Prebble Richard: Urgent Debates — Solomon Islands—Deployment of Police and Military Forces  
Prebble Richard: Urgent Debates — Solomon Islands—Deployment of Police and Military Forces  
[Volume:609;Page:6701] 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (Leader—ACT NZ) 
: 
 First let me say that in principle the ACT party is in favour of the proposal but we will obviously reserve our position until we have looked at some of the details. The reason I say that is that the House knows I have a connection to the Solomons. My wife comes from the Solomons and has been the honorary consul for a number of years and I have spent some time in the Solomons. I was in the Solomons during the uprising and I was actually in the first plane to arrive there after the Townsville peace agreement. I went up to the various barricades and spoke to some of the “rascals”—somewhat to the horror of the New Zealand diplomatic community. 
Peter Brown 
: That’s what the “rascals” were saying about you. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: Probably. Does the member think they recognised a kindred spirit? 
Firstly let me make a few comments about the situation there and not in an “I told you so” way. I told the previous National Government and then the Labour Government that the various measures that were being taken would not work and that the only way we would be able to restore things in the Solomons would be to send some real police with the ability to arrest criminals—and yes because the criminals had some high-powered weapons I said that the police had better be armed. 
 The House should also realise that this request from the Solomons Government is not a new one. Bartholomew Ulufa’alu who was the Prime Minister of the Solomons when the real unrest started and was really replaced by a police coup had himself made a request for police to Australia and New Zealand. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Had he? 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: Yes he said he wanted 200. I do not know whether he needed 200 but he said that he wanted 200. He said: “If you don’t give them to me there’s going to be a coup by our police force” and there was. That was the Malaita Eagle Force and things in the Solomons got worse. Basically Honiara became a Malaitan town surrounded by the people of Guadalcanal who as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade correctly said did their own ethnic cleansing. 
How bad are things at the moment? In some ways they are not as bad as people say. I have been up there this year and personally have never felt under any threat. I have walked around Honiara and been in various parts of Guadalcanal but then I am obviously an expat. If one talks to the Solomons Islands people themselves in many ways things have improved but in other ways things are awful. They are so bad because law and order really fails in a country when the police cannot be relied upon. While there are many good policemen in the Solomons Islands I am afraid there are some very bad ones and some who are criminals. 
When the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade mentions as he did in the media that shots were fired at the Prime Minister’s residence most people think that the shots were fired by the police. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that the militants demanded money but the militants who demanded money just before Christmas were actually police officers. The commissioner turned up and said to the Minister of Finance: “If you don’t give me all the money the Government’s got”—and that is not a lot because it is a very poor country—“the police can’t guarantee that Honiara won’t be burnt down today.” What would one do if one was the Minister of Finance and in that position? Basically the Cabinet was locked up until he was prepared to walk down to the Solomons Islands Reserve Bank and empty the vault. That money went to the police in so-called bonus payments. No there is another name for it. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Allowances! 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: Yes so-called allowances. I am obliged to the Minister. After the Townsville settlement various militants in collusion had emptied the police armouries and got guns. They came up with the idea that the thing to do with these militants was to make them members of the police. They made them special policemen but that did not stop them being criminals; it did not stop them robbing. Indeed all it did was to put them on the payroll. The Solomons Islands Government now has this huge number of police and special police—so many that its tax base cannot afford it. Money that ought to be going to pay for nurses teachers and the like is going to these so-called special constables. They have made a number of attempts to try to stop this system but have been unable to do so because the police feel that they cannot. That is why we need the numbers. We now have a British police commissioner but he reports that he cannot restore law and order until he has a number of reliable policemen. In that respect it is mainly a policing problem but those police need some protection from the army. I suspect that it will be the army that will have to go after Harold Keke. 
I heard Mr Locke say and I am not criticising him that these are just a few desperate people. Mr Keke has killed about 50 people. The Weathercoast of the Solomons is total jungle. If people walk into that jungle they are in darkness. People have no idea where they are going. During World War II the Americans and the Japanese landed troops in that jungle and the whole army was lost. They knew that the other enemy was 3 kilometres away but they could not find each other even when they were trying to. People should not underestimate the difficulties of trying to catch Mr Keke and his group. That is their home and that is what they know about. 
The Solomons is in the bottom ten nations of the world in terms of wealth. It is a truly very poor nation but it has great potential. The Gold Ridge Mine is a rich mine. It is only a few kilometres from Honiara but has not been able to be reopened. That mine used to provide 25 percent of the Government’s revenues. The palm plantations that the Minister referred to are within a few kilometres of Honiara as well and palm prices have been good. 
However I want to say to the House—I made the comment somewhat frivolously during question time but I mean it quite sincerely—that I think the ethnic problems of the Solomons are real. It is very hard for example to arrest somebody from one’s own tribe. I have been in a situation where I was trying to pay customs duties and the officer would not accept it. I was told that I was causing huge embarrassment because he came from my wife’s “onetalk”. Can members imagine what it is like for a policeman to be asked to arrest someone from his own “onetalk”? People there find it difficult. 
A State like the Solomons will need assistance. I do not like the idea of sending New Zealand police there for ever. We have brought 74 British police over to New Zealand and the idea of hiring some Brits permanently is a good one. They ran the place for 100 years and did it with about 20 policemen. There is a need for a few people who are seen by everyone in the Solomons to be independent. I know that contradicts our notions of nationality and the like but we are hung up by our own political correctness. If we had acknowledged the real problem 5 years ago then a lot of Solomons Islanders would not have lost their lives the State would not have collapsed and we would not be in the position of asking the taxpayers of New Zealand for the amount of money that we are asking them for. 
I say sincerely that we ought to look at that as a long-term solution. The Solomon Islands has a British commissioner at the moment but he will need at least 20 officers for the foreseeable future. It would be far better to pay them for doing that than taking police from our streets in south Auckland. We would be in trouble as a Parliament if we sent New Zealand police to the Solomon Islands long term. I make that suggestion but given the position we are in the actions that the Minister is taking are the right ones. He is entitled to ask this House for support and he has it.