The international community has urged Samoa’s government to rectify the decline in press freedom in the country.

Press freedom and media restrictions in Samoa came under scrutiny during Samoa’s periodic review at the United Nations Human Rights Review in Geneva this week.

Ten countries raised concern about media restrictions imposed by the government of Prime Minister La’aulialemalietoa (La’auli) Leuatea Schmidt, including some of Samoa’s largest donor partners and its former colonial powers.

• READ MORE: Other Samoa media freedom reports

La’auli, who has been in power for little over a year, has banned the country’s biggest media outlet, the Samoa Observer, from his press conferences and other access to government information.

At least one photographer has reported having her camera removed and photographs deleted by the prime minister’s security personnel, prompting the Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS) to warn about physical obstruction of media.

Furthermore, the Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party-led government’s draft Media Protocol has proposed a number of restrictive measures.

These include requiring journalists to submit questions at least 24 hours before government press conferences, for government vetting.

It also proposes background checks on journalists, examining journalists’ political alignment, previous reporting, editorial standards, credibility and audience.

Peer countries concerned
Of the peer countries contributing to the UN review, New Zealand recommended Samoa ensure a safe environment for media and journalists by removing media bans.

Germany cited concerning developments around independent reporting, calling for equal access to government information, and revision of the draft media protocol.

Australia urged Samoa to uphold freedom of expression, including for independent media.

Canada called on Samoa to address criminal defamation and protect the independence of journalists and media organisations.

The Netherlands urged equal and non-discriminatory media access to government information and press conferences.

The United Kingdom cited Samoa’s declining World Press Freedom Index ranking, and urged the government to allow journalists to operate independently and without undue restriction.

South Korea called for prompt and impartial investigations into allegations of threats, intimidation or violence against journalists.

France recommended stronger protection of freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

Brazil encouraged policies ensuring equitable access to government information for journalists and human-rights defender

Switzerland recommended Samoa establish a freedom-of-information law guaranteeing journalists and the public access to official documents, subject to legitimate restrictions.

‘Values at risk’
In response, Samoa’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Nella Pepe Tavita-Levy, said freedom of speech and expression is protected in the country’s constitution.

She said the government recognises the important role of the media in promoting transparency, accountability, and public participation.

According to her, the government “continues to provide official information through various channels, to support fair and equal access for media organisations”.

Meanwhile, Samoa’s Opposition leader and former long-time prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, raised alarm over what he describes as escalating undemocratic behaviour by La’auli.

In a letter to the editor in Newsline Samoa headlined “A Ruthless Dictatorship on the Edge“, Tuilaepa accused his rival of infringements against journalists and media outlets because of unfavourable reporting.

“These are signs of a leadership that has placed our fundamental values at risk. The rule of law has repeatedly been undermined, the media has been restricted from covering the government.

“The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group must pay close attention to these conditions and the situation that is unfolding in Samoa. Their early intervention is needed before La’auli’s behaviour escalates.”

RNZ Pacific has contacted Prime Minister La’auli’s office for comment.

A former Fiji ethno-nationalist coup leader who spent more than two decades in prison for treason and was pardoned in 2024 has become an Oceania powerlifting champion.

George Speight, a highly polarising and disruptive figure in Fiji’s politics, won gold in the Men’s Masters IV 93kg weight class at the Oceanian Regional Powerlifting & Bench Press Championships in Suva.

The 70-year-old former businessman, who led an armed insurrection in 2000 and held the government of Fiji’s first prime minister of Indian descent hostage for 56-days, also powered through to set a new Oceania record in the category, with a lift of 107.5kg, beating the previous record of 102.5kg.

• READ MORE: Other George Speight reports

Speight had kept a relatively low profile after his presidential pardon in September 2024.

However, he re-entered Fiji’s political debate in July this year, when he made a submission to Fiji’s Constitutional Review Commission on changing the 2013 Constitution.

He has since been seen with members of Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs and developed something of a celebrity status within Fiji’s powerlifting community.

Invited by nephew
Speight told local reporters after his win that he was “humbled” to have been able to “make it this far” in the competition.

“I’m the first athlete in what’s called the Masters IV division, which is for men or women who are 70 years old or above. In the history of powerlifting Fiji, I’m the very first to be able to compete in that category,” he said.

Speight finished ahead of three other competitors from Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.

He said he was invited by his nephew, who is a strength and fitness trainer for the Fijian Drua rugby union team, to compete at the event.

The powerlifting federation in Fiji wants to expand the interest in the sport among both young and old competitors, he added.

“So going forward, my goal is to participate in more international competitions. This is the very first, and it’s good for my health. That’s really my main motivation.”

The Oceanian Regional Powerlifting & Bench Press Championships will conclude on Friday.

The head of Fiji’s military says its duty to serve the people of the country means it opposes new immunity provisions for coup makers.

The Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) presented a submission to a Special Parliamentary Committee overseeing the government’s proposed Constitution (Amendment) Bill last week.

The military’s comments came as the Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told the committee that the nation relies on the military to maintain law and order during “disruptions”.

• READ MORE: Fiji military seeks end to constitutional immunity, pledges neutrality
• Fiji PM Rabuka delays vote on Constitution Bill after mounting pressure
• Other Fiji Constitution reports

Rabuka, a former military general who led two coups against the government in Fiji in 1987, has signalled a possible military intervention “if things don’t go right” as his government pushes changes to the country’s 2013 Constitution.

Kalouniwai told the committee that the RFMF did not appear with “clean hands” after spearheading the overthrows of 1987, 2000, and 2006.

He said successive military interventions had relied on a systemic “architecture of rebellion” built upon four pillars — secrecy, governance through fear, misplaced loyalty to individuals, and constitutional immunity.

“Each coup did not only break the law – it rewrote the law, so that the breaking became legitimate,” he said.

Past coups
One of the proposed changes is to introduce immunity for those behind past coups in the country.

However, RFMF commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai has asked the parliament to remove such provisions.

“Removing immunity convicts no one; it restores the ordinary law, with all its protections,” he said.

“A soldier who knows he will answer to the law can never be made into a weapon against his own people. A soldier promised immunity in advance can.

“We ask parliament to remove Chapter 14. We accept without condition the civilian authorities said in Section 151, and we will cooperate with any lawful process of accountability.”

Provisions in Fiji’s current 2013 Constitution protect past coup makers, including Rabuka, and now his government is pushing for future immunity too.

But Kalouniwai warned that this move would threaten the accountability of those who are meant to serve the people.

“This House [Parliament] holds the voice of the people, and the [RFMF] holds the strength of the people. Both are held in trust.

“Our history has taught us, sometimes painfully, that a Fiji with a gun overrules the ballot is no independence at all.”

‘Moral axis’
Kalouniwai said the military did not seek immunity, nor wish to receive it.

“When those at the top are seen to stand above the law, why should anyone below believe it?

“We see the fruit of that lesson today in corruption, in the drugs reaching our children, and in a quiet despair among families who no longer believe the system is for them.”

Kalouniwai said, in the RFMF’s view, there was a “moral axis” that runs between two ways of governing.

“At one end is governance by fear, secrecy, threat, and protection for the powerful,” he said.

“At the other is governance by covenant, truth, accountability, and protection for the vulnerable.

“Every nation stands somewhere on that axis. Every law moves in one way or the other. This [Constitution (Amendment) Bill] will move Fiji. The only question is which way.”

He said the RFMF existed “to serve the people of Fiji, never to rule it”.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale’s coalition is preparing to undertake a major constitutional reform initiative, including introducing “anti-defection measures” to create a “more predicable political environment,” the government has announced.

Wale, who leads the Government for Reform, Empowerment, Accountability and Transformation (GREAT), is currently recovering in an Australian hospital after departing Honiara for emergency medical treatment for an undisclosed condition last week.

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister’s Office has not confirmed when Wale would return home.

• READ MORE: Other Solomon Islands reports

However, in a statement on Monday, the government said it was advancing a reform package aimed at strengthening political stability and governance.

“The proposed amendments seek to address longstanding challenges in the country’s political system, including unstable coalitions, party defections, recurring motions of no confidence and short parliamentary terms that can disrupt policy continuity and national development,” the statement read.

It said the constitutional reforms would be built around six key pillars.

These include the responsible use of motions of no confidence; stronger political party integrity and anti-defection measures; transparent and rules-based government formation; a stable, continuous parliamentary term; stronger institutional independence and integrity, including safeguards for Parliament and the Judiciary and support for the Opposition front bench; and constitutional recognition of Solomon Islands’ Christian identity.

“For ordinary Solomon Islanders, the intended benefits include greater continuity in government policies and development programmes,” the government said.

It added that the proposed amendments would require “careful legislative preparation and broad parliamentary support” for reforms to be successful.

Aotearoa New Zealand will decide its next government on Saturday, November 7. But for many voters, the choice comes down to one thing: who can deliver the change they are looking for?

“I want to see change in housing. I want to see change in employment, and healthcare.”

Like many of his young Pacific counterparts, those are the main issues for 22-year-old Saili Ah Maan when he heads to the polls this week.

• READ MORE: Other NZ election reports

At the same time, Ah Maan is also concerned by the growing number of New Zealanders moving overseas, alongside a daunting unemployment crisis.

In 2025 alone, more than 28,500 New Zealand citizens left for Australia.

In the June 2026 quarter, more than 171,000 New Zealanders were unemployed and youth unemployment had reached its highest level in more than 30 years.

“Everyone’s moving to Australia, and that’s the talk right now, is why are our greatest talents going overseas,” Ah Maan said.

“We’re all trying to look for jobs here, and obviously there’s not much, and then it’s hard for small businesses to create opportunities for us to be able to work.

“I think for young people, we want answers. We want to know if our vote obviously counts. We want to know if our leaders will actually do what they say.”

Key concerns for Melesaini Elite are things like putting kai on the table, petrol in the car, and making sure sick whānau are looked after adequately.

Elite, a social and healthcare worker, said he wants to see Pasifika communities better supported with the basics.

“Cost of living is the big one and healthcare support,” Elite said.

“I live with a disabled female who can’t really do things on her own. She’s pretty much bedridden, and [there’s] just a lack of support that we’ve been getting.

“We have tried to get more caretakers to come in, but then it goes back to [the issue that] there’s not much caretakers at all because there’s a loss of jobs.”

Marsha Daji, a mother of six, is worried about how her whānau will hold up in the future.

“I’m just really worried for them because they’re trying to raise children, buy their own homes,” Daji said.

“It’s just ridiculous the prices that they’re having to pay just to get into a house, even a rented house, let alone the food and getting to and fro from work.

“I don’t think any of the parties have actually come up with a really good solution for that, and that’s the big worry for me.”

So, how can things change?

‘We want to help ourselves’, says Vasa Fia Collins
Vasa Fia Collins, the widow of former Green Party MP Fa’anānā Efeso Collins, told RNZ Pacific that everyday Pasifika in Aotearoa are working incredibly hard to “make ends meet”.

“Our people are working hard. We’re not lazy. and we don’t want handouts. We want to help ourselves, but it’s about creating the conditions for us to thrive,” Collins said.

However, Collins is questioning whether political parties are doing enough to understand those pressures.

“All of us are sick and tired of the rhetoric. Also, sick and tired of our votes being taken for granted.”

It is an issue she believes has likely contributed to political disengagement across some Pasifika communities.

“Our people are the most over-consulted people in the country, and so we’re sick and tired of having to tell our stories and explain ourselves over and over again, we want action,” Collins said.

“We want people of substance in that House who are going to represent us fairly.”

‘Still operating in colonial spaces’
In the just-finished term of Parliament, the vast majority of Pasifika MPs have been in the Opposition, meaning they are significantly limited in what they can achieve compared to those in government.

But Collins points out there is also too much focus on Pacific politicians being the ones responsible for alleviating all the concerns of their communities, given the challenges of navigating Parliament and all its quirks and complexities.

“I do think it’s relatively unfair to put that all on the shoulders of Pacific candidates,” Collins said.

“These spaces are still colonial, and the thing that we have to understand is we’re still operating in very colonial spaces, and so to any Pacific candidate who’s been brave enough to put their hand up to be part of the election, I still take my hat off because it’s not an easy thing to do.”

‘They come every year asking for our vote’, says Hana Schmidt
Hana Matauaina Vaai Schmidt is host of the popular Pacific podcast Breaking Waves, and a strong Pasifika community voice.

She agreed with community concerns around what issues are the most pressing.

“Mostly cost of living, affordability, groceries, renting. The second would be opportunities into work. A lot of people can’t find jobs,” Schmidt said.

But alongside those bread-and-butter issues, Schmidt said that Pasifika voters are increasingly questioning what political representation is genuinely delivering for Pacific communities.

“I think the third would be trusting politicians or supporting politicians who support us,” she said.

“For a long time the narrative has been ‘we need more representation’ in Parliament, but I think that is now shifting to keeping the MPs that we have supported [and] accountable.”

Schmidt pointed out that during election periods, politicians are visiting many Pasifika communities, but tangible delivery of policies doesn’t always match the rhetoric on the campaign trail.

“Politicians only listen when it’s very late in the journey of getting somewhere,” she said.

“But how useful are they when they get their seat? They come every year asking for our votes. But is there a good return on investment for supporting them?”

Given enrolment rates in areas where Pacific people primarily live remain lower than the general population, Schmidt added that political parties and MPs need to do more to explain why politics is relevant to Pacific people’s everyday lives.

“That translation hasn’t been bridged yet,” she said.

“Politics literally affects everyone.”

Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has given in to public pressure and decided to extend the timeline for a major constitutional reform process only a day after he confirmed that he would table a bill to change the country’s constitution.

In a complete U-turn from his position on tabling the controversial Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026 this week, Rabuka announced on the floor of Parliament today that the Special Parliamentary Committee on the bill would “table its review report at a later sitting date”.

The prime minister did not provide a date for when that would be, stating only that the final report would be presented back to Parliament in “due time”.

• READ MORE: Fiji PM Rabuka under pressure ahead of crucial vote on constitutional reform
• Other Fiji constitution reports

He had previously told RNZ Pacific that he had not announced an election date — which has a hard deadline of 6 Febraury 2027 — due to the constitutional reform process that was running in parallel.

Rabuka also replaced his coalition partner and leader of the National Federation Party (NFP), Professor Biman Prasad, as a member of the committee after Prasad had announced on Saturday that the party would vote against the bill.

“Constitutional legitimacy cannot be sacrificed for political expediency,” Dr Prasad said over the weekend.

“There should be no shortcuts or fast-tracking of any constitutional process.

Two-thirds majority needed
“We will no longer participate in the special parliamentary committee nor will I be a signatory to the report of the committee to Parliament next week,” he said.

Rabuka needed a two-thirds majority — at least 36 votes — to pass the bill through a 53-seat Parliament following the passing of two MPs from the original 55-member Parliament.

With the NFP and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) both having objections about the process and the contents of the bill, it meant Rabuka was not likely to get the numbers required for the bill to pass the third reading.

The decision to extend the process also means that Rabuka’s decision to announce a referendum date for December 9 has hit a wall.

Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s coalition government is falling apart ahead of the crucial third reading of a major bill to change the country’s 2013 Constitution.

This comes after two of its minor partners, whose support was key to his forming a government in December 2022, have instructed their members of Parliament to vote against the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026 later this week.

Rabuka needs a two-thirds majority — at least 36 votes — to pass the bill through a 53-seat Parliament following the passing of two MPs from the original 55-member house.

• READ MORE: Fiji ‘worse off today’, former PM warns, as Rabuka’s constitution overhaul faces backlash
• Other Fiji constitution reports

Rabuka has promised to press on with tabling the bill when Parliament resumes today for a vote from lawmakers to get it over the line for a proposed national referendum on  December 9.

Last month, Rabuka had downplayed coalition tensions after prematurely announcing Fiji’s first-ever referendum date.

However, things have moved quickly over the weekend after the National Federation Party (NFP) withdrew from the special parliamentary committee led by Rabuka, and declared that the party would not be voting in favour of the bill.

It comes just days after the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) told its three MPs in the coalition — all of whom are Cabinet ministers — to vote against the bill.

‘Political showdown’
“The National Federation Party’s exit from the review process leaves the administration facing a high-stakes political showdown ahead of this week’s decisive reading of the draft legislation,” according to The Fiji Times.

The NFP believes the process is being rushed, while Sodelpa wants a total replacement of the 2013 Constitution — not just amendments to it — as well as the removal of immunity clauses protecting previous coup leaders.

During a consultation on the bill with Lau Province leaders on Friday, Rabuka said it was important to have the numbers for the third reading of the bill.

“Because that determines whether we keep going or [the constitution reform process] ends there.”

The prime minister has faced criticism from the opposition, rights groups and community advocates and leaders for rushing the process as Fiji is scheduled to hold an election on or before 6 February 2027 at the latest.

