Speaker 1: Soldiers from Europe around the streets of one of Australia's
Speaker 1: closest neighbors.
Speaker 2: We can see there's a look if you're still on
Speaker 2: from six pm to six am. But into the night
Speaker 2: you can still hear gunshots and you know, clash beating
Speaker 2: police and the youth and the road blobs.
Speaker 1: This is Jimmy Nahouna speaking to us from New Caledonia.
Speaker 2: The police go through, clear the roads, but the next
Speaker 2: minute the youth put the road blocks back on, the
Speaker 2: barricades back on, and things will start all over again.
Speaker 1: Back in the nineteen eighties he manned roadblocks for the
Speaker 1: country's biggest indigenous independence movement, and now he's the spokesperson.
Speaker 2: We have always been marginalized in the society here. I
Speaker 2: was kicked out of college basically was because I was,
Speaker 2: you know, part of that youth awakening to the connector struggle.
Speaker 1: But this year seeing roadblocks and straight battles resumed, and
Speaker 1: Jimmy says they're still happening every night.
Speaker 2: Even up to to last night. We can still hear
Speaker 2: con shorts and clash between even this morning. Some parts
Speaker 2: of them are still not accessible, you know by roads.
Speaker 2: I think media did not look to the road causes
Speaker 2: or what you know, what makes this violence, you know,
Speaker 2: erupt and like I'm saying, this goes back, you know,
Speaker 2: many years and you know even generation. It is a
Speaker 2: political situation, needs a political issue, and it needs a
Speaker 2: political solution to itself.
Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media, I'm Ashland McGee. This is seven am.
Speaker 1: Many Australians have an idea of New Caledonia two hours
Speaker 1: way by playing luxurious, sprawling, hotel complexes, crystal clear beaches,
Speaker 1: you get the drill. But riots in the capitol, a
Speaker 1: state of emergency and the intervention of the French military
Speaker 1: have been remind us that the future of New Caledonia
Speaker 1: is a fraud political question sitting on our doorstep. So
Speaker 1: what's unleashed the unrest?
Speaker 3: How are we involved?
Speaker 1: And why are the French trying to still hold on
Speaker 1: to a Pacific nation? Today journalist Nick McClellan, who's covered
Speaker 1: the Pacific for decades, on the tension that's been brewing
Speaker 1: and the French president's pr stumble. It's Tuesday, June four, Neick,
Speaker 1: How are things right now in New Caledonia.
Speaker 4: Things are a bit quieter than the last two or
Speaker 4: three weeks. Starting on the thirteenth of May. Young people
Speaker 4: and they were especially young, Many teenagers were out on
Speaker 4: the streets at night rioting. There's been major damage to businesses,
Speaker 4: to public buildings, to infrastructure, a terrible blow to the economy.
Speaker 4: You know, supermarkets looted, many buildings burnt down. As we speak,
Speaker 4: seven people have been killed, and it's an enormous trauma
Speaker 4: for people living in the capitol. But they're still underlying tensions.
Speaker 4: The core problems that have been dividing supporters and opponents
Speaker 4: of independence are still unresolved, and President Macron's flying visit
Speaker 4: to New Caledonia hasn't really addressed core issues raised by
Speaker 4: the Kannak independence movement.
Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible scenes, Ryan.
Speaker 4: Many people were surprised by the explosion of conflict. Frankly,
Speaker 4: I wasn't. I've been visited in New Caledonia for some
Speaker 4: forty years.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: In many ways, the colonial history of New Caledonia parallels
Speaker 4: that of Australia.
Speaker 6: Down there, south of the Solomon's by some nine hundred
Speaker 6: miles and about one thousand miles east of Sydney, Australia lies.
Speaker 4: New Caledonia was originally a penal colony, later there was settlement.
Speaker 4: Kannak Land, the land of indigenous Melanesian people, was taken.
Speaker 4: They were driven up into the hills and the west
Speaker 4: coast of the main island was used for cattle farming
Speaker 4: for years.
Speaker 6: The French colonial government enjoyed New Caledonia's rich export.
Speaker 4: Then people discovered nickel. New Caledonia has an estimated twenty
Speaker 4: percent of the world's reserves of nickel. To the whole
Speaker 4: mountain chain on the main island is really full of
Speaker 4: strategic metals and minerals, and so indentured laborers were brought
Speaker 4: so that long history of settlement and migration of colonial
Speaker 4: policy really disadvantaged indigenous Kannak. They were pushed into tribal reserves.
