PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome on behalf of the Australian Government and the Australian people, the Prime Minister of Fiji on his third official visit to Australia as Prime Minister. The links between our two countries are long and very close. I congratulate him on his re-election, in May, and the rapid way in which he's implemented the bipartisan provisions of the new Fijian constitution. Fiji cooperated magnificently with Australia and other countries in the intervention in the Solomon Islands and I thank him very warmly for the contribution of Fijian personnel to that operation. Fiji has very graciously agreed to takeover the hosting of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting from Tonga, it had to be shifted from Tonga because of the ill health of the King. And I look forward, very much, to going to Suva for that meeting in a few weeks time. The Forum has assumed a far greater significance in the region in recent years and this meeting, like its predecessor meetings, will contribute enormously to the forward planning. Finally can I say the bilateral links between our two countries are strong, 180-200,000 Australians will visit Fiji this year and some 30,000 Fijians, not all of them footballers, will visit Australia during the course of this year. So those bilateral links are very, very strong and I hope this visit will further strengthen them. But Prime Minister my warm welcome to you and it's great to have you back in Canberra.
PRIME MINISTER QARASE:
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen it's indeed an honour and privilege for me to be visiting Australia again on the invitation of Prime Minister John Howard. I am glad that I made the decision to make my first visit to Australia since after the January election. Australia is a very important country for Fiji and a very important country for the Pacific Island region. Our links date back over 100 years ago plus, Australia is our biggest trading partner. It is our biggest source of foreign investment capital and it also the largest source of our visitors to our booming tourism industry, as you just heard from Prime Minister John Howard. I have taken the opportunity as well to thank Prime Minister Howard for the continuing assistance to Fiji over the years. In recent years the assistance to a number of our agencies and constitutions have been most welcome, in particular in our judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Fiji and also in our police force. And I also take the opportunity to thank the Government and people of Australia for continuing assistance in many other fields such as education and health.
We support Australia in the regional efforts in East Timor, the Solomon Islands, we are very happy to be playing our small role there. We know the many problems that still lie ahead and I'm sure that our two countries will be working together in those areas as well. We are very pleased to be able to host the Pacific Islands Forum this year and we are most grateful for the offer of assistance from Australia to assist us in organising that meeting. The Forum, of course, is a very important institution for the region. It is important that there is a vision, a focus, for the area and I think we're beginning to see that now, and also it is important that we get the cooperation of all members of the Forum so that the Pacific Plan, in particular, the implementation of that plan continues to be carried out in an efficient and effective way.
So again Prime Minister thank you very much for your warm welcome and the hospitality extended to members of my delegation and myself and my wife.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Thank you. Any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, were you aware that the CIA was running offshore prisons and are you comfortable with that strategy?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Look, I haven't come here to comment on American foreign policy.
JOURNALIST:
There are reports out today about the guest worker programme in the Pacific, suggesting that perhaps it's not a good idea to use immigration for skilled workers and that it may not be assisting the Pacific Islands either. Can I get your response, both of your responses to that?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well let me start... I have not read the report, this is the one that Helen Hughes has compiled. The Government's policy in relation to these issues is known and it hasn't changed. We do however strongly support the proposal to have an Australian Technical College for the Pacific established. The Prime Minister and I had some discussions about that and I will be providing a lot more detail regarding that plan at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Suva.
PRIME MINISTER QARASE:
Well we do understand the difficulties in Australia in relation to that proposal. We are aware of the difficulties. It is an issue that has been discussed between our officials and Australian officials and I think at this stage there'll probably be... to say that consultation is the game there. Whether to wait or not, that is yet to be determined.
JOURNALIST:
Superannuation Prime Minister, is the Government....are you considering revisiting the superannuation scheme for parliamentarians?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
In a totally bipartisan fashion, that matter has been under consideration and when it's appropriate to say more, more will be said.
JOURNALIST:
Do you support the plan by some backbenchers to increase...
