The Fijian public was not directly consulted during the development and negotiation of the proposed Vuvale Treaty and Ocean of Peace Alliance.

Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Dr Lesikimacuata Korovavala made the admission before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs after Committee Member Virendra Lal questioned the Government’s consultation process.

Lal asked whether consultations had been carried out locally, given that the agreements were negotiated in confidence and the Office of the Prime Minister acted as Fiji’s chief negotiating office.

Dr Korovavala said the government ministries and sectors were consulted throughout the process.

“We, as a process, we didn’t go out to the public.”

Instead, Dr Korovavala said the government relied on individual ministries to engage with their respective stakeholders and bring those views into the negotiation process.

He said consultations began from the outset, with relevant ministries contributing to the development of concepts, principles and Fiji’s position on the Vuvale Treaty and Ocean of Peace Alliance.

The ministries also helped determine the scope and content of the proposed frameworks and outlined their respective objectives and what they wanted to achieve.

Dr Korovavala said these positions were then considered by government legal experts before Fiji entered discussions with its Australian counterparts.

He said negotiations took place approximately three weeks apart, with consultations continuing between the negotiations.

The Permanent Secretary also revealed that there were 14 face-to-face or one-on-one discussions with the lead Australian negotiator.

Those discussions covered the key concepts, ideas, negotiation framework, content and scope of the agreements.

But despite the consultations within government and with sector stakeholders, the wider Fijian public was not directly engaged in the process.

Dr Korovavala said the government instead relied on ministries to obtain feedback from stakeholders already within their respective areas of responsibility.