Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, will tell you that Fiji is a critical economic, transport and political hub in the Pacific, and that it plays a natural leadership role in the region. A thriving and prosperous Pacific will not be complete without a thriving and prosperous Fiji. In short, it was important to all of the nations in the Pacific, including Australia, that this election was a success.

Australia was invited to co-lead the multinational observer group, MOG, with Indonesia and India. Being part of this election was one of the most gratifying things I have done as a member of parliament. We were part of an accredited group of observers from the host nations, along with Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, the Melanesian Spearhead Group—which included Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands—New Zealand, Korea, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the USA. In all, there were 92 of us and we attended just over one-third of the booths in operation on the day of the election—all across the many islands of the country.

This is a country which had not had an election in eight years. Eight years ago, the voting age was 21. This time around, the voting age was 18. Still, many people, just under the age of 30 would be having the first democratic vote of their lives.

The enthusiasm shown by the voting public was overwhelming. As we travelled around Nadi, both in town and way up in the hills in the very small villages, the feeling was the same. They all wanted this and they were proud to be taking part in their own history.

Many people were ready early and stood quietly, in the sun, dressed formally to exercise their vote. The booth workers were incredible with their diligence to the task at hand and their attention to detail. When we finished, at around 11.30 pm, some of these booth workers had put in days of over 18 hours and still had smiles on their faces.

The work in creating the new voting system was no mean feat. The pressure on the Fijian Electoral Commission was huge. The targeted assistance by the brave and hardy band of Australian public servants who went over to help must never be underestimated. We did not take over; nor did we perform some form of big brother role. Our public servants worked side by side with one goal in mind: the return of full democracy to this great Pacific nation, so that this would be the first of many elections and Fiji would prosper because of that.

Many people were worried that it might be cancelled at the last moment, and many were worried that the result could be fixed. From what I saw—obviously, the election was not cancelled—the work of the booth attendants was absolutely first-class. They knew that if they did their job very well their nation would benefit. Not one booth worker I saw during that very long day was slacking off. They did not want a failure of this to be sheeted home to them personally.

John Howard would always say that the electorate always gets it right. To all involved I say: thank you and congratulations. To the hardworking staff of the Australian High Commission and the MOG I say a tremendous thank you and congratulations. The work they did in the lead-up to this over months and months was no mean feat. We had to make sure that this thing was going to be a success. The MOG was based in Suva and we travelled across the country. Some of us went to islands. Some of us went to other parts of the main island. But, to a person, we came back and, whilst you could nitpick on certain things and you could always pick holes in someone's arguments, there was a general consensus that this was hugely successful. And, for a first election, it was tremendously successful. The people involved should be very proud. Even more proud should be the people of Fiji—the way they turned up; the way they had their voter cards; the way, as they travelled about the next day coming back to Suva, everyone would show their finger where it was inked to show that they had in fact voted—that they had participated in it.

There was only one error in the entire time, and that really was not the fault of the Australian High Commission; it was actually ex-Senator Russell Trood who threw out the mathematics, leaving one particular member stranded at the hotel instead of getting to the airport on time. The member for Greenway will go down in history as the one they left behind! But it was very comfortable in Fiji—very comfortable indeed. So, to everyone in Fiji: we hope we will be back, and I say, 'Sola tale nima taha.'

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