PRIM MUTAINISTE
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF JOINT NEWS CONFERENCE WITH HIS ROYAL
HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH, WWF INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT,
SIR NINIAN STEPHEN, AMBASSADOR FOR THE ENVIRONMENT,
PETER HUNNAM, COORDINATOR WWF SOUTH PACIFIC CONSERVATION
PROGRAMME, WWF AUSTRALIA OFFICE, SYDNEY, 23 NOVEMBER 1990
E OE PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Does Australia put itself in a difficult
position, being a relatively wealthy country telling
developing Pacific nations they should make environment a
higher priority?
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS: No, because, that's exactly what I was
trying to say, that that's not the way it works. The fact
that Peter Hunnam here will be, the programme will be
developed in conjunction with the people in the region. I
mean, nothing will be imposed on them. They won't be told
what to do. Their problems will be discussed with them and
we will of fer to design projects to meet their particular
problems. Sc' it's very much a two way business.
PM: Could I just add something to what His Royal Highness
said there. As I've said before, talking about the
relationship of Australia with the countries of the South
Pacific generally, we've always got to be careful, we've got
to walk a fine line between, on the one hand recognising
what is the truth and the reality that they are sovereign
independent nations, and secondly that we are in economic
terms the big brother of the South Pacific and we have the
capacities to help and assist them. So we want to do that
in a way which recognises their own responsibilities. Now
we've tried to fashion our decisions in this sort of area,
as in others, in a way which recognises those realities.
Now how have we done that? For instance, we've made a
significant amount of money recently available to enable
them to participate in their own right at international
meetings and the international panel on climate change. We
just didn't go along and say look we're representing these
bodies. We made the money available to them so that they
could go and represent themselves. Secondly in the very
important area of the greenhouse emissions and the great
concern that we as a world community have about rising sea
levels, which for some of those islands are literally a
matter of life and death. I mean, if you look at Tuvalu or
Kiribati as probably the most obvious. I mean, we are
talking about literally life and death for those people.
2.
Now what we've done there is to make a significant sum of
money available where we're setting up monitoring stations
in these island countries and we're going to be training
their own people so that they can man those monitoring
stations so that they have a real sense of involvement in
the world-wide approach to dealing with these challenges.
So I think, while we'll never get it perfectly right, I
mean, I think we've got the basic approach right.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, one of those areas, that of
course borders the Pacific is Cape York. Yesterday His
Royal Highness mentioned as a first priority get that
joint land use study underway up there. I just wonder what
the hold-up mnight be?
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS: Could I just we had a discussion
about this before and there's obviously been a
misunderstanding. I said that this was necessary, well in
point of fact the Commonwealth Government has made the
0 finance available, the commitment has been made. This was
not apparent in Brisbane when I was there. There's
undoubtedly -the commitment by both Governments to a land use
assessment and eventually a land use plan for Cape York is
not in doubt. The commitment is not in doubt. I think, at
the moment, there's possibly uncertainty about how far it's
got. That's about all there is. But there's certainly a
moratorium on activities. I did want to put this straight
because I'm afraid I gave the wrong impression the other day
in Brisbane. I'm sorry would you
PM: Well I'm indebted to His Royal Highness. The position
there is that we have had discussions with the Queensland
Government and you can always tell whether discussions have
advanced or not. There's one very simple test. That is
whether you've committed money in your budget. Now I've
committed $ 1.5 million in this financial year's budget and
million in the next budget. That's already down, it's
committed, it's promised. We will undertake with the
0 Queensland Government this land use study which will be
looking at the environmental implications of proposals for
development and, of course also very importantly, the
implications for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island
people. we are really at this stage, as Your Royal Highness
said, we are in the process of working out the mechanics
between us of how that's being done. But the commitment is
there and you can be assured that no decisions will be made
unless and until both Governments are satisfied that any
such proposals are consistent with the proper environmental
and Aboriginal safeguards that should be in our minds.
JOURNALIST: Is there any real threat from the Chile meeting
that mining will be sanctioned in the Antarctic or not?
PM: No. I would, as I said, the Spring racing carnival is
over now, th~ e season of betting has passed. I'd be prepared
to take any sort of wagers you'd like I think the
Antarctic is; safe from mining.
3.
JOURNALIST: Your Royal Highness, with the French nuclear
testing and the burning of the chemical weapons on Johnston
Atoll, do you think there's a sort of an attitude from
Europe that the South Pacific is one of the dumping grounds?
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS: It's difficult to say. I suppose there
is. JOURNALIST: Do you disagree with the chemical weapons being
placed therel
HIS ROYAL HIG; HNESS: I'm delighted that chemical weapons are
being destroyed. I would imagine that the science of this
business is such that they're not in danger. I would be
very surprised if people who were doing it were so
irresponsible as to cause any sort of problems. I would
have thought that was very unlikely.
PM: Could I just make the point there because it has had
some coverage in recent months following the South Pacific
Forum. I mean, you should be aware, as I think you probably
are, that the United States accepted a delegation from the
Forum countries who had the opportunity of going there and
inspecting the operation, and of course more recently
President Bush met with the representatives of the Pacific
island countries in Hawaii. He, there, repeated the
assurance that was given earlier, and it's very important
that it should be understood, that the Johnston Atoll
facilities will be limited to these categories; those that
are already t~ here, those that are already stored, secondly,
and with the agreement of the Pacific island countries that
if there are any others that are found still in some of the
Pacific island countries, for instance, there's still some
in the Solomo~ n Islands area, those will be taken there plus
those that have been brought, this lot that have been
brought from Europe. It will be limited to that. The rest
of the disposal program by the United States will be done in
mainland America. Now I think from the feedback we've got
from the Pacific island countries that as a result of the
visits they've had and the discussions they've had with
President Bush that they're very, very much more satisfied
now than they were earlier when we were having the
discussions before and when they still felt they didn't have
all the information.
ends
W 1.