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Media Release
Jesuit centre releases paper on Nauru

EMBARGO: 14 July 2005

Date: 13 July 2005
Contact: Sr. Patty Fawkner on (02) 9356 3888

Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre announced today the publication of View on Nauru – Between a Mined-out Rock and a Hard Place, its latest research paper in its View on the Pacific series. The paper was co-authored by former editor of the Pacific Report, Helen Fraser, and Uniya’s researcher, Minh Nguyen.

The paper focuses on Nauru – once ranked among the world’s wealthiest countries per capita owing to its rich but now depleted phosphate resources, continued dependency on phosphate export revenue has reduced this island state to near bankruptcy. Nauru is a desperate country in need of international assistance.

Announcing this publication, Uniya’s Director Sister Patty Fawkner commented on the long and historic relationship between Australia and the tiny Pacific island nation.

“This paper reminds Australia of its unique responsibility as a former colonial administrator of the island and also as the largest and most influential neighbour of this small island state.

“For nearly a century Australia has had a significant relationship with Nauru. During the last two decades of administration, Australia was enriched by unfairly appropriating the island’s phosphate resources under trust and did very little to prepare Nauruans for independence.

“More recently the so-called ‘Pacific Solution’ has thrown Nauru a life-line. While acknowledging that this agreement kept essential services running in return for hosting Australia’s unwanted asylum seekers, our research paper questions Australia’s motivation and the long-term benefits for Nauru.

“As Australian officials arrive on Nauru to sign a further agreement to extend the ‘Pacific Solution’ there will be a temptation to blur the objective of humanitarian and economic aid to Nauru with Australia’s national self interest.

“Nauru is a desperate country and Australia might be tempted to make the detention camps a permanent fixture and also to stretch its welcome by taking over more of Nauru’s government functions.

“The best contribution Australia could make to Nauru would be to provide genuine humanitarian assistance, to help rebuild Nauru’s infrastructure in order to ensure essential power and water to restore confidence and help rebuild a viable nation. Australia risks doing a disservice to the Nauruans and creating more problems if it does anything that entrenches Nauru’s dependency,” she said.

Between a Mined-out Rock and a Hard Place is available for free download at: http://www.uniya.org/research/view_nauru.html.

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