Speaker 4: Kannak and indeed women and indentured laborers didn't get the
Speaker 4: vote till after the Second World War. So there's been
Speaker 4: a long campaign by indigenous peoples, including revolts, saying that
Speaker 4: they wanted to control their own land.
Speaker 6: She didn't do.
Speaker 4: The Kanak people decided to fight.
Speaker 2: We had been exploited for too long.
Speaker 4: We wanted to get.
Speaker 2: Our land back.
Speaker 3: We decided to occupy our land and force the French
Speaker 3: government to talk about independence.
Speaker 4: In the nineteen eighties, there were armed clashes between the
Speaker 4: French military, independence activists right wing militias referred to obliquely
Speaker 4: as les Animore. The events the Independence Uprising lasted on
Speaker 4: and off for four years and cost at least sixty lives.
Speaker 4: There was a series of peace negotiations and talks in
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty eight nineteen ninety eight, and the agreement in
Speaker 4: ninety eight called the numer Courts set out a twenty
Speaker 4: five year transition towards a decision on political status. The
Speaker 4: three referendums were held at the end of this twenty
Speaker 4: five year transition. The first two showed very strong support
Speaker 4: for independence. Forty three percent of people voted yes for independence.
Speaker 4: The next vote, in twenty twenty, forty seven percent nearly
Speaker 4: voted in favor of independence. Obviously not a majority, but
Speaker 4: you can see the trend people were moving towards a change.
Speaker 1: The Pacific island of New Caledonia has voted in a
Speaker 1: third and final referendum on independence from France.
Speaker 4: The third referendum was rushed through in the middle of
Speaker 4: the COVID pandemic. It was botched by the French authorities,
Speaker 4: so the vote dropped from forty seven percent in favor
Speaker 4: of independence to three point five percent.
Speaker 7: The French President Emmanuel McCrone welcomed the results in a
Speaker 7: televised address.
Speaker 8: He said, tonight France is more beautiful because New Caledonia
Speaker 8: has decided to stay here.
Speaker 4: And since that time, the independence movement has been very
Speaker 4: critical about the lack of impartiality by the French state.
Speaker 2: Doctor referendum for us is illegitimate. It's politically illegitimate because
Speaker 2: indigenous people, indigenous people, as the colonized people of this
Speaker 2: country not take part in data referendum on Chefely demolition.
Speaker 4: They see President Macron and key ministers as biased against
Speaker 4: the call for decolonization, the call for independence.
Speaker 1: So then fast forward to May thirteen. What was it
Speaker 1: on that particular day that sparked the unrest.
Speaker 4: The French government has been preparing a constitutional amendment to
Speaker 4: change key provisions of the nemir Acord, particularly around voting rights.
Speaker 4: The nemir coord created this notion that indigenous can act
Speaker 4: long term residents. The descendants of the convicts, the indentured
Speaker 4: laborers and others born and bred in New Caledonia should
Speaker 4: determine the future of the country. They should have priority
Speaker 4: over local employment and they should be the ones to
Speaker 4: vote for the local political institutions. Now, France basically wants
Speaker 4: to change the rules. They want to expand the number
Speaker 4: of people who would qualify to be new Caledonian citizens
Speaker 4: and therefore were to be able to vote in local elections,
Speaker 4: and their talk is under President Marcrol's proposal to add
Speaker 4: twenty five thousand people to the voting roles. Now, it's
Speaker 4: a country of only two hundred and seventy thousand people,
Speaker 4: that's about fourteen point five percent of the electorate. Most
Speaker 4: of those people are French Nationals who are resident there
Speaker 4: but can't currently vote. Most of them hard to tell,
Speaker 4: but most of them, I would say, vote against independence.
Speaker 4: So not surprisingly, the Independence Coalition feels that France is
Speaker 4: rigging the rules, just like they did during the twenty
Speaker 4: twenty one referendum, and the vote that went to the
Speaker 4: French National Assembly in Paris was on the thirteenth of May.
Speaker 2: We've been holding peaceful marches and protests around the country
Speaker 2: calling on the French government on Macron government to withdraw
Speaker 2: this electloriform bill.
