Solomon Islands aid rise could limit others

By HELEN TUNNAH deputy political editor

A big aid boost to the Solomon Islands may see other Pacific Island nations miss out on hoped-for increases in development money.

However, Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff expects no cuts to existing Pacific aid budgets.

He accepted that Pacific neighbours might be "nervous" about any impact on their aid budgets, but they also accepted that the Solomon Islands urgently needed help.

New Zealand spends $8 million a year on aid in the Solomons, but the Cabinet is considering significantly increasing that to between $14 million and $20 million.

Funding decisions will be made in the next few days, when the Government also decides how many police and military personnel will be sent to the Solomon Islands in an Australian-led intervention force aiming to disarm criminal gangs and restore law and order.

Whether any increase in aid to the Solomons comes from existing budgets or is newly funded has yet to be decided. But there are pressures for the money to be found from within the present budget of NZAid, which now spends $100 million in the Pacific.

The Government in its May budget pledged an extra $9 million for the Pacific, with about half the money to be spent promoting stability and good governance, but its other aid funding increases focused on reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

Mr Goff said efforts would be made to finance help for the Solomons out of present budgets, but that did not rule out possible new spending. "Obviously for fiscal reasons we're trying to minimise the impact of the commitment.

"Others in the Pacific would be nervous about the diversion of money from their own countries to resolve the Solomon Islands problem, but they've also accepted that there is a need for action.

"We have got more money in our development assistance budget this year ... although some of that is taken up with Iraq."

Asked if he could guarantee that extra aid for the Solomons would not come at the expense of other Pacific countries, Mr Goff said if more was spent on one nation, other budgets might have to remain static.

"There's only so much money to go around. If more is going to one area, it's not necessary to cut other areas, but the increases that might go to other areas would be reduced accordingly."

New Zealand's aid to the Solomons is expected to be spent on restoring the education and court systems, and the re-establishment of Government and police services.

The first NZ police and soldiers to join the up to 2000-strong intervention team are expected to leave before the end of this month.