Senator MacGIBBON (5:26 PM) —Members of the delegation from the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade who visited Papua New Guinea have already spoken. I do not wish to cover any of the ground that they have already covered, beyond saying this was an important and a very complex visit by a parliamentary delegation to Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. As the leader of the delegation, I would like to say that every member of the delegation performed superbly in what was genuinely a very difficult political environment—and not a very easy physical environment either. For those journalists who love to berate parliamentarians for taking luxury trips, this certainly was not a five-star safari through the swamps of Bougainville.

I would quickly add my thanks to the Speaker of the Parliament of New Guinea; the ministers and officials in New Guinea; the Australian High Commissioner in Port Moresby and his staff; Brigadier Osborn; Brigadier Powell, the head of the Peace Monitoring Group; the RAAF; the secretariat and all those who made so great a contribution to the success of the trip.

The reason why we went was to inquire into the Australian aid program in Bougainville, which is part of an inquiry being run by the Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. The war in Bougainville now, fortunately, is over but it really was a terrible war. It ran for nearly nine years; it cost some 10,000 to 15,000 lives; and it was associated with quite enormous property loss. The whole of the infrastructure of the country was destroyed—roads and bridges, homes and hospitals, electricity, water and phones. The copra and cocoa plantations were also neglected for 10 years and, above all, the Panguna mine—the richest copper mine in the world—was destroyed.

The climate today is one of exhaustion with war and hostility. There is overwhelming universal support for peace and the residents of Bougainville wish to get back to a normal life. The real argument, the real problem, facing them today is the establishment as rapidly as possible of a Bougainvillean administration to get their lives back to normal. When we were in Port Moresby, we were quite impressed at being able to meet the government officials there. We met Mr Sam Akoitai, the Special Minister for State respon sible for Bougainvillean affairs, who enjoys the confidence, as we found, of all the parties in Bougainville as well as the undiluted support of the government in Port Moresby.

The impact of the economic crisis on Port Moresby made itself quite apparent to us. The Asian economic collapse and the collapse of the Papua New Guinea export trade, particularly the failure of the timber trade—all of this is made worse today by yesterday's decision of the Sandline compensation, which will add another $40 million to a debt-ridden country—are all formidable problems for the PNG government. It is understandable therefore that Bougainville probably does not get as high a priority as it should in that environment.

It does need to be said that the administration in Port Moresby is probably not as efficient as it might be and one of the reasons for that is the extent of corruption in the society there. A modern society is far too complex to be operated in a corrupt way because the effects of corruption are not restricted to enriching those who are corrupt. Corruption denies resources to the needy and thereby lowers the standard of living of the community. Ultimately, because corruption rejects the rule of law it deprives the community of its basic human rights.

The other problem in Papua New Guinea is that the opposition are taking a very narrow and legalistic approach to the setting up of an interim administration in Bougainville on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. Whether they are right or wrong is, in one sense, unimportant. What is important is that there be no prevarication or delay in setting up that administration and for that to occur there does need to be some compromise from all parties.

The Australian aid program has been mentioned and I think we can all be very proud of that aid program. It is going to expend over $100 million over the next five years. It will be well focused. It will be very relevant to the needs of the community. Things have been done already. The sealing of the Buka airstrip provides an air head for aircraft of all sizes to fly into the area. The hospital replaces the one at Arawa which was said to be the finest hospital in the south-west Pacific but was destroyed through the war. The Australian hospital in Buka is a very fine and appropriate design for their needs. The high school at Talena, which has been mentioned, has a great place in a community where there are only 240 students entering the three high schools per year.

The Peace Monitoring Group is doing a marvellous job there. They are really the cement that is holding the whole lot together. Their professionalism and their impartiality has earned the respect of all the groups.

The Australian effort ought to be continually directed towards getting an administration in place to supply that aid program which is so well appreciated by the residents in Bougainville. It is fair to mention that there are some critics of the aid program. When you are providing aid you must provide it in one area—it cannot spread universally through the community in the initial phase—and those members of the community who do not see or who are not benefiting from the aid may feel negative. For example, when you put a hospital in one location, people 80 miles away may not see that hospital and may not feel that they have easy access to it. Then they feel that there is no benefit to them in the aid program. There are examples where Australian vehicles and boats have been destroyed or burnt by disaffected aid people.

We came in for criticism that Australia was going to cut back its aid for Papua New Guinea to fund the East Timor programs. This was getting a lot of publicity, particularly in Port Moresby. There is no basis at all for that claim at present. The matter of Australian aid is constantly under review and if we do experience undue difficulties in delivering aid then it may be that changes have to take place in the future.

But I come back to my initial point: the real imperative is to get some elected group in Bougainville administering the province in harmony with Port Moresby and to get life back to normal. I am very proud of the contribution Australia is making there. It really is the most effective aid program I have seen this country deliver.

Question resolved in the affirmative.