Niue’s assembly has re-elected Dalton Tagelagi as its prime minister, continuing his leadership for the next three years.

Tagelagi, 57, has led Niue since 2020 and was nominated alongside Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui during the leadership vote.

The 19th Niue Assembly was officially sworn in on Wednesday local time.

• READ MORE: Other Niue reports

Billy Talagi was sworn in as the new Speaker of Parliament.

Pacific Media News reported Tagelagi won a narrow 11-9 leadership vote, and the result confirms continuity in leadership but exposes a deeply divided Parliament with MPs split almost evenly between the two leadership nominees.

Niue’s 20-member Assembly is elected every three years, made up of 14 village representatives and six common roll MPs elected across the country.

Addressing parliament after his re-election, Tagelagi called for unity in the new term.

‘Challenging times’
“These are challenging times when we go into elections because we have different perspectives and understanding that sometimes this might divide our families and affect our relationships with one another,” he said.

“I ask you to come together in this Assembly, that we make decisions for the good of the people. I humbly ask you all to work together as we move forward with the 19th Legislative Assembly and government.”

PMN’s Inangaro Vaka’afi told RNZ Pacific Waves Tagelagi had been adamant he wanted another term.

“And also try and complete some of the work that they have already started,” she said.

She said there is a mixture of reaction to how Tagelagi had led the country so far.

“I think it’s not necessarily individual MPs, but you remember that they are representing their village constituency or a common role seat.

“So perhaps there has been some sentiment on the ground in terms of situation on the island, or where the economy is at the moment, also just knowing what’s happening, because some of the work that’s been done doesn’t necessarily get filtered down to grassroots.

‘Finest of margins’
“But I know that there are people on island who are quite satisfied and happy with the direction that they’ve been going, and then there are others who are not, especially when you think about — he represents a village constituency for Alofi South, which is the largest voting population on the island, and he managed to secure his seat by the finest of margins, by one vote.

“And if one were to sit back and just analyse that there’s obviously, I guess, requests or some want from within his constituency to pay a bit more attention to the village. And understandably, because you are the leader of the country, you do have to put the interest of a whole nation in front of mind.

“But don’t forget that you also were placed in that position by your village constituency.”

The new 19th Legislative Assembly also saw a record seven women elected, making up 35 percent of the House — the highest in the nation’s history.

The six common roll seats went to Robert BJ Rex, Moira Enetama, Richmond Lisimoni-Togahai, Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui, Sonya Talagi and Kahealani Hekau, alongside village representatives, several of whom were elected unopposed.

Robert BJ Rex, who topped the common roll vote with 560 ballots, told BCN he was honoured by the outcome.

“My life is based in community. Not only my community, but just my presence around any group or any community, I have tried to be there and get involved and support in any way I can.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

At this year’s May graduation ceremony, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University’s Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban, was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition for her contribution to education.

Although she has now stepped down from the role, Luamanuvao served as the university’s Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Pasifika, for 14 years. In that time has worked tirelessly to raise Pasifika students’ achievement.

“It’s really important that they [Pasifika students] make the most of the opportunities that education has to offer,” she said.

• READ MORE: Other Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban reports

“Secondly, education teaches you how to write, to research, to critique, but more importantly, become an informed voice and considering what’s happening in society now with AI and also technology and social media, it’s really important that we can tell our stories and share our values, and we counter that by receiving a good education and applying ourselves to do well.”

When asked about the importance of service, Luamanuvao explained “there’s a saying in Samoan, ‘o le ala i le pule o le tautua’ so the road to authority and leadership is through service”.

“And we’ve always been taught how important it is not to indulge in our own individual success, but to always become a voice and support our brothers and sisters, and our families and in our communities who are especially struggling.”

As she accepted her honorary doctorate, she spoke about the importance of women taking on leadership roles.

‘Our powerful women’
“Yes, many Pacific people will know how powerful our women are, especially our mothers, our grandmothers, and great grandmothers. We actually come from cultures of very powerful and very strong women . . .  it’s not centered in the individual women. It’s centered on the well-being of our families, and our communities. And that’s what women leadership is all about in the Pacific.”

She did not expect the honourary doctorate from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University because “I’ve always been aspirational for others. And we Pacific people have been brought up that we are the people of the ‘we’ and not the me.”

The number of Pasifika students enrolled at the University, during Luamanuvao’s time as Assistant Vice-Chancellor, increased from 4.70 percent in 2010 to 6.64 pecent in 2024. She said she “would have loved to have doubled that number” so that it was more in line with the number of Pasifika people living in New Zealand.

Two of the initiatives she started, during her time at the University, was the Pasifika Roadshow taking information about university life out to the wider community and the Improving Pasifika Legal Education Project.

Helping Pasifika Law students succeed was very important to her. While Pasifika make up make up only 3 percent of Lawyers, they are overrepresented in the legal system, comprising 12 percent of the prison population.

Another passion of hers was encouraging Pasifika to enter academia. “I think we’ve had an increase in Pacific academics in some areas. For example, with the Faculty of Law, we’ve got two senior Pacific women in lecturer positions . . . We’ve also got four associate professors, and now I’ve finished, there’s also a vacancy for another.”

Prior to her work in education Luamanuvao was the first Pasifika woman to enter New Zealand politics, in 1999.

First Pacific woman MP
“I was fortunate that when I ran for Parliament, I ran first as a list MP, and as you know, within the parties, they have selection process that are quite robust, and so I became the first Pacific woman MP.”

“What motivated me was the car parts factory that closed in Wainuiomata, and most of the workers were men, but they were also Pacific, Māori and palagi, who basically arrived at work one morning and were told the factory was closing.”

“But what really hit me, and hurt me, that these were not the values of Aotearoa. They’re not the values of our Pacific region. These are human beings, and for many men, particularly, to have a job, it’s about providing for your family. It’s about status.

“So, if factories were going to close down, where was the planning to upskill them so they could continue in employment? None of them wanted to go for the unemployment benefit.

“They wanted to continue in paid work. So it’s those milestones that I make it worthwhile. It’s just a pity, because election cycles are three years, and as you know, people will vote how they want to vote, and if there’s a change, all the hard work you’ve put in gets reversed and but fundamentally, I believe that New Zealand and Pacific people have wonderful values that all of us try to live by, and that will continue to feed the light and ensure that people have a choice.”

Although she first entered Parliament as a list MP, she subsequently won the Mana electorate seat. She retained the seat ,for the Labour party, from 2002 until she stepped away from politics in 2010.

During that time she was Minister of Pacific Peoples, 2007-2008, and even though Labour was defeated in the 2008 election, she continued to hold the Mana seat by a comfortable margin.

Mentoring many MPs
Although she has left political life, Luamanuvao has also been involved in mentoring many Pasifika Members of Parliament, and helping them cope with the challenges and opportunities that go with the role.

One of the primary motivators in her life has been the struggles of her parents, who left Samoa in 1954 to build a better future for their children, in New Zealand. She acknowledged that all of her successes can be attributed to her parents and the sacrifices they made.

“Yes, well, I think everybody can look at a genealogy of history of families leaving their homeland to come to Aotearoa, why, to build a better life and opportunities, including education for their children.

“And I often remind our generation of young people now that your parents left their home, for you. And I’ve often reflected because my parents have passed away on the pain of leaving their parents, but there was always this loving generosity in that both my parents were the eldest of huge families.

“They left everything for them, and actually arrived in New Zealand with very little. But there was this determination to succeed.

“Secondly, they are a minority in a country where they’re not the majority, or they are the indigenous people of their country. So also, overcoming those barriers, their hard work, their dreams, but more importantly, the huge love for our communities and fairness and justice was installed in Ken and I my brother, from a very young age, about serving and about giving and about reciprocity.”

