Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Fiji is my ancestral home. My mother was a descendant from the island of Bau, the royal island. It was quite momentous for me to visit Fiji for the first time, to watch in great anticipation as a member of the Multinational Observer Group for Fiji's election day and to see the sun rise over the bay in Levuka on the morning of polling day, Wednesday, 17 September. I was deployed to the island of Ovalau as part of the MOG 42 team, which included Wyatt Creech, former deputy prime minister of New Zealand, Sandra Kraushaar, the Australian liaison officer, and Aisake Rasalala, our driver.

I am sure it could be said for any number of beautiful places in Fiji, but I think that, if you had only 24 hours in that country, circumnavigating Ovalau would give you a fantastic insight into Fiji and its people. Even on Natovi jetty, waiting for the ferry on the afternoon before, which was running on island time, we had the opportunity to speak to lots of locals. There was great enthusiasm. Many were in their late 20s and had never voted before and were relishing the opportunity.

As we were briefed on before our departure, however, there was an air of distrust in society. The night before the election, in Levuka, we were talking to some Fiji nationals originally from the United Kingdom. A man named David, who had made Fiji his home, said, 'Sure, we will queue up tomorrow morning, but what happens in between my vote going into the ballot box and that box making its way to the counting station in Suva?' We explained that, unlike in previous elections, this voting was occurring on one day only. The count would be conducted at the venue and the results posted outside. And there David was, queued up at 7 am the next day at Levuka town hall. We covered around 12 polling booths—just about all of them, I believe, on the island. Many of these, as I am sure my colleagues in the MOG would attest, were small villages, such as the village of the Lovoni, which was in the centre of Ovalau. In order to get to this polling place we literally had to climb a mountain, and one side of the mountain was on fire! It was no mean feat that we managed to not only make it to that booth but to also observe the absolute professionalism of the Fijian officials who were conducting and overseeing that booth.

Our day started well before 7 am at the Levuka town hall, and the day ran so smoothly from that point onwards. As I said, it was an absolute tribute to the Fijian people. Most people voted early. It was a public holiday, so from about lunchtime some of those booths had very few or no voters at all; however, those officials held their posts. They did not leave; they did everything in accordance with exactly how they had been trained. I want to place on record how professional the local polling staff were at each booth we visited. They were dedicated; they found workarounds. They found a way for everything, from bringing their own chairs to the care they took of voters, especially older voters, many of whom had eyesight issues—unfortunately, this is very common in some parts of Fiji. They would bring them a table; they would bring them a booth. Even if they needed to assist them in saying what number they wanted to cross, they would take such time and care with them. That is a tribute to not only the polling officials but also to the patience of the Fijian voters. Many of them had been queueing, often in the sun, for a long time but there were no complaints when elderly or frail people were brought to the head of the queue to vote.

We had a debrief the following day, and as my colleagues there will attest I think there was a point when the Australian delegation said, virtually with one voice: 'Look, this needs to be judged by Pacific standards, not by a European or any other standard. Sure there may have been some glitches, sure maybe even some of the processes were over-engineered in part, but this process was a credit to its people.' The fact that our own scrutineering matched almost exactly the official tally results gave us a good sense of the veracity of the early results.

I also want to place on record my thanks to all the MOG team, the high commission and the department, and all the locals and the NGO staff who were engaged in the process. We will be having a debrief next week, but following the preliminary statement I think it is right that we should reiterate that preliminary statement here today. In the view of the MOG:

There is so much potential for Fiji to grow and take its place as a leading nation and economy in the Pacific. There is significant foreign direct investment going into many sectors, including construction; there are opportunities for long-term industry given industry is a common language; and, above all, its beautiful people are its best resource. I proudly wear the Fijian and Australian flags today. I say, 'Bula vinaka,' to the people of Fiji. Thank you very much; I look forward to us having long-term relationships as parliamentarians.

Debate adjourned.

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