Transcript
JOHNNY BLADES: Rick Hou, full name Rick Houenipwela, is a 59-year old former Central Bank Governor who also did a spell with the World Bank in Washington DC, and he's known as a real finance whiz in Solomon Islands politics. He entered parliament in 2011, so he's had the best part of two terms there. He's been Finance Minister for a while but he was in the opposition just prior to this whole change-over when Sogavare got ousted a week or so ago.
SALLY ROUND: So who is going to be in his new government?
JB: Well, interestingly, it's basically the rump of the Sogavare government which only just lost that vote of no-confidence last week by a slim majority. But that group remained intact and several others from the opposition, including Rick Hou, came across and joined them in the subsequent lobbying, obviously with the condition that Rick Hou would be the candidate for prime minister. And in the end they won the vote 33 to 16. So you'll have Sogavare who is expected to be the deputy prime minister and, I think, a number of ministers who were already in the government for the last two or three years will still be in that position.
SR: And what can we expect from Rick Hou's government?
JB: Well, he's immediately said that stabilising the "ailing fiscal situation" will be the priority, as well as restoring basic services to remote and rural areas, you know, basic health services in particular. I think a lot of clinics had closed down and he mentioned that (restoring the clinics) as being one of the main aims. But he also mentioned that advancing the anti-corruption bill - which has been quite controversial and was tabled recently in parliament, a revised version of it - he said that he recognised the huge public demand that this bill gets put into legislation and he will see that through. Also he mentioned the undersea internet cable project which... of course we know the Chinese state-owned company Huawei had an agreement with the Sogavare government to get that cable laid between Honiara and Sydney, but Australia's government was uneasy about that. Just in the last few days we've learnt that Australia has made a new offer, and it looks like the Solomon Islands government, Sogavare and now Hou, have agreed to ditch that Chinese agreement, and this will be the new arrangement, with Australia.