Last week, Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji’s first and only prime minister of Indian descent, warned that the island nation was “worse off today than we were at independence” and that its political leadership had its priorities wrong.

But Rabuka has continuously defended the process, stating that he has a responsibility to review and amend the 2013 Constitution and “that’s what we’re going for”.

World Rugby has confirmed that the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (SASNOC) will now oversee the high-performance rugby programme in Samoa.

A statement issued on Friday said this was agreed by the Government of Samoa, Lakapi Samoa and the Samoa National Olympic Committee during meetings held in Apia on Thursday.

The meetings were attended by World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson.

• READ MORE: Other Samoan rugby reports

SASNOC will work with an appointed stewardship group.

World Rugby said the group and SASNOC shall be responsible for all matters on and off the field relating to the national teams, including their preparation and participation in global elite competitions such as Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027.

The stakeholders have agreed a process to ensure Samoa and its players continue competing at the sport’s highest levels during a governance review.

The agreement follows productive meetings in Apia this week led by Robinson and Prime Minister of Samoa, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt and Lakapi Samoa.

‘Agreed steps’
“The agreed steps address concerns about Lakapi Samoa’s governance and administration raised with World Rugby earlier this year by the Hon. Prime Minister on behalf of the government,” World Rugby said in a statement.

“Those concerns, and those of other rugby stakeholders, prompted immediate dialogue between all parties to resolve the issues and agree a way forward.

“All parties agreed that it was imperative that the union’s high-performance programmes remain unaffected, with Samoa’s national teams committed to participating in Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027, the World Rugby Nations Cup, WXV Global Series Challenger and sevens programmes.”

Part of the agreed steps to be taken includes the ‘self-suspension’ of Lakapi Samoa from the World Rugby Council.

“This self-suspension can only be lifted by a future request to the Executive Board of World Rugby and a subsequent recommendation to the World Rugby Council,” World Rugby said.

“In any event, the self-suspension shall remain in place during the review processes referenced below.”

The appointment of a Samoan-led Independent Review Group, the membership of which shall be agreed by Lakapi Samoa and the Government of Samoa, to review all issues pertaining to the governance of Samoan rugby will also be done.

Plus a review of Lakapi Samoa’s compliance with World Rugby’s membership criteria by a World Rugby oversight committee.

All parties agreed that domestic rugby activities taking place in Samoa shall remain unaffected.

Government withdrew their support of Lakapi Samoa three months ago, with a new union set up by former Manu Samoa players.

That now means that two national unions are managing different aspects of rugby programmes in Samoa.

Seven political parties have gone head to head in TVNZ’s Kaupapa Māori Debate, clashing over Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the cost of living, and the future of te reo Māori.

Labour’s Willie Jackson, National’s Tama Potaka, ACT’s Nicole McKee, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, NZ First’s Shane Jones, Opportunity’s Eden Skipper, and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi all took part in the debate last night.

New Zealanders go to the polls on November 7.

• READ MORE: Other NZ election reports
• Watch the full debate here

Jackson: This is ‘the most anti-Māori government of my lifetime’
Te Tiriti took centre stage at the start of the debate, with NZ First’s Shane Jones questioned over his party’s plans to abolish the Waitangi Tribunal.

Jones defended the policy, saying politics was “dynamic” and arguing that 50 years after the tribunal was established “it’s not an institution that should remain away from the pressures and the democratic process”.

Labour’s Willie Jackson hit back, describing the government as “the most anti-Māori government of my lifetime”.

Waititi: ‘Gangs have been politically manufactured’
The focus then quickly moved on to gangs — a hot topic in recent days.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said gangs had been “politically manufactured”.

“They are the product of state abuse of our people, church abuse of our people, through the 1970s and the 80s.”

Jackson was also quick to push back against claims his party supports gangs, pointing to campaign billboards linking Labour, Te Pāti Māori and the Greens with gangs.

“We do not support gangs … but we will always support whānau, we will always support communities.”

ACT ‘don’t support a Pak’n’Soviet’
The cost of living was a major topic, with parties keen to push their own solutions to grocery prices — and criticise others’ proposals.

Marama Davidson backed breaking up the supermarket duopoly, but said the Greens would go further with a publicly-owned supermarket focused on affordable prices.

ACT’s Nicole McKee rejected that approach.

“We don’t support a Pak’n’Soviet.”

She argued reducing bureaucracy and the costs involved in getting new supermarkets established would help increase competition, referencing a supermarket in Christchurch that had to spend years and millions of dollars just to get the doors open.

Rawiri Waititi pushed Te Pāti Māori’s plan to put more money into whānau pockets through tax changes and a food credit, alongside greater competition in the supermarket sector, including a Māori-owned supermarket.

Willie Jackson said Labour would target price gouging, accusing supermarkets of “ripping off the customers”.

Shane Jones hit back, saying he had been willing to take on the supermarket giants long before others.

“In 2014, there was only one politician who stood up and took on Countdown. That was Shane Jones.”

Opportunity weighs in on healthcare
As the debate turned to healthcare, Opportunity challenged the other parties to support a 10-year plan to address the problems in the system.

There was no definitive answer from any candidate on that challenge, except for Shane Jones, who asked why Eden Skipper — who is much younger than Jones — was questioning him, given Jones is his elder.

‘We’re going to mine’, says NZ First
Jobs were the next flashpoint in the debate, with Shane Jones challenged over high unemployment in Kaikohe.

Jones said: “It’s not government that generates jobs, it’s the private sector.”

He said creating well-paid jobs meant backing industry.

“We’re going to mine,” he announced.

That sparked pushback from Labour and the Greens, with Jones accusing his opponents of being “too scared to support industry” because of “woke” politics.

Greens and National clash over ‘Robin Hood politics’
As the debate turned to climate resilience and the role of marae during extreme weather events, Marama Davidson and Tama Potaka clashed over the Greens’ proposed $2.4 billion investment in marae.

Davidson said strong marae meant stronger communities, and said decisions over how that money was distributed should sit with Māori rather than government.

Potaka pointed to funding already provided to marae, arguing the government had delivered “results” rather than rhetoric.

“This is what we’re talking about, supporting marae, where suitable in a sustainable arrangement — not Robin Hood politics.”

Parties discuss future of te reo
The last major topic of the night was te reo, with the parties challenged over what they would do to grow and protect the language.

McKee pointed to Māori participation in charter schools, but said learning te reo should be a choice.

“One thing we won’t do is take it away, but we don’t want it being compulsory.”

Jones defended NZ First’s move to make English an official language when asked if “English was ever under threat” by moderators, and pointed to New Zealand’s changing demographics. He said migrants needed to know “this is an English-speaking country”.

Potaka was challenged over claims the government had removed or reduced te reo Māori across parts of the public sector.

He rejected that characterisation, saying the government had “reinforced our commitment” to te reo through initiatives including Te Matatini and Māori broadcasting.

Waititi said Māori should be prioritised for spaces in te reo Māori classes and went further, calling for the language to be compulsory.

“We need to make Māori compulsory. But we won’t strap you into it.”

He spoke about the punishment Māori ancestors faced for speaking their language, and said the aim was to create a bilingual country.

“We will treat you with a lot of kindness and welcome you to our language, but we won’t do what you did to our ancestors … to learn English.”

He said being a “true New Zealander” meant every New Zealander learning to speak te reo Māori.

The Pacific Elders’ Voice has called for the Pacific Islands Forum to review and reverse its partnership agreement with Israel.

The group of former Pacific prime ministers, presidents and senior diplomats says the Forum’s decision to make Israel a sectoral partner conflicts with the region’s commitments to human rights, self-determination and international law.

In a statement, the Pacific Elders’ Voice (PEV) said the Forum’s decision raised questions about the consistency of the region’s positions on colonialism, human rights and self-determination.

• READ MORE: PSNA calls on NZ to expel Israeli ambassador after 95-year-old Palestinian grandfather evicted in Hebron
• ‘Fear and intimidation’ heavily used by Netanyahu during election campaign
• UN raises ‘ethnic cleansing’ concerns over Israel’s Hebron operation
• Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amid continuing genocide in Gaza, UN Commission of Inquiry finds
• Other Gaza genocide reports

It cited the conflict in Gaza, illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and what it described as violations of international law, while also noting unresolved issues of political status and self-determination in the Pacific.

The PEV said the agreement to partner with Israel should be reversed to ensure the Forum’s external partnerships remain consistent with the region’s stated principles on peace, justice and respect for international law.

“The Pacific remains one of the only regions in the world with the largest number of peoples living under occupation — from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to Guam; from Kanaky New Caledonia to French Polynesia; and from West Papua to Bougainville.”

The Pacific Elders group said it had consistently supported decolonisation and self-determination in Kanaky and West Papua, as well as investigations by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Pacific Islands Forum into alleged serious human rights violations by France and Indonesia.

Israel’s ‘genocide .. . long history of offending’
“Given our principled positions on colonialism and human rights violations in the region, the PEV is perturbed with the Forum’s recent partnership with Israel, the state which has committed genocide in Gaza, and has a long history of offending against UN resolutions and international law.”

The Elders group echoed a range of Pacific Islands civil society groups in calling for the Forum’s partnership with Israel to be reviewed and reversed.

The group noted that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has just faced an election in which his governing coalition bloc has failed to win a majority — and other Israeli leaders are considered to have committed war crimes, with arrest warrants in their name issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Members of the Pacific Elder’s Voice include former Pacific Forum Secretary-General Dame Meg Taylor, former Kiribati President Anote Tong; the former President of Palau Tommy E. Remengesau Jr; Robert Underwood — a former Guam delegate to the US House of Representatives and former President of the University of Guam; Tuvalu’s former prime minister Enele Sopoaga; former Fiji Foreign Minister and ambassador Kaliopate Tavola; and Konai Helu Thaman — Tongan academic and former professor at the University of the South Pacific.

Papua New Guinea’s West New Britain province Governor Sasindran Muthuvel says the public is deeply frustrated with repeated armed robberies and other violent crime.

Sasindran Muthuvel’s comment comes after police confirmed the death of 12 men who they say staged an armed robbery at a tradestore in West New Britain’s capital Kimbe on Monday.

Muthuvel told RNZ Pacific it was unfortunate that lives were lost, but noted the group fired on police while trying to flee the scene.

• READ MORE: Other PNG crime reports

The governor said people of the province are frustrated at the surge in activity by criminal groups of so-called “raskols”.

“A lot of genuine people are being hurt and killed also in these kind of holdups by these raskols because they don’t know how to use firearms, or these are homemade guns.

“They just misfire and kill innocent people. We have lost mothers, young people, and all those things in these kind of holdups.”

Police Commissioner David Manning said that while attempting to escape police, the armed group’s vehicle rolled, resulting in the death of a number of passengers.

He said those not seriously injured in the vehicle roll-over subsequently drew weapons and chose to open fire on police.

“Police standing orders and the law are clear — when a criminal raises a weapon they will be stopped,” Manning said in a statement.

“A total of 12 gunmen died in the incident, while one man, believed to be the ringleader of the group, survived and is in police custody.”

Muthuvel said it was fortuitous that the Police Mobile Squad were already in the area attending to another incident.

Terrorising innocent communities
According to the governor, some members of the public have themselves attacked armed robbers in recent incidents, a reflection of the frustration in the community over the activities of criminal groups.

He said it was common for these groups to hold up PMVs (public motor vehicles) and rob the passengers.

PMVs are easy to hold up, Muthuvel said, because they frequently have to drive slowly to navigate the many potholes on local roads.

“When [the PMVs] slow down, they held them up. They get all the women to come outside. They remove, steal all their belongings and take their money and all those things.

“Most of the time, they physically abuse them, attack them, and all those things. This is where it’s really frustrating for us.

“Many times, innocent people get attacked, businesses get robbed. And this police incident, it so happened that when they escaped, there was another police operation happening in that area, so Mobile Squad was already there.”

Authorities cracking down
Muthuvel said he supports a call in parliament this month by Oro Province governor Gary Juffa for criminal groups to be officially categorised as terrorists.

“They’re constantly going and terrorising innocent communities, publics, and all these people. So if it is not contained, then it will be a similar situation like what Governor Juffa is encountering in Popondetta.”

Meanwhile, PNG’s Police Minister John Pundari commended the swift intervention of police in the Kimbe robbery and other incidents.

“l commend those police officers on the front line in West New Britain who have confronted criminals involved in two armed robberies over the past four days.

“This follows an event last Friday when a group of gunmen robbed a PMV near Kimbe, and were confronted by a lone Police Officer. Following an exchange of gunfire, one gunman was killed while the remainder ran away into the bush.

“These incidents demonstrate that police will respond forcefully to remove firearms who elect to use illegal firearms,” Pundari said.

“The firearm amnesty provides a clear opportunity for people to surrender illegal firearms without fear of prosecution, and they should take advantage of it.”

Early voting has opened for the general election in Aotearoa New Zealand.

New Zealand uses MMP, mixed member proportional representation. Enrolled voters can have their say on the party vote — the party they want to win the election and run the next government — and their local electorate vote, for the candidate they want to represent their constituency in Parliament.

However, new enrolments have closed — same-day enrolment on voting day is no longer permitted.

• READ MORE: Other NZ election reports

RNZ Pacific asked all the main political parties where they stand on Pasifika issues, with a 100-word limit on their responses to each of the six questions. Here’s what they said.

How does your party plan to respond to cost-of-living pressures in Aotearoa?

ACT: ACT will cut wasteful government spending, balance the books without new taxes, and reduce unnecessary costs on households and businesses.

We will enable competition in both the supermarket industry and electricity by removing red-tape and regulation that prevents businesses competing, enabling lower prices.

We will lower the carbon tax and return net ETS auction revenue to New Zealanders through a Carbon Tax Refund.

Green Party: Aotearoa has enough for all of us to live a good life. The Green Party is focussed on ensuring everyone can have good jobs, afford their groceries, live in warm homes, and have more time with the people they love.

We will cut household costs by lowering power bills, making public transport free for many people and capping adult fares at $2, and taking action to make nutritious food more affordable. We will fund this by ensuring the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations contribute their fair share, while giving tax cuts to 96 percent of New Zealanders.

Labour: Labour’s number one focus at this election is the cost of living – it is what is hurting our Pacific families the most.

We will take action to get the cost of living under control.

Labour will: reinstate pay equity in the first 100 days and give an immediate pay rise to care and support workers, which will back the many hard-working Pacific women in the job to get ahead; introduce three free doctor’s visits to ensure Pacific families are getting the care they need, when they need it; cap public transport fares to $20 a week in Auckland, Wellington and . . .  [cut-off as per 100-word limit]

National: National is committed to fixing the basics and building the future, and in many instances, Pacific people have the most to gain.

National will not impose new taxes, continue investing in health, schools, law and order, roads, defence capability and other frontline services New Zealanders rely on, reprioritise spending and show ongoing restraint so that overall government expenditure comes down towards 30 per cent of GDP, return to surplus in 2028/29 and stay there, keep government debt on a downward trajectory towards 40 per cent of GDP, and maintain debt below 40 percent of GDP over time.

New Zealand First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific.

However, the party has previously said it would increase the minimum wage by at least inflation levels every year for the next three years, restrict Superannuation to citizens only from 2029, and give a permanent boost to the Working For Families in-work tax credit.

It also wants to split up the energy gentailers (generators and retailers), saying this policy would ensure energy gentailers could “no longer control both the power and the price”. Read RNZ’s full policy guide here.

Opportunity: Bringing down the cost of living is a bottom line for us in any coalition or confidence-and-supply negotiations.

We would empower the Commerce Commission to intervene in sectors such as supermarkets, electricity and banking to ensure greater competition and fairer prices.

We would also accelerate the transition to clean, renewable energy to reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels and ease pressure on household budgets at the petrol pump. In the longer term, we support a universal Citizen’s Income to provide greater financial security as Aotearoa navigates the disruptions of artificial intelligence and climate change.

Te Pāti Māori: Te Pāti Māori will transform and rebalance the tax system to ensure that those in our whānau who work the hardest, often in multiple jobs, keep more of what they earn in their own pockets.

Our tax proposals target wealth rather than work in order to ensure that Aotearoa remains a place where our young people can actually live and not be forced to leave our shores in search of futures elsewhere.

What is your position on visa-free access to Aotearoa for Pacific Island nationals?

ACT: ACT is open to trialling easier access while maintaining effective border controls. ACT has publicly been open to a one-year visa-free trial for Samoa, with continuation conditional on visitors respecting the rules.

We have not committed to unrestricted visa-free access across the Pacific, however, if this proves to be beneficial this could be expanded.

Green Party: The Greens have long supported visa-free access to Aotearoa for people from Pacific Islands. In early 2025, we launched a petition calling on the Government to extend visa-free travel to Pacific Island nationals.

