Phil Goff Speech: New Zealand and the Pacific region: Challenges and opportunities
Vice Chancellor Siwatibau, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for the invitation to address you here today.
It is very appropriate that this University is the venue for my speech tonight. USP, as the premier institution for
higher education in the region, has a key role to play in developing the future leaders of the South Pacific. New
Zealand is committed to its partnership with USP. I congratulate the current Vice Chancellor for his vision of the role
USP can play not only in educational fields but also in promoting the principles of good governance. The practice of
good governance is essential for the future stability and prosperity of the region.
Each year we bring a delegation of New Zealanders through the Pacific. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for Members
of Parliament, academics, Non Government Organisations, business people and officials to get to know the region and its
peoples better. On this trip we have been to Papua New Guinea, paid a brief visit to Honiara, and now we are here at the
hub of the region in Fiji - the crossroads between Melanesia and Polynesia.
New Zealand is a Pacific nation. Maori came to New Zealand from Avaikii across the Pacific. Our ties to the region are
deep and long standing. We have links in many spheres - historical, educational, cultural, trade, economic, political,
development and sporting connections, and many personal links through inter-marriage and through New Zealanders living
and working all over the Pacific. Today 6.5% of New Zealand's population comes from the Pacific. Six out of every 10 New
Zealanders of Pacific ethnicity were born in New Zealand.
We have special relations with the Cook Islands and Niue - which are self-governing countries in free association with
NZ - and with Tokelau, our sole remaining territory, with whom we are discussing their future, which will be decided by
an act of self-determination. We have special ties too with Samoa - a Treaty of Friendship and a special immigration
quota.
Our links with Fiji are close and longstanding. Between 40,000 and 50,000 New Zealanders have Fijian ethnicity -
Indigenous and Indo-Fijian. New Zealanders have come to work and make their home in Fiji. Fiji is also one of the most
popular holiday destinations for New Zealanders. We have served alongside each other in UN peacekeeping operations such
as the Sinai and East Timor.
We do business together.
Lastly but certainly not least, we have come absolutely to rely on the speed and skill of Fiji rugby players in the
Super 12, with no fewer than eight brilliant Fijian players in our sides. More modestly we contribute back to Fiji our
coaching skills.
New Zealand has long regarded Fiji as a pivotal player and a role model for development and leadership in the Pacific.
Perhaps it was that which intensified our sense of concern and disappointment when the rule of law and democracy were
once again overthrown by extremists in May 2000. New Zealand took a strong stand against the subversion of the Fijian
constitution at that time, not simply because it was contrary to New Zealand's values, which it was, but because it
breached the values and standards which the international community has set for itself. It breached the UN's
International Covenant on Civil and Political rights, the Commonwealth Harare declaration and the Pacific Forum's values
subsequently declared in the Biketawa Declaration.
We welcomed the restoration of democracy in Fiji and look forward to the resolution of the final outstanding
constitutional issue, the composition of Cabinet, by the Supreme Court in the very near future. New Zealand and Fiji
share many common values, working together on issues such as climate change, disarmament, protection of Pacific
Fisheries, and respect for multilateral processes. With the issues surrounding the coup finally disposed of; New Zealand
looks forward to full co-operation and engagement with Fiji.
A key issue in the international arena for both of our countries is terrorism and transnational crime.
The events of September 11th and the Bali bombings changed the world. We face a new and more precarious security
environment in the Pacific region. Previous challenges and crises have developed within the region as groups have
struggled to live alongside one another. Threats today also come from outside the region through transnational crime,
people and drug smuggling and international terrorism.
It is now essential for Pacific Island countries to put in place counter-terrorist and law enforcement legislation.
Implementing the raft of new measures places pressures on small island administrations which have many competing
priorities. While the Pacific seems an unlikely target for terrorist action, as pressure increases elsewhere, terrorist
and criminal organisations will look for weak links in the chain - a reputation our region cannot afford to gain.
Pacific Island leaders underlined their support for the international counter-terrorism effort in their endorsement of
the Nasonini Declaration on regional security at the Forum in Fiji last August. This declaration has two aspects: it
reiterates the regional commitment to putting in place law enforcement legislation, and recognises commitments under
United Nations Security Council resolution 1373 and the Financial Action Task Force special recommendations on terrorist
financing. In view of the nature of the threats that now exist, there is a need to make improvements to border security
- immigration and customs procedures, improving information gathering and sharing, and tightening up legislation on
financial crime. New Zealand, in cooperation with Australia and the US, is working actively to assist Pacific Island
states across this wide range of concerns.
Another major and longstanding challenge is disaster management. Cyclones are an annual event and even the most prepared
of states cannot prevent the devastation that follows - as Fiji found so tragically with Cyclone Ami. Outlying islands
can lose communications, and establishing if they need help, and delivering it if they do, can be a difficult task. New
Zealand has always stood ready to send help quickly to assist our neighbours in assessing damage and beginning
reconstruction. We have recently improved our disaster response communication and coordination with Australia and
France. Our response needs to be swift, effective and meet the needs of those affected.
