Hon MURRAY McCULLY (Minister of Foreign Affairs) : I wish to take a brief opportunity to update the House on recent developments in New Zealand’s relationship with Fiji. As has been reported by some media, I took the opportunity of a transit through Fiji last Saturday to conduct further discussions with my Fijian counterpart, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola. My meeting with Minister Kubuabola last Saturday followed ongoing email contact over many months, a visit to Nadi by myself in early January, and a trilateral meeting involving Minister Kubuabola, Australian Minister Stephen Smith, and myself in Canberra earlier this month.

We have two objectives in carrying out this dialogue. Firstly, we wish to start to restore the diplomatic capacity in our Suva mission that has been depleted by progressive disputes with Fiji’s administration. Since July 2007, we have lost three heads of mission and a trade commissioner who was the spouse of one of the heads of mission, as well as losing the capacity to replace both the police and defence attachés as they departed. This has seriously threatened our capacity to deliver the range of services that we would expect to deliver from the mission, including our capacity to conduct meaningful dialogue with the Fiji administration. It is fair to record also that recent expulsions have affected Fiji’s Wellington mission in a significant way, and it has been similarly motivated to improve this position. Secondly, it is our objective, having improved our capacity to conduct a relationship, to attempt to resolve some of the significant and strongly held differences that are held between us. That will not happen tomorrow, but I do hope that it will happen over time.

The first phase of these discussions is essentially bilateral in character. That is understood and accepted by our Australian friends, who, although they have lost one head of mission late last year, have in every other respect a normal working mission in Suva, with a staff complement in the mid-20s. If and when the dialogue touches on the restoration of high commissioners, a three-way conversation will resume, involving Australia. I have kept closely in touch with my Australian counterpart, Stephen Smith, whom I briefed most recently last night. When there are wider issues touching sanctions in the discussions, there will naturally be a need for the Pacific Islands Forum, and potentially the Commonwealth, to engage.

On Saturday I was able to confirm the appointment of first secretaries in our respective missions. Fiji’s first secretary has now taken up her appointment and our first secretary, Phillip Taula, will take up his position in Suva early in March. Fiji has sought to appoint an honorary consul in Auckland, to which favourable consideration is being given. New Zealand has today put forward the name of a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official for the position of New Zealand trade commissioner in Suva. I have been assured that this proposal, too, will receive favourable consideration.

I am aware that there has been some media speculation in Fiji that I might meet with interim Prime Minister Bainimarama when he is in Hong Kong next month. It is correct that at this stage our respective diaries place both Mr Bainimarama and myself in Hong Kong for 2 days in March and that, in principle, we have agreed to take the opportunity to have an informal meeting, if this proves logistically possible.

I reiterate today what I have stated on previous occasions: our engagement with the Fijian administration does not signal a change in policy, nor a change to the sanctions regime. Our commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and human rights is undiminished. I hope that we will, as a result of this dialogue, be able to consider changes to the sanctions regime at some point in the future. That will require that we make progress on some of the important and difficult matters over which we currently disagree.

There has been significant media interest in this matter here and in Fiji, and some colourful reporting of it, not all of it fully accurate. For that reason, I wanted to brief the House today on these developments. I trust that members will welcome the fact that we are making progress in small steps but also appreciate that there will be significant challenges and, no doubt, the odd setback as we move forward. Thank you.

Hon CHRIS CARTER (Labour—Te Atatū) : The New Zealand Labour Party supports the Government’s efforts to strengthen the diplomatic capacity of our Suva mission and to use diplomatic channels to try to make progress on the outstanding political issues involving Fiji, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Commonwealth. The links between the people of New Zealand and Fiji are strong. They are based on geographic proximity, a shared Commonwealth history, and strong people-to-people links, particularly of the large number of New Zealanders who were born in or who have family in Fiji. The Labour Party wants to resolve the problems that followed the overthrow of democracy and its replacement by a military regime. We support dialogue that seeks to achieve that objective. However, dialogue between New Zealand and Fiji must be a two-way process.

