Pacific news in brief for 26 June
Photo:
ppart/123RF
Tonga's current 17 Peoples' Representatives in parliament will each have TOP $100,000 (approx. NZ$69,000) in constituency funds to spend ahead of the November general election.
This was approved in parliament on 19 June as part of the Community Road Maintenance Fund.
Matangi Tonga
reports this is part of the record TOP $992.8 million national budget Tonga's Legislative Assembly has unanimously approved for the 2025/26 financial year.
The budget includes TOP $749m in cash spending and TOP $244m in donor support, with a deficit of just over TOP $29m paid for through government bonds.
Fiji's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is maintaining active communication with Fijian nationals residing in Qatar and Israel.
The Fijian government said this is happening through the Fiji Embassy in Abu Dhabi accredited to Doha, Qatar, and the Permanent Mission of Fiji to the United Nations.
The ministry also assured the families and relatives of Fijians in Qatar and Israel that they stand ready to provide support.
A 24/7 Operations Cell is in place to track real-time developments and situation reports.
There are concerns in Guadalcanal Province in Solomon Islands at soaring population levels.
The Guadalcanal population is growing at 3.2 percent, higher than the national rate of 2.7 percent.
The Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reported the rapidly growing population presents a significant challenge with Premier Willie Atu's government having to provide education and health services for all.
The higher growth rate is at least partly due to people from other provinces migrating to Honiara for work, education and business opportunities.
Vanuatu is taking steps to strengthen its disaster and health emergency response, completing its first-ever national evaluation backed by the World Health Organization.
The Joint External Evaluation involved health, disaster and planning agencies working together to identify gaps and improve coordination across sectors.
World Health Organisation Vanuatu country liaison officer Dr Revite Kirition said the evaluations begin with self assesments.
Vanuatu has been through back-to-back cyclones, an earthquake, and disease outbreaks in recent years.
Vanuatu is the eigth country to join the Joint External Evaluation - the first was the Federated States of Micronesia in 2002 and the most recent Cook Island in May this year.
Health Director General Russel Tamata said the review highlights the need for stronger laws and better coordination across sectors.
Officials say the next step is building a national emergency plan and training more frontline workers.
Military personnel from across the world have been working in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain to eliminate explosive ordnances from World War II.
The explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operators were locating, identifying and planning the disposal of the bombs.
The soldiers involved came from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Papua New Guinea, the United States and the United Kingdom for Operation Render Safe.
This operation has been targeting explosive remnants for over 20 years.
More than 25,000 people have been injured or killed in PNG by explosive ordnances since the war.
A New Zealand Defence Force spokesperson said over 2800 items of explosive remnants and unexploded ordnance have been found.
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RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Australia to boost cyber security and provide vehicles for Solomon Islands Pacific Islands Forum
By foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic , ABC In short: What's next? Pat Conroy met Jeremiah Manele this week in Solomon Islands. Photo: Supplied / Australian High Commission, Solomon Islands Australia will provide Solomon Islands with dozens of vehicles and cybersecurity support to help it host a high-profile meeting of Pacific leaders in September, as well as ramping up funding for aerial surveillance to track illegal fishing flotillas across the region. The Pacific Minister Pat Conroy is in Honiara on Thursday, where he will announce a $20 million support package for the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting. Leaders at the meeting will grapple with a host of issues, including climate finance and Australia's bid to co-host a Conference of the Parties climate meeting, a new "Oceans of Peace" security framework championed by Fiji's prime minister, and a potentially contentious review of the Pacific's diplomatic architecture. But the gathering will also inevitably be seen as a litmus test of China's sway in Solomon Islands, where Beijing has rapidly built political influence since establishing ties with Honiara in 2019. Earlier this month China's ambassador to Solomon Islands handed Acting Prime Minister Fredrick Kologetoa a $US1 million ($1.5m) donation to buy 27 vehicles which will ferry Pacific leaders around at PIF. Jeremiah Manele met Anthony Albanese in Canberra last year. Photo: Reuters / Kirsty Needham Australia's $20 million package will be broader, providing funding for about 60 vehicles, cybersecurity, road upgrades and logistics support. Australia has not directly criticised China's contribution to the meeting, but MrConroy said the Pacific was "best served by Pacific-led institutions and processes". "Australia's commitment to Solomon Islands and the broader Pacific is steadfast. We are stronger together," Conroy said. China is also expected to push for its policing teams to play a visible role providing security at the leaders meeting, something Australia will be keen to prevent, in order to