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well I've given an answer and I don't intend to add to that answer except to reiterate that these matters can only be done on a bipartisan basis. And to make the point, unpopular though it may be with some, I do not believe Members of Parliament, particularly at a senior level, are overpaid. I think the burdens carried by senior Ministers and by senior office holders in the Opposition are greater than the burdens carried by many in the private sector who are far more highly paid than what they are. And I think that has to be said in the interests of the longer term health of the Parliamentary system. If we continue to engage in this mindless populism on the issue we will end up further reducing the quality of the gene pool of candidates available for high office, particularly at a time when salaries and remuneration in booming sections of the economy are so attractive.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, the Labor Party says that if it gained power it will abandon the use of conclusive certificates with relation to FOI, was that workable?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well don't listen to what they say, look at what they did. They're being hypocritical. When they were in office, they were up to their armpits in the use of conclusive certificates and I just don't believe them.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister do you regret bowing to Mark Latham's populism on super only a few years ago?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
The essence of these things is bipartisanship and precisely because they are issues that can be the subject of populism, including by some people in the media, unless you have a bipartisan position you can't sustain either existing positions or promote new positions. I do not believe that Members of Parliament are, in the main, overpaid. Obviously some, a small number perhaps don't merit the remuneration that others do, but overwhelmingly my experience has been that Members of Parliament on both sides work very hard. Many of them give up higher incomes when they come in here. Income is not the only thing but it's not irrelevant and I do think we are trashing the system if we continue to embrace cheap populism on this issue, and that may not be a popular view, and it will no doubt earn me a rebuke, but it's a view I hold. I thought the withdrawal of the bipartisan support for the old scheme ended the scheme. I mean you have to have bipartisanship on these issues otherwise the other mob just picks you off. And that's what happened in 2004 and therefore I repeat the discussions that have taken place have been bipartisan discussions and that is the only way in which you can conduct these things. And I think you all know that, and if you're honest about the subject you'll acknowledge it.
JOURNALIST:
Sir, recently the Australian Government's announced a significant increase in our Army and in the International Deployment Group of the Federal Police, specifically because it's foreseen that there will be more instability in the region. Do you share that pessimistic view and does it concern you that Australia has become the sheriff of the Pacific?
PRIME MINISTER QARASE:
Sorry I didn't get the first part of the question. I'm very sorry.
JOURNALIST:
I'm just wondering if you share the view that into the future there will be more Solomon Islands problems, more East Timor problems, perhaps problems in Papua New Guinea?
PRIME MINISTER QARASE:
Well I think firstly the expansion of the Australian military is an internal issue. I do not want to comment on it. It would be most inappropriate for me to comment on it. But in relation to possible problems in the Pacific Island countries I think the possibility will always be there. The issue I think is to try and assist these countries in creating the environment to discourage such activities to take place. And I think if we focus our mind on that approach rather that do some firefighting that will be the appropriate approach for all of us to follow.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Could I just place on the record my rejection of the proposition that Australia has become the sheriff of the Pacific. I don't accept that description at all, and we're neither a sheriff, a deputy sheriff, or a first assistant sheriff of the region, or indeed an acting sheriff.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, could I add to that question? The Fijian soldiers have a very great reputation around the world, significant numbers of them serve in the British SAS, I understand, I understand also there's hundreds of them working in Iraq at the moment as security contractors and this is partly apart of...product of their reputation but also a product of the high unemployment in Fiji. Do you have any concerns, so far I think in the last couple of years about 16 of them have been killed in Iraq and the death rate appears to be increasing, in recent months, would you feel that there's anything Australia can do in terms of offering employment, number one, and the Australian Army is recruiting comprehensively at the moment because we're short of manpower, do you feel that Fijian soldiers might be better off in the Australian forces rather than in the Middle East?
PRIME MINISTER QARASE:
Well we've had, as you've said about 16 deaths in Iraq and almost all of them, or all of them are recruited by private recruiting firms. Now in Fiji we do not stop people from making their personal choices in terms of employment, wherever they want to get employed, but in terms of working in Iraq and other dangerous spots, we do give them advice and warning that the risk would be great. That's the best we can do in Fiji. They are of course attracted by the high wages and they take the risk. It's a personal decision. In terms of our military forces, the members who are participating in those areas, they are participating very well, the casualty rate has been very good, very low indeed. And we continue to assist. The other day we just sent another 34 soldiers to assist the UN in providing security for UN personnel there. Now in terms of Australian military recruiting from Fiji or elsewhere, again that is an internal issue and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on it. But certainly there is a pool of people in Fiji, not only people interested in the military but elsewhere as well, who are looking for employment, not only in Australia, elsewhere all around the world. And as I mentioned, as a policy we do not stop our people from making their personal choices in terms of employment.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I think in the name of the plummeting temperature, we might make this the last question.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister Howard, will you entertain recruiting military forces from the Pacific Islands, including Fiji, if the attempt to recruit the increase is a problem for...?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well we don't have any intention at present of changing the current policy of not recruiting outside the normal recruitment areas that have been the case over the years.
Thank you.
[ends]