Although she has left her role in tertiary education Luamanuvao vows to continue working to support the next generation of Pasifika leaders, in New Zealand and around the Pacific region.

Her lifelong commitment to service, continues as she’s a founding member of The Fale Malae Trust, a group whose vision is to build an internationally significant, landmark Fale Malae on the Wellington waterfront.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has survived a vote of no confidence after weeks of political turmoil.

In a vote today, she defeated the motion by 34 votes in favour and 15 against.

The motion was prompted by a split in the ruling FAST Party, which saw Fiame leading a minority government.

• READ MORE: Other Samoan crisis reports

But in a shock move today, FAST members voted alongside Fiame’s faction to register a resounding defeat against Opposition Leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi’s motion.

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Papalii Lio Masipua, had granted the opposition’s formal request for a vote of no confidence against Fiame on Friday.

Tuilaepa, who is also the head of the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), confirmed that the Speaker approved the motion in writing and allowed five members from the opposition bench to speak on it.

According to Samoa’s constitutional requirements, the MP who commands the majority of MPs should be elected as Prime Minister or continue as Prime Minister.

‘Another desperate attempt’
However, the Samoan government stated Tuilaepa’s move was “another desperate attempt to stir political drama” ahead of the no-confidence vote.

Political upheaval hit Samoa just three days into 2025 when the chair of the ruling FAST party and Samoa’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries La’auli Leuatea Schmidt confirmed he was facing criminal charges.

On January 10, Mata’afa removed La’auli’s ministerial portfolio and subsequently removed three of her Cabinet ministers.

But La’auli remained chair of the FAST Party, and went on to announce the removal of the prime minister and five Cabinet ministers from the ruling party.

This decision was reportedly challenged by the removed members.

Fiame then removed 13 of her associate ministers.

Laauli acknowledged the challenge of holding a vote of no confidence, but refrained from disclosing the party’s position, stating they would wait until Tuesday.

First female prime minister
Fiame is Samoa’s first female prime minister. She had heritage — her father, Fiame Mata’afa Faumuina Mulinu’u, was the country’s first prime minister.

She took office following the April 2021 election, but that devolved into political crisis.

The caretaker HRPP government locked the doors to Parliament in an attempt to stop the then prime minister-elect from being sworn into office following her FAST Party’s one-seat election win.

Two governments claimed a mandate to rule, and the United Nations urged the party leaders to find a solution through discussion.

The Court of Appeal ruled that the country had a new government after it judged the impromptu swearing-in by the newcomer FAST party on May 24 was legitimate under the doctrine of necessity.

It took until July for the incumbent, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, to concede.

Fiame went to school and university in Wellington, New Zealand, but her studies were interrupted in 1977 when she returned to Samoa to help with court cases around the succession of her father’s titles following his death in 1975.

In 1985, she was elected as MP for Lotofaga, the same seat held by her father and then her mother after his death.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark maintains that Cook Islands, a realm of New Zealand, should have consulted Wellington before signing a “partnership” deal with China.

“[Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown] seems to have signed behind the backs of his own people as well as of New Zealand,” Clark told RNZ Pacific.

Brown said the deal with China complements, not replaces, the relationship with New Zealand.

• READ MORE: China deal ‘complements, not replaces’ NZ relationship, says Cook Islands PM
• Other China in Pacific reports
• The Joint Centenary Declaration of 2001

The contents of the deal have not yet been made public.

“The Cook Islands public need to see the agreement — does it open the way to Chinese entry to deep sea mining in pristine Cook Islands waters with huge potential for environmental damage?” Clark asked.

“Does it open the way to unsustainable borrowing? What are the governance safeguards? Why has the prime minister damaged the relationship with New Zealand by acting in this clandestine way?”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Clark went into detail about the declaration she signed with Cook Islands Prime Minister Terepai Maoate in 2001.

“There is no doubt in my mind that under the terms of the Joint Centenary Declaration of 2001 that Cook Islands should have been upfront with New Zealand on the agreement it was considering signing with China,” Clark said.

“Cook Islands has opted in the past for a status which is not independent of New Zealand, as signified by its people carrying New Zealand passports. Cook Islands is free to change that status, but has not.”

Missing the mark
A Pacific law expert said there was a clear misunderstanding on what the 2001 agreement legally required New Zealand and Cook Islands to consult on.

Brown has argued that New Zealand does not need to be consulted with to the level they want, something Foreign Minister Winston Peters disagrees with.

AUT senior law lecturer and former Pacific Islands Forum policy advisor Sione Tekiteki told RNZ Pacific the word “consultation” had become somewhat of a sticking point:

“From a legal perspective, there’s an ambiguity of what the word consultation means. Does it mean you have to share the agreement before it’s signed, or does it mean that you broadly just consult with New Zealand regarding what are some of the things that, broadly speaking, are some of the things that are in the agreement?

“That’s one avenue where there’s a bit of misunderstanding and an interpretation issue that’s different between Cook Islands as well as New Zealand.”

Unlike a treaty, the 2001 declaration is not “legally binding” per se but serves more to express the intentions, principles and commitments of the parties to work together in “recognition of the close traditional, cultural and social ties that have existed between the two countries for many hundreds of years”, he added.

Tekiteki said that the declaration made it explicitly clear that Cook Islands had full conduct of its foreign affairs, capacity to enter treaties and international agreements in its own right and full competence of its defence and security.

There was, however, a commitment of the parties to “consult regularly”, he said.

For Clark, the one who signed the all-important agreement all those years ago, this is where Brown had misstepped.

Pacific nations played off against each other
Tekiteki said it was not just the Joint Centenary Declaration causing contention. The “China threat” narrative and the “intensifying geopolitics” playing out in the Pacific was another intergrated issue.

An analysis in mid-2024 found that there were more than 60 security, defence and policing agreements and initiatives with the 10 largest Pacific countries.

Australia was the dominant partner, followed by New Zealand, the US and China.

A host of other agreements and “big money” announcements have followed, including the regional Pacific Policing Initiative and Australia’s arrangements with Nauru and PNG.

“It would be advantageous if Pacific nations were able to engage on security related matters as a bloc rather than at the bilateral level,” Tekiteki said.

“Not only will this give them greater political agency and leverage, but it would allow them to better coordinate and integrate support as well as avoid duplications. Entering these arrangements at the bilateral level opens Pacific nations to being played off against each other.

“This is the most worrying aspect of what I am currently seeing.

“This matter has greater implications for Cook Islands and New Zealand diplomatic relations moving forward.”

Protecting Pacific sovereignty
The word sovereignty is thrown around a lot. In this instance Tekiteki does not think “there is any dispute that Cook Islands maintains sovereignty to enter international arrangements and to conduct its affairs as it determines”.

But he did point out the difference between “sovereignty — the rhetoric” that we hear all the time, and “real sovereignty”.

“For example, sovereignty is commonly used as a rebuttal to other countries to mind their own business and not to meddle in the affairs of another country.

“At the regional level is tied to the projection of collective Pacific agency, and the ‘Blue Pacific’ narrative.

“However, real sovereignty is more nuanced. In the context of New Zealand and Cook Islands, both countries retain their sovereignty, but they have both made commitments to “consult” and “cooperate”.

Now, they can always decide to break that, but that in itself would have implications on their respective sovereignty moving forward.

“In an era of intensifying geopolitics, militarisation, and power posturing — this becomes very concerning for vulnerable but large Ocean Pacific nations without the defence capabilities to protect their sovereignty.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The Pacific year started with a ferocious eruption and global tsunami in Tonga, but by the year’s end several political upheavals had also shaken the region with a vengeance.

