LORD CAITHNESS' VISIT: DISCUSSIONS WITH MINISTERS AND PARLIAMENTARIANS: 7 AND 8 MARCH
1. Working Lunch With Members Of The Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee
Lord Caithness had an informal working lunch with thirteen members of the back-bench Committee.
The atmosphere was extremely friendly and exchanges were warmly received. The main topic was Papua New Guinea (from where the Committee had recently returned from a seven day visit); Hong Kong, South Africa, Malaysia and Fiji were discussed to a lesser extent. Questions came predominantly from Senator Schacht, Mr McKellar and Mr Sinclair.
Papua New Guinea
The overwhelming mood of those members who had recently visited Papua New Guinea was one of pessimism. Senator Schacht, Chairman of the Committee, did not think that the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) would be able to meet the terms of the Honiara Declaration. They had only four weeks to complete negotiations and little progress had been made. PNG would not countenance secession as the income from the Bougainville mines was too important to the economy. The situation was not helped by the attitude of some members of the PNG Government who were against the Declaration.
During the visit, the PNG Government had asked for further technical assistance from Australia but had made it clear that Australia would not send anyone until their safety and security could be assured. PNG had also asked for a redirec- tion of the $250 million budgetary assistance towards 'project aid'. The loss of income from Bougainville had made this aid even more desirable. The general feeling of the Committee was that aid should be directed towards improving the police service by providing more training and better equipment, together with the possibility of expatriate policemen taking a more operational role and an upgrading of the corrective services which were considered to be hopelessly inadequate. Sinclair said (and the rest of the Committee concurred) that Australia was keen to see some British assistance, which he saw as a way of countering increasing and potentially corruptive Asian influence. Lord Caithness said we could not consider any assistance until the question of reparation for the cancellation of earlier contracts had been resolved.
The Parliamentarians pointed out, however, that not all was doom and gloom. Despite all the troubles, democracy and political tolerance still thrived and the parliamentary system still worked. It would take a lot to get Bougainville
/going:
1
Page 105Page 106