Australia launches 'landmark' UN police peacekeeping course for Pacific region
UN Peaceekeeping training cohort at Pinkenba.
Photo:
Australian Federal Police
Australia has launched the world's first UN Police Peacekeeping Training course tailored specifically for the Pacific region.
The five-week program, hosted by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), is underway at the state-of-the-art Pacific Policing Development and Coordination Hub in Pinkenba, Brisbane.
AFP said "a landmark step" was developed in partnership with the United Nations, and brings together 100 police officers for training.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Lesa Gale said the program was the result of a long-standing, productive relationship between Australia and the United Nations.
Gale said it was launched in response to growing regional ambitions to contribute more actively to international peacekeeping efforts.
Participating nations are Samoa, Kiribati, Fiji, Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Tuvalu, Federated States of Micronesia, and Nauru.
"This course supports your enduring contribution and commitment to UN missions in supporting global peace and security efforts," AFP Northern Command acting assistant commissioner Caroline Taylor said.
Pacific Command commander Phillippa Connel said the AFP have been in peacekeeping for more than four decades "and it is wonderful to be asked to undertake what is a first for the United Nations."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Erin Patterson denies murdering lunch guests in triple-murder mushroom trial
By Larissa Ham & Joseph Dunstan for ABC Erin Patterson has testified that she did not intentionally kill her relatives by putting death cap mushrooms in their meals. Photo: ABC News Accused triple-murderer Erin Patterson has testified that she did not intentionally kill her relatives by putting death cap mushrooms in their meals. Patterson, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder, has taken to the stand for the fourth day running in the trial in Morwell, in regional Victoria, Australia. The 50-year-old is accused over the deaths of her estranged husband's parents Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson. Mrs Wilkinson's husband Ian, who also became seriously ill, was the only guest to survive the deadly 2023 lunch. The prosecution has begun cross-examining Erin Patterson in the Latrobe Valley Law Courts after three days of questions from her defence team. Ian and Heather Wilkinson, and Don and Gail Patterson were all hospitalised after the lunch, with only Mr Wilkinson surviving. Photo: ABC / Supplied This morning, Patterson's defence barrister Colin Mandy SC asked his client whether she murdered her relatives. "Did you intend to kill or cause really serious injury to Donald Patterson by serving that meal?" he asked her. "No I didn't," Erin she replied. "Did you intend to harm him in any way?" Mandy said. Patterson replied: "No." The defence barrister asked the same question of the three other guests. Patterson answered no to all questions, her voice progressively breaking as he came to the end of the names. The court was shown a transcript of a police interview with Patterson, in which she claimed she had not dehydrated food before. This morning, she said that was a lie, and admitted to also lying when previously denying she either owned a dehydrator or knew anything about one in the house. "I had disposed of it a few days earlier in the context of thinking that maybe mushrooms that I'd foraged, or the meal I'd prepared, was responsible for making people sick," she told the court. "And then on the Saturday, Detective Eppingstall told me that Gail and Heather had passed away, and, was this stupid kneejerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying. "I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it." Lead prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC began her cross examination of Patterson by asking about her ownership and use of a food dehydrator. Dr Rogers asserted that Patterson had used it to knowingly prepare death cap mushrooms for the lunch. "You knew that they were death cap mushrooms that you'd been dehydrating, correct?" Dr Rogers asked. "No, I didn't know that," Patterson replied. "And you were very keen to dispose of any evidence that might connect you with the possession of death cap mushrooms, correct?" the prosecutor asked. "No, I didn't." The prosecution also put it to Patterson that she had tested how to hide dehydrated mushrooms in food without them being noticed. "Yeah, that's fair," Patterson replied. The trial heard Patterson had been adding powdered mushrooms to foods for her children, which she told the court was only done to boost their vegetable intake. However, she denied she had only ever used the dehydrator on mushrooms, saying she also used it to dehydrate apple, banana and other fruits. The trial continues. - ABC
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Ministry for Primary Industries to review controls for tomato virus