burnish its credentials as a security partner for the Pacific. During an interview with the ABC on Tuesday while visiting Papua New Guinea, Conroy reiterated that China was "seeking a permanent security presence in the Pacific". When the ABC asked him if China might try to leverage its Pacific policing links to help it establish "dual use" commercial infrastructure which it could exploit for military purposes down the track - something Australian officials have warned of privately - Conroy said that was a "reasonable conclusion" to draw. "We've made it very clear that we don't think it's appropriate for nations outside the region to be looking at securing policing footholds like that," he said. The ABC has been told the pacific minister will also use his visit to Honiara to announce the government will deliver on its 2022 election promise to double funding for aerial patrols delivered under the Pacific Maritime Security Program, which he will cast as a major win for regional security. Pacific nations have become increasingly alarmed by the illegal fishing in the region, which has devastated ecosystems and livelihoods, costing them up to $500m in lost revenue over recent years. In 2022 Labor promised that if elected it would increase funding to the program by $12m a year from 2024-25, and federal government tender documents - first reported on by Reuters - suggest the government will pour a total of up to $477m into the program over the next decade. While there is only limited public data available on illegal fishing in the Pacific, analysts have previously told the ABC that vessels from China and Taiwan are responsible for much of the devastation. While in PNG Mr Conroy took a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing on illegal fishing, labelling it a "scourge" and saying countries that failed to rein in it were "literally stealing food out of the mouths of Pacific Island people". "We will use every resource available to us to outlaw that scourge," he said. "And I would urge all balanced observers to reflect on the countries that allow that activity to occur and think: Do they have the interests of the Pacific islands of the heart if they allow that illegal fishing to occur?" - ABC
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Pacific news in brief for 26 June
Photo: ppart/123RF Tonga's current 17 Peoples' Representatives in parliament will each have TOP $100,000 (approx. NZ$69,000) in constituency funds to spend ahead of the November general election. This was approved in parliament on 19 June as part of the Community Road Maintenance Fund. Matangi Tonga reports this is part of the record TOP $992.8 million national budget Tonga's Legislative Assembly has unanimously approved for the 2025/26 financial year. The budget includes TOP $749m in cash spending and TOP $244m in donor support, with a deficit of just over TOP $29m paid for through government bonds. Fiji's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is maintaining active communication with Fijian nationals residing in Qatar and Israel. The Fijian government said this is happening through the Fiji Embassy in Abu Dhabi accredited to Doha, Qatar, and the Permanent Mission of Fiji to the United Nations. The ministry also assured the families and relatives of Fijians in Qatar and Israel that they stand ready to provide support. A 24/7 Operations Cell is in place to track real-time developments and situation reports. There are concerns in Guadalcanal Province in Solomon Islands at soaring population levels. The Guadalcanal population is growing at 3.2 percent, higher than the national rate of 2.7 percent. The Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reported the rapidly growing population presents a significant challenge with Premier Willie Atu's government having to provide education and health services for all. The higher growth rate is at least partly due to people from other provinces migrating to Honiara for work, education and business opportunities. Vanuatu is taking steps to strengthen its disaster and health emergency response, completing its first-ever national evaluation backed by the World Health Organization. The Joint External Evaluation involved health, disaster and planning agencies working together to identify gaps and improve coordination across sectors. World Health Organisation Vanuatu country liaison officer Dr Revite Kirition said the evaluations begin with self assesments. Vanuatu has been through back-to-back cyclones, an earthquake, and disease outbreaks in recent years. Vanuatu is the eigth country to join the Joint External Evaluation - the first was the Federated States of Micronesia in 2002 and the most recent Cook Island in May this year. Health Director General Russel Tamata said the review highlights the need for stronger laws and better coordination across sectors. Officials say the next step is building a national emergency plan and training more frontline workers. Military personnel from across the world have been working in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain to eliminate explosive ordnances from World War II. The explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operators were locating, identifying and planning the disposal of the bombs. The soldiers involved came from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Papua New Guinea, the United States and the United Kingdom for Operation Render Safe. This operation has been targeting explosive remnants for over 20 years. More than 25,000 people have been injured or killed in PNG by explosive ordnances since the war. A New Zealand Defence Force spokesperson said over 2800 items of explosive remnants and unexploded ordnance have been found.