Issues of concern in relation to Fiji have become worse over the last 2 years. To summarise, there is no clear timetable or commitment to restore the right of Fiji’s people to elect their own Government in place of the current military regime. There has been direct interference by the administration in the independence of Fiji’s judiciary. There has been continuing censorship of the media. There are overt restrictions on people’s freedom of speech. There have been arbitrary arrests, killings, and beatings of people in police cells, as reported recently by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other respected non-governmental organisations. Labour believes that if sanctions are to be lifted, then these issues will need to be addressed and responded to positively by the current regime in Fiji.

Concessions made by New Zealand and the Pacific Islands Forum cannot send the message to the wider Pacific region that the overthrow of a democratically elected Government by force does not have serious consequences. Should the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully, meet Commodore Bainimarama in Hong Kong in March, we believe that he will need to give a strong message that a clear pathway towards the restoration of genuine democracy in Fiji is fundamental to improving relations between our two countries.

Labour strongly desires the restoration of a positive relationship with Fiji, and engaging in dialogue is important in achieving that. Success in achieving it, however, requires a positive response from the interim Fiji administration.

KEITH LOCKE (Green) : The Green Party supports the statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We support the reopening of the New Zealand High Commission in Fiji and we favour dialogue, but we say that this dialogue should be not just with the military regime but with all sections of the Fijian community. It should not be seen as a sign that somehow things are getting better in Fiji, because they are not. Unfortunately, the longer the military regime stays in power, the more it gets used to being in charge, to throwing its weight around, and to abusing the rights of its citizens, so I do not see that this re-establishment of relations is in any way an accommodation to the regime.

In fact, just recently, on 30 December, three magistrates in Fiji were sacked. This sacking follows on from the decision made in July last year to get rid of the Chief Magistrate, Ajmal Khan, and another magistrate. The judiciary is being seriously undermined. There have also been continuing attacks on the media, which have got worse recently, particularly with the changes to the sedition laws that enable people to be prosecuted and imprisoned for what they write, even on blog sites on the Internet. Even Fijian citizens living outside the country who return to Fiji can be subject to these new sedition laws.

The sedition laws also allow publications, websites, and all kinds of things to be closed down by the regime. Opposition voices are being suppressed. Just recently the Government said it had the right to effectively cancel the pensions of dissident voices in the community. I think even General Rabuka was affected by that action.

We need dialogue not only from New Zealand but together with the Pacific Islands Forum, the European Union, the United Nations, etc. all combining to put pressure on the regime to return the country to democracy and to democratic elections. Sanctions are part of this dialogue—although, of course, they have to be finely targeted in order to affect members of the regimes. It is good that over the last couple of years we have not had cases of Scouts who want to come here being affected, and things like that. The sanctions should be focused on the members of the regime, not necessarily on their families. If we combine with the international community, we can make some progress. Thank you.

Hon HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) : The ACT Party is also supportive of the ministerial statement made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. ACT supports the recent developments and finds it very encouraging that talks have been re-established and that a head of mission is being re-established.

The return to democracy in Fiji is absolutely crucial, and the way in which we go about that as a country is very important. Not having a head of mission is certainly not productive; in fact, it is counter-productive. The proposal to have a trade commissioner in Fiji is also a step in the right direction and a productive move.

Isolation is not the answer to Fiji’s problems. It is certainly not a path that the ACT Party believes that New Zealand should go down. So the recent developments in re-establishing talks are certainly very encouraging. We should remember that Governments can do all sorts of things but that the people who suffer the most as a result of those decisions are the Fijian people themselves. We should be very mindful of the fact that the economy suffers and the people themselves suffer when dialogue ceases.

New Zealand has a very long history with Fiji and that too should not be forgotten when we look at the Fijian situation at present. New Zealand, of course, at one stage had an air force base in Fiji. We have long served in UN missions with the Fijians, and, of course, we have a long history also of fighting side by side with Fijian troops, particularly in world wars.

Relationships are crucial. We must keep the dialogue open to negotiate the challenges that the Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke of, and we look forward to seeing further progress in this light. Thank you.

Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Māori Party) : Tēnā koe kai te Rangatira, te Kaiwhakawā o te Whare nei. Tēnā tātau e huihui mai nei i tēnei rāngi. Anā, i tae tūreiti mai au, kāore i rongo atu ki te kaupapa e haere nei engari i te whakarongo atu. Kai te mōhio kai hea te iwi Māori e tū ana. Nā reira, kāre mātou e mōhio ana ka tū tēnei kaupapa hai pou herenga kōrero mō tātau i tēnei rangi ērangi, kei konei ngā whakaaro o tō mātau pāti nei. Kei te tautoko mātou kia whakaarahia ake anō te huarahi kia taea e tātau te kōrero ki a rātau o Hītī, kia kōrero i ngā kōrero, kia nohotahi, kia kimihia he huarahi, kia noho ātaahua, kia noho pai ai ngā iwi whānui o Hītī. Nā reira tēnei mātau o te Pāti Māori nei e tautoko ana tēnā kaupapa.

Kai a mātou hoki te tono o ngā iwi Māori kia haere rātau ki reira kōrero ai. Kai reira e tārewa tonu tēnā kaupapa i mua i te aroaro o te Kāwanatanga. Kai te reri ngā manakura o ngā iwi Māori ki te haere ki reira ki te kōrero tahi ki a rātau hoki ngā tangata i reira. Engari, ka tika tēnā kōrero, kai te pai ki a mātau kia whakaarahia anōtia, kia whakatūria anōtia ngā kōrero, kia kimihia te huarahi kia noho ātaahua, kia noho pai ai ngā tangata o Hītī. Hoki au ki tēnā whakataukī nui a te iwi Māori “He aha te mea nui o ngā mea katoa? Māku e kī atu he tangata, he tangata, he tangata”. Kia ora tātau.

[Greetings to you, Mr Speaker of this House, and to us all assembled here today. Now because of my late arrival, I did not hear the speeches as the matter before us progressed, but I was listening. I am aware of Māoridom’s position on this matter as well. Therefore, while we were unaware that this matter would be the subject of debate for us today, here are the views of our party. We support the move to set up a process again that will enable us to dialogue with those of Fiji, to talk the talk, to live as one, and to seek a way that will see the people at large of Fiji living harmoniously and well with each other. So we of the Maori Party support that strategy.

We have the request from Māori tribes, as well, for them to go there and dialogue with them. That request is currently before the Government. Māori tribal leaders are ready to go there and dialogue with the people of Fiji. But we are comfortable with that statement about seeking a way to enable dialogue to resume so that the people of Fiji can live harmoniously and well with each other. I go back to that great aphorism of the Māori people “What is the greatest thing of all things? I will say, it is mankind, mankind, mankind”. Greetings to us all. ]

Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) : I join with others who have expressed general support for the position that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has outlined in respect of New Zealand’s developing relations with Fiji. Clearly, the position since 2006 has developed into a stalemate. We cannot go on with frequent mutual expulsion of high commissioners and diplomatic representatives and expect that that of itself will lead to progress, so I welcome the initiative that the Minister has indicated in the House today.

I also want to pick up what I thought was the thrust of comments made by the previous speaker, Dr Pita Sharples, in terms of the people-to-people relationship. One of the difficulties in this issue as it has unfolded over the last 3 years, particularly listening to some of the Fijian communities in New Zealand, is that there was not a great deal of love for the regime that preceded the current regime. The level of democracy apparent in Fiji was not, in fact, all that real, and there were significant issues relating to corruption and other activities that people felt that the new regime—the interim regime—was at least attempting to resolve.

It seems to me that in terms of the pathway forward the rather cautious approach that the Minister has outlined is correct. It will allow time for some of those matters to be discussed and debated, and for solutions to be arrived at that derive from the Fijian people but are not imposed on them from outside. So I acknowledge my support, certainly, for the steps that the Minister has taken; I think that they are prudent. I think that the discussions with his Australian colleague are also timely and prudent.

It may well be that if there is a discussion with the commodore in Hong Kong in the next month or so, in the vein that the Minister has described, then that will also lead to more progress. I think this initiative is a good step forward.