A razor’s edge election in Fiji blew away a long entrenched authoritarian regime with a breath of fresh air for the Pacific, two bitterly fought polls in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu left their mark, and growing geopolitical rivalry with the US and Australia contesting China’s security encroachment in the Solomon Islands continues to spark convulsions for years to come.

It was ironical that the two major political players in Fiji were both former coup leaders and ex-military chiefs — the 1987 double culprit Sitiveni Rabuka, a retired major-general who is credited with introducing the “coup culture” to Fiji, and Voreqe Bainimarama, a former rear admiral who staged the “coup to end all coups” in 2006.

• READ MORE: Fiji general election of 2022: Slow march out of authoritarianism — Sanjay Ramesh
• Other 2022 “the year that was” reports

It had been clear for some time that the 68-year-old Bainimarama’s star was waning in spite of repressive and punitive measures that had been gradually tightened to shore up control since an unconvincing return to democracy in 2014.

And pundits had been predicting that the 74-year-old Rabuka, a former prime minister in the 1990s, and his People’s Alliance-led coalition would win. However, after a week-long stand-off and uncertainty, Rabuka’s three-party coalition emerged victorious and Rabuka was elected PM by a single vote majority.

In Samoa the previous year, the change had been possibly even more dramatic when a former deputy prime minister in the ruling Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, led her newly formed Fa’atuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party to power to become the country’s first woman prime minister.

Overcoming a hung Parliament, Mata’afa ousted the incumbent Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, who had been prime minister for 23 years and his party had been in power for four decades. But he refused to leave office, creating a constitutional crisis.

At one stage this desperate and humiliating cling to power by the incumbent looked set to be repeated in Fiji.

Yet this remarkable changing of the guard in Fiji got little press in New Zealand newspapers. The New Zealand Herald, for example, buried what could could have been an ominous news agency report on the military callout in Fiji in the middle-of the-paper world news section.

Fiji
Although Bainimarama at first refused to concede defeat after being in power for 16 years, half of them as a military dictator, the kingmaker opposition party Sodelpa sided — twice — with the People’s Alliance (21 seats) and National Federation Party (5 seats) coalition.

Sodelpa’s critical three seats gave the 29-seat coalition a slender cushion over the 26 seats of Bainimarama’s FijiFirst party which had failed to win a majority for the first time since 2014 in the expanded 55-seat Parliament.

But in the secret ballot, one reneged giving Rabuka a razor’s edge single vote majority.

The ousted Attorney-General and Justice Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum – popularly branded as the “Minister of Everything” with portfolios and extraordinary power in the hands of one man – is arguably the most hated person in Fiji.

Sayed-Khaiyum’s cynical “divisive” misrepresentation of Rabuka and the alliance in his last desperate attempt to cling to power led to a complaint being filed with Fiji police, accusing him of “inciting communal antagonism”.

He reportedly left Fiji for Australia on Boxing Day and the police issued a border alert for him while the Home Affairs Minister, Pio Tikoduadua, asked Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho, a former military brigadier-general to resign over allegations of bias and lack of confidence. He refused so the new government will have to use the formal legal steps to remove him.

Just days earlier, Fiji lawyer Imrana Jalal, a human rights activist and a former Human Rights Commission member, had warned the people of Fiji in a social media post not to be tempted into “victimisation or targeted prosecutions” without genuine evidence as a result of independent investigations.

“If we do otherwise, then we are no better than the corrupt regime [that has been] in power for the last 16 years,” she added.

“We need to start off the right way or we are tainted from the beginning.”

However, the change of government unleashed demonstrations of support for the new leadership and fuelled hope for more people-responsive policies, democracy and transparency.

Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, academic Dr Sanjay Ramesh commented in an incisive analysis of Fiji politics: “With … Rabuka back at the helm, there is hope that the indigenous iTaukei population’s concerns on land and resources, including rampant poverty and unemployment, in their community will be finally addressed.”

He was also critical of the failure of the Mission Observer Group (MoG) under the co-chair of Australia to “see fundamental problems” with the electoral system and process which came close to derailing the alliance success.

“While the MoG was enjoying Fijian hospitality, opposition candidates were being threatened, intimidated, and harassed by FFP [FijiFirst Party] thugs. The counting of the votes was marred by a ‘glitch’ on 14 December 2022 . . . leaving many opposition parties questioning the integrity of the vote counting process.”

Rabuka promised a “better and united Fiji” in his inaugural address to the nation via government social media platforms.

“Our country is experiencing a great and joyful awakening,” he said. “It gladdens my heart to be a part of it. And I am reminded of the heavy responsibilities I now bear.”

The coalition wasted no time in embarking on its initial 100-day programme and signalled the fresh new ‘open” approach by announcing that Professor Pal Ahluwalia, the Samoa-based vice-chancellor of the regional University of the South Pacific — deported unjustifiably by the Bainimarama government — and the widow of banned late leading Fiji academic Dr Brij Lal were both free to return.

Paul Barker, director of the Institute of National Affairs, discussing why the 2022 PNG elections were so bad. Video: ABC News

Papua New Guinea
Earlier in the year, in August, Prime Minister James Marape was reelected as the country’s leader after what has been branded by many critics as the “worst ever” general election — it was marred by greater than ever violence, corruption and fraud.

As the incumbent, Marape gained the vote of 97 MPs — mostly from his ruling Pangu Pati that achieved the second-best election result ever of a PNG political party — in the expanded 118-seat Parliament. With an emasculated opposition, nobody voted against him and his predecessor, Peter O’Neill, walked out of the assembly in disgust

Papua New Guinea has a remarkable number of parties elected to Parliament — 23, not the most the assembly has had — and 17 of them backed Pangu’s Marape to continue as prime minister. Only two women were elected, including Governor Rufina Peter of Central Province.

In an analysis after the dust had settled from the election, a team of commentators at the Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre concluded that the “electoral role was clearly out of date, there were bouts of violence, ballot boxes were stolen, and more than one key deadline was missed”.

However, while acknowledging the shortcomings, the analysts said that the actual results should not be “neglected”. Stressing how the PNG electoral system favours incumbents — the last four prime ministers have been reelected — they argued for change to the “incumbency bias”.

“If you can’t remove a PM through the electoral system, MPs will try all the harder to do so through a mid-term vote of no confidence,” they wrote.

“How to change this isn’t clear (Marape in his inaugural speech mooted a change to a presidential system), but something needs to be done — as it does about the meagre political representation of women.”

Vanuatu
In Vanuatu in November, a surprise snap election ended the Vanua’aku Pati’s Bob Loughman prime ministership. Parliament was dissolved on the eve of a no-confidence vote called by opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu.

With no clear majority from any of the contesting parties, Loughman’s former deputy, lawyer and an ex-Attorney-General, Ishmael Kalsakau, leader of the Union of Moderate Parties, emerged as the compromise leader and was elected unopposed by the 52-seat Parliament.

A feature was the voting for Gloria Julia King, the first woman MP to be elected to Vanuatu’s Parliament in a decade. She received a “rapturous applause” when she stepped up to take the first oath of office.

RNZ Pacific staff journalist Lydia Lewis and Port Vila correspondent Hilaire Bule highlighted the huge challenges faced by polling officials and support staff in remote parts of Vanuatu, including the exploits of soldier Samuel Bani who “risked his life” wading through chest-high water carrying ballot boxes.

Tongan volcano-tsunami disaster
Tonga’s violent Hunga Ha’apai-Hunga Tonga volcano eruption on January 15 was the largest recorded globally since the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It triggered tsunami waves of up to 15m, blanketed ash over 5 sq km — killing at least six people and injuring 19 — and sparked a massive multinational aid relief programme.

The crisis was complicated because much of the communication with island residents was crippled for a long time.

