Australian Foreign Minister gives $5m to speed-up Nuku'alofa recovery effort [1]
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 - 18:45. Updated on Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - 11:15.
Australia will contribute an additional AUD$5 million to the Business Recovery Fund in order to speed-up recovery for Nuku'alofa businesses that were affected by the riots of November 16, 2006, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Alexander Downer told a Press Conference in Nuku'alofa this morning.
The Business Recovery Fund, was jointly funded by Australia and New Zealand with AUD$2.6 following the riot last year, and to date has been the only direct financial assistance received by business that were affected.
The Foreign Minister who was in Tonga on a one-night stopover told local journalists that obviously Tonga has issues of political reform they are addressing as a country. Australia would not be offering a running commentary because these are issues the country has to work through themselves. But what he thought was important is that the process of reconstruction happens as quickly as possible.
He said that he told the Tongan Prime Minister Hon Dr Feleti Sevele today, that he would increase the Business Recovery Fund by AUD$5 million dollars initially, and if the money is not enough they will put more money into it.
"At this stage I don't know whether this money is enough or not but my concern is that this process of recovery taking place is a bit slower than what I would have liked," said Downer who believed that the quicker a recovery takes place, the better it is for the ordinary people of Tonga and it also important for the Tongan economy to get back into growth.
"So I am happy to put extra money into this fund and into this process to help a quicker recovery," he added.
Fiji tail-spin
Downer also commented on the situations in the Pacific region, including the Fiji coup and the New Zealand High Commissioner being told to leave; and how the Solomon Islands government had numerously asked the Australian led-RAMSI to back out, and what he thought about some of these countries blaming Australia and New Zealand for these situations.
Downer said that what Commodore Banimarama did with regards to the coup was "an absolutely disgraceful thing to do. And what worries me is that it has sent Fijii's economy into a tail-spin, This year their economy will decline by two and a half percent and its balance of payments is 24% which is massive and is a very high figure.
"What Commodore Banimarama did not just for Fiji but for the Pacific was a massive disservice. And if people blamed New Zealand and Australia that is about as desperate an argument you could ever find," he added.
Solomons
As for Solomon Islands, Downer said, nearly everyone in the islands thinks that RAMSI is a wonderful thing. My view is that there are elements of the Solomon Islands that find RAMSI intrusive and inconvenient but that is not the view of the public.
He said that what RAMSI does is provide law and order where law and order had broken down and what it does is that it helps provide health services, clinics and give children education.
"If this is Australia's fault, what is Australia's fault RAMSI, Australia in the end responded to a request from the Solomon Islands to put together a regional mission to save the Solomons. If they destroy this they will destroy the livelihood of tens of thousands of Solomon islanders."
Terrorists
The threat of terrorist attacks in the region, Downer thought in a country like Tonga such attacks "are highly unlikely."
He said that in a country like Australia there is a real risk and different countries have different structures and where there are people who want to create a kind of Islamic fundamentalists society "then you have got a problem."
"But there are one or two of those people in the Pacific so there are not too many", added Downer.
The Foreign Minister left Tonga for Australia today together with his wife and five of his entourage.