Pacific whānau should not face higher costs, longer delays or greater bureaucratic barriers than travellers from many wealthier countries. Aotearoa is part of the Pacific family, with deep whakapapa, cultural and community connections across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. A Pacific visa waiver would strengthen those relationships and make it easier for families to connect.

Labour: Labour will make travel to New Zealand easier and cheaper for Pacific citizens by expanding visa-waiver access to them.

National: National has no current plans regarding visa-free access for Pacific Island nationals.

However, in June this year visitor visa fees for Pacific nationals were reduced by $55 to $120 for 12 months. This brings the total cost, including the standard immigration levy, from $216 down to $161 for eligible Pacific visitor visa applicants.

New Zealand recognises the importance of its relationships with Pacific countries and Pacific peoples, including strong family, cultural, economic and regional connections.

New Zealand continues to support Pacific-specific pathways and settings, including the Pacific Access Category, the Samoan Quota and the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme.

New Zealand First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific.

However, in February, Winston Peters accepted a petition by Samoan activist Arthur Anae calling for people from six Pacific nations – Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu – to be issued a short-term visa on arrival in New Zealand. Peters said last month that it “possibly could happen in the future”.

Opportunity: Opportunity does not have a formal position on visa-free access for Pacific Island nationals.

However, we recognise the significant challenges faced by Pacific families in Aotearoa when loved ones need to travel urgently to attend a funeral or visit a terminally ill family member.

We are committed to listening to New Zealand’s Pasifika communities and Pacific governments, and working constructively with other political parties to explore solutions that address these concerns with compassion and fairness.

Te Pāti Māori: Te Pāti Māori stands in solidarity with our sibling islands across the Pacific family. We support amnesty and justice for our Pacific cousins whose elders came to Aotearoa and were mistreated upon arrival.

The legacy of the Dawn Raids must not be forgotten. As ocean relatives, Te Pāti Māori believes that justice lies in greater unity across the Pacific through free and open access between our peoples and islands.

Te Pāti Māori supports visa-free access to Aotearoa for Pacific Island nationals.

Aotearoa is a Pacific country. We share whakapapa and it makes no sense to deny other Pacific peoples the right to remain connected with their ocean kin.

What is your position on aid to the Pacific Islands?

ACT: ACT recognises the importance of a stable, prosperous Pacific and helping our neighbours when disaster strikes. However, aid must demonstrate results and value for taxpayers.

However, aid must demonstrate results and value for taxpayers. ACT would reduce overall foreign aid to 2017 levels, while protecting aid to the Pacific and support for Ukraine.

Green Party: The Green Party supports increasing aid to the Pacific, shaped by Pacific priorities. Funding aid to the Pacific is critical for New Zealand’s regional security, economic stability, and shared prosperity.

Our Pacific Peoples spokesperson, Teanau Tuiono, has been part of Pacific delegations throughout this term and seen firsthand the instability caused by the withdrawal of aid by the US.

The Greens are clear that development assistance must serve communities and the public good, not militarisation or extractive commercial interests. Climate finance should recognise that Pacific peoples have contributed little to the climate crisis while facing some of its worst effects.

Labour: Unlike other parties, Labour will not cut our foreign aid budget – instead Labour will progressively increase overseas development assistance towards 0.7 percent of GDP as fiscal conditions allow.

Our foreign aid is a small but important contribution we make as a good global citizen and a good neighbour to our Pacific Island brothers and sisters.

National: The aid provided to the Pacific Islands is carefully considered by Cabinet, and often under very specific contexts.

New Zealand recognises the importance of its relationships with Pacific countries and Pacific peoples, including strong family, cultural, economic and regional connections.

National has announced it deliver a further NZ$604 million uplift in Pharmac’s medicines budget. We will largely pay for it by reducing foreign aid and associated administration costs by 10 per cent, while fully protecting aid to the Pacific.

NZ First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific.

However, leader Winston Peters said National’s foreign aid cut campaign promise “will take us back decades in foreign affairs”.

“We need to double the size of the economy and we cannot do that if we neglect the very markets we need to be in.”

He said the coalition had just restored New Zealand’s influence and relationships around the world.

Peters also travelled to all member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum as foreign minister.

Opportunity: The Pacific is our family, and supporting its wellbeing is both a moral responsibility and in Aotearoa New Zealand’s national interest.

Opportunity will maintain New Zealand’s strong focus on Pacific development assistance, supporting our neighbours to build stable, resilient and prosperous communities.

We believe this support is increasingly important as Pacific nations face the escalating impacts of climate change, transnational drug trafficking and geopolitical competition.

We want to work in partnership with Pacific nations to address these challenges and support their long-term self-determination.

Te Pāti Māori: Te Pāti Māori is a staunch supporter of unity across the Pacific family, including on the matter of military neutrality and the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration.

Te Pāti Māori also acknowledges concerns by our kin that climate change presents an existential threat to all Pacific peoples.

Te Pāti Māori wholeheartedly supports aid for the Pacific. We must continue to work together in the spirit of shared kinship to realise our shared aspirations and to solve the strategic risks and challenges of our time.

Do you have a plan on dealing with overstayers from the Pacific, and if so, what is it?

ACT: ACT’s approach applies to overstayers from every country.

We will establish a dedicated enforcement unit within Immigration New Zealand, require platform employers to verify and report work rights, and remove accreditation from employers who facilitate overstaying.

Green Party: All migrants should be treated with dignity. Our plan is a fair, broad and accessible amnesty providing pathways to residency for overstayers who have made their lives in Aotearoa.

People without valid visas are often part of our families, churches, workplaces and communities, yet their status can leave them vulnerable to exploitation and family separation.

We would end discriminatory enforcement practices, ensure people can obtain independent advice, and reform temporary visas so fewer people fall out of status.

Labour: There are already systems in place to manage visa overstayers, and we expect those systems to continue to be applied fairly and appropriately.

National: National has no specific plans regarding overstayers from the Pacific, but we expect all visitors to follow the law and abide by the conditions set with their visit.

As previously mentioned, in June this year visitor visa fees for Pacific nationals were reduced by $55 to $120 for 12 months. This brings the total cost, including the standard immigration levy, from $216 down to $161 for eligible Pacific visitor visa applicants.

A dedicated escalation process also now enables Pacific applicants to request expedited processing for any visa type, such as in urgent situations like attending a funeral.

NZ First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific.

However, New Zealand First has previously said it will offer a two-year clemency period for Pacific Islanders who overstay their visas.

The 24-month period would be “to facilitate any Pacific overstayer to apply to remain in the country legally on a valid visa”, and those who failed to do so would be deported after the period lapsed, “permanently ineligible to apply for any visa in the future, due to their heightened risk of reoffending”.

Opportunity: Opportunity does not have a formal policy on Pacific overstayers, but we recognise the complexity and human impact of this issue.

We support a considered, cross-party approach involving Immigration New Zealand, Health New Zealand and the Ministry of Education to understand the wider implications.

Crucially, we would listen to Pasifika communities to better understand why people overstay including family circumstances, safety concerns, economic hardship and access to essential services. Through broader community consultation, including models such as Citizens’ Voice, we believe Aotearoa can work towards a fair, compassionate and evidence-based response.

Te Pāti Māori: Te Pāti Māori rejects the targeting of our Pacific whanaunga and migrant communities from beyond the Pacific.

Based on our own Māori experience of colonisation, we reject Western political attitudes that seek to decide who belongs in Aotearoa, a Pacific country, and who does not.

We have supported recent efforts by Teanau Tuiono, and by the late Efeso Collins before them, to provide justice to Pacific Island communities through amnesty.

What are your plans for the Ministry of Pacific Peoples?

ACT: ACT would abolish the Ministry for Pacific Peoples as part of creating a smaller, more accountable government. Agencies delivering health, education, housing and other services should be responsible for meeting Pacific peoples’ needs and delivering measurable results.

Green Party: The Green Party supports a strong, properly resourced Ministry for Pacific Peoples.

Decades of underinvestment have weakened the public institutions and collective capability we need to deliver for our communities.

Decisions affecting Pasifika people should be made with communities. The Ministry has an essential role in ensuring Pacific communities shape government decisions and in improving outcomes across housing, health, education, employment and culture.

The Greens are uninterested in treating it as a political football or cutting programmes that directly support Pasifika wellbeing because we are committed to working across government and partnering genuinely with diverse Pacific communities.

Labour: Labour will protect and retain the Ministry of Pacific Peoples given its important contribution to Pacific communities across New Zealand.

National: There will always be the need and the requirement and the opportunity for some specialist focus within the government service for Pacifica people. However, there are no immediate plans to change the current arrangements.

New Zealand First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific.

Opportunity: Opportunity will continue to support the Ministry for Pacific Peoples and its role in advocating for Pacific communities, strengthening outcomes for Pacific peoples, and ensuring their voices are heard in government decision-making.

We believe the Ministry has an important role in supporting the wellbeing, aspirations and prosperity of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa.

Te Pati Māori: Te Pāti Māori would retain the Ministry of Pacific Peoples and wish to acknowledge the contributions already made by the wider Pacific Island community to the Aotearoa we all call home.

Do you have any policies targeted at addressing the high incarceration rates of Pasifika?

ACT: ACT’s focus is on reducing crime and reoffending, rather than setting arbitrary targets to reduce prisoner numbers. Safer communities require accountability for offending alongside effective rehabilitation.

ACT supports requiring prisoners to complete skills and rehabilitation programmes before being considered for parole, helping them overcome barriers to employment, reintegrate into society and reduce further offending.

Green Party: Too many Pasifika people end up in prison because the system treats them unfairly and help often comes too late.

We want to stop problems before they escalate-by backing Pasifika-led services, making sure people can get a good lawyer, and helping those leaving prison find a home, a job and support from their community.

Where it is safe, people should be held accountable without being sent to prison. Pasifika communities know what works, and they should lead the solutions.

Labour: The focus must be on addressing the root causes of crime like poverty, addiction, mental health, homelessness – and preventing the harm before it happens.

National: We want to see fewer people in prison, but only as a result of fewer victims of serious violent crime, which are disproportionately more likely to be Māori and Pacific.

The good news is we’re making progress, with 37,000 fewer victims of serious violent crime than when we came into Government.

We want to continue to drive these numbers down and restore law and order. That’s why we’ve already committed to reforming Zealand’s consent laws, abolishing good character assessments at sentencing for all convicted sex offenders, and removing the right to silence when a child is murdered

New Zealand First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific. However, the party will bring in tougher sentences for serious crime – including ‘life means life’ provisions – as part of its law-and-order policy package.

The policy package also contained a commitment to strengthen the ‘coward punch’ law, requiring judges to impose a minimum non-parole period of eight years’ imprisonment for coward punches causing death.

Opportunity: Opportunity’s Smart on Crime policy focuses on evidence-based solutions to reduce offending and address the overrepresentation of Pasifika in our justice system.

We support investment in expert-designed, rigorously evaluated initiatives, including culturally responsive programmes and vocational training. We see value in expanding specialist courts, such as the Pacific Youth Court, and restorative justice approaches that support meaningful outcomes for victims, offenders and communities.

We would also strengthen post-release support through specialist case management, helping people access stable housing, employment and practical assistance to reduce reoffending and support successful reintegration into their communities.

Te Pāti Māori: Our Justice policy will benefit both Māori and Pasifika communities.

We will overhaul discriminatory legislation (such as three strikes, move on orders, and the Misuse of Drugs Act), we will invest in mental health and addiction services, and we will transform the justice system from a punitive approach to a rehabilitative, community-based approach.

We know that the criminal justice system is broken and we commit to working alongside Pasifika leaders and communities to tackle this challenge.

Does your party have plans to expand or reduce the number of RSE workers coming in from the Pacific?

ACT: ACT supports the RSE scheme and secured a coalition commitment to increase its cap, which rose from 19,500 to 20,750 in 2024. We support more flexible arrangements, clearer deductions and safeguards against exploitation.

Green Party: The Green Party would not set RSE numbers in isolation from workers’ rights or the effects on Pacific communities.

Aotearoa cannot build a resilient economy on cheap labour and insecure employment.

Before any expansion, the scheme must be redesigned to prevent exploitation, provide safe accommodation and fair pay, allow workers to leave abusive employers, strengthen union voice and worker representation, and create pathways to residency.

These are decisions that must be made with Pacific governments, unions, workers and affected communities, including consideration of skills lost from island economies.

Labour: Labour is committed to working with Pacific countries to expand regional labour mobility, improve worker protections and training, and manage workforce pressures.

National: There are no current plans to change the number of RSE workers arriving from the Pacific.

However, we know that Pacific businesses are more likely to employ Pacific workers, which is why our government has continued to invest in initiatives such as the Pacific Business Trust.

In 2024/25, the programme delivered over 11,300 business engagements, 200 business assessments and 33 targeted business development workshops.

New Zealand First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific.

However, the party’s immigration policy includes making all visa holders ineligible from claiming jobseeker, accommodation supplement, or any other benefits during their first 10 years; and Student Visa holders would not have automatic work rights after completion of their studies, and would be required to leave the country before being able to apply for another visa.

Opportunity: Opportunity supports Pacific labour mobility as part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s commitment to helping Pacific nations build economic resilience and prosperity.

The Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme also provides essential seasonal workers for our horticulture and viticulture industries.

Rather than committing to a fixed increase or reduction, we would assess labour demand alongside the priorities of Pacific governments to ensure an appropriate balance.

Our approach would aim to deliver mutual benefits for New Zealand industries and Pacific communities, while supporting sustainable economic opportunities across the region.

Te Pāti Māori: Te Pāti Māori will ensure that there continues to be opportunities for RSE workers coming from the Pacific, but we need to make changes to visa conditions to protect our seasonal workers.

Every person who lives and works in Aotearoa deserves the freedom to be treated with dignity, to be free from exploitation, and to build a better life for themselves and their whānau. Visas that tie people to a single employer undermine these freedoms and create conditions that can lead to exploitation.

Under the Recognised Seasonal Employer Limited Visa, and the Accredited Employer Work Visa, a worker is unable . . .  [cut off due to 100-word limit].

If you could tell Pasifika voters one thing, what would it be?

ACT: Your hard work should mean a better future for your family.

ACT stands for lower living costs, more choice in your children’s education, safer communities and the freedom to get ahead through work and business.

We want a government that respects your contribution, treats everyone equally and delivers results for your family. We want to invigorate New Zealand with the aspiration and ambition the country was once known and world famous for.

Green Party: Aotearoa would not be the country it is without the generations of care, work, culture and leadership Pacific communities have contributed.

We want an economy that works for all of us — where everyone can access the essentials of a good life, young people can put down roots, and aspirations dreamt up in South Auckland garages have the support to become reality.

Our record — from restoring citizenship rights for Sāmoan elders to campaigning for a Pacific visa waiver — shows what community organising and political courage can achieve together.

Labour: This election is about the cost of living.

Only Labour has a plan to make everyday life more affordable and only a vote for Labour will ensure a change of government. Make sure your voice is heard by getting enrolled to vote before 25 October.

National: Three years ago, National was elected to fix the basics.

Kiwis have done the hard yards over the past three years and our plan is working, with the economy growing faster than Australia and the UK, inflation and interest rates down, kids back in school, and safer streets with fewer victims of crime.

Pacific childhood immunisation rates have increased from 73.5 per cent to 81.76 per cent, and regular attendance among Pacific learners has nearly doubled.

The choice is clear. National has a positive plan to grow the economy, with less debt, more jobs, higher wages and no new taxes.

New Zealand First: Did not respond to RNZ Pacific.

Opportunity: Everything about Opportunity’s approach from politics to the economy will be familiar to Pasifika peoples such as decision-making that is grounded on consensus building with an economic view that values intergenerational thinking and collective prosperity.

Māori and Pasifika communities have always known how to build unity, enduring community survival and valuing conservation of natural resources.

These have now become recognised as our way forward as Aotearoa New Zealand and Opportunity Party will be guided and led by these values to build a sustainable and inclusive future for all peoples to thrive together.

Te Pāti Māori: The future of an Aotearoa we can all share in must be grounded in our shared-kinship and collective obligations to one another. While Te Pāti Māori acknowledges the cultural diversity of the Pacific family, we believe that our collective future across this great ocean lays in whakapapa inherited from our ancestors.

Whakapapa must be the foundation for the collective overcoming of the challenges of the 21st century, such climate change, military escalation and social cohesion.

We owe this responsibility of belonging to future generations as their birthright inheritance.

For more information on what each party has promised, read RNZ’s policy guide here. This will be continually updated until election day.

Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji’s first and only prime minister of Indian descent, has warned that the island nation is “worse off today than we were at independence” and that its political leadership must focus on solving social and economic issues rather than “making multiple constitutions”.

