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

I thank the honourable member for Fadden for his question and his interest. I begin by joining with the Acting Prime Minister in expressing my condolences to the families of those affected by the Black Hawk helicopter crash on HMAS Kanimbla. It is important to say that the accident itself was not directly related to the trouble in Fiji except in that the soldiers were deployed to the region in case they were needed to assist fellow Australians.

Last night the Fiji military conducted what they described as an ‘exercise’ in Suva, and soldiers secured parts of the city and fired illumination rounds into the sea. The Fiji military say that this was in order to deter any foreign intervention in Fiji. They may claim that their exercise was successful; nevertheless, to the best of my knowledge there were no plans by any foreign power to intervene in any way at all in Fiji. So I think more realistically the exercise could be described as superfluous.

We continue to work with other countries in the region—and I particularly acknowledge New Zealand here—in order to discourage any illegal action and unconstitutional action by the Fiji military in relation to the government. As the House knows, there were discussions in New Zealand yesterday between the military commander and the Fiji Prime Minister; they are now both back in Fiji. They will be resuming discussions, we believe, and we very much hope that, through a process of discussion, the constitution will be upheld, the law will be upheld and the Fiji government will be able to continue to govern according to the democratic principles embraced by that country.

Tomorrow I will be participating in a meeting of Pacific Island Forum foreign affairs ministers, which will be chaired by the Papua New Guinea foreign minister. Papua New Guinea is the immediate past chair of the forum and Fiji is currently the chair of the forum, so obviously it would not be appropriate for Fiji to chair the meeting in these circumstances. So we all agree that it will be best for the former chair to take the chair on this occasion. I hope this will be a very useful opportunity for all foreign affairs ministers participating in the meeting to provide their support for the rule of law and constitutional processes.

That is important, of course, for Fiji first and foremost but, secondly, it is important for the reputation of the whole of the Pacific. If the Pacific is to have a reputation for instability and unconstitutional behaviour, including by the military, then that damages the whole region and not just Fiji. So I think this is likely to be a constructive meeting and another contribution that can be made to supporting a peaceful and sensible outcome to the differences that people in Fiji might have.

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