Australia, Tonga's biggest aid donor, will increase its aid to Tonga by 10% during the 2009-10 financial year, Hon. Duncan Kerr, the Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs said in Nuku'alofa recently.

"We firmly want to facilitate the growth of the Private Sector, . . . . Our main objective is to strengthen the economy of Pacific Islands," he said.

The 10% increase in Australian aid to Tonga that was announced by the Hon. Kerr on May 22 would mean that the Australian aid assistance to Tonga will go up from $AUD19 million to $AUD21 million in the coming financial year, maintaining Australia as the biggest aid donor to Tonga.

He announced the willingness of the Australian government to meet the salary of Tonga's new attorney general, when for the first time Tonga will separate the portfolio from the Minister of Justice. Tonga's last Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Hon. 'Alisi Taumoepeau resigned at the end of May and a new attorney general has yet to be named.

Hon. Duncan Kerr thanked the government and the King for the generous donation of $100,000 towards the Australian bush fires that ravage a huge area of Australia early this year. He also said that the Australian government was very pleased with the establishment of a Tongan High Commission in Canberra, which again cemented the good relationship between the two countries.

Pacific Partnership

He congratulated the Tongan government for the work it had done toward finalising the Pacific Partnerships for Development Agreement.

"The Partnership for Development Agreement flows from the Port Moresby Declaration. It starts out with the premise that the relationship will be build on mutual responsibility and mutual respect."

Hon. Kerr elaborated that within a Partnership Agreement between Australia and Tonga they would seek development cooperation in areas that has been identified by the Tongan government as priorities. "It would set out very clearly for both parties what is the expectation of the others and how we proceed. It is not an end to itself, but it means that we work clearly with our counterparts in Tonga how we are going to approach some of the development challenges that exist."

The Partnership will focus in helping Tonga achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The goals are:

1. End Poverty and Hunger

2. Universal Education

3. Gender Equality

4. Child Health

5. Maternal Health

6. Combat HIV/AIDS

7. Environment Sustainability

8. Global Partnership.

Hon. Kerr described the Partnership for Development agreement as an evolution of the Australian aid program to the Pacific Islands, including Tonga. "The current aid program will continue, but what it will be different is that (the Partnership Agreement) will be built around a very clear agreement between both parties, and it will be a very focused document that will give each side clarity of what is expected of each other. It does not mean we agree 100% but with the Partnership we will work around areas to find agreement. It won't change everything, but it does give us very solid basis to work on."

Negotiations

Tongan aid negotiators have met their Australian counterparts in February and in April and the Hon. Kerr was hopeful for a Partnership for Development Agreement between Tonga and Australia to be reached before the Pacific Leaders' Forum in Cairns, Australia, in September this year.

In the area of Free Trade, the PACER (Pacific Agreement for Closer Economic Relations) free trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands is already in existence between Australia and New Zealand, but it is still under negotiation between Australia/New Zealand and the Pacific Islands Forum countries.

The PACER negotiation was running in parallel with another free trade agreement, EPA between Pacific Island countries and the European Union. The Australia/New Zealand stance on PACER is that Pacific Island countries should offer them similar free trade terms as they would give to the European Union.

Trade agreements

The trade negotiation is on-going in these two fronts and while the negotiation with the Europeans has taken another dimension to include aid into their trade negotiation, Australia and New Zealand have introduced PACER Plus.

Hon. Kerr said that Australia and New Zealand are hoping to start the negotiation on PACER Plus after the Leaders' Forum in Cairns in September.

He said that PACER Plus, is based on a belief that island nations should benefit from free trade by strengthening the growth of their Private Sectors, "and the only opportunity for a strong private sector is the Pacific is to grow better trade relationship between Pacific countries and the outside world.

"The economic down turn at the moment gives us the opportunity to build the architecture and to strengthen the institution on the trade side to enable viable trade.

"We firmly want to facilitate the growth of the Private Sector, we need to strengthen the institutions which are related to trade, and to reduce their dependency on aid, and to grow their own economy. Our main objective is to strengthen the economy of Pacific Islands"

No time frame for Political Reform

With regards to the Political Reform program in Tonga, which New Zealand and Australia have been funding to the tune of several million, Hon Duncan Kerr said that his government was very pleased with the development so far, "we are pleased and we don't dictate any time frame. In Fiji democracy has been set aside, here it is going in the right direction.

"We are not the government of Tonga nor the opposition of the government of Tonga. We are an external friend of the people and the government of Tonga," he said.