Fiji’s deputy prime minister pushes for visa-free travel across the Pacific, warns of instability if development targets are missed

Excerpt and Photo from abc.net.au

One of Fiji’s most senior political leaders has delivered a fiery speech in Canberra, stepping up his call for Australia to lift visa restrictions on Pacific Islanders, and warning that the region could become increasingly unstable unless it tackles climate and development woes.

Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Biman Prasad, who is a key coalition partner for Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, has been one of the most forceful advocates of a visa-free Pacific.

While the federal government has been moving to integrate Australia more deeply with the Pacific — most recently through its Pacific Engagement Visa and its landmark pact with Tuvalu – Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected calls for visa-free travel to Australia.

But Professor Prasad has told the Australasian Aid and International Development Conference at the Australian National University (ANU) that Australia’s Pacific labour mobility schemes and the Pacific Engagement Visa were “helpful but stopgap measures at best”.