Chaudhry made the comments over the weekend while making a submission to a special parliamentary committee — led by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka — on the country’s constitutional reform process in Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second main island.

“Are we doing enough to alleviate the problems that we face as a nation that our people face, problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment, poor health services, education problems, crumbling infrastructure, the invasion by drug traffickers, HIV, NCDs (non-communicable diseases)?

• READ MORE: Other Fiji constitution reports

“Is the economy delivering to the people? Are we giving sufficient attention to the economic problems that the nation faces? Because you can do nothing on the back of a failing economy.

“These are areas where our attention should be focused,” the former prime minister, whose government was held hostage at gunpoint for 56 days during the 2000 ethno-nationalist coup, said.

Rabuka’s coalition has made it its mission to replace the 2013 Constitution — widely criticised as being imposed by the previous Bainimarama administration — ahead of a looming election.

His government is currently conducting nationwide public consultations on its Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026, which passed its second reading earlier this month and is set to be brought back to Parliament for its third reading next week.

First national referendum
If the bill passes its third reading, Fiji is set to hold its first national referendum in December, where the people will vote on whether they want Rabuka’s constitution. In its current form, the bill — presented to Parliament in September — has been criticised as a downgrade from what the Constitution Review Commission had proposed.

Rabuka and his inner circle are backing the removal of the current constitution despite widespread opposition from local community leaders, non-governmental organisations as well as his own coalition partners who say that the process is being “rushed”.

Rabuka, 78, said he had a responsibility that he would review and amend the 2013 Constitution and “that’s what we’re going for”.

“You voted for us — some in government and some in opposition — so we have the collective vote of the people of Fiji,” he said at one of the public consultations last week.

“And you have entrusted us of doing the amendment in accordance with the rules of the country.”

The move has also given rise to online conspiracies and misinformation that Rabuka is deliberately trying to delay the election, forcing him to provide assurances that the general election will proceed as planned.

More than 723,000 eligible voters are expected to head to the polls no later than 6 February 2027.

Election date kept close
Rabuka has so far kept the date of the general election close to his chest, stating previously that the election date will be announced after the constitutional reform process was completed.

“This is the fifth constitution that we will be looking at. Have the four previous constitutions served our purpose? Has it helped the people?” Chaudhry asked.

“Why do we rush this process of a new constitution? It can wait,” he said.

Chaudhry said Fiji could have an election under the 2013 Constitution and the incoming government could deal with the constitutional reform process.

“We have got to listen to the people. In this process, what I have noticed is that everybody has complained,” he said.

“If anything that has come through very clearly and loud in this consultation meeting, it is the people saying, ‘No, look, give us more time’.”

While the government’s constitution bill maintains the common national identity ‘Fijian’ for all its citizens, it proposes a new parliamentary system, brings back an unelected senate, changes the current electoral system, and provides “excessive concentration of constitutional power in the Executive”, according to Fiji’s Centre for Democracy and Dialogue.

Christianity as ‘founding value’
It also includes Christianity as a founding value.

Chaudhry said the country should be looking at the proposed constitution that was presented by the Constitution Review Commission and not the government’s version of the document.

“Having had a look at the constitution presented as Bill 32 of 2026, I find it divisive, undemocratic, and discriminatory in many of its provisions,” he said.

“I have no problems with Christian values. I think they are good values, but I believe that religion and state must be kept apart because this is one aspect which can cause serious division [in a] multiracial country like Fiji between communities.

“I am a Hindu. My wife is a Christian. We have no problems. She practises her religion. I do mine. So where is the problem? Why do we have to put in something which is causing controversy? Is it necessary? It is not.”

Samoa’s Prime Minister La’aulialemalietoa (La’auli) Leuatea Schmidt paused talks on a refreshed treaty with New Zealand until after the New Zealand general election, despite Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s request to “proceed with it”.

La’auli made the revelation at a cocktail function supporting the “visa on arrival” campaign led by prominent Aotearoa community leader Anae Arthur Anae in Apia last week, according to a report by the Samoa Observer.

According to the Samoa Observer, Anae was in Samoa seeking signatures for changes to New Zealand’s immigration arrangements for Samoans. He has become a leading campaigner for immigration reform for Pacific Islanders.

• READ MORE: Other Samoa politics reports

“Regarding the Treaty of Friendship that was being prepared, Luxon wanted me to go ahead and proceed with it, but I said no,” La’auli was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“I told him to wait until the [NZ] election is fully concluded and to see who the new Prime Minister is; only then will I have a ‘fair’ go at whoever will be newly elected.”

The Treaty of Friendship between Samoa and New Zealand is the principal bilateral agreement between the two nations. It is a unique partnership, signed in August 1962 after Samoa gained independence from New Zealand.

The newspaper reported that the Samoan prime minister said he was preparing proposals to “refresh and refine” Samoa’s relationship with New Zealand under the treaty.

“I am currently putting together Samoa’s perspective on how we might refresh and refine our relationship with New Zealand,” he said.

Luxon visited Samoa in March this year, where he met with La’auli and was also bestowed with the matai (chiefly) title of Tuisinavemaulumoto’otua from the village of Apia. During the visit, he signed memorandums of understanding for police and customs cooperation to combat transnational crime.

RNZ Pacific has contacted the Prime Minister’s office for comment.

The region’s premier ecumenical organisation is calling for Israel’s new partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) to be reviewed.

The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), which represents Christian churches and national councils across 18 countries and territories in the region, also wants all engagement with Israel suspended until it complies with international court rulings and United Nations resolutions.

It comes after Israel announced this week it had been accepted by Pacific leaders as a second-tier PIF partner.

• READ MORE: Israel votes against decolonisation for Pacific at UN – then says it has become PIF partner
• Other Israel in the Pacific reports
• Gaza genocide reports

PCC’s general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan told RNZ Pacific Waves that the announcement came as a surprise, particularly as PIF had not issued a statement on the partnership.

He said Pacific leaders should review the arrangement and ensure local communities are consulted before decisions are made on their behalf.

On Thursday, Fiji Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka said the “entire Pacific Islands identify with Israel” and their relationship with the country was “biblical, ageless and real”.

Reverend Bhagwan told Pacific Waves that the region needed to apply consistent standards to its international relationships.

“We cannot invoke the [International Court of Justice] for our islands and ignore the fact that the ICJ, in 2024, stated that Israel must end its occupation of Palestinian territory as soon as possible,” he said.

Pacific history of colonisation
Reverend Bhagwan said the Pacific’s own history of colonisation, nuclear testing and environmental destruction should inform how it engages with other countries.

“This is the test of regionalism and our commitment for our sisters and brothers in the Pacific,” he said.

“We cannot talk about the suffering of one community only without ignoring what others are going through. That’s not the Pacific way at all.”

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said criticising Israel’s inclusion in PIF is an “insult” to Pacific Island countries, adding that the decision by the Pacific leaders should be respected.

As a PIF partner, Israel will support Pacific development priorities in areas such as water management, desalination, agriculture and climate change adaptation.

Reverend Bhagwan stressed that the PCC’s concerns were not directed at Jewish people, nor at communities’ needs for water, food security and climate adaptation.

He said the PCC rejected anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, adding that the organisation mourned the loss of civilian lives on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Plea to PIF Toika
Reverend Bhagwan is urging the PIF Troika, which comprises Solomon Islands, Palau and New Zealand, to consider PCC’s concerns as the partnership arrangements are developed.

He also wants regional leaders to continue advocating for the right to self-determination of the six Pacific territories on the United Nations decolonisation list which are yet to achieve self-government.

He said the same principles should apply to all countries the region partners with, including Indonesia, which he wants pressed to allow a visit to West Papua by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

A Fiji deputy prime minister says the Pacific identifies with Israel in ways many would not understand.

Viliame Gavoka, who is also the Tourism Minister in Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s coalition government, was responding to a Facebook post about Israel being accepted into the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) as a development partner.

The PIF, which is backed by Australia and New Zealand as its founding members, is the region’s principal political decision-making institution.

• READ MORE: NZ’s foreign policy obligation to confront Israel’s Gaza genocide
• ‘Please explain’, Palestine Forum tells NZ over Israeli-Pacific Islands Forum ‘partnership’
• ‘Serious questions to answer’ – Labour slams Luxon over Israel’s Pacific Islands Forum move
• Israel joins Pacific Islands Forum as development partner
• Other Gaza genocide reports

“The entire Pacific Islands identify with Israel in ways many would not understand,” Gavoka wrote a comment.

“It’s biblical and ageless and real.

“Are we going to upset some people? Perhaps… but we know that the relationship with Israel is timeless, whereas with others, it’s largely geopolitics and subject to what is fashionable for the moment,” he added.

Fiji is one of the staunchest supporters of Israel and opened its Jerusalem embassy in September last year, while Israel established its permanent presence in Suva in June this year.

Pro-Israel politicians
Both Gavoka and Rabuka are among the most pro-Israel politicians in Fiji and the Pacific.

Israel’s PIF status, which was decided at the leaders’ meeting last month in Palau, required consensus from all 18 Forum members, including Australia and New Zealand.

The decision has attracted a range of commentary across the region.

In Aotearoa, ACT leader David Seymour extended Israel “a warm Pacific welcome”, while Labour questioned Israel’s admission to the Forum.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said to criticise Israel’s inclusion in PIF was an insult to Pacific Island countries, adding that the decision by the Pacific leaders should be respected.

Former PIF advisor Sione Tekiteki said Israel securing formal recognition through PIF was a way for it to “legitimise itself” in a region where it had gained much affection.

West Papuan civil society organisations have called on Indonesia to allow access to their region for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to open up genuine, inclusive dialogue.

Claims of persistent human rights abuses continue as violent conflict has deepened in the rugged interior of the Indonesian-controlled Papua region in recent months, causing an increasing number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs).

In recent weeks, numerous Pacific countries have echoed the 2019 call by the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) for Indonesia to allow the UN rights office to visit Papua to assess claims of widespread rights abuses.

• READ MORE: Pacific leaders urge Jakarta to allow UN rights visit to West Papua
• Other West Papua reports

Seven years on and the visit is yet to occur, although Indonesia’s government told RNZ Pacific last month the visit remains “on track”.

However, the patience of Pacific island countries has been tested — the call was again made at last month’s PIF summit by the countries in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) bloc.

Human rights advocacy group Elsham Papua’s director Paul Mambrasar said that the request is one of a series of calls to action and demands the civil society groups have made.

“The first one is unconditional international access by the UN body, and also from representatives from MSG and PIF, which is the result of the recent communiqué to visit West Papua,” Mambrasar said.

“It is an invitation which needs to be made by Indonesia.”

‘Credible claims taken seriously’
Speaking at this month’s UN General Assembly in response to recent calls by Pacific governments, including Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, Indonesian diplomat Nona Gae Luna said the government “takes all credible claims of human rights violations seriously”.

“Our national institutions and legal mechanisms, including the Independent National Human Rights Commission, is working continuously to address such allegations,” she said.

West Papuan human rights defender Rosa Moiwend said Jakarta had long dismissed concerns about rights issues in Papua.

“The Indonesian government is always promoting the positive image of the human rights situation in West Papua, while the real situation on the ground is still getting worse, especially around the military operations and the impact to the people,” Moiwend said.

“We now have like 127,000 IDPs waiting for the right time to go back home, and this is something that [has] happened for a long time.”

Access to Papua is also restricted for international humanitarian organisations who could help the IDPs.

Jakarta’s sensitivity over any attempts to internationalise the Papua issue was evident at the UN.

“Arrangements for any visit by the High Commissioner should be agreed between the host state and the office of the High Commissioner — they are not set by a third (party) or any regional body,” Gae Luna said.

Nonetheless, Moiwend said the renewed Pacific Islands push for access to West Papua was welcome and timely.

“This is very consistent because the leaders already made a communiqué before, and the West Papuans, especially the CSOs, was really happy with that because the consistency is still there,” she said.

“However, they need a clear action, and they also urged the Indonesian government to respond constructively with the statement made by the leaders.”

Military forces
Mambrasar said the renewed call by Pacific countries was also timely because Papua was now more militarised than ever as Indonesian troops had deployed in greater numbers to fight the disparate guerrilla forces of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).

“They use more advanced military equipment to fight insurgencies. They now have drone unit, and then, for example, they now use aeroplane to bomb the insurgent fighters,” he said of the evolving tech used by Indonesia’s military [TNI].

“They use the Brazilian-made Super [Tucano] Toucan aeroplane to bomb. It’s not only a law and order issue, which in the past has been the main domain of the police, but now the military is also engaged.”

The Indonesian government considers the Liberation Army to be an armed criminal group, and rarely refers to the Papuan struggle for independence.

Gae Luna underlined that Indonesia makes no apologies for the presence of security forces in Papua

“Any serious discussion of Papua must reflect the full picture. Innocent civilians, teachers, health workers, and many others have fallen victim to violence by armed criminal groups.

“Indonesia has a responsibility to protect all of its citizens. Law enforcement must and will remain subject to Indonesia’s laws and our international human rights obligations.”

Dialogue
One of the other calls by the civil society groups is for a credible, inclusive, and meaningful political dialogue to resolve the root causes of the Papuan conflict permanently,

Mambrasar said that Jakarta may ignore the troubled history of Papua’s incorporation into Indonesia, but each new generation of Papuans comes back to the problem, and that needs to be acknowledged.

“When you engage with issues otherwise, you’ll go nowhere,” he told RNZ Pacific.

“Because it’s been going for decades, and young generations of Papua keep on coming, emitting the same issue, so we’re going in same thing over and over again.

“So, what Indonesia must do now is to sit and invite all the genuine representatives of West Papuans to sit and talk, and you know to discuss the best ways to go forward.

“Once you sit together and you know equally, and you see West Papuans as human beings, then you know we can find something.

“I believe things have happened in East Timor, in South Africa and in some parts of Africa and South America, why don’t we just look at those experience and maybe pick up one or two, and we can use it here.”

An environmental group is challenging the United States’ legal authority to sell seabed mining leases covering waters off the coast of American Samoa, as the Trump administration pushes ahead with plans for a deep sea mining auction around the Pacific territory.

The US is proposing to lease more than 12.5 million hectares of seabed, with the sale scheduled for November 19. The decision marks the first time the US has offered such leases and comes despite widespread opposition from locals and environmental groups.

Fa’asao Amerika Samoa co-founder Seumalu Elora Raymond told RNZ Pacific Waves that the group is pursuing legal action to stop the sale, warning it would become much harder to challenge the plans once the leases are secured.

• READ MORE: American Samoa environmental group sues US govt over deep sea mining plans
• Other deep sea mining reports

“I think every hour we spend on this before that event is worth weeks and months of effort,” she said.

“It gets so much harder to fight this when there are so many fewer options once a mining company has purchased parts of the seabed floor.”

In April 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring activities in deep-sea science and technology as “a core national security and economic interest”.

A concurrent request was made by American firm Impossible Metals to open leasing off American Samoa territory, amid growing interest in the polymetallic nodules on the seabed, including nickel, copper and cobalt.

Filed new lawsuit
On Monday, Fa’asao Amerika Samoa, the Conservation Council for Hawai’i and the Faleula o le Manu’atele council of matai filed a new lawsuit — represented by Earthjustice — to block the lease sale.

The groups argue the Marine Minerals Administration (formerly known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management), the agency overseeing the proposed sale, does not have the legal authority to issue the leases under treaty requirements that must be met before mineral leasing can take place in American Samoa.

The new case follows a separate lawsuit filed in August by Fa’asao Amerika Samoa and the Conservation Council for Hawai’i.

Seumalu said a hearing in that case is scheduled for October 30, with the judge agreeing to an expedited process because of the November 19 deadline.

She said a decision in the first case could affect the government’s ability to proceed with the lease sale.

However, it is not yet clear whether the new lawsuit will be heard before the auction.

Questions over US authority in American Samoa
Seumalu rejected the idea that American Samoa had little say over what happened in its surrounding waters because the US controls the territory.

She said the relationship between American Samoa and the US does not give the federal government unlimited authority.

Seumalu points to historical instruments of cession signed by Samoan matai, saying the agreements established protections for the territory’s lands and ocean.

“Anybody who just assumes that the US can do whatever they want here is not really thinking carefully about the relationship between American Samoa and the United States and about the agreement that was signed by the matai generations ago.”

She argued that those agreements remained relevant under US federal law and must be considered when determining whether the government can issue the proposed leases.

In 2024, American Samoa banned deep sea mining in its territorial waters, but the auction relates to areas beyond that limit, in the federally controlled Outer Continental Shelf.

However, the groups launching legal action argue that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act does not authorise mineral leasing in any of the US territories, including American Samoa, and that the agency is violating its own leasing regulations

The group is asking the courts to examine that legal relationship before the November 19 sale proceeds.

