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

First of all, I thank the member for Mitchell for his question and his interest. The government is very concerned about comments made last week by Commodore Bainimarama, who is the head of the Fiji military force, saying that he was planning to remove the democratically elected government of Fiji in the next two weeks if they do not accede to a whole series of demands that he as the head of the military has made.

The Australian government, the New Zealand government, the British and American governments and other governments—certainly those four—have made it absolutely clear to the Fiji military that this kind of language and these kinds of threats are completely unacceptable and that these threats, particularly if they are carried out, will threaten Fiji’s political and economic stability.

Last Thursday I spoke with Prime Minister Qarase of Fiji and suggested to him that it might now be worth reconsidering an earlier discussion we would have with Fiji about bringing together the Pacific Islands Forum foreign ministers to address this crisis and to do so under the auspices of what is called the Biketawa Declaration. I am pleased that Fiji, in its capacity as chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Secretary General of the forum, Greg Urwin, have now agreed to call this meeting, which will take place in Sydney on Friday.

We are doing everything we possibly can to try to stop Commodore Bainimarama from moving ahead with his coup in Fiji, but there is no doubt that he is somewhat committed to this course of action. We are deeply concerned about this and there will, of course, be significant consequences for Fiji’s standing in the international community. I also think it will make the Fiji military a much less attractive partner in peacekeeping operations for the United Nations and, indeed, for other countries—such as ours—which work with and train the Fiji security forces.

The Fijians, particularly the Fiji military, need to reflect on the fact that in 2000 there was a coup in Fiji and it had a devastating effect on Fiji’s economy—maybe not such a devastating effect on the people mounting a coup, although, indeed, in that case, in the end, it did. I mean by ‘economy’ the ordinary people of Fiji, whose living standards plunged as a result of that coup. A further coup will have exactly the same consequence on the livelihoods of the ordinary people of Fiji.

Given recent developments we have now upgraded our travel advisory for Fiji. We recommend that, due to the increasingly volatile situation, Australians reconsider the need to travel at this time. The situation there could deteriorate at any time without warning.

The government is making sensible preparations in case the situation does deteriorate so that not only are we able to respond through our consular mechanisms but also the Australian Defence Force will be able to help Australians if they get into difficulty in Fiji in the event of there being a coup. There are up to 7,000 Australians in Fiji at any given time; about 1,750 Australians live in Fiji, and we have 4,000 to 5,000 visitors there on any given day. We are very concerned about the comments made by Commodore Bainimarama—so are the New Zealanders and a number of other countries.

Commodore Bainimarama has been in New Zealand for the christening of his grandchild over the last few days, and the New Zealand government has used that opportunity to make very clear to him the views of the New Zealand government on this issue and the consequences for the relationship between New Zealand and Fiji if a coup were to go ahead. I hope the commodore understands these messages from Fiji’s friends and neighbours that the region is united in endeavouring to ensure that a coup does not take place in Fiji.

See this speech in context