April-May (12)
The secrets of combatting noncommunicable diseases in our countries can be found in our Pacific Islands food cultures says Kiwi chef Robert Oliver on the eve of his new show, the Pacific Island Food Revolution. Oliver has long been an advocate for traditional Pacific foods. His earlier tv series and cookbook explored how tourism…
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THE alignment of Step Up, Australia’s foreign policy direction in the Pacific and its New Zealand equivalent, Pacific Reset, was acknowledged by both Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison at their annual meeting in Auckland on 22 February 2019. The foreign policies align at various levels. For the most critical of all alignments in support of the…
IN March, five Pacific Islands Countries – American Samoa, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu – suddenly found themselves on the European Union’s revised list of noncooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, otherwise widely known as the EU tax blacklist. The revised list was released after a meeting of the Council of the European Union in…
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ARE researchers from across Australia, the Pacific, Asia and beyond working on aid and development policymaking largely white and male? That was my first impression when I saw other registered participants at the two day conference held in Canberra between 18th-20th February. I missed seeing more women at a conference of this scale that was…
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ON April 24 Manasseh Sogavare was elected as Prime Minister of Solomon Islands. However the elections sparked not only a legal challenge, but also rioting in the streets of Honiara. In this article, Solomon Islands’ Dr Transform Aqorau offers some ideas as to how the country’s electoral system and the process of electing the Prime Minister can be…
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TWO huge programmes focused on the empowerment and protection of Pacific women and children costing more than USD70 million have been launched over the past couple of months, prompting calls from long-term advocates for donors, governments and civil society organisations to ensure their efforts are coordinated. Women and girls in Pacific Island nations face violence…
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THE important Pacific tuna grouping, PNA has been rocked by serious allegations of mismanagement and illegal operations with its tuna marketing arm, Pacifical. John Kopia, a former employee of PNA (Parties to the Nauru Agreement) made the allegations after he was removed last March as chief financial controller of the Marshall Islands-based sub-regional organisation. “Parties to the Nauru…
AFTER more than 310 nuclear detonations across the region, the era of nuclear testing in the Pacific ended in 1996. Since then, the nuclear issue has dropped off the agenda for many people, with attention re-focussed on climate change and other environmental hazards. Across the region, however, a band of activists has continued to campaign…
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SO Israel Folau will learn of his future as a professional rugby football star in Australia in early May. That is when the threemember tribunal will convene his code of conduct hearing for breaching allegedly his contract with Rugby Australia (RA). His crime? Folau, according to RA committed a high level breach of…
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FIJI’S iconic flower, the Tagimoucia, is not for sale. Fijian authorities have made this statement to Islands Business magazine following reports that a world-leading botanical garden is looking at taking the Tagimoucia flower to Asia and adding it to the collection at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay. The Tagimoucia has deep cultural and historical significance in Fiji. Sacred…
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