Prime Minister Jotham Napat’s government could be staring down a potential leadership challenge in a fortnight’s time when the Vanuatu parliament session resumes on November 5, local media is reporting.

Napat, who was elected as the country’s new prime minister in February 2025, is the country’s fifth prime minister in as many years and leads a coalition government made up of five political parties.

Napat has already faced and defeated a no-confidence motion in December last year.

• READ MORE: Other Vanuatu politics reports

According to the Vanuatu Daily Post, the country’s politicians are lobbying behind the scenes to secure the numbers and launch another leadership challenge to oust Napat’s administration.

“In the current 52-member Parliament, at least nine MPs must sign the [motion of no confidence] notice,” the newspaper reported on Friday.

“For the motion to pass, it must receive the support of an absolute majority of MPs, meaning at least 27 votes. If passed, the prime minister and other ministers cease to hold office immediately but continue to perform their functions until a new prime minister is elected,” the report said.

However, the report said that no formal motion has been confirmed as lodged with the Speaker’s Office or the clerk of parliament.

RNZ Pacific has contacted Napat, opposition leader Ishmael Kalsakau, and the Vanuatu parliament for comment.

The traditional paramount chief of Lau province in Fiji says immunity clauses sheltering past coup leaders cannot be a stand-alone discussion.

Ratu Tevita Mara said Fijians should also confront the economic disparity, and the drug and HIV crisis in iTaukei communities, as the public consultation phase of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill begins this week.

He warned that conditions behind the nation’s past upheavals remain unaddressed and the immunity cover protecting past coup leaders from prosecution cannot be addressed in isolation.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji constitution reports

The Fiji Supreme Court, in an advisory opinion in August, said that immunity provisions in the 2013 Constitution cannot be changed.

Ratu Tevita said he respects the Court’s opinion, but warned that if the inequality and social problems exploited in past political crises were not addressed, then lasting reconciliation would not be achieved.

Fiji has experienced four coups since gaining independence from Britain in October 1970. It has also operated under four constitutions, and the current Rabuka administration has set in motion a constitutional reform process that could result in a fifth constitution by the end of the year.

“Lasting reconciliation will not come from the law alone, whatever the law provides,” Ratu Tevita said.

Inequality untouched
“If we settle the question of immunity while leaving untouched the inequality that was exploited in our past upheavals, and the drug crisis now compounding it, we will not have addressed the causes.”

He said 56 years after independence, too many iTaukei families still stand at the edge of the nation’s commercial life, on land and sea that should be bringing them prosperity.

According to official statistics, 36 percent of the iTaukei population live below the basic-needs poverty line, compared to 20 percent of Indo-Fijians.

He believes these grievances were left unaddressed and then exploited in 1987 and in 2000.

“Nothing can ever justify the taking of power by force. But the conditions exploited then are still with us, and they must be addressed now, not left to another generation.

“Those conditions are made worse by the crisis in our communities. Government has declared a national HIV emergency, and with good reason.

“Around nine in every 10 new HIV diagnoses last year were among iTaukei, most of them young, and methamphetamine is driving it.

“This is not a matter of shame to be hidden. It is reaching into our villages and settlements, and the vanua, our churches and every family must stand with government in confronting it.”

‘Answer disrespect with dignity’
Ratu Tevita, who is the son of Fiji’s first prime minister, the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, also commented on recent remarks made by the leader of a Fijian teachers’ trade union body.

Fijian Teachers Association general secretary Paula Manumanunitoga made a Facebook post last week weighing in on the constitutional reform debate currently dominating the country.

His controversial, profanity-laden comments while defending Indigenous chiefs and threatening to “roast” critics in earth ovens sparked a major political storm, for which he later issued a public apology.

Ratu Tevita said Manumanunitoga’s remarks on social media showed how close to the surface ethnic and political tensions remain.

While acknowledging that the author had since apologised to the Indo-Fijian community, Ratu Tevita said he did not condone such threats.

“I do not condone threats against our fellow countrymen and women. The chiefs of Fiji do not need to be defended with threats.

“I understand the hurt that moved some of our people to speak out in defence of our chiefs. Much has been said, especially online, about our chiefs and our traditional institutions that is deeply disrespectful.

Wounding the vanua
“It wounds the vanua, and those who say such things should reflect on the harm they cause but we answer disrespect with dignity, never with threats.”

He said the Deed of Cession of 1874 and independence in 1970 should remind people that Fiji has become one nation for all its peoples.

Ratu Tevita said people should always remember to make statements that would lift Fiji and her people.

He pointed to the recent statements by the Republic of Fiji Military Forces commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, in which he said that “a Fiji where the gun overrules the ballot is no independence at all”.

He said all leaders must work for the good of Fiji and help keep unity among all races, as the nation worked through issues like the constitution, while also trying to find solutions to the ever-increasing drugs and HIV issues.

The High Court has declined New Zealand Rugby’s application for an interim injunction against the PNG Chiefs NRL rugby league franchise using its name in New Zealand.

The NZR has been seeking to stop Papua New Guinea’s incoming franchise from using the Chiefs moniker also used by the Super Rugby franchise.

The trademark dispute is likely bound for a more substantive trial next year. Meanwhile, the PNG Chiefs, who are to enter the NRL in 2028, will launch their brand and logo next Wednesday.

• READ MORE: Other PNG rugby reports

The NZR has held the trademark for the Chiefs name since the 1990s, and IP Australia has previously knocked back attempts by the NRL to register the Chiefs trademark because of what it identified as the potential for brand confusion.

Following the High Court decision, the CEO of the rugby Chiefs, Simon Graafhuis, told RNZ Pacific that the NZR was “absolutely” considering legal action in Australia.

At today’s High Court hearing in Wellington, the NZR’s lawyer Earl Gray argued that the PNG Chiefs made no distinction from the rugby Chiefs in its various media materials.

He argued that the NRL was seeking to take away the rugby Chiefs’ brand exclusivity ‘by stealth”, claiming PNG Chiefs’ plans for a brand launch showed the “ramping up and loss of control of this brand” which had been built up over decades by the rugby Chiefs.

Status quo unchanged
But Clive Elliot, the lawyer for the defendant, the Australian Rugby League Commission, said the launch would not change the status quo and was simply the unveiling of the franchise’s strip or team jersey.

He said given the NZR became aware of the PNG Chiefs name around a year ago, that to only now be filing an urgent application for an injunction after an “extremely long delay” was not appropriate.

Earlier, Gray said the NRL franchise’s representatives had been using the “PNG Chiefs” and “Chiefs” interchangeably, which created confusion for sports fans and the many people who follow both union and league codes.

“Confusion can reign,” he said while also warning of potential impact on sponsorship, but Elliot said the geographical qualifier of “PNG” distinguished the franchise clearly.

He said that the PNG Chiefs were at a critical juncture as they tried to build the club and recruit key players during the brief free agency period which opens up in November and ends by the new year.

Elliot said that a temporary injunction at this point would threaten those efforts by creating a cloud over the franchise’s reputation.

However, Earl Gray said a cloud was effectively already hovering, due to the confusion factor.

Some Papua New Guinea parliamentarians are calling for tougher laws against violent criminals who they say should be categorised as “terrorists”.

It comes as PNG police released details of a counter-terrorism operation in Southern Highlands province, in which they seized a cache of high-powered weapons and military-grade explosives.

Various districts in PNG have been experiencing a surge in activity by criminal groups, according to MPs during discussion this week in Parliament.

• READ MORE: Notorious PNG gang declared a domestic terrorist organisation
• Other PNG crime reports

Oro Governor Gary Juffa said that in his province, criminal organisations had been engaging in “brutal, violent crimes, killings, injury to innocent people and disruption of especially health and education services”.

“These criminal organisations, we are submitting that they be declared ‘terrorist organisations’ because that is essentially what they are doing — these are crimes of terror whereby they are disrupting government services deliberately and preventing our children from accessing these services, our women, our elderly people, our innocent citizens.”

Juffa sought an update from Attorney-General Pila Ninigi over a submission to his office earlier this year from the Police Minister which asks for criminal groups targeting public infrastructure and government services to be declared terrorists.

Ninigi, who is also the justice minister, said the government was looking into it and assured Juffa that the issue was being taken seriously.

“There are constitutional questions that need to be answered and looked at. If it needs to amend certain provisions in the constitution, we shall do so, and come through the Parliament [to] make necessary amendments,” Ninigi said.

In 2014, PNG’s Parliament passed the Counter Terrorism Act, which defines terrorism, prescribes what constitutes a terrorist organisation, and gives police and defence forces expanded powers.

Police counter-terror raid
Police this week said a counter-terrorism operation in Southern Highlands province resulted in seizure of factory-made weapons, ammunition and military-grade explosives in a raid on a business in Poroma.

“In particular, the discovery of C-4 explosive blocks and detonation fuses is extremely alarming, as this material has no legitimate use in civil society and is extremely dangerous,” the country’s Police Commissioner David Manning said.

“The threat posed by these domestic terrorist groups is serious, and police will continue to break open their networks, remove weapons and take suspects into custody to prevent them from undertaking attacks on vulnerable communities.”

News of the seizure, which occurred in late September, comes as police also seized a major cache of high-powered firearms and weapons manufacturing equipment in Port Moresby last week.

“Criminals holding these explosives, along with assault rifles, shotguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition pose a high terrorist threat and this is why we have new laws in place to deal with them,” Commissioner Manning said.

“Investigations are still underway and charges being prepared, as well as the ongoing hunt for accomplices and those involved in bring the weapons to where they were hidden.”

New Zealand is supporting an internal review of Fiji’s national security and intelligence system, amid claims by the United States of Chinese infiltration.

The Fijian government announced a six-month partnership with the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) that it said would “assess the existing intelligence structure and develop evidence-based options for reform”.

Its focus will be on information-sharing between countries, which, on Fiji’s part, requires a reform programme “to address fragmentation” across government agencies.

• READ MORE: China denies US allegation of malicious cyber activity in the Pacific
• Other Fiji security reports

“The review will examine potential changes to intelligence functions, governance, workforce and operations, including the risks, benefits and requirements for implementing the proposed changes,” the Fiji government said in a statement.

“The reforms will also focus on ensuring appropriate oversight and accountability to support a sustainable national intelligence system.”

In a threat assessment report released in August, the NZSIS said it had identified individuals carrying out “espionage and foreign interference activities in the Pacific” on behalf of “a foreign intelligence service”.

It also made note of long-running Chinese espionage activities in New Zealand, calling it “the only country we have detected doing it at scale”.

Last week, the US State Department designated hotel owner Zhao Fugang – a prominent figure among the Chinese diaspora in Fiji – for “significant corruption”, claiming Zhao actively pays bribes to Fijian citizens to “advance China-based government, business, and criminal interests”.

On Wednesday, the Chinese embassy in New Zealand denied further allegations by the US that China backed malicious cyber activity specifically targeting a Pacific regional body based in Suva, and that Chinese Communist Party-sponsored cyber crime was commonplace in the Pacific.

RNZ Pacific’s requests to the US Embassy in Suva for comment on both matters have gone unanswered.

Attendees at a Māngere candidates forum say they want clearer answers from those seeking to represent the electorate, particularly on issues affecting local communities.

With New Zealand heading to the polls for its general election in less than a month, the panel on Monday brought together candidates vying for the Māngere seat.

It included Lemauga Lydia Sosene (Labour), Michel Mulipola (Greens), Rosemary Bourke (National), Vicky Hau (NZ First), Dr Timoti Te Moke (Independent), Kelvyn Alp (NZ Loyal), Hine Afeaki (NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party), Ben Lane (The Opportunity Party), and Alani Fisher Taione (People’s Party).

• READ MORE: Other 2026 NZ election reports

They tackled questions on a number of issues ranging from the cost of living and healthcare to climate change, immigration and Pacific development.

But many Māngere residents said they left “wanting more” from the candidates.

Zane Wedding said more “direct debate” between candidates as well as more insightful discussion around policy details would have been beneficial.

“I felt like I was getting sold the same thing from all of the different parties,” he told RNZ Pacific.

‘Discussion’ important
“Discussion is one of the most important things, not just being talked at. And there was a lot of talking at tonight (Monday).

“It’s really easy for people to say ‘we’re addressing the cost of living’, but it was really the ‘how’ that didn’t get discussed enough.”

He also felt some candidates did not quite capture the complexity of South Auckland communities.

“There was a little bit of, just tagging South Auckland with this brush of — and I know that we are a part of an impoverished demographic — we’re part of the lower decile areas.

“But South Auckland is very diverse. We have to remember that,” he said.

“It is good to speak to Pacific issues, but Pasifika people are not just people on the benefit. Pasifika are people who are holding amazing jobs, running small businesses, all of those types of things.

“Sometimes I think the discussion focused on the lower decile demographic that only represents some of us, an important some of us, but only some of us.”

Concrete proposals
Teisa Unga shared similar concerns, saying she hoped to hear more concrete proposals from candidates.

“I wanted policy answers from these candidates and what they actually want to do, and tangible answers,” she said.

“What I wanted more from the candidates was a reality check. Do they really understand their constituents? Do they really understand the reality of the people who live in Māngere?”

Unga attended on behalf of Living Wage Aotearoa, pressing candidates on whether they would continue supporting the Living Wage for government-contracted cleaners, caterers, and security guards.

She said the issue was particularly significant for working families in the Māngere electorate.

“A lot of cleaners and security guards depend on that to make bread and butter and put petrol in the car to take people to school,” Unga said.

She said most candidates supported continuing the policy.

“I only counted the no’s, which was New Zealand First and National, which was no surprise because if you go on our website, they have shown that they don’t commit to it,” Unga explained.

Doctor a ‘standout’
Despite general criticism, Independent candidate Dr Timoti Te Moke was repeatedly mentioned by attendees as one of the “standout” candidates.

“I think the only person that I was really impressed with was the doctor, just because of the way he spoke and what he actually spoke about, what resonated with, I guess, our experiences as Pacific people here, and also in our healthcare,” Unga said.

Māngere newcomer Tofilau Nina Kirifi-Alai said the forum was a useful introduction to the candidates, but many of her questions went unanswered.

She was disappointed candidates did not directly address concerns she raised during the panel, about the government stripping away Pacific initiatives and programmes.

“My main concern was that Pacific initiatives have been completely tampered with … and so I wanted some answers.”

She accepted candidates would often follow party positions, but insisted there needs to be a greater focus on genuinely addressing local community concerns.

“There should be a good awareness of Māngere, what matters and how it could be improved,” Kirifi-Alai said.

Lack of transparency
Youth climate advocate, Nele Kalolo-Curricus, agreed that there was a lack of transparency and clear-cut answers from candidates.

During the panel, she asked candidates whether they would support community-led renewable energy projects, phase out fossil fuels and commit to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

She said voters were looking for more than “values-based” messaging.

“People want to hear actual actions,” Kalolo-Curricus said.

“We have spent so much time hearing politicians talk about what they believe in. We want to know what they do.”

She noted that climate change and the cost of living were closely connected for many Pacific families, particularly those supporting relatives living overseas.

“Whatever impacts our home over there also impacts Māngere,” she said.

Backing up values
She said that while she is “non partisan,” the standout candidates were those who backed up their values with specific policy proposals.

“The thing that made candidates stand out the most to me was candidates who answered with actual policies,” she said.

“There’s so many politicians who come to political debates and start attacking each other or start virtue signalling, saying what they believe in.”

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has slammed New Zealand’s abstention on a vote on global pandemic preparedness at the United Nations, describing it as “humiliating”.

New Zealand was among five countries that did not vote for a UN declaration designed to strengthen national, regional and international co-operation in the event of a future pandemic.

The United States, Israel and Argentina voted against the Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, while New Zealand and Paraguay abstained.

• READ MORE: General Assembly adopts pandemic declaration, but not by consensus

The other 153 member states of the UN voted for the declaration, which called for “stronger national, regional and international cooperation, guided by science, equity and respect for human rights, and it welcomes last year’s landmark adoption of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pandemic Agreement”.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said “New Zealand supports the aim of strengthening global health systems and improving pandemic preparedness and response.”

But it said: “New Zealand does not support language welcoming the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement…It is very important to New Zealand that its sovereign decision making on health is protected.”

The UN said the declaration was “political and non-binding”.

Helen Clark — a former senior UN official — called the vote “humiliating for NZ” in a social media post.

“How low can NZ go?… This results from [New Zealand First]’s courting of the anti-vax vote,” she said.

How low can #NZ go? UN General Assembly just agreed on a Political Declaration on #Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness & Response. 153 voted for; 3 against; NZ & Paraguay abstained. This results from NZ 1st’s courting of the anti-vax vote. Humiliating for NZ
https://t.co/EryndJWTAV https://t.co/zZkl9AqqpE

— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) October 12, 2026

“As New  Zealand noted at the time of the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement by the World Health Assembly [2024], any future decision on whether or not to sign and ratify the Pandemic Agreement will be informed by a full National Interest Test under domestic procedures,” MFAT said.