As Dale Dominey-Howes stressed in The Conversation, “in our modern, highly-connected world, more than 95 percent of global data transfer occurs along fibre-optic cables that criss-cross through the world’s oceans.

“Breakage or interruption to this critical infrastructure can have catastrophic local, regional and even global consequences.”

“This is exactly what has happened in Tonga following the volcano-tsunami disaster. But this isn’t the first time a natural disaster has cut off critical submarine cables, and it won’t be the last.”

Covid-19 in Pacific
While the impact of the global covid-19 pandemic receded in the Pacific during the year, new research from the University of the South Pacific provided insight into the impact on women working from home. While some women found the challenge enjoyable, others “felt isolated, had overwhelming mental challenges and some experienced domestic violence”.

Rosalie Fatiaki, chair of USP’s staff union women’s wing, commented on the 14-nation research findings.

“Women with young children had a lot to juggle, and those who rely on the internet for work had particular frustrations — some had to wait until after midnight to get a strong enough signal,” she said.

Around 30 percent of respondents reported having developed covid-19 during the Work From Home periods, and 57 percent had lost a family member or close friend to covid-19 as well as co-morbidities.

She also noted the impact of the “shadow pandemic” of domestic abuse. Only two USP’s 14 campuses in 12 Pacific countries avoided any covid-19 closures between 2020 and 2022.

COP27 climate progress
The results for the Pacific at the COP27 climate action deliberations at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh were disappointing to say the least.

For more than three decades since Vanuatu had suggested the idea, developing nations have fought to establish an international fund to pay for the “loss and damage” they suffer as a result of climate change. Thanks partly to Pacific persistence, a breakthrough finally came — after the conference was abruptly extended by a day to thrash things out.

However, although this was clearly a historic moment, much of the critical details have yet to be finalised.

Professor Steven Ratuva, director of Canterbury University’s Macmillan Brown Pacific Studies Centre, says the increased frequency of natural disasters and land erosion, and rising ocean temperatures, means referring to “climate change” is outdated. It should be called “climate crisis”.

“Of course climate changes, it’s naturally induced seen through weather, but the situation now shows it’s not just changing, but we’re reaching a level of a crisis — the increasing number of category five cyclones, the droughts, the erosion, heating of the ocean, the coral reefs dying in the Pacific, and the impact on people’s lives,” he said.

“All these things are happening at a very fast pace.”

Geopolitical rivalry and West Papua
The year saw intensifying rivalry between China and the US over the Pacific with ongoing regional fears about perceived ambitions of a possible Chinese base in the Solomon Islands — denied by Honiara — but the competition has fuelled a stronger interest from Washington in the Pacific.

The Biden administration released its Indo-Pacific Strategy in February, which broadly outlines policy priorities based on a “free and open” Pacific region. It cites China, covid-19 and climate change — “crisis”, rather — as core challenges for Washington.

Infrastructure is expected to be a key area of rivalry in future. Contrasting strongly with China, US policy is likely to support “soft areas” in the Pacific, such as women’s empowerment, anti-corruption, promotion of media freedom, civil society engagement and development.

The political and media scaremongering about China has prompted independent analysts such as the Development Policy Centre’s Terence Wood and Transform Aqorau to call for a “rethink” about Solomon Islands and Pacific security. Aqorau said Honiara’s leaked security agreement with China had “exacerbated existing unease” about China”.

The Pacific Catalyst founding director also noted that the “increasing engagement” with China had been defended by Honiara as an attempt by the government to diversify its engagement on security, adding that “ it is unlikely that China will build a naval base in Solomon Islands”.

However, the elephant in the room in geopolitical terms is really Indonesia and its brutal intransigency over its colonised Melanesian provinces — now expanded from two to three in a blatant militarist divide and rule ploy — and its refusal to constructively engage with Papuans or the Pacific over self-determination.

“2022 was a difficult year for West Papua. We lost great fighters and leaders like Filep Karma, Jonah Wenda, and Jacob Prai. Sixty-one years since the fraudulent Act of No Choice, our people continue to suffer under Indonesian’s colonial occupation,” reflected exiled West Papuan leader Benny Wenda in a Christmas message.

“Indonesia continues to kill West Papuans with impunity, as shown by the recent acquittal of the only suspect tried for the “Bloody Paniai’” massacre of 2014.

“Every corner of our country is now scarred by Indonesian militarisation . . . We continue to demand that Indonesia withdraw their military from West Papua in order to allow civilians to peacefully return to their homes.”

In a watershed moment, Pacific Islands Forum leaders have agreed on terms to prevent Micronesian countries from breaking up the leading regional body.

The row, which came to a head in February last year, centred around the selection of a candidate for the top job at the Forum, with Micronesia feeling snubbed when its candidate Gerald Zackios was overlooked for the former Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna.

The high level political dialogue was held in-person in the Fiji capital Suva yesterday.

• READ MORE: Pacific leaders talk Micronesia, China and regional stability, security
• Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

It was hosted by Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, the current chair of the Forum and attended by the leaders of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa and the Cook Islands.

To outsiders looking in, the Forum row over an executive position might have looked a bit silly.

But it was about more than just a job title.

As the president of Palau Surangel Whipps Jr explains it, it was a feeling on the Micronesians part of being excluded from the day to day business of the Forum and by extension the region as a whole.

‘Let us look long term’
“Micronesia said the SG (Secretary-General) is supposed to be Micronesian. But what is more important is, let us look long term.”

And it is that long term vision that clinched the deal for the Micronesians in Suva.

They came in wanting Puna out and were offered to have the rotation of the top job by sub-region put into writing and become a permanent fixture of the Forum going forward.

“By the Forum agreeing that now we are going to put it in writing. It is going to be rotational we are going to be more inclusive at the head office, have deputies that represent the region, and sub-regional offices and the other the oceans commissioner all those add to being inclusive.”

Samoa’s Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa is new at the helm and was not part of the events that led up to the rift. But she said she was pleased to be part of the solution.

“We need to go through the process of all the members signing up, but those of us who are here, six of us, I think are representative of the three sub-regions and hopefully we will be able to implement what has been proposed and agreed to,” she said.

Clock still ticking
This is a crucial detail. The clock is still ticking towards when the formal withdrawal processes initiated by the five disgruntled Micronesian states last year becomes official. RNZ Pacific understands the first of them matures at the end of this month.

That being said, it is still a huge break through and one Federated States of Micronesia President David Panuelo said he was grateful for.

“Because just a few days a go it could have been that we will walk away and break up the entire Pacific Family but the common ground that we have reached has kept us together,” he said.

Both Panuelo and Whipps Jr acknowledged the mediation of Pacific Islands Forum chair Voreqe Bainimarama and the Troika plus members and all other leaders involved in the political dialogue leading up to this juncture.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A Pacific journalist believes the Kiribati government has been coerced by Beijing to accommodate China’s foreign minister’s visit.

Kiribati authorities have confirmed that Wang Yi would briefly stopover to meet President Taneti Maamau as part of his Pacific-wide tour.

Journalist Rimon Rimon said the government had been “very secretive” and “people are frustrated and angry” after only learning about the trip via a Facebook post.

• READ MORE: China wants closer security, trade links with the Pacific
• Other China and the Pacific security reports

Rimon said Kiribati was grappling with a covid-19 outbreak and with the borders closed it was a change in practice by the government to oblige Beijing’s request.

“I think there has been some kind of pressure from Beijing. Only last night I had confirmation from a source from Beijing that before they travelled Kiribati was finally on the list,” he said.

“So, I finally understood that there had been some pressures and our government has submitted to those pressures.”

Rimon said a deal with Kiribati had more significance for China, as Beijing had already demonstrated its willingness to develop Kiribati’s northernmost island, Kanton Island, which has strategic military potential.

