Transcript
MURRAY MCCULLY: We haven't formally decided yet, but there are two pieces of support work that are fairly well shaped-up now. The first is obviously our ongoing contribution on the security front, obviously having invested all this time and resource no one wants to see the security situation deteriorate. As much as anything else, a matter of maintaining public confidence there during the transition. So there will be a New Zealand police component that is ongoing for the next 3 or 4 years as part of our contribution in the future.
DON WISEMAN: How many police?
MM: I'm not in a position to tell you that just yet. We are still working through the final details our [contribution] it's fair to say a significantly more modest contribution that the Australian one. They've spoken up for the biggest element there in terms of ongoing security, but we'll be there and there will be some detail around that with, i think, the pretty obvious emphasis that New Zealand police bring when they serve in the Pacific and then there's the contribution we make to trying to ensure that there's ongoing economic activity and employment opportunities so that people in the post-RAMSI era are able to look forward to some economic growth, some personal employment prospects and we will be in a position to talk about that fairly soon.
DW: You mentioned the other day, perhaps more airport developments. I know that at the Munda airport there is still some unfinished business there and you've been asked to spend some more money there, will that happen?
MM: We haven't really been asked to spend more money at Munda, that's already been committed and with the existing budgets we should be able to see that become fully internationally-capable. It's really only a question of the fencing, the navigation lights and fire appliances that need to be finalised. That will be a significant development of course, because that will mean that flights going into Henderson Field and Honiara will no longer need to carry sufficient fuel to be able to re-divert to Santo in Vanuatu. So there's quite a strong business case for this. But I hope that in addition to this airlines are going to look towards some sort of service between, perhaps, Brisbane or Cairns and Munda directly which will help bring tourism opportunities into that Western Provence area. But the Solomons Islands government did, some time ago, ask us to look at extending our work with airports into some further investments. I had the opportunity to see some of those from the air, but also to visit Seghe while I was passing through and we're giving careful consideration to the requests they've made.
DW: And fishing and agriculture, I think there has been some discussion with the Prime Minister.
MM: Yeah there has been and we've been in the fisheries environment there for some time. In fact the fishing ministry premises were constructed by New Zealand some seven or eight years ago. We have identified the fisheries as an opportunity for significant economic and employment growth. We've been working through the forum fisheries agency and you will recall two years ago, the then Prime Minister announced a $NZ50 million package of capacity building to try and move the region from a vessel day towards a catch-based system with the tuna industry. And in all those areas we've been engaged with the Solomon Islands government with good progress being made. I think if you look at what the contribution has been at the SolTuna plant the tri-marine facility at Noro in the Western province, when I first went there, there were about 500 staff not working full weeks. Today there's over 2000 staff and the place is humming. There are opportunities elsewhere in the Solomons. To replicate that, because it's right in the middle of a very large tuna fishery, this is the way to try and bring more the return into the hands of local people and we've sponsored the land use work that has been done on Malaita called Bina Harbour, where there will be the opportunity to put a tuna processing plant. That's a longer term piece of work that we've reiterated out interest in. In agriculture again, that's something we reiterated out interest in for a long time and we will continue to lift our efforts there. It's and employment-rich area and New Zealand being an agriculturally-based economy has something special to offer there.