The Spinoff
12 hours ago
- The Spinoff
The draft plan to finally fix New Zealand's broken infrastructure
The Infrastructure Commission says we're spending more than most developed countries on infrastructure – while getting some of the worst returns, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. A scathing review of infrastructure failures New Zealand's infrastructure is in crisis, and the Infrastructure Commission's draft National Infrastructure Plan doesn't mince words. The 30-year strategy, unveiled at yesterday's infrastructure symposium in Wellington, paints a picture of underinvestment in maintenance, chaotic project selection and dismal returns. New Zealand spends more of its GDP on infrastructure than any other OECD country, yet ranks in the bottom 10% for return on that investment. The report calls out successive governments for favouring headline-grabbing glamour projects over essential maintenance, leading to schools with leaking roofs, hospitals with sewage issues, and NZDF homes rife with mould. The commission found that ministers repeatedly rushed to announce projects before establishing whether they were actually achievable. 'Half of the large projects seeking funding through central government's annual Budget lack business cases to demonstrate that they're ready to fund,' according to the draft plan. Short-term thinking and policy flip-flops have created a wasteful cycle of boom-and-bust in the construction sector, the report argues, making infrastructure builds more complicated and expensive than they need be. Welcome to the era of user pays Among the plan's most contentious recommendations is a greater reliance on user-pays systems to fund infrastructure. 'New Zealanders will soon see that rolling out in, for instance, water metering in pretty much every district, the tolling of new highways, and time-of-use charges starting on Auckland's roads,' writes Newsroom's Jonathan Milne. Infrastructure Commission CEO Geoff Cooper emphasises this isn't about making every project pay for itself, but finding a more sustainable and equitable funding model. While social infrastructure – like schools or hospitals – is likely to remain fully publicly funded, Cooper is calling for user-pays to become the default wherever it makes sense. 'You can have urban roads that are subsidising rural roads, same with electricity transmission and distribution, but the network as a whole should cover its own costs through those user charges,' Cooper told Oliver Lewis at BusinessDesk (paywalled). The 17 priority projects Out of 48 submissions, just 17 projects made it onto the first round of the commission's Infrastructure Priorities Programme, a key feature of the draft plan. Six of them relate to much-needed upgrades of Defence Force housing and facilities, such as new barracks at Linton Army Camp and the regeneration of the Devonport naval base. These projects won praise from Cooper for being well-scoped, achievable and urgent. Also endorsed was the Reserve Bank's vault upgrade and the redevelopment of Hawke's Bay Regional Prison. A major urban project to make the cut was Christchurch's 22km Mass Rapid Transit line, which aims to connect Hornby and Belfast along a 21-station route. The commission stressed that inclusion on the list doesn't guarantee funding but provides a clear signal that the project is of national significance. What missed out High-profile proposals that didn't make the list include KiwiRail's Marsden Point Rail Link and Auckland Strategic Rail Programme, both of which are being reworked or resubmitted. Corrections saw three prison redevelopment projects rejected, despite one – the Christchurch Men's Prison redevelopment – being underway via a public-private partnership. A multi-user ferry terminal for Cook Strait ferries, put forward by the Greater Wellington Regional Council, was also omitted. As Lewis writes, reasons for rejection ranged from lack of readiness to insufficient national relevance. Some proposals – like a maglev rail system for the Waitematā Harbour crossing – were more aspirational than realistic. The commission is currently reviewing 70 additional submissions for the second round of the programme. For many in the infrastructure community, including rail minister Winston Peters, the rejections no doubt stung. 'We expect the Infrastructure Commission will see the light,' he said of the Marsden Point project, 'and if they don't, we will have some serious questions.'
