Double purpose to Fiji regime official's Wellington visit

Transcript

An academic says Fiji will be hoping to get ideas for a leaner, more efficient public service from New Zealand following the visit of a top regime official to Wellington this week.

Fiji's newly appointed Ambassador-at-Large, Brigadier-General Iowane Naivalurua, has spent five days meeting officials from New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the State Services Commission.

Dr Steven Ratuva of Auckland University told Sally Round the Bainimarama government has identified Brigadier-General Naivalurua as the right person to lead reforms.

Dr Steven Ratuva: He was Commissioner for Prisons for some time and he did very well and in fact he was seen as one of the best civil servants and then he was transferred to the police to reform the police. He's been very much a reform kind of person. He reformed the prison services, he reformed the police services and now I think they're looking at reforming foreign affairs and other civil service institutions so they got him over as part of that reform process to New Zealand to see what is happening here. So he's pretty high up in the hierarchy particularly in relation to his role in the civil service.

Sally Round: That's more or less what the New Zealand government said the visit was about and they said this was arranged at Fiji's request.

Ratuva: Yes Fiji's been going through public sector reform for the last few years so this is probably part of that process and I think they have identified Naivalarua as the right person to carry out the reform because he has proven to be quite effective in the reform of the police force and the reform of the prisons.. He has won accolades and he has won prizes as well within the Fiji government as a result of reforms.

Round: Could this also be seen as testing the waters for New Zealand Fiji relations?

Ratuva: Oh yes of course. Behind the reform agenda is really the bigger political notion of trying to re-engage and there's a chance for them to engage deeper not only in relation to the public service reforms but more so in the political and diplomatic relationship.

Round: So eight months out from the promised election in Fiji, how would you see New Zealand Fiji relations?

Ratuva:  Well I think New Zealand's probably just waiting until the election before they lift all the sanctions and that seems to be what's coming out although in the last few years there has been a bit of thawing of the relationship at the diplomatic level between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand and Fiji as a result of some of the steps taken in Fiji towards the election and now that alot of the vital components of the election are in place with the setting up of the Electoral Commission and now they're going to appoint the Elections Supervisor and we are still waiting for the final draft of the election regulations or decree to come into place, which is really the last stage before the election, then New Zealand's probably waiting for all those to be in place  before they make a final decision and perhaps the final decision is going to be after the election so it depends very much on what particular mood Australia and New Zealand are in at a particular point in time and how they will respond  to what's happening in Fiji.

Round: So is New Zealand likely to see more visits by regime officials?

Ratuva: Well there have been visits in the past by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other officials so there has been lifting of sanctions  in selected ways. It's been happening so that might continue until the election and maybe after the election the sanctions might be lifted totally. It's probably part of the process of a New Zealand response to developments in Fiji.