The International Health Regulations (IHR) define countries’ rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential to cross borders, a statement on the Ministry of Health website said.

New Zealand was a signatory and had been since its establishment.

But earlier this year, New Zealand told the WHO Director-General it was rejecting the amendments.

Political reaction
In a statement on social media, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said his party “ensured the National Interest Test was included in the coalition agreement to keep our sovereign decision making with New Zealand, not Geneva”.

“We believe it is essential to New Zealand that its sovereign decision making on health is protected,” Peters said.

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins called the vote “an embarrassment to New Zealand”.

“Frankly, I am astounded that New Zealand has shown such cowardice in an important vote before the UN,” he said.

It was another example of Christopher Luxon “letting Winston Peters embrace conspiracy theories as New Zealand government positions”, Hipkins said.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon initially tried to skirt questions about the vote, saying: “It wasn’t a Cabinet decision, you’ll need to direct further questions to the foreign minister.”

But he then appeared to disagree with Hipkins that it was an “important vote”.

“There is literally, every day, a number of declarations that go through the UN — of major and minor significance and importance. Important ones come through a Cabinet decision-making process,” Luxon said.

“But in this case, this is one that is up to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to make a call on.”

National MP Matt Doocey said National ministers supported voting in favour while formally recording their reservations. However, a Cabinet decision was not required, and Winston Peters made his decision as Foreign Affairs Minister.

Luxon said he thought New Zealand’s standing in the world was “much more enhanced than it was three years ago”, when asked what kind of light he thought the abstention put the country in.

Controversial, profanity-laden remarks made by the head of the Fijian Teachers Association (FTA) while defending Indigenous chiefs and threatening to “roast” critics in earth ovens have sparked a major political storm.

On Monday, FTA general-secretary Paula Manumanunitoga made a Facebook post weighing in on the constitutional reform debate currently dominating the country.

It comes as Fijians prepare to mark their 56th Independence Anniversary on Saturday.

• READ MORE: SODELPA calls for calm following Manumanunitoga’s inciteful comments
• Fiji’s Online Safety Act – why it poses risks for journalism
• Other Fiji free speech reports

Manumanunitoga specifically challenged those who he believed questioned the place and role of iTaukei chiefs in the governance of Fiji.

“Saying they do not have a place in the administration of this country, didn’t anyone tell you how and why you’re here in this country instead of your original country?,” he wrote in all capital letters in the post.

“How quickly you have forgotten how you have come to exist here in Fiji? You and your kind are here because of the decision our chiefs made to cede Fiji to Queen Victoria of Great Britain in October 1874.

“So shut the [expletive] up and mind your own business before we catch you and roast you in earth ovens !!!! You’re free to go anywhere, do whatever business you like but do not be disrespectful to belittle our chiefs or become thick-headed by whatever you’ve achieved in this country.”

Widespread criticism
His post, which is public, remains online and has attracted widespread criticism from political figures and the public.

Major political leaders have condemned Manumanunitoga’s remarks, calling them “disgraceful”, “disturbing” and “racially divisive”.

The Fijian government has remained silent on the comments with no statements made by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka or his Information Minister Lynda Tabuya, who is usually vocal against harmful and divisive digital communications.

However, Fiji’s Women and Children’s Minister Shashi Kiran has called for his resignation, to which Manumanunitoga has also hit back, saying Kiran had not released any statements when “they were swearing at our chiefs”.

Fiji’s parliamentary opposition leader Inia Seruiratu and the National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad have both called for Fiji police to investigate his statements.

Seruiratu wants police to determine whether Manumanunitoga has committed any offences under Fiji’s laws relating to threats, incitement to violence and communal antagonism.

“No individual, regardless of their position, ethnicity or standing in society, should be above the law,” he said.

Free speech ‘with responsibility’
Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) leader Aseri Radrodro said while Manumanunitoga was entitled to his views “freedom of expression must be exercised with responsibility, maturity, and respect”.

“There comes a time when we must draw a clear line between standing up for our traditional leaders and resorting to hostility, vulgarity, and explicit threats against our fellow citizens,” Radrodro said.

He warned that such rhetoric risks creating deep ethnic divisions among Fijians.

“Our chiefs are integral to our history, identity, and the fabric of our nation, and they should not be subjected to personal attacks or contempt. However, defending our chiefs does not require threatening others or telling our fellow citizens to ‘shut up’ and leave.”

The United States has designated a prominent Chinese businessman in Fiji for “significant corruption” on behalf of China-based actors.

Zhao Fugang, owner of the Yue Lai Hotel in Suva and the Overseas Chinese Service Center located within it, is alleged to be a senior member of a syndicate involved in drug smuggling, money laundering, and human trafficking, according to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

In a statement on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time), the US State Department said Zhao actively pays bribes to Fijian citizens to “advance China-based government, business, and criminal interests”.

• READ MORE: Chinese Communist Party-backed businessman in Fiji is a top Australian criminal target

“His actions constituted significant corruption and adversely affected US interests in Fiji,” the statement read.

The designation renders Zhao and his immediate family ineligible for entry into the US.

An OCCRP investigation in 2024 revealed that the hotelier has been in the crosshairs of Australian and other Western intelligence agencies since mid-2023.

It said his business interests stretch from tourism to property development, and his personal relationships have extended as high as former Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama.

Stayed silent
Zhao has stayed silent on those allegations.

He has established himself as a prominent figure in Fiji’s social scene, often seen at Chinese cultural and celebratory events alongside key government figures — both during the Bainimarama era and under the current administration.

RNZ Pacific has asked Zhao via his hotel for comment. RNZ Pacific has also requested comments from the Chinese Embassy in Fiji and the Chinese Association of Fiji.

Meanwhile, other US corruption designations in the Pacific this year have included Palauan politicians Hokkons Baules — also for alleged links to China — and Anderson Jibas.

Papua New Guinea has committed around US$5.5 million ($25 million kina) to Tuvalu over five years in aid of its coastal reclamation efforts.

PNG’s Prime Minister James Marape made the announcement at the Pre-COP31 climate meeting in Tuvalu.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feleti Teo in Funafuti, Marape confirmed that funding would be allocated from each annual budget over the five-year term.

• READ MORE: Other COP climate reports

He said climate change is playing out in real time in the atoll nation, and that even a relatively small amount of investment will make a significant difference.

“It would buy them two or three more generations of life, if they buy 10 soccer fields in land reclamations wherever you can,” Marape said.

Tuvalu consists of low-lying atolls encompassing a total land mass of 26 sq km, making the country highly exposed to sea level rise and environmental degradation.

“Let’s rally behind them (Tuvalu), let’s help them preserve their sovereignty, and let’s move on in this instead of going to COPs with no serious commitments,” Marape said.

‘Talk fests’
Teo acknowledged PNG’s contribution, stating that the financial resources will be used to secure the island nation’s highly vulnerable coast line.

But he noted that while international bodies recently adopted a political declaration on sea level rise at the UN General Assembly, declarations alone cannot physically fix eroding coastlines without substantial capital.

Marape also criticised the lack of actionable progress at global climate forums, referring to them as “talk fests” with few serious commitments.

He said he would not attend the global COP-31 summit in Türkiye next month, choosing instead to focus resources on regional solidarity and localised adaptation projects.

The PNG leader also issued a formal appeal to industrialised nations, including the United States. China, Japan, India, and the United Kingdom, to provide direct financial assistance to small island states facing immediate existential threats.

Target call
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Pacific cannot afford to lose sight of the 1.5 degrees C target as rising seas, extreme weather and El Niño conditions intensify across the region.

Albanese has been in Tuvalu and Fiji attending the Pre-COP climate meetings with other leaders from the Pacific region.

The Post-Courier reports him saying Pacific nations must convert their shared concern about climate change into collective action.

He argues the 1.5 degrees target on global warming remains vital as sea levels rise and extreme weather worsens.

Albanese said Pacific leaders should speak with a united voice to demand stronger global action ahead of COP31.

President Moetai Brotherson says French Polynesia’s future cannot remain solely a French domestic matter.

Brotherson has addressed the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation, or C-24, which was established in 1961 by the UN General Assembly as its subsidiary body devoted to the issue of decolonisation

He said the French territory proposes what he called a simple programme of work.

• READ MORE: Other French Polynesia independence reports

This includes a comprehensive programme of information and education on the options available; a UN visiting mission to hear the people directly; and an agreed pathway towards a democratic act of self-determination, “ultimately allowing the Mā’ohi people to express their choice freely through a referendum – no predetermined outcome, no unilateral imposition”.

Brotherson told the committee he favours dialogue over litigation, but dialogue cannot mean indefinite waiting.

Brotherson has previously reiterated his support for greater political sovereignty for French Polynesia, telling PMN in March that economic development and resilience must come first and that the pathway toward greater sovereignty must be gradual and carefully managed.

He told the UN that French Polynesia is not asking for “yet another bilateral discussion” within the French institutional framework, where France sets the rules.

“We are not asking France to decide our future; we are asking France to stop preventing us from discussing how we will decide it.

“Our future cannot remain solely a French domestic matter.

‘True decolonisation dialogue’
“We are asking for a true decolonisation dialogue grounded in international law, involving France, the institutions and political forces of French Polynesia, with the United Nations associated with the process.

“The UN role is to guarantee that our right to self-determination is respected.”

President Moetai Brotherson’s full speech at the UN. [In English]

Brotherson said the Pacific region knows the consequences of leaving political questions unresolved for too long.

“The recent history of Kanaky New Caledonia reminds us that dialogue must come before violence, not after it. This is neither a comparison nor a threat. It’s a responsibility to preserve peace.”

Brotherson said when French President Emmanuel Macron took office, French Polynesia had already been inscribed on the UN decolonisaiton list for four years.

“When he leaves office, 14 years will have passed. Fourteen years during which France could have chosen dialogue.”

France’s ‘direct dialogue’
France’s representative at the C-24, Jay Dharmadhikari, said Paris favoured a constant direct dialogue between state bodies and the Polynesian territory.

“This dialogue emerges through regular contact at all levels. The state is fully committed to and engaged in these,” he said.

Dharmadhikari — whose words were translated in the UN meeting room — said French Polynesia had a great deal of political autonomy under the French Constitution.

“French Polynesia … has many competencies in almost all domains. More specifically, this means that Polynesian people have full autonomy to determine the public policies within the archipelago, within the fields of the economy, education, health, tourism, work, and culture.

“Only the key competencies, such as defence, regalian competencies remain the remit of the French government.”

He said the head of the French state and government will conduct consultations with all Polynesian stakeholders, “taking into account messages that have been conveyed and the demands expressed”.

France retains control over defence, currency, and aspects of foreign policy.

The C-24 draft resolution on French Polynesia’s independence called on France “to initiate a dialogue with the Government of French Polynesia in order to facilitate rapid progress towards a fair and effective self-determination process, under which the terms and timelines for an act of self-determination would be agreed, and to consider developing, in close cooperation, a constructive programme of work for the Territory”.

Cracks are starting to show within Sitiveni Rabuka’s coalition government ahead of a looming general election and a potential national referendum, as Fiji prepares to mark its 56th anniversary on Saturday.

This follows the National Federation Party (NFP) and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa), both the minor partners that helped Rabuka return to power, publicly calling out the prime minister for fast-tracking a constitutional reform process.

NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad, who said earlier that his party fully supported the joint parliamentary process to review Fiji’s proposed Constitution (Amendment) Bill to change the 2013 Constitution, shifted his stance after Rabuka pre-emptively announced a referendum date.

• READ MORE: Jale Moala: Words matter in politics, especially at a time like this in Fiji
• Other Fiji constitution reports

“We (NFP) have said all along very clearly that the new constitution, once and if it is passed and approved, the implementation of that constitution should not be rushed,” Dr Prasad, who was one of three Fiji deputy prime ministers, said on Monday.

However, in a statement yesterday, he declared that the NFP “outrightly rejects” Rabuka’s attempt to fast-track the process, comparing the approach to the previous Voreqe Bainimarama administration’s unilateral implementation of the 2013 Constitution.

He said Rabuka’s announcement was inconsistent with Section 160(3) of the 2013 Constitution on holding a referendum.

“This is not how to formulate a genuine, meaningful, and fair constitution for all our people,” Dr Prasad said.

“It is now clear that [Rabuka] is pre-empting the outcome even before the bipartisan special parliamentary committee, which was unanimously agreed to by Parliament last week, has met and started scrutiny and consultation with the people on the draft constitution bill.”

“The prime minister must reconsider his position and respect the people.”

The election and referendum timelines
Fiji is expected to hold elections by February 6 at the latest as the Rabuka administration’s term legally comes to an end on December 24. Rabuka has delayed announcing an election date, previously telling RNZ Pacific that it depends on the constitutional reform process.

The prime minister prematurely announced the referendum date for December 9 after the government’s Constitution (Amendment) Bill passed its second reading last Friday. He also announced that he would write to the Electoral Commission to suspend all election-related campaigning until after the referendum.

During the crucial second reading, the government secured 38 votes (out of 53) in favour of the bill to meet the required two-thirds majority of 36 MPs needed to progress the legislation to the next stage.

The Electoral Commission has stated that it would “give the matter serious consideration” before making any decision.

“We will deliberate and consider the extent of the discretion provided under section 15(2) of the National Referendum Act 2026 that provides guidance when the discretion is activated, and whether it should be exercised, including the reasons for and against doing so and the potential impacts of either approach,” it said in a statement.

Demand for ‘constitutional order’
Sodelpa is calling on Rabuka to “immediately respect constitutional boundaries” regarding the national referendum process.

“The rule of law and constitutional order in Fiji cannot be subordinated to executive convenience or political scheduling,” Sodelpa leader Aseri Radrodro, who is also Rabuka’s Education Minister, said in a statement.

The party said no one was above the law and that all parliamentarians must make decisions that prioritised the Fijian people.

Some of Fiji’s leading civil society organisations have warned that the Electoral Commission cannot lawfully suspend general election campaigning at this stage.

Fiji’s opposition condemned the announcement, saying that Rabuka was “putting the cart before the horse”.

Justice Minister Siromi Turaga has defended the process, stating on Monday that the government would systematically inform the Fijian people about the bill.

But Dr Prasad said parliamentarians cannot do a deal on the constitution behind closed doors.

Back to the people
He said the government must first go back to the people to ask them what they think about the constitution bill.

“That will take time,” he said.

“All our citizens must understand what the draft constitution says and what it means for them. We could never do this in 30 days.

“If this process must be finished after the next election, so be it.”

Dr Prasad said announcing a referendum was not Rabuka’s decision, as under the law, only the president could do that.

“And only after the bill has been passed by Parliament. How does the Prime Minister then expect the people to vote for a constitution they have barely seen?”

“This announcement [of a] referendum and the process is wrong. The whole point of a new constitution is to bring our people together. It is not to divide us further.”

More than 723,000 eligible Fijian voters have registered to cast their vote at the general election.

New Zealand has turned down an invitation by Canada to join a multi-billion dollar Defence Bank.

The Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) is currently under development. Its purpose is to finance the defence industries of its member states, which contribute capital to be re-invested.

Led by Canada, committed countries include Ukraine and Türkiye, alongside several European neighbours.

• READ MORE: Other NZ defence reports

According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) advice released under the Official Information Act, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney invited his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon to take part in negotiations over the bank’s charter in late April, and eventually to buy in as a partner.

MFAT officials advised ministers against taking up the offer in late July, noting an initial contribution of $100 million, with costs expected to run up from there.

“There would also be ongoing resourcing implications associated with the DSRB’s governance,” it noted.

In a statement, MFAT told RNZ that the government’s decision was communicated to Ottawa in late August.

Defence spending up
It comes as the country plans to increase defence spending to 2 percent of GDP ($12 billion) over eight years, under a 2025 Defence Capability Plan (DCP). Budget 2026 allocated a total of $3.5 billion for the current fiscal year.

Along with the DCP is a “Defence Industry Strategy”, which lacks any mention of overseas borrowing.

“Available evidence suggests that (the defence industry) would derive greater benefit from measures that improve market opportunities… than from the establishment of a dedicated defence financing mechanism.”

The bank has a capitalisation goal of approximately 100 billion euros (about NZ$201 billion) by the end of the year, aiming to be operational by early 2027 with headquarters in Canada.

In early July, it was announced at a NATO summit that Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Türkiye, and Ukraine had committed to joining the DSRB. It also hopes to bring in Australia, Japan, and South Korea as members in the Indo-Pacific.

While New Zealand turned down Canada’s offer “at this time”, it appeared that the door remains open for future membership.

“We will continue to monitor developments,” MFAT said.

