AUST: Downer hopes the right thing will be done over Moti
Updated
Australia's Foreign minister Alexander Downer says eventually the Sogovare Government or a subsequent Solomon Islands government "will do the right thing" about the appointment of Australian fugitive lawyer Julian Moti as the country's top law officer. Mr Downer's statement -- on the Moti appointment and concern the new Attorney-General may act to undermine the Regional Assistance Mission's ability to do its work -- has been published in a letter sent to the Solomon Star.
Presenter: Alexandra Kirk
Speakers: Alexander Downer, Australia's Foreign Minister
DOWNER: Well I think look at the end of the day people in Solomon Islands know that it's important that RAMSI remains in the Solomon Islands and that the Australian government and the other governments of the Pacific Islands which support RAMSI, it's obviously led by Australia, that they're sticking with the people of the Solomon Islands regardless of what the government does.
KIRK: Are you hoping that people power will be mobilised in the Solomons against the Moti appointment?
DOWNER: I don't think people power will be mobilised against the Moti appointment, I'm just in relation to Moti focussed very much on making sure at the end of the day the Solomon Islands government or a Solomon Islands government in the future does the right thing, and I'm sure eventually that will happen. I don't try to reach out to the people so much on the Moti issue, I do on the RAMSI issue.
KIRK: Well clearly Australia and New Zealand getting angry about the Moti appointment has no effect on Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, in fact it probably hardens his stance. Are you looking now to the 16 nation Pacific Islands Forum to take a stand?
DOWNER: No we're not, no, look I don't think anything will persuade Manasseh Sogavare that Julian Moti shouldn't be appointed the Attorney General. I don't think there's ever been anything we've been able to do about that. But he has made his country a laughing stock as a result of making a person who's facing child sex charges in Australia and an Australian citizen the first law officer of his country. Look as time goes on I think increasingly the Solomon Islands government will reach the conclusion that that is an appropriate judgement. But look it'll take time and all of these things require a good deal of patience.
KIRK: The Pacific Islands Forum is meeting in Tonga in October, are you hoping to put some preliminary work in now as you head to Tonga?
DOWNER: Well we're really going to focus at the Pacific Islands Forum on a couple of things, we'll be focussing on RAMSI, the review of RAMSI that's taking place and making sure that RAMSI's able to continue to do its work regardless of what Mr Sogavare and Mr Moti might otherwise have in mind. We also want to give some focus to the Fiji issue because we remain very, very concerned about what's happening in Fiji as a result of the coup, the economy is really heading south now and that worries us a lot, and that has all sorts of economic, social and one day political implications for Fiji, so that I think is a matter of concern for the whole of the Pacific, not just Australia.
KIRK: Now you say that Australia is ready to assist Fiji with technical and financial support in the election, which is due in 2009. But that Australia needs a demonstrated commitment by the Fiji regime in the form of concrete steps towards an election. Does that mean that Australia's support is conditional?
DOWNER: Yes our support is conditional and the support of other countries which engage with Fiji like New Zealand and the European Union and America that is conditional, that is that the administration if you could call it that in Fiji, Commodore Bainimarama needs to put in place the structures that will lead to an election as soon as possible, and it's been judged that it could be sooner than early 2009, but the Fiji so-called cabinet has given an indication that it supports the holding of an election by that time, and we could help with that. But I mean if it's not going to happen, if this is just playing for time and Commodore Bainimarama doesn't have any real interest in relinquishing power to anybody any time soon well then it seems to me the consequences of that are already being felt in Fiji - the economy's declining by about two and a half per cent this year, the country's got a balance of payments deficit of 24 per cent of GDP, which is reaching a point of unsustainability. You're seeing unemployment rise and increasingly the nuts and bolts economic consequences of what Commodore Bainimarama and the army have done are becoming apparent to people in Fiji.
KIRK: So what are you wanting them to do then?
DOWNER: Put in place the practical mechanisms to return to democracy, not just make a statement that in principle they'll endeavour to return to democracy by early 2009, which is fine but we want more than a principle, we want the practice. So we need them to sit down with us and with other Pacific Island Forum countries and start working out how we can all help them with their census and with the reapportionment of their electoral boundaries with the Electoral Commission over all, and drawing up electoral rolls. They're the things that all have to be done and we can help them with those things but they need to get on with it and start talking both internally and with external donors about how that can all be done within a good timeframe.
KIRK: In visiting Nauru and Tonga did you consider going to the Solomons to put your concerns about the Moti appointment and any implications for the Regional Assistance Mission directly to the Solomon Islands government?
DOWNER: No I think they know pretty well where we stand on all of that, there's no need to go there and tell them.
