The establishment of the post of Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs by Australia's new Labour government is to honour a commitment that was made by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd during the General Election late last year.

Hon. Duncan Kerr, the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs said in Nuku'alofa this week, that during the election, Mr Rudd had pointed out the importance of the Pacific Region to Australia, "a corner stone of our foreign affairs strategic and security interests."

Duncan highlighted two specific areas of concern as, climatic change and political stability in the islands.

"There is no single area that is more likely to be profoundly influenced by climate change than the Pacific," he said.

With regards to civil instability, he pointed out the Solomon Islands as an example, of where a civil uprising could have been prevented if Canberra acted swiftly to request by the then government of the Solomon Islands, rather than "it sat on its hands,"

In order to pick up on the issues earlier, "we should focus on the region," he said.

Duncan said that big issues like climatic change, "are issues which we need to be sensitive to and respond to quickly." He emphasised that a rapid response would minimise the cost and the negative impact on the region of disasters such as riots that took place in the Solomons and in Tonga, and other challenges such as the spread of HIV AIDS.

Preventative strategy

We are working to develop a preventive strategy across the Pacific Islands, to minimise the chance to have the problems.

Travellling with Hon. Duncan Kerr on a three-day visit to Tonga, was the Hon. Bob McMullan, the Parliamentary Secretary for Australia's Development Assistance to the developing countries.

"We announced before the election that we would increase our assistance," he said. "It has been more than 10 years since we had someone specifically looking Pacific Islands affairs."

The Australian parliamentarians visited Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati.

"We are working to develop a preventive strategy across the Pacific Islands, to minimise the chance to have any problems, he said.