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

The first point in relation to the patrol boat program is that this is part of the Defence Cooperation Program in the Pacific. Some years ago—I think it was during the life of the Hawke government; either the Fraser or the Hawke governments—the Australian government donated patrol boats to just about all of the Pacific island countries, including the countries mentioned by the honourable member. That program is now going through a process of reinvigoration and renewal in that these patrol boats are being refurbished and rehabilitated.

Some of them have been quite well looked after and some of them less so. Under the Defence Cooperation Program we have people from the Australian Defence Force in a number of countries in the Pacific solely to assist with the maintenance of the patrol boats. I note the honourable member referred to the fact that in Honiara the two patrol boats sometimes sit in the harbour. I would have to say I am pleased to see that because I recall a couple of years ago that one of those patrol boats went down the Weather Coast and a little bit of machine gunning of the shore and people on the shore was done from the patrol boat. So the fact that it is tied up at the moment is not necessarily all bad news.

In the case of Kiribati, the honourable member is right: the area for patrolling is simply massive, but the fact that they have some patrol boat capability is, at least, a minor deterrent to people conducting illegal fishing activities. These countries in the Pacific do not just depend on patrol boats; they also get assistance from the Royal Australian Air Force and the New Zealand Air Force and, if I recall correctly, the French Air Force, based in New Caledonia, who do aerial surveillance. The patrol boats can act on information that is provided to them. Illegal fishing obviously is a problem for the region. I would not put it in the same league as in some other parts of the world. The honourable member is from Perth, and off the north-west coast of Western Australian and across the north coast of Australia the illegal fishing problem is a very significant one. What happens out in Kiribati, I suspect, is a relatively small problem on that scale.

As far as whaling is concerned, we obviously provide aid programs to these countries and not in order to win their votes in international fora. To be fair, I suspect the Japanese are not motivated, at least solely, by trying to win their votes in the International Whaling Commission or other fora in the provision of their aid programs. Japan is a big aid donor in the Pacific and we are grateful for the work that the Japanese do. A lot of it is done in cooperation with us. There are allegations about some Japanese activities in some countries, not just in the Pacific but in the Caribbean and in other parts of the developing world and Africa. Obviously, in rounding up the votes in the International Whaling Commission, it is a fierce contest. We depend heavily on the votes of countries such as Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra—and their fishing fleets are not big, I think you probably realise, if you think about those countries. The Japanese obviously work very hard to get votes as well in their own way.

One final point I would make about this is that the argument that the Japanese have been putting to countries like Kiribati, whatever else may be behind the way they vote in the International Whaling Commission, is that whaling is important in the conservation of fisheries. They have been led to believe that the whales come and eat fish. It might not be an argument that appeals to us or to environmentalists, but it is an argument that has been sold, for example, to the Kiribati government, so you hear that from time to time. I thank the honourable member for his contribution.

See this speech in context