Scott Morrison unveils $250m Solomon Island infrastructure package as Coalition lashes Kristina Keneally
Scott Morrison has said Australia’s ties with the Solomon Islands ‘are like family’ as Kristina Keneally wages war with Coalition figures back home.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Scott Morrison praised Australia’s relationship with the Solomon Islands as ‘like family’ as he confirmed $250 million will be spent across the next decade to boost economic success in the Pacific.
Mr Morrison is the first Australian leader to visit the island nation since 2008.
“This is important because having secured the stability, it is now time to really build into the economic success of Solomon Islands,” he said while speaking in Honiara today.
“A peaceful, independent, sovereign, economically sustainable and successful Solomon Islands is in the region’s interests, it is in the Pacific’s interests … It is in Solomon Islands interests and it is very much in Australia’s interests as well and we’re there to assist with that goal. That is the nature of the relationship.”
Mr Morrison said he hoped to take Australia’s relationship with the pacific nation to “a new level”.
Australia will fund a $2.7 million dollar program to help Solomon Islanders get work in Australia, and support key national and economic infrastructure while complementing the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.
In addition to this, $2.7 million will be provided over three years to help islanders considering work opportunities in Australia cover their upfront costs such as passports.
It is understood the program will allow the Solomons government to quickly finance smaller, urgently-required infrastructure that it would be unwilling to borrow in order to fund.
Australia will also support the building of a new complex to hold the prime minister’s office and the foreign affairs and trade ministries in Honiara.
A sports funding package will boost the participation of women and girls in rugby and support elite-level athletes prepare for international events.
The PM will speak more on this later today when he meets with church leaders in the region.
Climate change is also expected to feature in talks with Solomons officials.
Mr Morrison also praised the nations focus on ensuring civil peace and stability.
“The stand-up of the royal Solomon Islands police force has been a significant success and 70 officers a year are being sworn into that service, that is extraordinary. When I was in Vanuatu earlier this year, there is around 25 … who are sworn in each year. It is obviously a smaller country. But ensuring there is the capability within their civil police and others to maintain the stability of these countries, similar challenges which we’ve been working with Papua New Guinea for a long time, that is the basis for building the prosperity of their people and
that is why we’ve put so much of our effort. The Australian Federal Police does an extraordinary job in training and mentoring and support but this is a two-way street.
Challenges that are dealt with here and public law and order are not what you might see in Australia on a regular basis. There are lessons that our police are learning from the experience of our Pacific family and this is very much developing into that two-way relationship on those issues.”
Mr Morrison was welcomed at Honiara airport by Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare on Sunday. Afterwards, he and wife Jenny attended a barbecue at the Australian high commissioner’s residence.
“In the Pacific, stepping up is all about showing up,” Mr Morrison said yesterday.
“That’s why I am pleased that my first official visit after the election is to our own neighbourhood, where we can always make the most difference.”
CHINA’S FOCUS ON THE PACIFIC
Mr Morrison was also asked today about China’s growing role in the Pacific through funding infrastructure and boosting defence links.
This was a hot topic in Singapore, as regional powers meet there for the Shangri-La Dialogue.
Beijing choose to send its highest-profile defence delegation ever to participate in the forum, led by Defence Minister Wei Fenghe.
“They have their interests in the region, as do others,” Mr Morrison said today.
“There are certainly challenges in all of our relationships and there are issues raised within those relationships in a respectful way … we have a comprehensive strategic partnership with China, they are our single largest trading partner.”
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds told the Shangri-La Dialogue the Indo-Pacific region was becoming more prosperous “but it is also becoming more complex and contested”.
She said competition between nations in the region was not something to be feared but required everyone to play by internationally-established rules and find “common principles that unite us”.
“We are in the midst of an effort to take our relationship with Pacific neighbours to a new level,” she said.
“Australia wants to do our bit to ensure the Pacific region is resilient and it is stable.
“Our efforts now go well beyond what Australia has done in the past. We have a package of initiatives that are far-reaching in scope and also in ambition — security, economic, diplomatic, development and people-to-people initiatives that build on long and historic relationships and friendships.”
KENEALLY UNDER ATTACK
It comes as Labor leader Anthony Albanese faces criticism over his frontbench, with the Coalition attacking new Home Affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally for her previous opposition to boat turnbacks.
Ms Keneally said several years ago that said she “instinctively disliked” the tactic and supported onshore processing.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce ripped into Ms Keneally this morning:
“Kristina Keneally has clearly said she did not believe in our border protection policy, the boat turn backs, or the mechanisms that we use to allow migrants coming to the nation,” Mr Joyce told Sunrise.
“This is a odds with people that have had concerns with the Labor Party, that she won’t have the resolve to make hard decisions.”
Ms Keneally has rejected government suggestions she’ll be soft on asylum seekers, saying the party continues to back offshore processing and boat turnbacks.
The opposition is reviewing its policies after its disappointing federal election loss, but Ms Keneally says Labor’s stance on border protection won’t change.
But the NSW senator, who was handed the role on Sunday, did say the portfolio requires a balance between keeping Australia’s borders secure and treating people humanely.
“Keeping people safe but also not losing our collective national soul, not losing our collective national conscience,” she told ABC radio’s AM program.
“Offshore processing, boat turnbacks where safe to do so and regional resettlement are important tools. They are necessary tools to keep our borders secure, to keep our country safe and to ensure that we are treating people humanely.” Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was quick out of the gate on Sunday to criticise the appointment of Ms Keneally as his shadow, saying she was the least qualified Labor MP for the job.
Ms Keneally hit back saying she plans to “hold a blow torch” to Mr Dutton’s performance.
“Peter Dutton only has one setting and that’s attack,” she said.
“Right now he’s attacking me because he knows that his department is a mess.”
Dire warning after white supremacist rally
A white supremacist rally over the weekend has been called a “horrific manifestation” that “must be taken seriously”.
Telstra under fire over China ‘sabotage’ fears
Telstra’s board has been grilled on shareholder fears Australia’s mobile network could be sabotaged and price hikes in a cost of living crisis in its AGM.