British help for Nauru

Nauru

Aust welcomes NZ, . «■■■

AUSTRALIA has welcomed the decision of Britain and New Zealand to help pay a multi-million dollar compensation package to the Pacific island country of Nauru.

Britain and New Zealand have announced payments of SAI2 million each as a contribution to Australia’s $lO7 million compensation package to help Nauru rehabilitate areas devastated by phosphate mining. Australia, New Zealand and Britain shared colonial responsibility for Nauru from 1914 to 1968 and controlled the British Phosphate Commission (BPC) which mined vast areas of the 21-square-kilometre island.

The mining, which has continued under the control of the Nauru government since independence in 1968, caused widespread environmental damage to most of the country’s interior and left the population of almost 10,000 living on the narrow coastal region. Britain has already paid its contribution to Australia, while New Zealand will do so shortly.

Pacific Islands Affairs Minister Gordon Bilney said the offers of help from Britain and New Zealand were in line with Australia’s good relations with the two nations. “We accept these offers in the spirit they were intended,” Bilney said. The Australian compensation package of $lO7 million was agreed at last year’s South Pacific Forum and prevented further legal action by Nauru, which was seeking compensation in the international courts.