 2006 Fiji elections will be free and fair? Are there any alternative policies?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Herbert. He comes from Townsville and we sometimes call Townsville ‘the Geneva of the Pacific’ because peace talks are being held there for the Solomon Islands and other places. It would not have happened if it had not been for the hard work of the current member for Herbert. It never happened when there was a Labor member.

The government welcomes yesterday’s announcement that Fiji will hold its elections between 6 and 13 May. When I was recently in Fiji I announced $3 million to assist with election planning and budgeting. Today I have announced a further $1 million to assist with voter registration, electoral officer training and support for the Fiji police and logistics.

Prime Minister Qarase will invite Australia to send observers to the elections. I am sure there will be a lot of volunteers from within the House for that position. It is our view—and I am sure all members of the House share this view—that the elections should be free and fair. Fiji has worked hard to recover from the 2000 coup. Its prosperity, particularly as tourism is so important to Fiji, depends very substantially on political stability and economic growth. It is important, let me say—particularly in the context of some of the comments that Commodore Bainimarama has made in recent times—that the military stays out of politics and respects the authority of the democratically elected government and the rule of law.

The honourable member asked if there were any other policies. If I may say so, the member for Maribyrnong, as the shadow minister for overseas aid and Pacific island affairs, knows a lot about these issues. The Leader of the Opposition described him as an excellent shadow minister. As I said yesterday, he has done a good job in that role and the Leader of the Opposition has been happy to see him wiped out by union heavies in his preselection. The Leader of the Opposition has form on Fijian affairs, because anybody who has bothered to read Bob Hawke’s autobiography—it is an interesting read—will recall that Bob Hawke revealed that at the time of the 1987 coup in Fiji, which I think was the first of those coups, the Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Defence and wanted to send the Australian military in to intervene in Fiji at that time. That is rather similar to his idea last year to send Australian helicopters into New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order relating to relevance. This was a very serious question. The foreign affairs minister answered it in a serious way—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am listening carefully to the answer by the minister. I call the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hawke said in his autobiography that he regarded these ideas of the Leader of the Opposition as an ‘amusing excess’. The point, of course, is that the member for Maribyrnong knows a lot about Fiji but the Leader of the Opposition has not stood by him, so Labor’s one source of expertise on Fijian affairs has now been lost.