Patrick
Decloitre RNZ Pacific French Pacific desk
correspondent
New Caledonia’s President Milakulo
Tukumuli on Monday outlined the urgent issues facing the
French Pacific territory.
In a special address at New
Caledonia’s Congress, Tukumuli, who was elected president of
the collegial multi-party government on 31 July following
provincial elections, said he gave his government six months
to tackle the most pressing issues facing New
Caledonia.
After this, he said his government would
start to focus on other issues.
He said there the most
immediate urgencies included necessary efforts to salvage
the French territory’s pension and health insurance schemes,
currently facing a short-term risk of total
collapse.
He added, if nothing is done, over 40,000
New Caledonian pensioners could find themselves pensionless
“within a few months”.
New Caledonia’s healthcare
system was also under direct threat with a cumulated current
deficit to the tune of US$420 million.
Another urgency
was to examine the local political system’s expenditures in
order to reduce costs.
“The fall is now receding, but
recovery has not started yet. When a canoe is taking water,
it’s not time to take stock of what is onboard. You begin by
fixing the hull and restoring the course,” he told local
Congress members, as part of his general policy
speech.
“I did not request this position just to
manage impotency”, he said, stressing that New Caledonia was
still recovering from the damage caused by the 2024 civil
unrest.
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On the crucial nickel mining sector in New
Caledonia, where most of the stakeholders and operators are
still searching for new investors, Tukumuli said his
government would support any “coherent” offer by “solid” and
“durably engaged” stakeholders.
But he said New
Caledonia’s economy also needed to reduce its long-term
dependency on nickel through other economic sectors such as
tourism, agriculture, the blue economy or digital-based
projects.
“Let’s make sure that a future New Caledonia
remembers us as those who have chosen to put it back on its
feet”.
He said economic recovery must include “social
justice”.
“These are the two sides of the same coin:
wealth without justice does not hold. And justice without
wealth cannot last”, he told the Congress, saying one of his
priorities was to bring New Caledonians a “dignified
life”.
Mending the multi-ethnic social
fabric
Being the first New Caledonian government of
Wallisian heritage, he also mentioned the need for all
citizens of all ethnic heritages to “feel at
home”.
“Our country is made of all these components,
the Kanak people, first inhabitants of New Caledonia. But
also women and men who came from Europe, Tahiti, Wallis and
Futuna, Asia, Vanuatu and elsewhere, and who, generation
after generation, have also made this land theirs and know
no other one”.
“The events of May 2024 have reopened
fractures that we knew were there, but preferred not to
see”.
He said New Caledonia’s social cohesion cannot
be dictated, but “is built also within our institutions,
through the words we use and the way we speak to each
other”.
Reactions
Reactions from across the
political chessboard were generally positive, including in
the pro-independence ranks.
Pro-independence member
for Kanaky-NC (mostly consisting of member of Union
Calédonienne) Omaira Naisseline said the speech was
“responsible”, but that her political group remained
“attentive”.
On the pro-France side, Congress members
(who have struck a coalition pact with Tukumuli’s Eveil
Océanien party), hailed Tukumuli’s “truthful and
responsible” roadmap.
“It’s a make or break situation.
We’re up against a wall”, Congress member for pro-France Les
Loyalistes-Rassemblement told the media after the speech,
saying his party would support Tukumuli’s government reform
efforts.
Congress President Virginie Ruffenach
(pro-France) said the address was “very pragmatic” and
“tough”.
Bipartisan delegation in Paris next
week
Tukumuli also confirmed he will lead a
bipartisan delegation in Paris next week, with the main
objective being to re-negotiate with the French government
the terms of massive loans contracted in the past few
years.
This included loans contracted a result of the
Covid crisis, and later following the massive damages
incurred during the May 2024 unrest, which resulted in 14
deaths, over €2.2 billion in material damages, thousands
of jobless and a drop of some 13.5 percent in New
Caledonia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Despite
French assistance packages, New Caledonia was still short of
over €100m just to finish the 2026 financial
year.
The delegation (which will consist of Tukumuli,
some of his government members, Congress members and New
Caledonia’s two MPs from the French National Assembly)
mainly aims at convincing the French government to turn the
massive loans into non-refundable grants.
“The loans
have avoided total collapse, but they have also generated a
debt course that we cannot sustain. Our debt has now reached
a level New Caledonia has never seen before”, Tukumuli said
on Monday.
Speaking shortly after his election in
July, he described the situation as a very real short-term
risk of “shutdown”.
“We’re not asking for charity …
New Caledonia will not pass 2027 without fresh financial
support from the French State”, he said on Monday.
New
Caledonia’s Congress has to vote its 2027 budget before the
end of 2026.
“This budget will have to be sincere and
balanced. It will greatly depend on France’s financial
support. What we are proposing is a contract of
responsibility with known amounts and reciprocal
commitments. New Caledonia will pursue its
reforms”.
Even though the delegation’s trip to Paris
does not include further negotiations on New Caledonia’s
future political status, Tukumuli also called on politicians
to remain mobilised in view of future institutional talks
with France about the French territory’s future political
status.
“Uncertainty about tomorrow does not authorize
us to remain motionless today”.
The general feeling
among the current majority of New Caledonia’s politicians is
that those talks, which have currently stalled earlier this
year due to a rejection from the French National Assembly,
would be likely to resume after France’s presidential and
general elections, starting in April
2027.
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