11 Aug 2007

Australia amends travel restrictions on Fiji individuals

8:07 am on 11 August 2007

Australia is considering lifting travel restrictions on some categories of Fiji citizens.

The Australian high commissioner in Suva, James Batley, disclosed this when handing over 265-thousand US dollars towards next month's Fiji census which is the first step in the preparations for the post-coup general elections.

Mr Batley says Australia would lift restrictions on people such as members of the Electoral Commission and the Constituency Boundaries Commission so as not to hinder the electoral process.

But travel restrictions on military personnel, interim government figures and high profile coup supporters and their relatives would remain

The interim attorney general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khayum, has told the Fiji Times he hopes New Zealand would follow suit because travel restrictions have reached "ridiculous proportions".

He has cited the case of a member of a Liquor Tribunal who resigned because her brother needed medical treatment in New Zealand.