A further key challenge for the region is the conservation and sustainable management of the Pacific tuna fishery. Fish
are a critical economic resource for the Pacific region, as well as a key food source. ADB figures show the Pacific
region is now the most important tuna fishing area of the world, supplying a third of world tuna production. The value
of the fishery is estimated at around US$2 billion. But Pacific Island States only receive a small proportion, 10% of
that value, with most of it leaving the region. For many Pacific States, getting a better economic return from the fish
caught in their waters will be an important step towards improved economic security. Working with the Forum Fisheries
Agency, New Zealand is playing an active role in the preparatory conferences to put in place the Commission which will
be needed once the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention enters into force. Those talks are chaired by a New
Zealander, Michael Powles. Fiji has also taken a leading role in that process, being among the five states that have
already ratified the Convention
Through the network of the Forum organisations the Pacific region is better served than many other regions of the world
when it comes to international negotiations. The collective voice of the region - 14 members of the United Nations - is
heard clearly in international forums from the UN General Assembly to negotiations on climate change, on the
preservation of biodiversity and on other issues such as the importance of indigenous rights and intellectual property
rights.
New Zealand has sought to assist our Pacific neighbors across a range of these areas - security, disaster management and
relief, natural resource utilisation, the strengthening of the Forum family of institutions - and in other areas too
such as good governance education, health, building trade capacity, developing eco tourism and so on.
One of the principal avenues for cooperation as been through Official Development Assistance (ODA). Last July we set up
the New Zealand Agency for International development - NZAID - to give greater focus and increase the effectiveness of
our ODA programs. NZAID has a central focus on direct and indirect ways of helping to eliminate poverty and a core focus
on the Pacific region.
Early European explorers in the region reported back that they had found paradise in the Pacific. In many respects the
Pacific is a place blessed by its beauty and climate. But the meaning of the word Pacific belies some underlying
tensions and problems that cannot be ignored. These include ethnic tensions, land issues, disparities in economic
development and corruption and failures of governance. All constitute threats to security and stability in the region,
and some of these factors are in evidence in a number of Pacific countries. But even in the midst of struggles there is
light as well as dark.
The conflict in Bougainville was one of the darkest chapters in Pacific history but after five years of peacekeeping and
negotiations the peace process is firmly established. The collection of weapons should soon reach the point at which the
UN Ambassador on Bougainville can declare that the ex-combatants have substantially complied with the terms of the
Bougainville Peace Agreement and Stage II of weapons collection is complete. That declaration will open the door to
consultations on a constitution for Bougainville and preparations for the election of an autonomous Bougainville
government.
All of us today must however be concerned at the plight of the government and people of Solomon Islands. Despite the
efforts of the former International Peace Monitoring Team and the ongoing efforts of the indigenous National Peace
Council and other civil society organisations, law and order and personal security - particularly on Guadalcanal and
Malaita - are precarious. The situation sank to a low ebb a few weeks ago with the cold-blooded assassination of former
Police Commissioner Sir Fred Soaki by a police officer.
The rule of the gun operates in Solomon Islands at present. The Government cannot rely on the police for protection and
is subject to intimidation and extortion. Leadership for change must come from within the Solomons itself, but friends
and neighbours must play a role encouraging and facilitating the changes needed to draw it back from the brink of
financial and political collapse.
In closing I want to return to the question of how New Zealand can further engage with the region. Last year Mike Powles
put forward a proposal for the establishment of a Pacific Foundation in New Zealand, an idea also promoted in the Labour
Party's 2002 election manifesto. I'm pleased to announce today that a Pacific Cooperation Foundation has been
established with government funding initially of $675,000 a year. The purpose of the Foundation is to increase
cooperation between New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours through media, cultural and public affairs programmes,
through projects that would benefit New Zealand and Pacific Island businesses, through academic excellence in Pacific
issues and through an exchange of views and information about Pacific and New Zealand issues.
The foundation, we hope, will become a centre for information and a forum for the exchange of views about issues
affecting New Zealand and the Pacific. It will promote and assist activities that increase mutual understanding and
constructive linkages between New Zealanders and Pacific people.
Those goals neatly encapsulate New Zealand's wider aspirations with regard to our region.
We are here today on the campus of the University of the South Pacific. New Zealand has supported USP from its
beginnings in the 1960s and we will continue to do so. Indeed, my colleague Marian Hobbs has today met with Vice
Chancellor Siwatibau to discuss how we can make our support more sustainable and strategic. I congratulate you, Siwa, on
your leadership of this university and on your determination to ensure its relevance to the challenges facing the modern
Pacific, including in establishing the important new Institute for Development and Governance.
Thank you for participating in this occasion this evening. I look forward to your questions and comments.