Murray McCully

Auckland, Dec 28 NZPA - New Zealand's Acting High Commissioner to Fiji has returned to Auckland after being expelled by the interim military Government in Suva, saying she is extremely disappointed at her axing.

Caroline McDonald arrived at Auckland International Airport about 2.30pm, five days after the military Government headed by Commodore Frank Bainimarama told her she was not wanted.

Ms McDonald's expulsion came after she was accused of acting inappropriately and not engaging with the Fiji administration.

But it also followed the New Zealand Government's decision not to grant a student visa to the son of a senior Fiji official.

Ms McDonald, who hopes to meet Foreign Minister Murray McCully in the next few days, said on her arrival today that her expulsion was an "arbitrary and unwarranted action by the Fiji Interim Government" in expelling me from Fiji.

"As Mr McCully has explained, there's really no basis and no justification for my expulsion and the interim Government has really not been able to substantiate why they've taken this action," she said.

"I think that it is really simply retaliation for the New Zealand Government's long-standing and consistent approach of denying visas to supporters of the Fiji interim regime and their close family members in the absence of course of any concrete moves back to democracy."

Ms McDonald said her expulsion was particularly disappointing given what she described as "a determined effort on the part of successive New Zealand governments to reach out to the regime".

"This includes an offer of substantial help and assistance if the Fiji interim Government takes credible steps towards a return to democracy, and you'll recall of course that this is what Commodore Bainimarama promised ... back in 2007."

Ms McDonald said she had appreciated the warmth of the people of Fiji and appreciated the support of other governments, international organisations and local bodies in Fiji who spoke out against her expulsion.

"I think we all share a common aim, which is that we wish to see Fiji quickly return to its rightful place as a leader among the family of Pacific nations."

Along with Ms McDonald, the NZ High Commission has lost her husband Simon Mark, who is the trade commissioner, as well as police and defence attaches.

That left just a handful of staff in the commission in Fiji under the Acting Deputy High Commissioner Todd Cleaver.

Mr McCully said the allegations against Ms McDonald held no water and there was no specific allegation. "They are obliged to indicate some offence that has been committed in order to expel a foreign representative, and in this case they have simply made wild generalisations. There has been no specific misconduct alleged because there is none."

It was only the third time in New Zealand's history a diplomat had been expelled, the second involving Fiji.

The New Zealand ambassador was thrown out of Russia in retaliation for a Russian diplomat being expelled in the wake of the William Sutch spying case in the 1970s.

There would not be any immediate moves to appoint a new commissioner, Mr McCully said.

"This time around we would have to think quite carefully about why we would want to send somebody into an environment where, on the current track record, there's a high chance of them simply being sent home again."

Ms McDonald is the second high commissioner to be given marching orders by Cdre Bainimarama.

In June last year Mike Green was declared persona non grata after being accused of meddling in Fiji's domestic affairs.