The following information was released by the office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia:
QUESTION: Just on Fiji, you condemned the Fijian Government yesterday for their foreign media crackdown. Is there anything more the Australian Government can do, or is thinking of doing, to try and coax Fiji onto a path to democracy?
STEPHEN SMITH: We have been making, and recently we doubled our efforts through the Foreign Minister's PIF Ministerial Contact Group to try and get a sensible dialogue going with Fiji, with the interim government.
I've made the point before, it's very hard to have a one-way dialogue. Interim Foreign Minister, Kubuabola, presented at the Ministerial Contact Group meeting in Auckland. There was agreement that the Ministerial Contact Group would go to Fiji. But in very short order Commodore Bainimarama, effectively, withdrew that invitation. We were disappointed by that.
But we do need to continue to work at finding a way back into a sensible dialogue with Fiji to return Fiji to democracy. But everything which has occurred in Fiji - and another example was illustrated yesterday - has seen a deteriorating economic and social circumstance for the people of Fiji.
We have unanimous agreement, both in the Commonwealth and in the Pacific Islands Forum, that Fiji is suspended from both the Commonwealth and the Pacific Island Forums until such time as we see a genuine effort and genuine progress back to democracy. And we'll continue to work very closely, not just with our Commonwealth friends, but with our Pacific friends, to effect that.
But we, at present, are deeply disappointed with the conduct of the interim administration, and I think our frustration at Commodore Bainimarama's refusal to engage in any productive way, our frustration is shared by not just the international community, but particularly by the Pacific community.
