PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
We've both agreed that the RAMSI Intervention, the co-operative intervention in the Solomon Islands has been enormously beneficial, it's been very successful and both of us have very optimistic views about the future of the Solomon Islands. The realisation of that will depend very heavily, of course, on the maintenance of the gains that have been made; the emphasis placed on rebuilding of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force; the attack on corruption; the drive to have higher standards of governance and greater accountability in the public finances of the Solomon Islands; the successful prosecutions that need to be conducted in accordance with the rule of law against people who've been charged with crimes. Can I say that all of this has occurred as part of a new Pacific partnership. The atmosphere in the Pacific has changed. The action taken in relation to Solomon Islands, which was a co-operative Pacific effort and the action taken by Australia in relation to Papua New Guinea following on the highly successful meeting of the Pacific Island Forum in Auckland last year, all of those things represent a turning of the corner for the Pacific and a very important and positive development. But Sir Allan, I again welcome you to Canberra. You're a good friend of Australia and I am delighted that we have been able through RAMSI and the events of the past few months to further cement the very close friendship and ties between the peoples of our two countries.
PRIME MINISTER KEMAKEZA:
Thank you very much Prime Minister. I've just mentioned to the Prime Minister, John, that I am passing through to attend a conference overseas and because of a beginning of a new year 2004 and because of the progress of RAMSI's activities in the Solomon Islands, it's only proper that I call in to say thankyou to the Prime Minister, especially. He has made two visits in the Solomon Islands last year and I'm passing to him the greetings and the appreciation of the people of the Solomon Islands to the Prime Minister and his Government and people of Australia. So thank you very, indeed, John, for the vision and the leadership you have paid so far in helping this intervention force and the [inaudible] declaration and I'm very thankful, especially, of the progress of the RAMSI in Solomon Islands. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Any questions?
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] in Australia more easily as part of the reconstruction efforts of your country?
PRIME MINISTER KEMAKEZA:
That's an issue which we have briefly discussed and the Prime Minister will look at it. Of course, it may affect the policy of Australia. However I don't want to to pre-empt the position in the future on that.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Yes, we'll look at it. There are some issues that I indicated of precedent that could be involved and on first blush they are matters that might indicate there would be some difficulties and I'm not absolutely certain that it would be in the long-term interests of the Solomon Islands because it may well be that it becomes a way by which the people who are desperately needed in the Solomon Islands in fact leave the country and that would be of concern to me and I think long-term to the Government of the Solomon Islands.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, any decision yet on when the intervention force will be pulled out, in particular the police who are still working in the Solomons?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I think what we did a little while ago about the draw down was the right response at the time. We will continue to look at force levels according to need. We don't intend having successfully carried out the intervention so far, we don't intend to in any way prejudice the gains by a premature draw down. Having said that, you never leave personnel overseas longer than you should. So, it's a question of striking that balance. But we don't have anything in contemplation in the very near future.
JOURNALIST:
Are you confident that the intervention will root out high-level corruption in the Solomon Islands?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I would hope, Ian, that it does. The question of whether in the end it does is a matter ultimately for the government and the people of the Solomon Islands. We can state our views. We can provide the circuit breakers to allow a new start and a new assault to be made. In the end, though, it depends of the will of local populations. We have said very clearly that in the future, assistance will be conditional on the lessening of corruption and hopefully its eradification and also a lift in the standards of governance. Now, we've made that very clear and we don't intend to depart from that. The question of whether it is ultimately achieved or not will always depend upon the will of a local population and its government.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] discussed today?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Yes, in general terms, yes. Look, we're not so disrespectful of the rights of the Government and the people of the Solomon Islands to be keeping scorecards for things of that kind but our policy and our attitude is very clear and I know that that's understood and embraced by the Government of the Solomon Islands.
JOURNALIST:
What was reported on that today?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
We had a general discussion and there was general agreement of how desirable those goals were.
JOURNALIST:
What's you view on the push for a common currency for the South Pacific region? Do you think this is a good idea, a good objective as we move towards closer co-operation among the states of that region?
PRIME MINISTER KEMAKEZA:
[inaudible] idea, we're still looking at it. Since the some [inaudible] like Nauru, Kiribati, countries using the Australian dollar, it is a possibility to explore into this idea.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, can you tell us whether you'll be announcing the Government's response today to the committee report on WMD?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
There will be a response made on the behalf of the Government, but I'm not going to speculate what that might be until the committee's report is tabled, which I understand will occur at 12.30.
JOURNALIST:
You'll be announcing...?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
There will be a Government response to the committee's report when it is tabled.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] ONA in recent times. Do we need such an organisation? Should ONA be abolished?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
No, I don't think ONA should be abolished at all. I think it's an absurd proposition and let me say that I have a great deal of respect for and confidence in ONA and I certainly will not be joining any attempt to darken the reputation of ONA. I will be doing the reverse. I think ONA is a good organisation, the question of whether there may or may not need to be changes in that organisation is no different from the question of whether there may or may not need to be changes in a lot of organisations. But I certainly defend very strongly the desirability of having a central agency that provides assessments based on the material collected by the individual intelligence bodies. There's plenty of precedent in other countries for bodies similar to ONA and I've not seen anything in my examination of the agencies of the United States or the United Kingdom, which I'm more familiar with than any other, to suggest that the model we have here is seriously deficient compared with theirs, there are some arguments suggesting that there's less overlap, there's less conflict, there are less differences here than exist in other countries. That is not to say that you won't inevitably have some differences from separate intelligence agencies and that shouldn't be something to be frightened of.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, do you see the need for changes within ONA as it currently...
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I'm not arguing for anything at present, I'm simply stating that I have a lot of confidence in ONA and I won't be joining any attempt to darken its reputation, quite the reserve. I've worked very closely with ONA and I have a lot of respect for the people in it and I have a lot of respect for Kim Jones the former Director General who served in that position through its more active times given the events that have transpired since Mr Jones took over but as to any response to anything that may or may not be in the report we'll wait until it is tabled.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think there's a case Prime Minister...
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
We'll just have two more, we don't want to involve Sir Allan in matters of domestic Australian politics.
JOURNALIST:
... regional issue, Mr Howard obviously one of our next major initiatives in the region is the enhanced assistance programme for Papua New Guinea, were you concerned to see Sir Michael Somare last week saying that no immunity would be granted to Australian police working in Papa New Guinea.
PRIME MINISTER KEMAKEZA:
Well I cannot speak with what Papua New Guinea's is doing, but so far as the Solomon Islands is concerned we'll have an enabling act of parliament which takes care of all these issues in far as the Solomon Islands is concerned.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I think the appropriate way for me to answer that question is to say that we'll ensure that there are appropriate arrangements in relation to the activities of the Australian personnel.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, do you have full confidence in the head of the Defence Intelligence Organisation, Mr Lewincamp?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Yes.
Thank you.
[ends]