Votes & Proceedings Of the Eighteenth Parliament No. 25 First Sitting of the Fourteenth Meeting 10.00 a.m. th Tuesday, 15 September 2009 1. The House met at 10.00 am in accordance with the resolution made on 20th August 2009. 2. Hon Riddell Akua M.P., Speaker of Parliament, took the Chair and read Prayers. 3. Leave of Absence Sought For. (a) His Excellency the President, sought leave of absence for Hon. Freddie Pitcher and Hon. Ali Amwano who are both away overseas on official business. Leave was granted. (b) Hon. Dantes Tsitsi (Aiwo) sought leave of absence for Hon. Baron Waqa who is also away overseas. Leave was granted. 4. Notice of Motions (i) Hon. Mathew Batsiua (Minister for Justice, Health and Sports) gave notice that at the next sitting of Parliament, he shall move to present the Juvenile Offenders Bill 2009 and the Motor Traffic Bill 2009. (ii) Hon. Sprent Dabwido (Minister for Transport) gave notice that at the next sitting of Parliament, he shall move to present the Telecommunications Bill 2009. Hon. Dr. Kieren Keke (Minister for Finance) seconded. 5. Questions on Notice Question No 16 was deferred to the next sitting. Question No 17 was also deferred to the next sitting. 6. Questions Without Notice were asked The House was suspended until the bell rings due to power failure. Resume. Questions without notice continued. 1 7. Ministerial Statement and Tabling of Papers. (a) His Excellency the President, made the following statement on his appointment as Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific:- ‘Mr. Speaker and honourable colleagues, I wish to provide a brief report on my recent visit to Suva, Fiji, a trip which I might add was fully funded by the University of the South Pacific (USP). I am humbly honoured to advise Members of this august House that the purpose of my trip to Suva was to be installed as Chancellor of the USP. For Members’ information I was invited by the USP earlier this year to become the Chancellor for a one-year term. I was happy to accept the appointment as this is indeed a rare privilege and honour, not only for me personally but more importantly for Nauru as a whole. In fact this is only the second time in history where Nauru will hold the chancellorship and the first was during the term of our founding father, the late Hammer DeRoburt. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to confirm that I was installed as the 16th USP Chancellor on the afternoon of Friday, 12th September. As part of my duties as Chancellor I had the pleasure of conferring degrees and awarding diplomas and certificates to some 800 students at the University’s graduation ceremony later that day. It was also a pleasant surprise and joy that one Nauruan lady also happened to receive her degree during this graduation. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mrs. Mavis Depaune on her achievement and I believe she is back on-island working for her beloved country. This is the very essence and importance of the USP, where our people, not only in Nauru but in the Pacific region are given the opportunity for good, solid higher education. Most of the prominent persons in the region today all went to USP. Even leaders like the PM from Solomon Islands also went to USP. As Members will fully agree, USP plays a very important role in the region for the 12 member countries which are Nauru, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Tonga, Cook Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Marshall islands and Fiji. As a matter of fact, Nauru has always been and continues to be very supportive of the USP. Indeed Nauru played a major role in the establishment of the USP which incidentally took place in 1968, the same year we received our independence. We are all co-owners of the USP and it is in our interest to ensure that the USP keeps on improving. During my tour of the USP I had a personal discussion with the Vice Chancellor and it is interesting to note that the USP is currently undertaking a new direction and reforming itself in order to be more sustainable and have surplus budgets. It is also fitting that it is our turn to hold the chancellorship as we, as a country, are also going through the same reforms. This can only be seen as a positive step for the USP. Mr. Speaker, it is Nauru’s turn to hold the fort, so to speak. We must make sure that during our watch we give the right support to the Vice Chancellor and the USP Committee. Throughout our watch, we will be vigilant and commit ourselves to giving the USP any assistance necessary during our 1-year period of chancellorship so as to ensure that USP will continue to provide our people and our children with quality educational services. Before I conclude, Mr. Speaker, I would like to dwell briefly on another matter that is of importance to our people. I am pleased to advised that I had the opportunity to pay a courtesy visit on Commodore Bainimarama, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister during my stay in Fiji. In our closed door meeting we discussed Fiji’s suspension from the Forum and Commonwealth as well as other issued that are of relevance in the region. I will not reveal in detail our discussions but simply wanted to inform Members that the safety of our diplomatic staff, our students and the Nauruan community in Fiji is one concern which I 2 raised with the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has given firm assurance that safety of our people is not a problem that we should even consider. Thank you.’ Hon. Godfrey Thoma (Aiwo) moved that the statement be noted (b) Hon. Sprent Dabwido (Minister for Transport) made the following statement relating update on Our Airline’s route between Kiribati and Nadi:- ‘Mr. Speaker and Honourable Members, I wish to make a brief announcement on the progress of Our Airline attempts to re-establish its link to Nadi and back via Kiribati. Last week a charter agreement was signed off with Air Kiribati. This agreement allows Air Kiribati to market Fiji services using Our Airline aircraft. The agreement allows Our Airline to recommence the Fiji operations and have the capacity to sell services between Nauru and Fiji. Our Airline will not only provide the wet-leased aircraft to Air Kiribati but also services in areas such as internet bookings. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved – Our Airline additional revenues. Nauru is a link to the key hub of the Pacific, Nadi and to Kiribati competitive air services. The flights are planned to commence on the 7th of November 2009 initially as a one per week service departing Nauru and Kiribati on Saturday and arriving back on Mondays. The government filing has been made and we expect approvals to be granted next week. Once the approvals are granted the flights will be put on sale and sales and marketing efforts pursued vigorously. The flights will not only offer Nauru people the Fiji option with a more direct routing but also the missing Kiribati link. This service will also provide Kiribati a same day connection to Solomon Islands and Australia both of importance to her people. I do believe that a significant break-through have been achieved and I would like to thank all who have contributed in any form, large or small. Firstly I would like to thank the Cabinet, Caucus for their personal input and also a big congratulation must go to the Chairman and the Board and the management of Our Airline. Well done to all. I look forward to the commencement of the service with interest. Hon. Dantes Tsitsi (Aiwo) moved that the statement be noted (c) Hon. Mathew Batsiua (Minister for Justice, Health and Sports) made the following statement relating to Actions Instituted by the Department of Justice and Border Control - Immigration Section:- ‘Mr. Speaker and Hon. Members, you are all aware of ongoing reforms taking place in the Department of Border Control. One of these reform measures is in the area of immigration. Border Control has found it necessary to review immigration’s whole manual system of record keeping with respect to all those entering and leaving Nauru under the various visa categories. This became necessary as it became evident that there were a large number of visitors, particularly originating from China, who entered Nauru and there seemed to be no information available regarding their legal visa status. This prompted the mounting of 2 operations over the last 6 months by immigration officers visiting various business houses in order to establish those with expired visas and for necessary action to be carried out thereafter. The operations found approximately 5 percent of the overall 200 to 300 people questioned had expired visas. It was also found that a significant amount of workers and operators of those business houses have visas sponsored by government instrumentalities as ex-employees of those government instrumentalities. An analysis was therefore done in which it was established that there were approximately 200 such people working in various businesses in Nauru with such visas. 3 The department, under my instruction and with co-operation from the Minister in charge of RONPHOS, undertook the following actions:- (1) Working visas will only be issued to those genuine workers under contract with either the Republic, RONPHOS or other instrumentalities; or workers sponsored by private business houses in Nauru. (2) All workers must provide police clearances, medical clearances along with the normal guarantee of accommodation and an airfare provision should the employee be required to leave Nauru for any reason.