Speaker 4: Kanak protesters have been protesting peacefully for months on the
Speaker 4: thirteenth of April, there was a rally of more than
Speaker 4: thirty thousand independent supporters, as I say, in a country
Speaker 4: of two hundred and seventy thousand people.
Speaker 2: And there was never any ballence. People were just turning
Speaker 2: up and you know, and joining de Martin to demos.
Speaker 2: The families and people are from none communities.
Speaker 4: Saying don't do this, don't do this without a comprehensive
Speaker 4: agreement on the ground. Paris hasn't listened and they are
Speaker 4: reaping the consequences of their failure to engage properly with
Speaker 4: indigenous people.
Speaker 1: After the break. What a small country in eastern Europe
Speaker 1: has to do with this conflict in the South Pacific.
Speaker 1: So Nick explained to me why France and Emmanuel Macron
Speaker 1: as the president, why are they holding on so tight?
Speaker 1: Why are they so determined to keep New Caledonia as
Speaker 1: part of the republic.
Speaker 4: He flew literally halfway around the world sixteen seven hundred
Speaker 4: kilometers and flew back again eighteen hours later to capture
Speaker 4: the headlines.
Speaker 9: I want to dear, my intention and the government's intention,
Speaker 9: is to stand by the population and to bring back peace,
Speaker 9: calm and security as quickly as possible.
Speaker 4: Understandably, he called for calm, he called for an inter conflict,
Speaker 4: he called for dialogue, but he also talked about the
Speaker 4: need to restore Republican order.
Speaker 5: In the coming hours and days, massive new operations will
Speaker 5: be scheduled where necessary, and Republican order in its entirety
Speaker 5: will be re established because there is no other choice now.
Speaker 4: Indigenous Kannak people have very poor educational standards, qualifications, opportunities,
Speaker 4: employment levels in comparison to non Kanak people, particularly European people.
Speaker 4: In New Caledonia compest prison in Nemea, more than ninety
Speaker 4: percent of inmates are Kanak, And so the young people
Speaker 4: who've been out on the streets see the wealthy southern suburbs,
Speaker 4: the yacht harbors, the public servants and obscene salaries and say,
Speaker 4: you know, this is the Republican order that you're protecting.
Speaker 4: So it's a particularly tone deaf comment. But he wasn't
Speaker 4: talking to Kanak. He was talking to settlers the descendants thereof,
Speaker 4: to non Kannak communities who are understandably aggrieved by the
Speaker 4: terrible destruction, the loss of jobs, the damage to the economy.
Speaker 4: But his flowery retric at the meetings really haven't resolved
Speaker 4: the underlying problem and ultimately there can be no solution
Speaker 4: without the Kannak people. France says it's a pacific nation
Speaker 4: because it has three dependencies in the region New Caledonia,
Speaker 4: French Polynesia, Wilson Futuna. It claims sovereignty over seven million
Speaker 4: square kilometers of exclusive economic zone. That's an enormous resource
Speaker 4: that France claims. You know, France's status as a global
Speaker 4: power is based on it maintaining an empire that was
Speaker 4: first created in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: Nick inspired of what's at stake for France here, Makron
Speaker 1: left New Caledonia with you know, obviously no real progress
Speaker 1: made and instead of addressing the real issues that are
Speaker 1: being raised there. Insteady's government has come out swinging against Azerbaijan.
Speaker 1: Is Azerbaijan trying to take advantage of the political unrest
Speaker 1: in New Caledonia. That's what France's Interior minister alleges.
Speaker 3: What's that about.
Speaker 4: There's a thing in politics called the dead cat. When
Speaker 4: you want to distract attention from something, you throw a
Speaker 4: dead cat on the table. Can I put to you
Speaker 4: that Azerbaijan is France's dead cat?
Speaker 8: And I regret that some of the Caledonian independence leaders
Speaker 8: made a deal with Azerbaijan that is indisputable and it
Speaker 8: gives an idea of what democracy would look like if
Speaker 8: we listen to certain leaders.
Speaker 4: Granted there have been connections between Kannak independence people and
Speaker 4: the Azerbaijan government. I would put to you that the
Speaker 4: discussion around Azerbaijan, while there is a kernel of truth
Speaker 4: in it, is a distraction from the core issue.