Vanuatu’s government has condemned a “shameful, racist, and neo-colonial rant” made by a pro-France New Caledonian lawmaker.

Nicolas Metzdorf, a French politician from New Caledonia and a member of France’s National Assembly, made a social media post over the weekend calling out Vanuatu for “denouncing French sovereignty over Matthew and Hunter Islands at the UN”.

In a two-page letter intended to be satarical, Metzdorf mocks and ridicules Vanuatu’s economy, passport scheme and political ties with China, and shares a map depicting a redrafting of borders between Vanuatu and the French territory.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia and Vanuatu reports

Metzdorf also addresses Vanuatu PM Jotham Napat as leading the “Condominium of the New Hebrides” — Vanuatu’s colonial-era name for the joint British-French ruled territory.

“Because of its insulting, neo-colonial and mocking tone towards Vanuatu as a sovereign nation, the Public Relations Officer has taken the liberty to respond, as the Government of Vanuatu will not, and should never stoop so low as to dignify such correspondence with a formal Prime Ministerial reply,” Vanuatu’s Ministry of the Prime Minister said in a statement.

“The letter should be condemned in the strongest terms for what it is: a shameful, racist, and neo-colonial rant that has no place in the 21st century.”

The statement said Vanuatu was not the New Hebrides, Matthew and Hunter islands were not France’s, and Metzdorf’s offer “is exactly what colonialism always was”.

New Caledonia’s ‘own corruption’
“Do not lecture us about financial transparency, governance or humanitarian aid. This is coming from a deputy of a territory whose own financial mismanagement and corruption is well known, where after 170 years of colonisation, real people of [New Caledonia’s Indigenous Kanaks] still do not own their own country,” it read.

“You send us aid after a cyclone that your climate policies helped make worse, and then you expect gratitude and obedience.

“Vanuatu is a sovereign nation. We are not a French province. We are not an experiment for you to study. We are not a rock for your companies to exploit.”

The statement said Metzdorf’s letter should be condemned by France and should be forwarded to the Pacific Islands Forum and to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation as evidence of the “colonial mindset” that still existed within the French legislature.

Samoa’s Prime Minister La’aulialemalietoa (La’aiuli) Leuatea Schmidt has apologised for a historical video in which he used the term “Heil Hitler”.

“I have been made aware of historical video footage reported in the media relating to a private family gathering in Savai’i in 2007,” La’auli said in a statement today.

“The footage shows me using the words ‘Heil Hitler’ and participating in a gesture associated with Nazi Germany in a private family gathering — not intended for the public.

• READ MORE: The PM’s ‘Heil Hitler’ moment — Samoa Observer
• Other Samoa media reports

“Whatever the context or intention at that gathering 20 years ago, I recognise that those words and gesture were inappropriate and capable of causing offence and hurt and I apologise for using them.”

The prime minister’s apology comes following a report by the Samoa Observer on Sunday.

The newspaper reported that in “previously unseen footage”, recorded when La’auli was the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, he uttered the words: “Raise your right hand, Heil Hitler!”

RNZ Pacific has independently verified the footage through its correspondent in Apia.

Crowd of 13
In the clip, Laauli leads a crowd of around 13 people visible in the footage in raising their right hands and saying, “Heil Hitler!”.

“I reject Nazism, antisemitism, racism and all forms of political extremism,” La’auli said in this statement.

“They do not reflect my personal beliefs, nor the values of the government or people of Samoa as in the public record of statements I made since becoming Prime Minister.”

He said Samoa was a constitutional democracy founded upon respect for human dignity, the rule of law, its traditional institutions and freedom of expression.

“My government remains committed to those principles.”

La’auli said he considered the matter as addressed.

“Our country faces important economic and social challenges. My responsibility as Prime Minister is to continue the work already laid out to strengthen our economy, creating opportunities for our people and serving all of Samoa.”

Meanwhile, the Samoa Observer is currently banned from all government press conferences. The news outlet is also banned from covering or taking taking photos of La’auli.

Fiji’s prime minister has called on global leaders coming to the country to see and listen to the people on the climate frontlines as the pre-COP31 meeting is gets underway today.

Sitiveni Rabuka addressed an interfaith church service yesterday ahead of the meeting this week.

He said climate finance must reach the communities that need it — “not someday, but now, and as an act of justice, not charity”.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji climate crisis reports

While Australia and the Pacific’s joint bid to host COP31, the United Nations annual climate summit — lost out to Türkiye — it was agreed the Pacific would host the pre-COP meeting.

A leaders’ event will also be held in Tuvalu.

The main COP gathering will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from November 9-20, with Australia serving as the president of negotiations.

The Fijian government said in a news release that regional leaders, ministers, diplomats, faith leaders, youth, civil society organisations, NGOs, community members and children gathered for the service yesterday.

It said the prayers and performances reflected the realities of Pacific people already living with the increasing impacts of climate change.

“The Pacific is waiting for a Jubilee. We carry a burden we did not create,” Rabuka said.

Palau wants apology
Meanwhile, Palau’s climate change coordinator is calling for an apology from major greenhouse gas emitters.

Xavier Matsutaro spoke to Pasifika TV ahead of the pre-COP meeting.

He said there had been a lot of talk on the mechanics and principles of it, but it was time for major emitters start the healing process by apologising for causing loss and damage to begin with.

“I think when harm is caused from human to human, from person to person, the appropriate thing to start with is an apology.

“Then when the resource, when the means to address it, comes, then it will be much more meaningful. And we have nott had that dialogue at all.”

New Zealand’s Green Party has pledged to make public transport free for eligible groups and cap bus and train fares at $2 for everyone else.

It says its transport plan offers fast, frequent and affordable services.

Under the Greens’ policy, public transport would be free for children, students, apprentices, Community Service Card holders and Total Mobility users, while everyone else would pay a maximum fare of $2.

• READ MORE: Other NZ elections reports
• Elections policies so far

It would also build mass rapid bus and light rail services in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, offer more frequent inter-regional bus services, strengthen rural bus services and allow councils to pedestrianise more inner-city areas and increase safe walking and biking spaces.

The party has also promised overnight passenger trains from Auckland to Wellington, as well as bringing back the Southerner between Christchurch and Dunedin and extending Te Huia to Tauranga.

“In the middle of a fossil fuel crisis, these common sense investments will save New Zealanders money, stress and time,” said co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

“It’ll cut emissions and improve quality of life.”

Million+ CRL trips
Swarbrick and transport spokesperson Julie-Anne Genter addressed media in Auckland on Sunday from outside Maungawhau City Rail Link station.

Swarbrick referred to the more than a million trips that have been taken on the CRL since it opened last month.

“What that tells us and shows us so clearly is that when we build transport infrastructure that makes it easy, affordable, and even fun to get around, people will use it.

“But right now, too many New Zealanders are driving around with the fuel light on, hoping and praying that petrol prices will drop,” she said.

Swarbrick said the government could not control oil shocks like that caused by the Middle East war — but it could make investments that reduce the cost of living and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

She described the party’s plan as “straight up common sense”.

Swarbrick said meaningful change could be made immediately, but some parts of the plan like light rail networks could take a decade or so.

Infrastructure Commission assurance
The major investments would go through the Infrastructure Commission’s assurance process, she said.

The entire plan would cost around $23.9 billion: $21 billion for mass rapid transit and rail investments, $1.3 billion for capped and free fares, $75 million for electric buses, $290 million for councils to expand walking and biking spaces, $824 million for public transport improvements and $406 million for inter-regional buses.

“What we are proposing today is to meet the needs not only of our immediate cost of living crisis, but also our medium and longer term needs to build infrastructure that is fit for purpose for the future. Yes, that will cost money,” Swarbrick said.

She cited the Greens’ wealth tax as a way of paying for some of it, but said the party’s full fiscal plan would be laid out in the next few weeks.

But Public Transport Users Association national co-ordinator Jon Reeves questioned the viability of the Greens’ plan.

He supported cheaper fares, but said the proposal sounded like wishful thinking.

“I’d like to see some of these things come true. On a $2 fare for everyone, it’s good, it may change the attitudes of some people into using public transport but how many is the question,” he said.

“The other area is who is going to fund it?

NZ ownership
“When we do give out free transport to someone, someone else has to pay for it. Does it come at the cost and the expense of running services?” he said.

Reeves said one way to reduce the cost of public transport would be to bring services back into New Zealand ownership to keep profits in the country.

“In New Zealand multinational corporations are pretty much the ones who operate all the services, whether it’s Auckland or Wellington trains or the bus services around the country. They’re all majority owned by overseas foreign companies,” he said.

“We need to bring it back to New Zealand and cut out the middleman, bring that money back and make it stay here so we can invest in more public transport and give cheaper fares to users.”

Fiji’s lawmakers have passed legislation allowing the rollout of a needle exchange programme aimed at containing the rapid rise of HIV from intravenous drug use.

The HIV/AIDS (Amendment) Bill 2026, which will introduce evidence-based harm reduction programmes, is being hailed as a “lifeline” for the country.

Fiji now joins Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea as the only Pacific nations with a formal needle and syringe programme.

• READ MORE: Fiji declares HIV emergency as 1 in 60 Fijian adults live with HIV
• Other Fiji HIV reports

Following the passing of the Bill by Parliament on Thursday, Fiji’s Health Ministry described it as a “monumental milestone” in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Fiji has one of the fastest-growing HIV rates in the world, with the government declaring an HIV emergency last month as one in 60 Fijian adults is now living with the virus.

“To be clear: this does not legalise illicit drugs,” the Ministry said in a Facebook post.

“It legalises compassion. It builds a protective bridge of healthcare to the most vulnerable among us.”

Grounded in human rights
The Health Ministry said the legislation was grounded in human rights, confidentiality, and freedom from discrimination.

“It allows our frontline health heroes, pharmacies, and peer outreach workers to distribute sterile equipment, condoms, PrEP, and life-saving counselling safely and without fear.”

Fijian Health Ministry Dr Atonio Lalabalavu said the Bill sets out what harm-reduction may permit.

“This includes the free distribution of skin-penetrating instruments, including needles and syringes, condoms and condom lubricants, Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and other means of HIV prevention,” he said.

“It may also provide facilities for the safe return and management of used items, targeted counselling, information in HIV/AIDS awareness and materials, and referrals to HIV treatment, rehabilitation, mental health and other health and social support services.”

The Bill also allows other measures to be approved by the health minister on the recommendation of the HIV/AIDS Board where those measures are necessary, Dr Atonio added.

An environmental group in American Samoa is taking legal action against the United States government over its plans for deep-sea mining near the territory.

Fa’asao Amerika Samoa and the Conservation Council for Hawai’i filed a lawsuit in August, challenging the US government’s assessment of the potential risks to marine life from the proposed mining.

The US is proposing to lease more than 12.5 million hectares of seabed around American Samoa, with the lease sale scheduled for November 19.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific deep-sea mining reports

According to the court complaint, the US has never before opened its waters to deep-sea mining.

The proposed leases would initially run for 20 years, with the possibility of an extension if mining moves into production.

Questions of threats to endangered species
Fa’asao Amerika Samoa spokesperson Seumalu Elora Raymond told RNZ Pacific Waves that the lawsuit is challenging a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which claims the proposed leasing activity was not likely to affect threatened or endangered marine species.

Seumalu said the group was concerned that the US had not done enough to assess the risks.

“Many of these endangered species are also, you know, really important sacred creatures for Samoan people, like whales and sea turtles and sharks,” she said.

“These are our creatures of legend and they’re all completely going to be affected by deep-sea mining, so our lawsuit says like you did not do a proper analysis of how the continuous release of heavy metal contaminated sludge into the ocean would affect all these creatures.”

“Go back and do that work again.”

The US government said the move is part of President Donald Trump’s push to boost production and access to critical minerals.

Resistance to mining lease proposal
The proposed lease area is in the eastern part of the American Samoa Outer Continental Shelf, about 167 km from the Manu’a islands and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument, known by its traditional name Muliāva.

The US government’s environmental assessment noted the issues raised by the American Samoa Government.

It said Governor Pulaali’i Nikolao Pula called for “continued dialogue” and requested that no activity proceed without territorial consent.

The assessment said there were more than 76,000 submissions during its initial public consultation.

Deep-sea mining issue resonates
Seumalu said deep-sea mining is an issue Samoans should be thinking about whether they live in the islands or overseas.

“When you look at the map of where they’re proposing to mine, it’s 31 million acres around Muliāva but if you look at it, it stretches all the way around all of our islands and it’s much bigger than the entire stretch from Manu’a to Falealupo (Savaii, Samoa).”

She said there have been ongoing protests against the proposal in American Samoa.

Temukisa Auina Penehuro Hauma, 71, has become the first woman to be appointed the Governor-General of one of the world’s smallest nations.

Tuvalu has had 10 substantive governors-general — all of them men — since gaining independence on 1 October 1978.

Hauma, who will be King Charles III’s representative for Tuvalu, took the oath of office and oath of allegiance in the capital Funafuti on the eve of the country’s 48th Independence Day yesterday.

• READ MORE: Other Tuvalu reports

“I look forward to leading the nation and empowering our people, especially the women of Tuvalu,” Hauma was quoted as saying in a Tuvalu Government Media statement.

Hauma is from Vaitupu and Nanumaga and brings more than three decades of experience in education, including 12 years as a headmistress, the statement read.

It said Hauma had served as president of the Tuvalu National Council of Women since 2016 and contributed to important national initiatives, including the review of the Constitution and work towards establishing a Tuvaluan dictionary.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo described Hauma’s inauguration as a “historic moment for Tuvalu”.

The new president of the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) wants to strengthen the region’s newsrooms.

Neville Choi, who is also president of Papua New Guinea’s Media Council, told RNZ Pacific that the PINA secretariat needed greater support, accountability and transparency.

Choi said strengthening the PINA secretariat was his initial focus as president.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific media reports

He also wants to see national media associations empowered.

“Because the national media associations should be the contact point for all the media in each of the countries,” he said.

“Those are the two main things: strengthening; in any way we can to strengthen and provide more accountability and transparency to the PINA Secretariat, and give them more help and assistance, and see what they need.”

He said the Pacific’s media organisations were facing rapid changes brought about by advancements in technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI).

AI widely discussed
The use of AI was a widely discussed topic at the PINA Media Summit in Fiji last week.

“Understanding how AI works, and effectively using those and incorporating those into our newsroom workflows, AI is just the start of it.

“We feel in PNG that AI is still a tool, and that we need also need to strengthen the human oversight over all of our newsroom processes, which is the core of what we do.”

Choi believes larger media organisations have a role to play in supporting smaller media outlets facing challenges.

He said while “media in the Pacific is now stronger than it [once] was, it can get stronger”.

“We can be more united. We have a lot of small island state media who are still doing it tough,” he said.

“They have a lot of challenges, and the bigger media organisations within the region can help them by empowering them, providing mentoring and training – that’s one of the main focuses also for PINA.”

Meanwhile, PNG’s Media Council and National Broadcasting Corporation have jointly agreed to host the next Pacific Media Summit in Port Moresby.

Pacific Islands leaders have used their addresses to the United Nations General Assembly to urge Indonesia to allow the UN human rights chief access to West Papua.

Pacific Islands Forum countries in 2019 requested that Indonesia allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Papua to assess claims of widespread rights abuses.

No visit has resulted, leading to frustration for various Pacific governments.

• READ MORE: ‘They just have to get out’ – civilians pay the price for West Papua conflict
• Other West Papua reports

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale made a passionate plea to Indonesia at the UN, urging it to allow the UN human rights chief to have access to West Papua.

“Solomon Islands respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia, and we value our friendship with its government and people,” Wale said at the UNGA.

“It is precisely because of that friendship that we speak with candour. Reports of human rights violations in West Papua have persisted for far too long. They must be independently verified, not left in dispute.”

Earlier this month, Solomon Islands and other countries in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) said that if the UN rights chief’s visit was not facilitated by Indonesia in order for a report on human rights issues in West Papua to be produced by their next summit in 2027, then Indonesia’s associate member status in the MSG would be reviewed.

“We therefore renew the call of Pacific Islands Forum Leaders for the government of Indonesia to facilitate, without further delay, the long awaited visit of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua.

“Such a visit is an act of confidence between friends, and an affirmation that there is nothing to fear from the light.”

Indonesian diversity
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine added her country’s voice to the push for action on West Papua.

“The Marshall Islands affirms the region’s Pacific Islands Forum communiqué position regarding West Papua, including the 2018 invitation by Indonesia to the UN Human Rights Commissioner,” Dr Heine said.

A response of sorts was given by Indonesia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Sugiono: “As a nation of more than 280 million people, Indonesia has learned that diversity is not something to overcome; it is something to manage, respect and turn into strength to democratic participation, dialogue, and respect for differences,” he said.