Kiribati government ‘reluctant’
“And I think China is pursuing that. I think our government is quite reluctant on something military-wise, based on the narrative that the government has been saying throughout the years.

“But I have no doubt this is, this is the number one thing on China’s agenda. How our government will respond to that or accommodate that. I have no idea of that,” he said.

The Kiribati government said the high-level state visit was an important milestone for Kiribati-China relations, as it would strengthen and promote partnership and cooperation between the two countries after the resumption of diplomatic ties in 2019.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to visit Vanuatu next Wednesday as part of his tour.

The Chinese Embassy in Port Vila has confirmed the arrival date for bilateral talks with the government of Vanuatu.

The embassy said Wang’s visit in Vanuatu had nothing to do with security issues. Instead, it said, he would discuss five memorandums of understanding as well as other business.

The embassy said the discussion points would be on tangible benefits that China could bring to the people of Vanuatu.

As well as Port Vila, Wang is due to visit Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Kiribati. He is currently in Solomon Islands.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The invasion of Ukraine is likely to have a signficant impact on the Pacific, warns a senior USP academic.

On Thursday, Russia launched a massive invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

More than 100 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been killed in the fighting so far, with no figures for the Russians.

• READ MORE: New Zealand’s reaction: PM condemns Russia’s Ukraine invasion which will claim many ‘innocent lives’
• Australian PM imposes sanctions on Russia – world reacts
• Putin ‘will not stop at Ukraine’ – NZ protesters condemn Russian invasion

The invasion has put a strain on diplomacy around the world, with both Australia and New Zealand imposing sanctions on Russia and protesters picketed the Russian embassy in the capital Wellington on Friday.

Although geographically removed from the conflict the Pacific Nations should be concerned about the negative effect this war will have on multilateralism says Sandra Tarte, an Associate Professor at the University of the South Pacific and the Acting Head of the School for Law and Social Sciences.

“Multilateralism is on its knees, it’s in tatters,” Professor Tarte said. “Particularly for the smaller island countries, we really need multilateralism to protect ourselves.

“We don’t have power as such in the entire system. We rely on multilateralism and institutions like the UN and the rule of law.”

Professor Tarte also said that Pacific countries would feel an economic impact.

“We will see perhaps markets react, we will see confidence plummet,” she explained . “There might be supply chain issues with the oil markets.

“We are all connected. Through this global supply chain, we will see potential effects.”

EU targets Russian economy
The European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to impose new economic sanctions on Russia, joining the United States and Britain in admonishing President Vladimir Putin and his allies for invading Ukraine.

Leaders of the 27-nation bloc lambasted Putin at an emergency summit in Brussels, describing him as “a deluded autocrat creating misery for millions”.

The EU will freeze Russian assets in the bloc and halt its banks’ access to European financial markets.

These moves are part of what EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described as “the harshest package of sanctions we have ever implemented”.

The EU’s Ambassador to the Pacific, Sujiro Seam, echoed the sentiments of world leaders and “condemned the unprovoked and unjustified military actions” of Russia.

This is a gross violation of international law, Seam said, and he stated that the EU Office in Suva would reach out to its partners in the region to condemn Russia’s actions.

Seam hoped that Fiji, which had championed multilateralism in the United Nations, would support sanctions against Russia.

FSM severs diplomatic relations with Russia
The Federated of the Micronesia has severed diplomatic relations with Russia following the brutal invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement, the FSM government said it condemned the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine and the unjustified and brutal assault on its people and territory.

President David Panuelo said the FSM condemned any actions which threatened global peace and stability and the rules-based international order.

He said the FSM would only entertain renewing diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation when the latter demonstrated actionable commitments to peace, friendship, cooperation, and love in common humanity.

Fiji condemns Russia’s actions
Fiji has joined the international community in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In a Friday social media post, Fiji’s Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that Fijians were praying for the people of Ukraine.

He called for an end to all the “hostilities and any violations of the international rule of law”.

Sayed-Khaiyum urged the warring parties to return to the diplomatic table, echoing the call for peace from UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Guterres addressed the UN General Assembly calling for negotiations, to save the people of Ukraine from the scourge of war.

Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Satyendra Prasad, echoed his government’s support of the UN’s call for a de-escalation of conflict.

On his official Twitter account, Prasad stated that Fiji supported the “UN’s efforts to have a swift return to the path of dialogue between the two warring nations”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

PART 1: Divide and rule with Māori and Pacific communities

White Supremacy (WS) has proliferated during covid-19 lockdowns in Aotearoa from 17 August 2021. Supremacist activism, aspirations, attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, concepts, ideas, languages, media output, organising praxes, political slogans, political thought, and political party policies have all flourished as people protested against government covid restrictions and lockdowns.

In this writing, I distinguish between anti-vaccination and freedom protesters who are not advocating for WS and those who are part of anti-lockdown protests and anti-vaccination organising who do support white supremacy.

Similarly, the focus of this commentary is not to examine conspiracy theories. Moreover, I am not seeking to examine the work of Māori or Pacific people engaged in anti-vaccination and freedom from lockdown protests.

• READ MORE: Covid disinformation and extremism are on the rise in New Zealand. What are the risks of it turning violent?
• The protest that revealed a new, ugly, dangerous side to our country
• Ardern loses the gloss as New Zealanders protest about covid restrictions
• Other reports on covid disinformation

WS works best when it can divide and rule Māori and Pacific communities. My focus in this article is on Pakeha involvement in WS as it evolves in contemporary Aotearoa.

This article seeks to offer ways to understand the contemporary emergence of the supremacy phenomenon. This article will offer a thumbnail sketch outline of some of the features of supremacy in an Aotearoa context.

I assume colonial and historical forms of WS already existent in Aotearoa are coalescing and are being energised by contemporary, hybrid variations of supremacy emerging from the US, Europe, Australia, and other countries.

Supremacists in Aotearoa are clearly drawing upon WS activism, aesthetics, hostility, media output, messaging, modes of organising, and political thought from overseas.

White supremacy in Aotearoa
I attempt to group these variegated expressions of white supremacy in this article. I seek to outline this phenomenon as a composite of ideas, concepts, languages, beliefs, ideologies, attitudes, activisms, praxes, aspirations, narratives, and political positions — all situated in a time, space, and condition in Aotearoa.

I feel that WS must also be understood as embodying modes of being, living, and knowing operational in community, family, political, and social life. WS is occurring at multiple levels of our communities.

Further, I believe people must be able to analyse WS; group supremacist phenomena, and assess it vis-à-vis a framework such as a spectrum. Further, we must invite African, Asian, Māori, Pacific, and Pakeha communities to consider WS from within values specific to each cultural group.

Most importantly, we must invite community groups to question WS from their many different community standing places. I hope this modest work offers communities a framework for assessing WS from within their own flax roots community perspectives.

We need more work considering these issues from the perspectives of women, LGBTG, working class, and disabled sectors of the wider community also.

The online Merriam Webster Dictionary defines WS in two ways. Firstly, WS is defined at its most basic as “the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races”.

In this definition, WS is defined as a component of an attitudinal sphere.

Secondly, the Merriam Webster Dictionary defines WS as “the social, economic, and political systems that collectively enable white people to maintain power over people of other races”.

Structural and societal level
This shifts discussion of WS from an individual attitudinal sphere to a structural and societal level. I deploy both these definitions of white supremacy in this article — and expand upon the definition in regards to specific concerns such as activism, language, and the media.

I argue white supremacy is one component of a wider colonial settler project in Aotearoa. Alicia Cox at Oxford Bibliographies defines Settler Colonialism as “an ongoing system of power that perpetuates genocide and repression of indigenous peoples… normalises continuous settler occupation… exploiting lands and resources to which indigenous people have genealogical relationships…includes interlocking forms of oppression such as racism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism”.

