Clark pushing PNG to play leadership role

PORT MORESBY - Prime Minister Helen Clark will urge Papua New Guinea to play a stronger leadership role in the Pacific during talks today.

She is spending today meeting PNG Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and other ministers and officials ahead of the Pacific Forum starting tomorrow.

Helen Clark is expected to encourage PNG to be a regional leader and will discuss the need for the Pacific region to cooperate better -- as suggested under the Pacific Plan which the forum's 16 members will decide to sign up to or not.

The Prime Minister has already said adoption of the plan is a key goal of the forum and she appears to be hoping to bolster support for it during her meetings today.

PNG is the Pacific's largest island country with about 5.5 million people. However, it suffers from poverty, crime and has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the Pacific.

New Zealand has pledged $30 million over three years to raise living standards.

Sir Michael is an outspoken politician often critical of the dominating role Australia and New Zealand play in the Pacific. He could also be a powerful ally regarding the Pacific Plan. Island countries are likely to want better access to New Zealand and Australia for agreeing to more open trade and other features of the plan.

One measure Helen Clark aims to push at the forum -- seasonal visas -- may go some way towards satisfying that.

While holding bilateral talks in the Solomons yesterday, she told reporters that New Zealand already allowed people from the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau open entry because of their countries' governance in free association with New Zealand status.

"There is of course a downside to that and that is that the metropolitan country can strip those countries of its personnel as well," she said.

There were more people from Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau living in New Zealand than the home islands.

"Similarly we have had pathways for people from Samoa to come to New Zealand since independence and we have in the last four years opened up permanent residency quotas from Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga and Fiji as well. So those are all provided permanent residency possibilities -- of course from that has come quite valuable remittance flows back to the Pacific."

Helen Clark said seasonal work permits may be issued to relieve temporary shortages and ensure people return home.

"We will be interested to hear from Pacific leaders whether they are interested in discussing those possibilities with us. But it will be important for us if we are to take that proposal further and seriously that we get an understanding both with the Pacific governments and employers who might want to recruit such labour that people will go home at the end of the temporary permit."

She said an illegal population would miss out on health and education and was not good for either New Zealand or the migrants.

Other topics likely to be on the agenda today will be seeking regional support for the continuation of the Regional Assistance to Solomon Islands project to help that country stabilise after civil unrest.

Helen Clark will visit a centre aimed at preventing Aids in the afternoon. The World Health Organisation estimates there are up to 40,000 HIV/Aids cases in Papua New Guinea with an estimated 50 per cent increase in the infection rate each year.

- NZPA