Call for proper Nauru police inquiry into bribery claims

Transcript

A suspended Nauru MP is calling on the government to allow a full police inquiry into bribery allegations implicating the Justice Minister David Adeang.

Other members of the current government, including President Baron Waqa are also implicated.

Australian media is reporting emails, that were tabled in the Nauru parliament in 2009, showed a Queensland phosphate importer allegedly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr Adeang.

The Nauru government has called a report on the ABC 7.30 current affairs programme baseless and for that reason they were not pursued by the government at the time.

Mr Adeang claims the resurfaced allegations are the work of disgruntled former employees that his government removed.

Suspended MP and former Justice Minister, Mathew Batsiua, told Don Wiseman he would expect them to say that.

MATTHEW BATSIUA:  The government can say that naturally as a defence because they have been implicated from the President to Minister Adeang and so forth so of course they will come back and say that.  I think what the government needs to do in order to clear their own name is to make sure that the Nauru police firstly is able to investigate this properly without any hindrance and for the government to support the Nauru police in trying to build up their capabilities so they can properly investigate.  It is in the best interests of Nauru to have this matter properly investigated and if there are no grounds for these allegations then they can be dismissed and the names of the president and Minister Adeang can be cleared.

DON WISEMAN:  Do you think though that Nauru police and judiciary given the interference that's happened over the last 18 months, that they could actually do a proper investigation?

MB:  We can always aspire for these institutions to have the ability and capacity to operate independently.  I think it's in Nauru's interest now for the government, in order for the government to clear up its own name, the president and the minister clear up their names, they need to be able to make sure that the investigations do proceed and they do proceed in a manner that is independent and with the right assistance given to the police to be able to conduct the investigations properly and not interfere.  That's' what we could hope for and that's what us in opposition would call for the government to do.

DW:  What's the public knowledge in the streets of Nauru of what went down?

MB:  Because it was aired, these leaked e-mails were aired in parliament, a lot of people know about them.  There is a general curiosity from a lot of people wanting to know if there is any truth to it or not but the answer to all that can be reached if our police are assisted and are able to independently investigate these allegations and then proceed from there on but there is general widespread knowledge of the email.  It is something that hangs over the heads of President Waqa and Mr Adeang.  I believe it is in their best interests that they have this matter properly investigated so if they are not guilty as they claim then that can be approved properly through this investigation.    

That is suspended Nauru MP Mathew Batsiua.

Our attempts to get additional comment from the Nauru Government have been unsuccessful.