In sum, I will argue that all forms of WS outlined in this article contribute to Settler Colonialism in Aotearoa.

I have examined commentary, comments, interviews, and video footage of well-known Pakeha WS activists and media pundits in Aotearoa. I have examined Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, and internet commentary from flax roots people. I considered fringe parliamentary political parties’ policies of those positioning themselves for entry into mainstream politics.

I viewed video footage of freedom and anti-vax protests around the country. I looked at internet sites of groups organising anti-lockdown protests around Aotearoa. I researched QAnon, the ALT-Right, and white supremacist organisations overseas. Similarly, I read work on concepts, language, and political thought that underpins some of these movements.

I see WS as a formation existing along a spectrum for the transformation of specific sectional interests; for those seeking to use direct action to challenge the government; for those seeking representation in Parliament, and finally for people seeking a potential white ethno-state.

We should be sensitive to the aspirations, attitudes, beliefs, concepts, ideas, use of language, and ideals concerning economic, social, and political thought underpinning WS in the list introduced below.

Expressions of WS
When examining sources I found expressions of WS regarding:

(1) contempt for Te Tiriti,
(2) rejection of power sharing between Pakeha and Māori as articulated in Te Tiriti,
(3) appropriation of He Whakaputanga alongside a rejection of Te Tiriti,
(4) antagonism towards the historical experience of Māori,
(5) privileging of a mythology of “peaceful” or “just” race relations in Aotearoa — thereby erasing histories of racism suffered by Africans, Asians, Māori, or Pacific communities in Aotearoa,
(6) political policies of different fringe parties antagonistic to “race”-based privileges for Māori in health, in law, or at the United Nations,
(7) vilification of the NZ Labour as “socialistic”,
(8) attacks on Māori activist, community, political, or scholarly leaders,
(9) assumptions WS is on same side as “ordinary” Māori, Pacific, Asian, African, or Pakeha communities,
(10) attacks on independent university based critical scholarship,
(11) abuse of Māori language users,
(12) championing of bellicose forms of Pentecostal Christianity as the only legitimate faith for Aotearoa,
(13) attacks on the United Nations and governments as cabals of evil,
(14) contempt for migrants rights,
(15) deployment of language hijacked from liberation struggles,
(16) deployment of narratives of WS,
(17) refusal to debate honestly,
(18) antagonism and personal attacks against those considered enemies of WS using different media,
(19) articulation of action programmes,
(20) modes of praxis,
(21) introduction of Alt Right and QAnon concepts, language use, and values, and
(22) lauding of former US President Donald Trump, Republicans, and Q.

I deploy one example of the techniques Pakeha WS proponents use to articulate their programme re language hijacked from liberation struggles. Pakeha WS adherents have sought to appropriate, disrupt, interrupt, colonise, and then occupy the languages of Māori and African-American liberation — and, implicitly, the epistemologies underpinning these languages.

For example, Pakeha WS figures have called acclaimed Māori community leader Hone Harawira a “sell out”, a “house negro”, and a “traitor” for his community work for Māori families during covid-19 lockdowns in Northland in 2021.

Here, WS folk have attempted to colonise the Black Liberation language of Malcolm X. This “house negro” language was deployed by Malcolm X in a specific time, place, and condition- as Manning Marable articulates in his controversial history, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Māori activists deployed this language in debates with their more conservative elders in years gone by.

But Pakeha WS advocates deploying this language are no friends of Malcolm or the Black Liberation struggle — these Pakeha are bitter opponents of the BLM movement. Similarly, these Pakeha are no friends of Māori liberation struggles such as the one at Ihumatao.

The whakapapa of struggle
WS adherents are trying to colonise, disrupt, and occupy this language so as to appropriate it to better undermine the links connecting Hone to his own people. But Hone is conjoined to his people by whakapapa and the whakapapa of struggle.

Moreover, who would Malcolm X stand with? WS representatives attacking indigenous people — or an indigenous Māori brother, like Hone Harawira?

I invite Asian, African, Māori, Pacific, and Pakeha communities standing in their own cultures, community values, experiences, and histories to consider these questions.

Does WS in its various forms as outlined in brief above:

(1) Resonate with your community values?
(2) Articulate your vision of the country?
(3) Uphold the mana of the diverse sections of each of your communities?
(4) Sympathise with your communal experiences or histories?
(5) Align with your notions of community service?
(6) Voice your community needs?
(7) Articulate your community aspirations for your young people, women, or your elders?
(8) Support your concerns in the parliamentary party sphere?
(9) Offer a valid means to find a way out of covid-19 in a time of great uncertainty?
(10) Make Aotearoa/New Zealand a safer place for your community?
(11) Make Aotearoa/New Zealand a more tolerant society?
(12) Uphold the mana of the first people of this land, the Māori people?
(13) Offer a means to advance the concerns of all communities in Aotearoa?
(14) Does settler colonialism offer a positive vision for a united and prosperous Aotearoa/ New Zealand in the future?

Only communities in Aotearoa have the answers to these questions. I hope the definitions, analysis, articulation of a spectrum, and the final questions provide an accessible and safe framework for communities to assess, critically engage, and strategise concerning this contemporary phenomena known as WS.

Tony Fala is an activist, researcher, and volunteer for a small charitable trust engaged in food rescue and distribution to communities in South Auckland. He acknowledges his own racism in years gone by — something he had to overcome. Fala wishes to acknowledge the anti-racist contributions of Joe Carolan, Tina Ngata, Rawiri Taonui, and Joe Trinder — and all other activists, journalists, and scholars engaged in responding to WS. He also wishes to acknowledge the important work of The Disinformation Project in Aotearoa.

• Tomorrow: Part 2: WS storytelling in more detail

At the time of writing, there are 63 reported cases of COVID-19 in the Pacific.

This includes one in Papua New Guinea, three in Fiji, seven in New Caledonia, 23 in French Polynesia, 29 in Guam and suspected cases in Samoa.

The number is relatively low but there is a sense that tragedy is unfolding in slow motion across a region where health sectors are already under-funded and poorly equipped.

READ MORE: Covid-19 cases in Guam and Fiji on the increase

• NZ in state of emergency and going into lockdown

Official responses to the pandemic have varied across the region. Pacific states are implementing border protection policies including reducing inbound flights, banning cruise ships, restricting officials from travelling overseas and closing traditional border crossings.

New Zealand and Australia, gateways to the islands, have closed their borders.

In addition to the implications for health security in the Pacific, a number of observations can be made about Pacific regionalism and the longer-term consequences of Covid-19 for partnerships and trust.

Pacific states have responded in various ways, from Papua New Guinea elevating Covid-19 from a public health crisis to a national security issue, to Nauru declaring a state of emergency under the National Disaster Risk Management Act 2016.

Jointly funding WHO response
Australia and New Zealand are jointly funding the World Health Organisation’s Pacific response plan at a cost of around US$1 million. But there are differences in how the two countries are publicly responding to Pacific needs.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that New Zealand has a duty of care to the Pacific Islands, and has even made updates available in nine Pacific languages.

Meanwhile, the Australian government has come under fire for being missing in action and not providing public information about how Australia is protecting the region.

The Covid-19 pandemic demands a regional response, but one has not been forthcoming.

In a speech at the Global Focus Summit in Wellington in February, Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi identified a series of choices that Pacific countries face in addressing global challenges, from climate change to geopolitical competition.

Tuilaepa stated that Pacific countries will choose to address these challenges as a collective, in sub-regional groups, as individual countries or by embracing specific partnerships. He concluded that “it is the state of regionalism and interpretation that will shape national outcomes, experiences and wellbeing”.

