Issue No: 1014; 13 August 2001

The media last week revealed that Baba's party was financed by the international conman. Baba has defended the conman.

An article titled Tea fraudster backs new Fiji party, carried Baba's defence of the conman. The article, written by the Australian's South Pacific correspondent, Mary-Louise O'Callaghan, and published in the paper on 9 August, states:

CONVICTED fraudster Peter Foster, with his mother in tow, has surfaced in Fiji, ensconced in one of the Sheraton Hotel's luxury villas, from
where he
has been backing Fiji's breakaway New Labour Unity Party. The leader of New Labour, former deputy prime minister Tupeni Baba, confirmed last night that the failed slimming-tea promoter and one-time partner of British page three girl Samantha Fox had been providing financial backing to New Labour.

However Dr Baba denied that Foster was a "substantial contributor" to the hip new party aimed at urban Fijians that he launched a month ago after an acrimonious split with Fiji's ousted prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry earlier this year.

"We control the agenda of the party," Dr Baba told The Australian.

"I approached more than 500 people. We have 2000 supporters, he is just another one of them," he said. "There is nothing untoward, nothing wrong going on. I can't be expected to know the background of all the people who come to me wanting to support the party," Dr Baba said.

Foster, who appears to have moved to Fiji soon after his release from a British jail, last year, was not answering his phone at the Sheraton's Denaru Villa complex, near Nadi, last night. "Bula, I'm not here at the moment," a voicemail message recorded by Foster using the traditional Fijian greeting responded to callers instead.

Foster has been renting a $F560 ($475) a night, two-bedroom villa at the Sheraton since last November and was at home earlier in the day.

His mother, Louise Foster, has also been a frequent visitor and is believed to be in Fiji.

Mrs Foster has always claimed her son pleaded guilty to fraud charges in a British court last year only to end his legal battles. He was extradited to Britain by Australia last year after a 2 1/2 year fight.

At one stage Foster claimed to have worked undercover for the Australian Federal Police.

While finding him guilty, a British court last September ruled he had spent enough time in custody and freed him at the end of his trial.

Although he has been keeping a relatively low profile at the Sheraton, Foster was recently sighted in Fiji's capital, Suva, on the other side of the main island, Viti Levu, for New Labour's launch at the Suva Civic Centre.

The party has drawn interest and considerable comment with its use of high-profile Fijian personalities including national rugby captain Waisale Serevi in campaign advertising. But Dr Baba last night described the intense scrutiny of New Labour's backers as jealously.

"We are the main threat now and we are only a month old," he said. "There is no law against this. In Fiji anyone is free to support a (political) party."