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SPEECH AT THE WELCOME BANQUET FOR NZ PRIME MINISTER JOHN KEY Suva: Thurs June 9 2016

The Right Honourable Prime Minister of New Zealand, The Honourable New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honourable cabinet ministers, Your Excellencies, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Bula vinaka and a very good evening to you all. Any visit to Fiji by a New Zealand leader is always going to be an important occasion. But never more so than yours, Prime Minister, at a time when our official relationship is being reinvigorated and redefined after a period of estrangement. I intend to work with you to strengthen that relationship to match the friendship that has always existed between our peoples. And so I’m delighted – on behalf of every Fijian – to welcome you and your delegation to Suva. You are among friends as long as you choose your words carefully when it comes to rugby. But seriously. Our mutual love of “the game they play in heaven” is just one of the things that binds our nations together. And our people-to-people ties have never been stronger than in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Winston. Prime Minister, I want to begin by expressing the heartfelt thanks of the Fijian people for the way in which hundreds of your servicemen and women came to our aid during those dark days three and a half months ago. Amid all of the heartbreaking destruction – on Vanuabalavu in particular – the arrival of your warship Canterbury gave our people hope. And the smiling faces and “can do” attitude of your men and women in uniform lifted their spirits and gave them both the will and the means to begin the task of rebuilding their homes and their lives. The prompt response of our Kiwi friends across the seas – along with those of other nations – gave Fiji the helping hand it needed at one of the most critical points in our history. The goodwill – the affection – that ordinary Fijians have for New Zealanders has never been greater. And as we work together to rebuild our nation, the Fijian Government also wants to rebuild our official relationship. And that means recasting it to match the changes that have taken place in Fiji in recent years and our relations with the rest of the world. Redefining Fiji’s ties with New Zealand. Prime Minister, the Fiji that you come to in 2016 is a vastly different place compared to the Fiji that the last New Zealand leader to visit us, Helen Clark, found in 2006. Ten years ago, some Fijians were more equal than others. Their votes carried more weight than others. They enjoyed a range of privileges that others didn’t share – such as special access to jobs and to education. When the last New Zealand prime minister was here in 2006, the term Fijian – an English word – was reserved for one ethnic group and other citizens were deprived of a common identity and equal citizenry. When the last New Zealand prime minister was here in 2006, the then government wanted to inappropriately exaggerate the ambit of indigenous rights to absurd proportions by introducing laws that would have undermined our tourism industry and turned us into an economic basket case. When the last New Zealand prime minister was here in 2006, the then government did not want to address or even recognise systemic corruption. They refused to ratify the international anti-corruption convention. When the last New Zealand prime minister was here in 2006, the then government wanted to undermine the independence of the judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and other independent institutions so that it could free those responsible for bringing our nation to its knees in the rebellion of 2000 and the subsequent mutiny in the military.