The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) has been quiet on Covid-19, raising the question of what role it could — or should — play in formulating a collective response. The 2018 Boe Declaration on Regional Security affirmed an expanded concept of security inclusive of human security to protect the rights, health and prosperity of Pacific people.

‘Ensure health lives’
The 2019 Boe Declaration Action Plan seeks alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) to “ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing”. But the Action Plan focusses exclusively on non-communicable diseases with no reference to communicable diseases, while SDG3 refers to both.

This is an odd oversight. The Boe Declaration states that climate change is an existential threat to Pacific peoples, yet climate-sensitive health risks, including infectious diseases, are not mentioned.

A collective response would fundamentally be about national-level responses and regional leadership. Linking Covid-19 to the Boe Declaration’s focus on human security would mandate the PIF to lead a coordinated regional response to monitor public health emergency preparedness and identify capacity needs and gaps within member states.

The PIF could also coordinate cooperation and technical support with partner countries and agencies, specifically the Pacific Community (SPC), the principal scientific and technical organisation in the Pacific region, whose mandate includes public health surveillance.

If the PIF does not step up in the face of Covid-19, it reveals a severe omission in forecasting and responding to regional health security threats.

A collective response is also about exercising leadership at a time when resilience is fundamentally important. Herein lies one of the strengths of the Pacific.

The Blue Pacific identity is the core driver of collective action to advance the 2014 Framework for Pacific Regionalism, which calls for “a region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion and prosperity, so that all Pacific people can lead free, healthy and productive lives”.

Collective response needed
The challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presents to the Pacific are best met with a collective response and regional leadership.

It has also been suggested that COVID-19 demands a regional disaster response such as enacting the FRANZ Arrangement between France, Australia and New Zealand, which allows for the coordination of humanitarian relief assistance in the Pacific.

As Dan McGarry notes, this will take significant organisation. Although much activity is taking place to strengthen security sectors across the Pacific, such as Australia’s “Pacific step-up” and New Zealand’s “Pacific Reset”, there are some obvious missed opportunities.

In 2016, we argued that to enhance regional security architecture, the FRANZ Arrangement and the Quadrilateral Defence Coordinating Group between Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States should be expanded to include key Pacific Island actors.

This recommendation has since been advocated by Joanne Wallis in her submission to the Australian Parliament’s 2020 inquiry into Australia’s defence relationships with Pacific island nations. But given that Pacific partners — particularly Australia and the United States — tend to emphasise traditional security approaches, there are concerns about the securitisation of human security such as health.

These are unprecedented times, but there is an opportunity for the PIF to lead a collective response. This will demand more resources, expertise and capital.

This is also an opportunity for Pacific partners to demonstrate their commitment to engaging with the region, even in times when the temptation is to pull up the drawbridge.

Dr Anna Powles is a senior lecturer of security studies at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies, Massey University, Wellington. Dr Jose Sousa-Santos is a senior associate (Pacific regional security) at Victoria University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning and a Research Scholar at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University. This article is republished from East Asia Forum with the authors’ permission.

Tonga’s Consul has denied claims by Tongan Māori Party candidate Manase Lua that he was endorsed by King Tupou VI.

Lua made the claims in comments posted underneath photographs of him and his supporters meeting the consul on Monday.

His comments under the photos on Facebook said this was proof he was endorsed by the king and the Tongan consulate to be the only Tongan candidate in New Zealand for Tongans to vote for.

“Here are photos of our meeting with His Excellency Sitaafoti Aho, the Tongan Consulate-General for NZ, on 20 July 2017 confirming me as the number 1 Tongan candidate for the Māori Party. In humble response to the Māori King’s request to the King of Tonga,” Lua wrote on Facebook.

However, Tongan Consul Stafford ‘Aho told Kaniva News today Lua was wrong. He said neither the king nor he had endorsed Lua.

On Sunday, a Māori Party press release said: “He (Maori King Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII) made a request for His Majesty King Tupou VI to ask his subjects living in Aotearoa to join and provide a Tongan candidate to stand for the Māori Party. The King of Tonga answered the call.

“Manase Nehemaia Lua is the chosen Tongan candidate blessed by the Royal Houses.”

Similar requests
The press release claimed similar requests had been made to the Head of State in Samoa and the Ariki of Rarotonga.

“All have answered the call, hence why we now have eight candidates from these Pacific nations running,” the media release said.

Six candidates from New Zealand’s Pacific communities will stand in general seats for the Māori Party in the national elections.

They are standing in areas with strong Labour support and in some cases against sitting Labour MPs with Pacific backgrounds, including Jenny Salesa and Aupito Su’a William Sio.

Lua has been contacted for comment.

Media academic Dr Philip Cass is an adviser and contributor to Kaniva News. This article is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

• More NZ general election stories
• Pasifika voters want ‘hands-up, not hand outs’

Pasifika voters in South Auckland have stressed they would like to see “hand-ups, not hand-outs” following New Zealand’s 2017 general election on Saturday.

At a live Q+A election panel held at the Māngere Arts Centre Community Café, homelessness and Auckland’s housing crisis were the issues front-and-centre for the audience.

Hosted by Affirming Works and presented by Tagata Pasifika’s John Pulu, the election issues important to the community were put to Pacific candidates from across the Auckland region.

On the panel were Leilani Tamu (Green Party candidate for New Lynn), Lemauga Lydia Sosene Labour Party list candidate), Manase Lua (Māori Party candidate for Maungakiekie), and Agnes Loheni (National Party candidate for Māngere).

All issues drew strong responses from the candidates – families package, equal pay, climate change and euthanasia, but the Q+A turned heated over education, homelessness, housing and immigration.

Lua said the issues could not be addressed in isolation and should not be ‘politicised’.

He said the Māori Party was the only party to offer an amnesty for overstayers, which drew cheers and claps from the audience.

Climate refugee visa
According to Immigration Department statistics, Tongans and Samoans were the largest group of overstayers in New Zealand in 2016 and the controversial Dawn Raids of the mid-1970s to the early 1980s still haunt the Pacific Island community.

The Green Party’s inclusion of a humanitarian visa for Pacific and climate change refugees received similar enthusiasm from the audience.

“One vote for the Greens is critical, particularly for our Pasifika people, who we know are the people who are dying because of this injustice.

“The people of Kiribati and Tuvalu did not ask for their islands to basically be sinking,” Tamu said.

Loheni, however, told the audience the National Party’s stance on immigration would remain the same if re-elected.

“It stays where it’s at,” she said.

This drew criticism from Sosene, who said the government’s immigration policy was not sustainable for Pacific communities.

‘Turning a blind eye’
“This government has changed the rules in terms of Pasifika culture, in terms of shutting out the elderly and siblings that were covered under the Clark Labour government,” she said.

Sosene also criticised the government for “turning a blind eye” to homelessness.

“I want to remind you, right here in Māngere, right here in South Auckland, we see the homelessness every single week. The government is turning a blind eye to that issue.”

Loheni responded by stating the solution to Auckland’s housing crisis lay in the government’s work with community groups and NGOs.

“The solutions come from the communities, which is why the government has backed community groups and NGOs to help solve some of these societal issues.

“It’s about housing and it’s about ensuring we’ve got the social services to support them through those complex issues,” she said.

Both Sosene and Tamu were vocal and outspoken in their responses to Loheni’s comments.

Auckland housing ‘unaffordable’
“The government has to offer housing options for our communities. We have people living in cars.

“If you drive a couple of streets in Māngere you will see the house, the garage, a little unit, another little unit, and another little unit. All those families are paying over $300 a week to stay on their property.

“What I can say is Labour’s plan is to address the housing unaffordability, particularly for our young people who are working, who are doing tertiary education, and yet they can’t save up a deposit of $110,000 to buy a property,” Sosene said.

