Transcript
MURRAY McCULLY: The big focus of course is to deliver electricity to the 85 percent or so of the population who don't have electricity. It is one of the wider strategies of the NZ government but while I was there I had the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister O'Neill, Foreign Minister Pato, James Marape the Finance Minister, and others, to talk about the immediate challenges around the elections, for which some NZ support is being provided, and of course to look forward to APEC, which PNG is hosting in 2018, which is a very significant undertaking and one which will call for help from the neighbourhood as well.
DON WISEMAN: The election four or five months away, ahead of that of course, the country is facing very dire economic news. Was this a subject broached?
MM: Oh yes of course. In fact it is one of the reasons I wanted to talk to the Minister of Finance, just to ensure there is a good understanding on our part of how they are managing the significant challenges. Oil prices of course have diminished the returns they had hoped for from their LNG resource. Some of the signs on oil prices are a little bit more positive now but it is going to be some time before we are going to see major relief in that department. So they are managing their currency tightly, they are looking at Budget economies this year that are quite significant.
DW: There has been a lot of criticism from the IMF about the state of the economy.
MM: Well I haven't seen the full IMF report. I have seen some of the media reports around it but the foreign currency situation - I wanted to discuss this because there are NZ firms that are involved in businesses, contracting arrangements and so on, and I wanted to make sure that their concerns were properly lodged.
DW: What sort of help can you give PNG for the election?
MM: Well our Electoral Commission has a long history now of assisting countries that need help with the logistical arrangements for elections, so the Electoral Commission is again involved, but there has also been a request for New Zealand observers to speak to the integrity of the elections. We'll certainly mount a team of observers, they'll serve alongside others from Australia, the Commonwealth and other interests and we will also be looking for any areas where we can provide a little extra logistical help. These things usually require some last minute assistance.
DW: Now you also went to Bougainville. NZ already has a significant police presence there. There have been other requests for assistance directly from Bougainville, requests to Australia and NZ for additional help. Are you able to offer Bougainville more help?
MM: Yes we are and it was really with that in mind that I wanted to make another personal visit. We are going into a very challenging period, pre the Referendum in 2019, and first and foremost it will be necessary for us to offer more assistance to the Referendum and Reconciliation Commission. I had good discussions with them. They will play a very important role going forward and need every bit of assistance we can give them.
DW: What sort of assistance Mr McCully.
MM: Well that is something that the Electoral Commission in NZ and the Referendum Commission will continue their discussions about, but it will be pretty broadly based support with them directly and there will be follow-up discussions with officials and I have made sure that [PNG] Prime Minister O'Neill is comfortable with the role that New Zealand is able to play there. But there are other things necessary to ensure the stability and security of Bougainville. You mentioned the police presence here. We have got 12 officers, they play a very important role, I have met with them. And on the economic development front there is clearly a need for us to do more to try and boost the number of people who have got gainful employment there. It's challenging but we have got to do better there.
DW: Any ideas of what you might do in that regard?
MM: Yes yes I have have good meetings again looking at some of the developments that are possible in the area of agriculture. We are already doing some of this through the GIF arrangement, which is a joint Australia/ NZ funded initiative with the ABG. But I met with them to see how we could expand role. We are just about to renew our GIF commitment through to 2020. Areas like fisheries which pretty much are untapped. Certainly of great interest from our point of view given that we are already spending $NZ50 million of capacity building money in the Pacific in the fisheries phase and focussed around tuna sand. This is a place that is on the main highway from tuna point of view, so all those opportunities, difficult, challenging but actually there is potential there and we need to do a better job of developing these opportunities.
DW: Well you have only just arrived in Solomon Islands. There the focus is going to be what after RAMSI leaves, and that's only a few months away now. What are you going to be able to offer Solomon Islands?
MM: Well we have to first of all look at the security issues post-RAMSI. Australia has already made some significant commitments in the security space, we have said we will as well, and scoping work is now being done to dovetail in with the Australian effort. There has been very good progress made in the aviation sector. Just flying over the islands here again I'm reminded of the potential of tourism. Tourism has spectacular opportunities here, if we can just get a few things right, particularly around airports. And we have had some significant history there with the development of Munda and Gizo airports where we have been asked quite recently to look at extending that to three or four other airports, to really open up tourism as a significant industry that will provide employment, foreign exchange earnings and of course for import substitution - local growers get a chance to supply goods for the hospitality sector.
