Nauru loses NZ justice aid for now

Transcript

New Zealand has suspended the country's aid to Nauru's justice sector because of ongoing concerns about civil rights abuses.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully told Jane Patterson there have been several incidents which have caused him concern, including the removal of senior members of the judiciary, and the suspension of most of the country's opposition MPs.

MURRAY MCCULLY: The justice sector support funding is about 1.2 million dollars a year and it's paid in regular tranches throughout the year, I think quarterly. As you know, the issues with the justice sector and human rights in Nauru have been under discussion for a number of months now and we've just not been able to successfully resolve the differences that exist on that matter. So I have asked the ministry to place on hold the current programme, I use that term advisedly, we are hoping are hoping we will be able to resolve the issues and move forward, but at the moment we haven't been able to make the progress that we expected to.

JANE PATTERSON: So basically suspended for the time being. What's the time frame that you're looking at? I mean, it's not cancelled altogether, is it really in Nauru's court now?

MM: Well the ball's in Nauru's court but we're going to continue to work with them to try and find a solution here. The background to this is that last year there were some reasonable high-profile issues around the justice sector in Nauru, the two judges I think removed themselves or were removed from the scene under circumstances that drew some international criticism, I met with the justice minister and other ministers at the time and received their assurance that they were intent on rebuilding international confidence in the justice system there and we agreed to go forward with our funding on that basis. Now, I've reminded them of the obligation that they entered into with us at that time, I've made it clear that some of the actions that have taken place recently we regard as being incompatible with those assurances. We tried to arrange a pathway forward that would enable us to continue the funding but sadly that's not been possible so I last spoke to the Minister of Justice a few days ago and we have agreed to keep talking but our current position is that the funding remains on hold.

JP: What were some of those instances that were incompatible with promises you'd received?

MM: Well the most high-profile issue in New Zealand relates to one of the members of parliament who has got a wife and family here, Roland Kun, who has had his passport taken from him by the Minister of Justice. I pointed out that we in New Zealand have a system where judges can take passports off people if they are before the court and if they believe they're a flight risk, but to have the action taken by a political opponent and where there are no charges laid against the individual concerned gets into territory that we're not comfortable with, we know that other international bodies are also concerned about this issue, most notable the commonwealth. But there are a range of other matters also that touch in on human rights and the operation of the justice sector in Nauru and I've made it clear that we are very reluctant to take our funding away, we are reluctant even to place it on hold, but where the system that we're funding is essentially part of the problem rather than part of the solution we don't have much choice.

JP: So a pretty serious decision to even suspend this tranche of funding?

MM: Look, we have not rushed into this. We have been talking to Nauru over two or three months now, obviously there are some negative impacts from removing funding from any justice system, we've been reluctant to go there, but we're at the point where we don't have much choice.

JP: How much improvement would you have to see before you would activate this last bit of funding?

MM: Look, we haven't tried to put specific elements into that conversation, we've simply said we want to get back to some meaningful assurances that they're intent on rebuilding international confidence in their justice system. We want to see them acting in a way that meets the internationally recognised standards associated with democracy and human rights and sadly we just don't think we're in that space at the moment and we've urged them to try and find ways in which they can renew the assurances they'd earlier given to us and act according to those assurances.