Tomato brown rugose fruit virus. Photo: Tomatoes NZ Ministry for Primary Industries says it will review its current controls after Australia changed its strategy to deal with a highly contagious virus affecting tomatoes, capsicums and chillies. Across the Tasman , biosecurity experts and industry representatives have declared tomato brown rugose virus not technically feasible to eradicate and moved to a management strategy. 'Tomato virus' was first detected in South Australia last August and has also been found on a farm in Victoria. It is not harmful to humans but infected fruit can ripen irregularly or be deformed. It can also reduce crop yields by 70 percent. Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director-general Stuart Anderson said MPI had controls in place that were "working well for New Zealand and prevented any issues for our tomato growers after the discovery of tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) at sites in South Australia last August". He said a ban on all Australian tomato imports remained in place, even though only Australian tomatoes from Queensland, an area free from the virus, were imported here. "We made the decision to suspend imports from all Australian states out of an abundance of caution. As part of the actions we took, tomato and capsicum seeds from Australia require testing for the virus prior to arrival in New Zealand, a requirement already in place for other countries where the virus is present. That requirement remains. "Although Australia has announced they will no longer be pursuing eradication, all of the controls that have been in place to limit spread of the virus remain." There was nothing to suggest the virus was here but MPI's chief biosecurity officer would conduct a review of what Australia has in place to manage the risk, and New Zealand's import rules "to ensure that our settings remain reasonable", he said. "New Zealand imports Australian capsicums from Queensland. ToBRFV has not been reported in any parts of Australia in capsicums and has not been detected in Queensland. We are closely monitoring the situation in Australia and if there is any significant change in distribution, or which crops it is affecting, we will review the current import rules. "We continue to work closely with New Zealand's tomato sector. We have asked New Zealand industry representatives to assist by sharing any information they have that may inform our decision-making. We also meet regularly with Australian officials to maintain a continued understanding of the situation." MPI said growers should continue to check their biosecurity practices. "As always... be vigilant and contact us on our pests and diseases hotline (0800 80 99 66) if [you] notice problems with [your] tomatoes". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
21 hours ago
- RNZ News
NZ soldiers leave for Southern Hemisphere's leading military exercise
File photo. New Zealand Defence Force personnel and vehicles in 2023. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone New Zealand soldiers are leaving for the Southern Hemisphere's leading military exercise, the first since the government announced ramped up defence spending. The 35,000-strong exercise Talisman Sabre is a bilateral Australia and US military exercise with 17 other nations taking part. The Defence Force is sending about 700 personnel to northern Australia. Ahead of new defence funding the NZDF is taking some light armoured vehicles over 20 years old, which are likely vulnerable to the latest killer drones. Meanwhile, the Australians will be field-testing an uncrewed machine-gun double-track, and the Americans will be shooting precision missiles and deploying space-age data networks. Talisman Sabre aligns with US efforts to build a vast network of sensors and shooters across the Indo-Pacific, called Combined Joint All-Domain Command-and-Control (CJADC2). The Defence Force said a key goal is to be able to integrate its capabilities into Australian and US command relationships. The objective was to prepare, project and exercise NZDF capabilities integrated into the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and INDOPACOM - America's largest military command in the Indo-Pacific. That included command and control (C2) elements. INDOPACOM has recently deployed precision missiles that can be fired from land against naval targets, in the Philippines near a strategic chokepoint south of Taiwan. Talisman Sabre has become a testing ground for new missiles and drones. Australia is poised to co-produce missiles for the US, and Defence Minister Judith Collins has said New Zealand would get missiles, though Budget 2025 had no funding for that. Defence consultant and NZDF veteran Josh Wineera said Talisman Sabre was uniquely large Down Under and allowed the partners real-world "benchmarking of tactics and capabilities". "It will be really interesting to see whether the capabilities intended to be purchased still fit neatly into what the Australians are doing because that's what the Defence Capability Plan is about," he said. However, the partner countries were confronted with US networking goals aiming to step up warfighting to "fibreoptic" speed. "Because of this being automated, and it's in the information space where decisions and sensors are acting so quickly, this will be a real challenge, I think, for those decision-making levels to make sure that sovereignty is not being compromised," said Wineera. File photo. New Zealand Defence Force Bushmaster vehicles. