A regional conference in Suva has been told that South Pacific countries lack legislation to tackle threats posed by terrorism and transnational organised crime.
The Fiji Times says the Australian high commissioner, Susan Boyd, made the comment at a meeting of regional law enforcement organisations tasked to develop laws to fight terrorism and transnational crime.
Ms Boyd said the legislation to fight terrorism is definitely lacking, pointing out that no region is safe because these activities are interconnected throughout the world.
She said the outrage of the September the 11th attacks including the one in Bali destroyed any complacency about global and regional security.
The New Zealand high commissioner, Adrian Simcock, said people are living in dangerous times and geographic isolation could no longer be assumed to give security to the region.