Speaker 1: Nick, we are one of New Caledonia's closest neighbors. What's
Speaker 1: the Australian government's response.
Speaker 4: Being, Australia is in a picle at the moment. As
Speaker 4: part of her outreach to all Pacific Island countries, Penny
Speaker 4: Wong has been actively engaging with New CALEDONIAE Saluer. She
Speaker 4: was the first foreign minister from Australia ever to address
Speaker 4: the Congress of New Caledonia in April last year. So
Speaker 4: the government is trying to reach out to integrate New
Speaker 4: Caledonia into regional affairs.
Speaker 7: It is a great honor to be the first Australian
Speaker 7: foreign minister, indeed the first Australian minister to address the
Speaker 7: Congress of New Caledonia.
Speaker 4: But at the same time successive governments, both Coalition and
Speaker 4: Labor in Australia have been backing France's Indo Pacific strategy.
Speaker 4: France is seen as a Western power useful in the
Speaker 4: mobilization against Chinese influence in the region, and Deputy Prime
Speaker 4: Minister and Defense Minister Richard Miles has been at the
Speaker 4: forefront of a series of agreements with the French government
Speaker 4: to work very closely together.
Speaker 3: France matters because they are effectively our closest neighbor, I mean,
Speaker 3: the closest overseas population to where we're all sitting in
Speaker 3: this room today is in France. It's new mea and
Speaker 3: France see us as a critical partner as.
Speaker 4: Well, and this is a sort of tension in Australian policy.
Speaker 4: They're engaged with Indo Pacific strategies with France, but they've
Speaker 4: also got a Pacific Island strategy what's often dubbed the
Speaker 4: Blue Pacific agendas around development, around poverty, around climate, climate climate.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a whole lot of practical things that
Speaker 4: could be done to help improve the country.
Speaker 2: So what's our next step when we keep calling on
Speaker 2: this hele chloroform to be withdrawn and for a high
Speaker 2: level independent mission to be sent to New cal dinner
Speaker 2: from Paris.
Speaker 4: The independence movement, the fl and KS has called for
Speaker 4: a high level mediation mission. You know, they're calling for
Speaker 4: high level dignitaries, indeed not just from France, but from
Speaker 4: the region and internationally to participate in this talanoah. As
Speaker 4: they say, in the Pacific there talking through of these tensions,
Speaker 4: trying to calm tensions, create a dialogue that's respectful, that
Speaker 4: takes time. In the Pacific way.
Speaker 2: Now what you can see is regret about ogitation is
Speaker 2: that you know, people already have difficulties emitting. You know,
Speaker 2: their needs are now the most impacted by this situation,
Speaker 2: while on the other side of town, people are still
Speaker 2: living their lives as if nothing's happening in this country.
Speaker 2: I'm going to the beach, going to restaurants, you know,
Speaker 2: having access to basic needs. The other part of this
Speaker 2: town people are struggling to find food.
Speaker 4: I think one of the most important things is that
Speaker 4: we need to listen to people on the ground, regardless
Speaker 4: whether they support independence or opposed it. We need more
Speaker 4: sustained engagement with Kannak voices, with other New Caledonian voices
Speaker 4: to understand what are their priorities, their hopes, their aspirations.
Speaker 1: Nick, thanks so much of your time today.
Speaker 4: Thank you kindly.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, Australia's minimum wage and award
Speaker 1: wages will increase by three point seventy five percent, according
Speaker 1: to an announcement from the Fair Work Commission. The decision,
Speaker 1: which will come into effect from the first of July,
Speaker 1: will see the national minimum wage increase to twenty four
Speaker 1: dollars and ten cents an hour, and the Immigration Minister
Speaker 1: has admitted he was wrong to claim that surveillance drones
Speaker 1: were monitoring people released from immigration to tention. Andrew Giles
Speaker 1: made that assertion last week while explaining why a cohort
Speaker 1: of people released from indefinite detention that included convicted criminals
Speaker 1: weren't required to wear an electronic ankle monitor or observe
Speaker 1: a curfew. Drones are being used to capture footage of
Speaker 1: their accommodation, but the Minister's now released a statement saying
Speaker 1: that Border Force isn't using drones to track the individuals.
Speaker 1: I'm Ashlin McGhee. That's all from the seven amteam for today.
Speaker 1: Thanks for your company and we'll see you again tomorrow.