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The first 150 New Zealand military personnel leave on Thursday for the exercise which rins from 13 July to 4 August. They are taking several new Bushmasters, but also some Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) that in 2003 were given a 25-year lifespan, and were yet to be revived under the $12 billion defence capability plan with new turrets and networked comms. The military exercise is also drawing in AI companies, such as Virginia's billion-dollar that said it was going along to "help military forces act faster by updating AI models in real-time, improving coordination between sensors and shooters". The Australian military said the exercise was to build combined joint warfighting capabilities. At Talisman 2023, the Australians tested their field drone, ironically called an armoured "personnel" carrier, the M113AS4. The carrier runs autonomously but requires a human to aim and shoot its gun. It is expected to feature again this time in experiments majoring in human-machine-integration, or HMI as the Pentagon has dubbed it. All sorts of drones, but especially aerial ones, have dominated Ukraine's war with Russia since 2022. The exercise in northern Australia is the biggest ever, and the stakes are higher than ever, too. The Pentagon states that Talisman "reflects US, allies' commitment to Indo-Pacific". This is at a time when the Trump Administration's relations with Europe's NATO members are under huge strain, and US commanders have repeatedly stressed fears of a growing conventional and nuclear threat from China. America sees itself in a race to bring advanced technology, and its allies, on board its evolving battlefield network, though even before Trump began his second term, some lawmakers expressed concern the Pentagon had bitten off more than it can chew with the scale of CJADC2. "We seek to network our efforts across domains, theatres, and the spectrum of conflict to ensure that the US military, in close cooperation with the rest of the US government and our Allies and partners, makes the folly and costs of aggression very clear," Joe Biden's Deputy Secretary of Defence Dr Kathleen Hicks in 2022 . Joint exercises like Talisman Sabre tap into US$2 billion annual funding from within US$17 billion 'Pacific Deterrence Initiative'. The NZDF is already active in two cornerstone Combined Joint All-Domain Command-and-Control (CJADC2) efforts - the US Army's Project Convergence Capstone, and the US Navy's Project Overmatch, which NZ signed on to in February. The government said it was usual to sign on like this, unannounced to the public. Several dozen New Zealand personnel went to Convergence's annual exercise in March in the Mojave Desert, looking to identify "potential experimentation", newly released OIA documents showed. The records mentioned experiments with targeting sensors and electromagnetic warfare, and ensuring NZ Army software could "effectively interface" with partners. Two capability demonstrations had "particular relevance" to NZDF - but these were blanked out. Wineera said Project Convergence and Talisman Sabre gave insight about autonomy of decision-making. "Some of our legal staff need to be thinking about all of that flow that's happening at the same time, to ensure that our New Zealand contribution sticks within what would be our national rules of engagement." The Project Convergence records also showed the NZDF was so strapped for resources there was talk of having to pull out, but that then it would the miss out as it did not have these capabilities itself. The technology at hand includes, for example, Maven, a software system from Palantir that in recent US Army tests was 100 times faster than the most efficient targeting team in the Iraq war. One US unit working with this, known as Shadow Operations Centre, is linked to the NZDF. "We are partnering with Australia and New Zealand Battle Labs to connect" to the Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network in 2025, Shadow Operations Centre said last year. File photo. A New Zealand Defence Force LAV driving through the bush. Photo: NZDF Resources for more exercises like Talisman Sabre are on their way. Budget 2025 made millions more available for them, alongside millions more for advanced technology or upgrading old tech though there was no mention in it of new turrets for the LAVs. Some amounts were not specified, but $80m over four years was set aside for overseas deployments, $11m for interoperability and $8m for increasing engagement with security partners overseas. "It can be expected that as new capabilities prioritised in the DCP are released in time, these would be incorporated into future iterations of Talisman Sabre as our contribution to this important multinational, multi-domain exercise grows," the NZDF said in a statement. As for taking the LAVS along, "regardless of future programmes the LAVs are still a key combat vehicle for the NZ Army and form a crucial part of the NZ Army's current combat system", it said. Twenty of the LAVs were sold to Chile for just under $1 million each two years ago. A recent online discussion of the LAVs said they had some limited uses but were very vulnerable to the type of drones now common in the Ukraine-Russia war, including one that can hit 110kmh and destroy a tank. Six Bushmasters heading to Talisman Sabre have had their comms upgrade completed, Defence said. The project to upgrade all 43 Bushmasters has been delayed, and Budget 2025 signalled operational savings of $13m from "rephasing" the project.
