Samoa dissolves parliament after leader unable to pass budget
SYDNEY, May 28 (Reuters) - Samoa's parliament will dissolve on June 3 and the Pacific Island nation will hold an election at an unspecified date, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa said on Wednesday.
Fiame was unable to gain enough support to pass budget legislation in parliament on Monday and said in a statement that she had advised Samoa's head of state, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, that parliament should be dissolved.
A dissolution notice was signed and gazetted on Wednesday.
Fiame was elected in 2021, one of the Pacific's few female leaders, and faced a months-long court battle when the incumbent who had held power for two decades disputed the result.
Unlike her predecessor, Fiame was sceptical of Chinese investment, and raised the international profile of the nation of 200,000 people by hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year.
Fiame was expelled from her political party, FAST, in January in a factional dispute.
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Reuters
7 hours ago
- Reuters
China demonstrates coast guard capability to Pacific nations, step towards high seas patrols
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The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Vanuatu says it has no plans to revoke Andrew Tate's golden passport after review
Vanuatu has decided not to revoke Andrew Tate's citizenship after reviewing his application, a government spokesperson is reported to have said. The government initially responded to a report that Tate secured a 'golden passport' in December 2022 – the same month he was arrested in Romania for human trafficking and rape charges – by saying it was considering rescinding it. But Vanuatu government spokesperson Kiery Manassah told The Guardian on Thursday that the country's citizenship office had found no fault with Tate's application and would not rescind his passport. 'They've found the files and according to the records, at the time when Mr Tate was granted the citizenship, he was cleared by Interpol, and the UK, so that was the decision at the time,' he said. He told the outlet: 'The chairman [of the citizenship office] confirms that the way it is at the moment he [Tate] remains a citizen and for Vanuatu there are no further actions to be taken.' Mr Manassah admitted that, had they known about the allegations at the time, Tate wouldn't have been granted citizenship. 'If the government had been aware of this at the start, and our processes were working, we should have not allowed him in the first place,' he said. 'We can't just go back and revoke based on information that is discovered later.' Earlier, an investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) had found that the self-proclaimed misogynist influencer secured a Vanuatu passport through a fast-track investment scheme requiring a minimum outlay of $130,000 (£96,000). Vanuatu doesn't have an extradition treaty with Romania. The controversial programme has fuelled security concerns and prompted the European Union to revoke Vanuatu's visa-free access in late 2024. After the report was published by OCCRP, Mr Manassah had told ABC News that they would look into Tate's citizenship application. 'Once we have the files, definitely, the processes will be in place to revoke his citizenship,' he said earlier. 'The government does not want to encourage people of questionable backgrounds to be granted citizenship,' he added. 'Those who are wanted by their countries or who are investigated by police authorities from overseas are not welcome to be part of the citizens of Vanuatu,' he told the outlet. The Tate brothers, who were raised in Luton in the UK, have been under criminal investigation in Romania since April 2022. If convicted, Tate's citizenship could still be revoked in the future, Mr Manassah said. 'If he has been convicted then definitely measures to revoke his citizenship, that can be determined later. That would be something the government could consider in future.' He told The Guardian: 'New regulations have been signed off by the prime minister and the current chairman under [citizenship commissioner] Charles Maniel, is trying to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again and that we our improve our due diligence processes.' Aubrey Belford, OCCRP's Pacific editor, said the team was investigating Vanuatu's golden passport scheme when they stumbled upon the name Emory Andrew Tate — and then set out to confirm it was the same individual as the controversial online influencer. 'The [golden passport] system has been abused by oligarchs, organised criminals, intelligence agents, and it's caused a lot of alarm because it's one of these loopholes that allows people to get a new passport or even a new identity and be able to evade law enforcement,' he told ABC News. Former UK home secretary Suella Braverman said in 2023 that close consideration of Vanuatu's golden passports had revealed 'clear and evident abuse of the scheme, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK'. Last month, UK prosecutors filed charges against Tate and his brother Tristan Tate for rape, actual bodily harm, and human trafficking, linked to alleged incidents between 2012 and 2015. Tate also faces an additional charge of controlling prostitution for financial gain. Both brothers, who hold dual US and UK citizenship, deny all allegations from both Romanian and British authorities. Jotham Napat, who took office as Vanuatu's prime minister earlier this year, has pledged to overhaul the country's controversial economic citizenship programme — a key source of government revenue. The pledge followed revelations that Vanuatu had granted a golden passport to fugitive former Indian cricket chief Lalit Modi, who moved to renounce his Indian citizenship after acquiring Vanuatu nationality.
Reuters
30-05-2025
- Reuters
Australia's bet on natural gas endangers its climate credentials, experts say
SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - Australia's approval of a 40-year extension for a huge gas project has overshadowed its bid to host a United Nations climate summit next year and tarnishes its green credentials, experts and two Pacific climate ministers said. This week's decision by the centre-left government, which took power in 2022 with a mandate for climate reform, clears Woodside Energy's North West Shelf project to run until 2070, subject to a final review. The step was hailed by the company and the energy industry, which see continued operation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants as a cleaner alternative to fuels such as coal. But it was criticised by climate ministers from Tuvalu and Vanuatu, who say the project's emissions could put at risk their nations' very existence, as well as by climate scientists worried about Australia's role in global emissions. "It's just a staggering number of extra emissions," said Malte Meinshausen, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne. Woodside estimates the extension will pump out a further 4.3 billion tons of carbon emissions over the plant's lifetime. That is equivalent to 200 years of combined emissions from 14 Pacific island nations, says the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, backed by 11 Pacific island nations and territories. "This goes beyond politics," said Tuvalu's Climate Minister Maina Talia. "It is about the moral clarity to stand with those most affected by climate change." The comment signals possible fallout for Canberra from Pacific island neighbours, such as Tuvalu and Vanuatu, in its bid to co-host the United Nations' COP31 climate summit next year with the region. Australia projects it will cut emissions to 42.7% below 2005 levels by 2030, on the path to a globally agreed target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Gas from the North West Shelf is primarily destined for export markets, meaning that most emissions will not count towards Australia's domestic net zero target. But Meinshausen, a contributor to past reports by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said Australia could not ignore its role in supplying fossil fuels causing global warming. "It's like the drug dealer's excuse saying, 'Well, we sell this stuff, but somebody else burns it,'" he said. "That doesn't work anymore in a world where you want to have a responsibility for your actions and being part of the international solution to climate change." In a statement, Australian Environment Minister Murray Watt, who unveiled the extension on Wednesday, said he would not comment further until the review process, opens new tab was complete. Australia sees gas as a transitional fuel on its path to full use of renewable sources of energy. "I think the penny is starting to drop with many around the importance of gas," Woodside Chief Executive Meg O'Neill told reporters after the decision. Extending the project has been a politically sensitive issue for the incumbent Labor Party, which was seen as hostile to gas when it took power but has since warmed to the industry. The decision was delayed until after a state election in Western Australia and a federal poll won decisively by Labor, which took seats from the environmentalist Greens, who had strongly opposed extension of the project. A regional diplomatic bloc of 18 countries, the Pacific Islands Forum, is backing Australia's bid to co-host the U.N.'s Conference of the Parties COP31 climate summit next year, with a decision seen imminent, despite some critical views. Before the project decision, Talia had called for Australia to block the extension if it wanted to co-host COP31 with the Pacific. After the decision, Vanuatu Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu called the extension "a slap in the face" for Pacific island nations, while speaking to Australian state broadcaster ABC.