“We preserve our unity from Aceh to Papua, from Miangus to Roti. Indonesia is one people, Indonesia is one nation.”

Completing decolonisation
Meanwhile, Wale also called for the international community to complete the work of decolonisation in parts of the world including the Pacific.

“Solomon Islands reaffirms its longstanding support for the right to self-determination of the Kanak people of New Caledonia and the Maohi Nui people of French Polynesia,” he said.

Wale said the UN decolonisation process must offer more than hope.

“It must provide practical pathways to the full emancipation of peoples in Non-Self-Governing Territories, and to their freedom to determine their own political future and development aspirations.”

A young mother who gave birth to triplets in a remote part of Papua New Guinea was successfully evacuated, but all three of her babies died before help could reach them.

Manolos Aviation carried out this morning’s emergency medical evacuation from Onga-Waffa in Markham Distict, bringing the mother into Morobe Province’s capital, Lae, shortly after 10am before she was taken to hospital for further treatment.

The woman had given birth prematurely to triplets at about eight months into her pregnancy.

• READ MORE: Other PNG medical emergency reports

Despite the efforts of health workers at the local health facility, all three babies died within hours of each other. The clinic had limited resources and was unable to provide the level of specialised neonatal care required by the premature babies.

Manolos Aviation chief executive and pilot Captain Jurgen Ruh said the outcome could potentially have been different if the medivac team had received the emergency call earlier.

“None of the babies survived. One of the babies died last night and the other two died this morning at nine o’clock,” Captain Ruh said.

The tragedy again highlights the difficulties faced by mothers and newborn babies in remote parts of Papua New Guinea, where geographical isolation, poor transport links and limited medical resources can turn complications during childbirth into life-threatening emergencies.

Echoes earlier evacuation
For Manolos Aviation, the case also carries echoes of an earlier evacuation involving another mother of triplets.

In May 2017, the company evacuated 25-year-old Rose Andy and her newborn triplets — two boys and a girl — from the remote village of Sikami in Obura-Wonenara District, Eastern Highlands Province.

The mother was suffering serious complications following the birth and was bleeding when the call for assistance was made.

Captain Ruh and a medivac nurse flew into the remote community, stabilised the mother and babies and transported them to Angau General Hospital in Lae. All three babies survived, and after four weeks at Angau, the family was cleared to return home.

Manolos Aviation’s medical evacuation work has since expanded considerably, with its MAMA Medevac programme providing emergency air transport for patients from some of the country’s most isolated communities.

One of its most high-profile recent missions involved conjoined twins Tom and Sawong, who were born at Braun Memorial Hospital in Finschhafen in October 2025.

Within two days of their birth, Manolos Aviation evacuated the twins to Angau Memorial Hospital before they were eventually transferred to Australia for highly specialised medical treatment.

Doctors later carried out a complex separation operation in Sydney. Tom, who had severe medical complications, did not survive, but the operation saved Sawong.

Police are considering charges against Greenpeace protesters who occupied a state-owned ship in protest at seabed mining.

A group of activists boarded the Earth Sciences New Zealand owned-Tangaroa in Wellington Harbour on Saturday morning, Greenpeace said.

One of the activists was dressed as US president Donald Trump and flew an American flag from railings on the ship, while another held a banner saying “Don’t Mine the Moana”.

• READ MORE: Q&A: New Zealand complicity in US deep sea mining
• Other deep-sea mining reports

However by early afternoon police said they had removed five protesters from the ship, and were considering charges.

Spokesperson Juressa Lee said the RV Tangaroa had just returned from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific, between Hawai’i and Mexico, where it surveyed deep sea minerals for the company Glomar Minerals, which the environmental pressure group said could lead to a “minerals grab in the Pacific”.

Lee said they did not want a state-owned vessel being used for commercial exploration of the seafloor for a company intending to conduct sea-bed mining, and warned seabed mining could be used to feed into Project Vault, a US government plan to stockpile minerals for military purposes.

“These activists, and thousands of others, don’t want to see our environment destroyed for the purpose of war,” Lee said.

Deep-sea mining destructive
Greenpeace believes deep-sea mining is destructive to marine environments — stripping the seafloor and risking “irreversible damage” to the ocean, she said: “The New Zealand government seems to be aligning with Trump’s imperialist extractive agenda, instead of standing with our Pacific neighbours”.

Minister for Resources Shane Jones said Greenpeace was trying to scare people, and the boat could be used for mineral research. The protest was nothing more than a “parasitic stunt” to raise funds, he said.

“Tangaroa is run by an independent board and a government-owned agency obviously driven to generate revenue as a part of its scientific mandate, and from time-to-time I’ve no doubt the Tangaroa is used for both domestic and international purposes — no one should be surprised by that.”

Jones said the Tangaroa had highly-educated staff doing the work, and their livelihoods should not be “hijacked by Greenpeace”.

“I think Greenpeace are trying to scare and catastrophise and intimidate Kiwis, well Kiwis are about to vote, and they’re going to vote for resource development within guardrails.”

Earth Sciences told RNZ they provide independent scientific research to both national and international organisations, including “internationally recognised expertise in deep-ocean environments, marine ecology and marine geology”.

Questions about the Earth Sciences team’s work for this client should be directed to the company, they said.

Scientific surveys
“Our work includes scientific surveys that collect and analyse data to improve understanding of the deep-sea environment, including its biology and ecology,” Earth Sciences said.

“This research contributes to the scientific evidence needed to understand these environments and the potential impacts of activities within them. This enables stakeholders and regulatory agencies to base decisions on robust scientific evidence.”

RNZ has asked American seabed minerals company Glomar Minerals for comment.

Earlier, Glomar said a team from their subsidiary UK Seabed Resources (UKSR) left Tahiti on July 29 to head to the Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone to survey for polymetallic nodules in its licence area.

It was running the 65-day survey with Earth Sciences NZ, on the RV Tangaroa, which it said was “one of the most capable deep ocean research vessels in the world”.

“UKSR’s two International Seabed Authority CCZ licence areas cover approximately 133,000 sq km of deep seafloor, an area comparable in size to Louisiana, covered in polymetallic nodules containing manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, and rare earths in a single ore,” the company said.

The research was “moving the company closer to the integrated dataset needed for commercial recovery”.

The research findings would be shared, adding to Glomar’s record of transparency and contributions to marine science, Glomar chief executive Chris Williams said.

Earth Sciences was formed last year, when NIWA and GNS science merged.

More than 125,000 people are reported to have been displaced in West Papua as armed conflict escalates, but the real number is likely much higher.

A recent report from the Human Rights Monitor said military operations and armed violence have been particularly intense in the central highlands of Indonesian-ruled Papua region this year.

Indonesian security forces have been in an ongoing fight with small groups of guerilla fighters with the West Papua Liberation Army (TPNPB) in the mountainous interior of Papua.

• READ MORE: Wenda calls on ‘brave’ Pacific to raise West Papua at UNGA after six killed in new Indonesian massacre
• Papuan civilians shot in latest security forces violence in Yahukimo
• Other West Papua reports

A senior lecturer and researcher on South East Asian conflicts said it was the civilians caught in the middle who ended up suffering the most.

Caught in the middle
Hipolitus Wangge, an Indonesian who is currently a senior lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Political Science Department, said many indigenous displaced people (IDPs) flee their home villages, and are forced to live in the jungle with limited access to supplies.

He said “the cycle of violence in West Papua” has shown no signs of ending anytime soon and fears that even more people will be displaced.

“So both sides are busy claiming victories and asserting control over the area and its people, which just keeps the tension going,” Wangge said.

“Without any signs of talks or mediations, communications, building trust, people living in these conflict zones will continue to be caught in the middle.”

The Human Rights Monitor report documents dozens of armed clashes during the second quarter of this year directly impacting civilians: with drone attacks, shoot outs between forces, and villages burnt down.

Recent reports from Yahukimno regency show that civilians continue to be victims of shootings by security forces. Wangge said that those not killed or injured in the conflict often have to run away.

“You will find districts like Mimika, Nduga, Yahukimo, Puncak, Intan Jaya — those are the so-called hotspots of the conflict. They have been trying to live outside the kind of major battles.”

As the report explains, once these civilians have been displaced to makeshift forest camps, the lack of healthcare resources in particular results in even more deaths.

“Many of IDPs are still living in jungles. So they have to survive during these constrained situations living in the jungle with very limited basic supplies,” Wangge explained.

Victims on both sides
Wangge said people on both sides can feel trapped between Indonesian forces and the West Papuan freedom fighters struggling for independence.

He noted a particular risk for civilians following reports of Papuans who are suspected of being spies for the Indonesian security forces being tracked down and killed.

“They cannot just choose between one side or the other, because both sides also have some potential or capacity to target these civilians,” he explained.

“So they just have to get out and then try to find some safety because of the fear, because of constant trauma, because of the instability in highlands of West Papua.”

For the indigenous people, the consequences of the conflict are immediate: a home abandoned, a village emptied, a family separated, a community forced into the jungle in search of somewhere safe.

But Wangge notes the exact scale of displacement is impossible to establish as outside access to West Papua is heavily restricted.

The reported figures of more than 125,000 displaced people come from accounts by family members, churches or other stakeholders involved. Wangge believes there are many displaced people unaccounted for.

“It’s even higher than the actual number, the ones that have been reported in the media, but nobody knows in this situations because there is no access.”

Lack of access
For several years, Indonesia has rejected calls from the Pacific Islands region for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to send an independent fact-finding mission into Papua.

The 18 members of the Pacific Islands Forum have repeatedly urged Indonesia to grant access since 2019.

Similar calls have also come from the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), made up of Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia’s Kanak independence movement FLNKS.

But despite these numerous requests, this access for the UN rights commissioner has still not been given, and Wangge is not confident the visit will happen any time soon, despite claims by Jakarta that it is on track.

He said “Indonesia is adamant that the West Papua issue should be dealt with domestically, claiming its not up for regional debate”.

“So, it’s clear there is a need to finally address this long-standing conflict. But from my chats with some Indonesian diplomats, it looks like the UN visit is not going to be a priority.

“Instead, the Indonesian government will probably go for bilateral talks. Indonesia in this regard seems more interested in talking with Pacific countries or organisations than in real dialogue with Papuan political leaders and organisations.”

Hipolitus Wangge said he expects the situation to only worsen as the year progresses, with talks of more Indonesian military infrastructure to be built in the Highlands and southern parts of Papua.

As the Pacific Islands region reels from a series of recent maritime tragedies, a regional climatologist says it is imperative that boat operators take extra caution in a time of turbulent weather.

There have been dozens of fatalities from incidents at sea in recent months in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu among other Pacific countries.

Although an official or confirmed death toll is not yet known for Vanuatu’s MV Matui tragedy on September 11, it is likely that dozens of people died.

• READ MORE: Vanuatu ferry disaster: ‘It’s a miracle anyone survived,’ says rescuer

A common factor in this and other maritime tragedies in the Pacific over recent months has been rough seas and weather conditions, and coincides with a time when the El Niño phase is getting into full swing across the Pacific.

El Niño has caused extreme heat in parts of the world, extensive drought in the Western Pacific and disruptions to ocean currents through the tropical Pacific.

A senior climatologist with the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Philip Malsale, said El Niño had created a lot of movement of warm waters towards the Eastern Pacific, as a high pressure system moved up closer to the equator, with an active monsoon trough over the Western Pacific as well.

But he told RNZ Pacific that El Niño was not necessarily directly to blame for the rough seas and marine conditions in which various boats had got into trouble.

“Well there is some connection, but not directly. I think it is more related to the weather conditions — but also we need to take into account our season now,” Malsale said.

“We are in the winter season when we have the strong trade winds that are persistent at this time of the year.

“We have the high pressure system move up to the towards the equator, and we have dominant southeast trades (tradewinds), those kind of systems can also cause high pressure gradient over the countries, and it influences a lot of the weather synoptic situations across the countries like Tonga, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea.”

Regional met talks
Malsale, who is from Vanuatu, last week joined regional counterparts in Tonga for the 8th Pacific Meteorological Council Meeting.

A big point of discussion was how to strengthen weather and climate services and make warnings more effective, at a time when some boat operators choose to ignore them and go out to sea, endangering lives.

Malsale and other weather experts are underlining that taking these warnings seriously is absolutely critical for people going to sea.

“We have mandated organisations such as the national weather services in countries. So boat owners or shipowners, captains should reach out to the national met services, find out what the current situation is, before they can plan the trip over to the islands.”

Vanuatu’s government is considering linking marine weather warnings to permissions for which boats can operate under particular conditions.

“Just because the warning is too general, but we can link that up to certain boat size or ships capacity,” Malsale said.

“So you put a certain warning, on which category of ship that is referred to in terms of not sailing or not carrying passengers to other islands.

Climate extremes
Discussions at the Met Council summit also focused on the ongoing wider challenges of climate change and the more extreme conditions it brings.

“There was agreement among all the Met Services to put this as a priority as well on the latest science to help the COP negotiators from the Pacific,” Malsale said.

“This is one area of services that that the national Met services want for our donors to continue to provide funding for.”

Weather experts have warned that the El Niño phenomenon developing in the Pacific Ocean is already the strongest ever recorded.

Malsale said the peak is still to come later this year and into 2027.

“That’s the forecast like to peak between probably November and January 2027. But these are only the indicators that we’re monitoring, but the impact can peak later on during the year.

However, he added that with cyclone season just around the corner, there could be even more impactful weather in store for the Pacific.

Fiji’s prime minister is not giving any hints about when exactly the country will head to the polls.

The island nation is expected to hold its fourth general election under the 2013 Constitution by 6 February 2027 at the latest.

Under Fiji’s current electoral system, the entire country forms a single national constituency, with more than 723,000 registered voters on the electoral roll as of June 30, according to the Fijian Elections Office.

• READ MORE:  Sweeping changes to Fiji’s governance recommended by Constitution Commission
• Other Fiji elections reports

However, a major constitutional review report released publicly on Tuesday has recommended sweeping changes to Fiji’s governance.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s government has indicated that a potential change to the country’s supreme law is on the cards by Christmas Eve.

In an interview with RNZ Pacific in Savusavu, northern Fiji, Rabuka said he did not yet have an election date.

“No, we have not set a date for the elections,” he said.

Parallel parliamentary work
Rabuka said that once the government settled on a “definitive date”, he would advise the president, who would then issue a writ for the election.

The prime minister said that an election date would need to be considered alongside the parallel parliamentary work being undertaken to amend the constitution.

“[The election date] will have to be worked out considering all the work that is now going to be taken through Parliament … the processing of the amendment of the [2013] Constitution and the preparation time required by our elections officials.”

Rabuka also confirmed that Fiji was due to conduct its national census next year.

“Without the figures from the census, which is due next year, we will have to have an intelligent projection of the census figures from 10 years ago and see if we can work out a map on constituencies etc, if they are going to be incorporated into the determining features of our elections.”

However, he has also told local media that the February 6 deadline remained unchanged.

“There have been suggestions [to extend the deadline for the elections], but it is outside the law as I see it now,” he said in response to a question from fijivillage.com.

Fiji’s Constitution Review Commission wants a new governance system for the country and the coup immunity provisions of the 2013 Constitution repealed.

Its also recommending giving the Great Council of Chiefs constitutional recognition, scrapping the current electoral system, replacing the current parliamentary system, and pushing the military to focus on external defence.

These are among the recommendations contained in a review report which was tabled in the Fiji Parliament and made public on Tuesday.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji constitution reports

The Constitution Review Commission’s 236-page report, which includes a new draft constitution, was endorsed by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s cabinet last week.

The report rolls back many of the defining features of the Fiji’s 2013 Constitution.

Since gaining independence from Britain on 10 October 1970, Fiji has had four constitutions.

Hinted at Christmas Eve
The cabinet maintains that tabling the commission’s report in Parliament does not mean government had accepted or adopted all of its mission’s recommendations.

However, the Fiji government has already hinted the country could have a new constitution in place by Christmas Eve.

The Constitution Review Commission was set up in March and, after conducting nationwide consultations on Fiji’s 2013 Constitution, it delivered its report to the president on August 30.

Among the most notable features in the report, the commission is recommending the removal of broad immunity protecting people involved in past coups.

The report also sets out the commission’s recommendation of a new constitution and sweeping changes designed to overhaul Fiji’s governance.

Different political system
It has recommended replacing the country’s current single-chamber 55-seat Parliament with a two-house legislature.

The proposal would see the creation of a 60-member bicameral legislature made up of a 41-member House of Representatives and a 19-member Senate.

The commission recommends a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system.

This would be a hybrid model featuring constituency-based, or first-past-the-post, along with proportional party-list seats, enabling both local accountability and national proportionality.

The commission also recommends establishing an independent Constituency Boundaries Commission and abolishing the single national constituency.