Pacific leaders plan to push Australia to allow young islanders to do seasonal work despite Prime Minister John Howard's rejection of the proposal this week.

At their Pacific Islands Forum leaders' retreat in the Papua New Guinea town of Madang, the leaders of the 16-member grouping voted to adopt a regional cooperation plan to boost economic growth, security and good governance.

Howard, attending his eighth forum, has dashed island leaders' hopes on the seasonal worker issue, saying Australia had great reservations about the proposal.

The concerns relate to overstaying and Australia's own pool of unskilled labour.

The answer to unemployment in the Pacific Islands was to be found in building the economies of those countries, not in guest worker programs in Australia, Howard said.

PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare, the forum chairman and a prime mover of the seasonal worker proposal, said he was not disappointed by Mr Howard's rejection and appreciated his immigration concerns.

But island nation leaders would continue to pursue the proposal and raise the issue again with Australia and New Zealand at the next forum, he said.

"We want to make sure they go there for three months and come back in three months," Sir Michael said.

Sir Michael said the meeting was a success, with leaders signing off on the Pacific Plan to boost economic growth, security and good governance.

Australia and New Zealand were good partners in development and would assist small island nations with surveillance in a time when terrorism threatened, he said.

He welcomed Mr Howard's proposal for Australia to set up and fund a technical college in the Pacific with campuses across the region.

Mr Howard said the project would be in the tens of millions of dollars and could be headquartered in one of the large Pacific states.

The college would deliver Australian-standard qualifications and significantly upgrade trade skills in the Pacific, he said.

"This is a special Australian initiative designed to give hope to the young of the region, to give them trade qualifications that will benefit them in future life," Mr Howard said.

Mr Howard also announced $8 million in funding over four years to Pacific Island nations to help them prepare for a possible avian flu or other pandemic in the region.

He told reporters Australia was keen for a greater effort towards good governance and pooled responsibility in the region under the proposed Pacific Plan.

------------------------------------
Wednesday Oct 26 23:14 AEST
ninemsn news

PMs face off

Howard, Somare in confrontation over seasonal labour issue
By PHILBERT AISAISA

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister John Howard flew home last night only hours after an abrupt exchange with Sir Michael Somare in his capacity as chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum.
The incident took place after Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Maatia Toafa made some remarks about the refusal of Australia and New Zealand to consider taking in seasonal labour from other Pacific Island nations.
In a leaders’ session at Crowne Plaza, Mr Toafa said many Pacific Islands students attended universities in Australia and they had not violated any visa regulations, challenging the suggestion by Mr Howard and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark about their fears of increased level of illegal migrants.
He asked why citizens from the United States and Europe were allowed to take up manual jobs in Australia, while people from the Pacific were barred.
Mr Howard immediately moved to reply, but Sir Michael stopped him.
Observers said Mr Howard shook his head and became red in the face, asking Sir Michael if he was going to allow the criticism to stand.
“I will not allow you to reply and I will not entertain your comments,” Sir Michael responded.
Showing obvious dissatisfaction with the ruling, Mr Howard moved away from the microphone.
Sir Michael then changed his mind and asked Mr Howard to provide a brief response, as the Tuvalu Prime Minister’s comments had effectively been the end of the meeting.
Mr Howard gave a short response to say that the case of the United States and Europe was different because people from these countries entered Australia on a “Holiday Maker Visa” which was quite different from the “seasonal labour” idea.
Mr Howard walked out of the meeting and was unavailable for further comments, but Sir Michael assured the media there was no standoff between them.
“We are good friends and I’ve worked with them (Australians) for over 30 years and I know them,” he said. “There is no disagreement between us.”
There has been unanimous demand from developing PIF member countries that Australia and New Zealand open up the country to workers from the Pacific, a stance that was supported by Australian policy makers at a meeting yesterday at the University of Sydney.
Mr John Connel of Sydney University said seasonal worker schemes were the “most effective way of boosting living standards in Pacific countries”.
The two Prime Ministers had also clashed at the previous Pacific Islands Forum meeting when Mr Howard broke the usual protocol to insist that an Australian be appointed as secretary general of the group, against the wishes of Sir Michael.
Until then the PIF secretary general had always come from one of the developing member countries of the forum.
Meanwhile, A World Bank report has accused Australia of being the worst culprit in terms of the brain drain from neighbouring Pacific Island nations.
It said that more than 75 per cent of all graduates from Tonga and Samoa and 62 per cent of graduates from Fiji had emigrated, mostly to Australia and New Zealand.
Australia was cited as a country that had pioneered the migration of skilled workers, a policy that was spreading around western countries.

http://www.thenational.com.pg/1028/nation1.htm








Sir Michael ... refuses to entertain Mr Howard’s response.
n Mr Howard ... shakes his head in dissatisfaction. — AAPpics

Our people should have conducted a full body search on Howard at the airport, including an anal probe. Urmmmm, actually lus tingting long probe we already know that Howard (and Bush) are full of ****.

Can Bush and Howard be tried for crimes against humanity for death and destruction they've caused in Iraq?

Papua New Guineans right from the national level down to rurals areas have a great respect for Australians and even any white men or women.Thats true and we don't see that the same treatment cannot be seen in their contry.

PNG and Australia for instance,even on this seasional working in Australia.Australians would prefere Chinese or other Asians to work than Papua New Guineans.This mentality of Australians against PNGans will not change unless and untill they hear some goods things about PNG.I've been meetings fews Australins friends here in Singapore and they all say PNG is Dangerous place to visit.Are all PNGans bad?

We have to think about this too. Don't think that we cant go on giving all out resourses etc and that will help relationship between Papua New Guineans. NO! We too must look into ourselves and see.We are just spoiling our own country showing the world bad image.Its not only Australia, other countries will also give athought to such issues like this.

bak_bakz@yahoo.com
Barkley-singapore