28 May 2013

Nauru Speaker wants detention camp arrangements revisited

1:13 pm on 28 May 2013

The outgoing speaker of the Nauru parliament, Godfrey Thoma, says a new government would need to look again at the arrangements made for the Australian run asylum seeker camp.

Nauru is heading to elections on June the 8th.

This comes after months of political instability and Mr Thoma says one of the issues has been the unequal distribution of the business opportunities that came with the re-opened detention centre.

He wants to see the new government make changes.

"I think we would need to sit down again and go through all these arrangements with this camp. How the private sector is involved, that is important and how much money goes into the Treasury Department. I am sure that would be a fair statement to make."

Nauru parliamentary speaker, Godfrey Thoma.

Mr Thoma last week announced the election would be on June the 22nd, but the president, Sprent Dabwido, yesterday declared a state of emergency, partly to bring the date forward by two weeks.

Mr Dabwido says this will avoid a clash with the budget process.