Fiji-Australia expulsions help no one: business council

PHOTO

Shop assistants wait for customers behind the counter of the Empire pawn shop in central Suva, Fiji's capital city December 7, 2006. The Australia-Fiji Business Council says Australia's hard stance is costing Fijians jobs. [Reuters]

Last Updated: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:08:00 +1100

The Australia-Fiji Business Council has called on Australia's Government to soften its hard-line stance against the coup-installed military government in Fiji.

The Council's president, Brian Anderson, says the increasingly difficult relations between the two countries are making it harder to do business, and this is costing ordinary citizens jobs.

He says the latest round of diplomatic expulsions help no one, but creates a great deal of uncertainty.

"Fiji is struggling for more investment as it is, and this sort of thing only creates more uncertainty," he said.

"Business cannot operate in a climate of uncertainty."

He says what's needed from both sides is a willingness to talk.

"The countries are going to have to talk to each other. I can understand the country expelling the high commissioner in response to theirs being kicked out of Fiji, but I don't think at the end of the day it does much," he said.