Tamu, however, reflected: “Our people can’t afford to live in South Auckland anymore.

“The median wage in New Zealand is $46,000, for Pasifika it’s $26,000. How are our people supposed to do it? Especially when they’re living in cars and garages? Please.

“There’s only room for a few of us to be successful in National’s world. We can’t afford to live in the city, because National doesn’t want us to live in the city,” Tamu stated.

Loheni hit back, calling Tamu’s view “tragic”.

A ‘Pacific prime minister’?
“All of our kids can be successful. The key to this is education. You keep your kids at school – education is the key to opening up opportunities so that we can all be successful,” she said.

However, where the candidates saw South Auckland in 10 years was the most poignant moment of the Q+A.

All of the candidates said New Zealand would see its first Pacific prime minister in the next 10 years.

Sosene also said the country would also see “one of our Pacific kids” as the leader of the Labour Party.

“We need of our own, it’s time,” she said.

The audience ultimately thanked the candidates for their passion for the Pacific community.

Sosene reflected: “It is really good to see Pasifika, throughout the parties, supporting every candidate.”

‘The Pacific way’
Reflecting on the spirit of the evening, John Pulu concluded: “They argue and then they shake hands. That’s the Pacific way.”

This was echoed by Ika Tameifuna of the One Pacific Māori Party before a closing prayer.

“Tonight, we may disagree, but we are still one family.”

By Kendall Hutt is contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

• More NZ election stories

University of Papua New Guinea students have spoken through the ballot in spite of being provided 2000 ballot papers less than needed due to discrepancies in the electoral roll.

One of their representatives, Gerald Peni, was a scrutineer to make sure their ballot boxes were counted during weekend counting.

Scrutineers of some candidates have raised concerns regarding these ballot boxes, claiming a breach of electoral process during the polling.

Some said many students used their ID cards to vote which is unconstitutional hence the votes should be declared informal.

However, Peni, stood up and explained why the boxes should be counted.

He said ballot papers issued were less than the total population in UPNG and there were also discrepancies in the electoral roll which denied many students their right to vote.

“The students felt that they were deprived of their right and they asked the presiding officer to get the Electoral Commission to provide extra ballot papers for especially registered 2000 plus residential students.”

He said the EC should have got the registered students list from the university to update its electoral roll for UPNG which had been the case in previous elections.

“Those who have voted, actually had their names on the common rolls, but had to show their student ID cards to prove their identity,” Peni said.

This was because names of former students who had already graduated and left the university were still on the electoral roll.

Peni later told EMTV Online, only 1348 of the 5000 plus eligible voters of UPNG had voted.

“The rest of us have not voted. We were deprived of our constitutional rights that we exercise every five years.”

Pacific Media Watch reports that many students at UPNG were at the centre of campus protests last year calling on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to stand down pending police investigations into corruption allegations. The protests came to an end on June 8 when police opened fire at a student demonstration, wounding about 23 people.

A scrutineer for Moresby North West also told EMTV Online that voting using ID cards or any form of ID was unconstitutional. In some cases in Hohola, two longtime residents whose names were not on the electoral roll used their NID [national identity] cards to vote.

“This election has seen people voting using their ID cards and that is against the law,” the scrutineer said.

UPNG Drill Hall boxes were counted in the counts 77, 78 and 79 on Saturday.

Elizah Palme studied chemistry at the University of Papua New Guinea and lists among his achievements being president of UPNG Jiwaka Students Fellowship in 2015 and is current vice-president of Jiwaka Students and Graduates Association Inc. EMTV News Your Vote electoral coverage is republished with permission.

• More PNG election stories

“I’m leaving with good memories of the country,” says Papua New Guinea’s Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare.

“Who would have thought — in 1968 — that my journey into the world of politics would take this long and this far?

“I have been blessed with a long life and over the years, seen this country progress from a colony.

“I will go, but if need arises, I will still speak on important issues for the betterment of PNG,” he said today when being farewelled after almost five decades in politics.

The country faces a general election in June and the Grand Chief is stepping down as Governor of East Sepik and after four periods as PNG’s prime minister.

Sir Michael, 81, thanked the country for the support and farewell in particular.

He also thanked the Motu-Koitabu people for giving their land — years ago — to make Port Moresby the national capital district.

His parting wish is for Papua New Guinea to continue to develop and prosper, using our wealth and resources to achieve this.

“Government must, increasingly, empower the population so that they have dignity, confidence and clarity on our future. Have open discussions on where we want our country to be.

“Importantly, provinces should have the power to generate their own revenue,” he said.

‘Do the right thing’
“I want next Parliament and public service to ensure that they do the right thing to keep Papua New Guinea together as a great nation.”

Freddy Mou reports from Kavieng that the Governor of New Ireland, Sir Julius Chan, a former prime minister, and the people of the province would farewell Sir Michael the “New Ireland Way” on Tuesday.

Sir Julius said: “It is only fitting that we give Sir Michael this farewell after more than 40 years in politics, especially recognising and appreciating his contributions to the province and people of New Ireland.”

It will be an open this event starting at 10am with a motorcade from the airport to the Catholic Mission field.

There will be singsing, dance and passim custom for the Grand Chief and his wife Lady Veronica.

Somare hill and street
A street and a hill in Port Moresby will be named after Sir Michael.

National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop announced this when farewelling Sir Michael today.

According to Parkop, the hill at Four-Mile, where the Grand Chief’s Port Moresby residence is located, will be called the Michael Somare Hill.

Also, a street at Waigani, referred to as “Somare circuit” will be renamed Michael Somare Boulevard.

Parkop said following the elections, a four-lane road would be built there and a big statue of the Grand Chief would be erected.

Parkop thanked Sir Michael for his service and promised to honour his legacy.

“We might not have joined your party, joined your government and serves as minister in your cabinet, but we all have been inspired and guided by you directly or indirectly,” he said.

Gloria Bauai is a Loop PNG journalist.

• Chief Sir Michael Somare – a Radio NZ tribute in 2011
• Sir Michael’s parliamentary farewell

Pacific members of Parliament were brought together this month to address the way forward for Pacific communities living amongst Auckland’s current housing crisis.

MP’s formed a panel discussion held by The Pacific Islands Chartered Accountants Network.

Jenny Salesa and Su’a William Sio both advocated for Labour’s housing policy to build 100,000 houses over the next ten-years to address the under supply of housing.

National MP, Alfred Ngaro, also supported the idea of defining Pacific prosperity, to support more home ownership by Pacific living in Auckland.

Listen to the full audio report:

Each Pacific country is dealing with its own issues, but one of the major issues is corruption.

A preconference of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA), AUT Pacific Media Centre (PMC) and Media Educators Pacific (MeP) in partnership with Transparency International (TINZ) gave a platform yesterday to discuss the corruption in the Pacific and the role of the media to deal with it.

Pacific director of TINZ and facilitator for the session, Fuimaono said: “Corruption is very much like cancer. It has to be treated early otherwise it would be massively expensive.”

He said the world has become intensively interested in what is going on in the Pacific.

The European Union, World Bank and Asian Development Bank are taking interest in the Pacific. The numbers of international treaties have been signed but “where all these resources are going?”, he said.

“Corruption is fundamentally crucial to successful development in the Pacific.”

Root cause
Kalafi Moala, publisher and broadcaster of Taimi ‘o Tonga group, said: “Corruption in Tonga is worse now than it has ever been.”

After spending 12 months in the prime minister’s office as a media advisor he decided it was totally useless and waste of his time.

“I found out that despite all the reforms we were doing and who were in charge, corruption continued to grow and to be dealt with,” he said.

Moala said the impact on the poor people with such corruption was extremely severe in small island nations like Tonga in the Pacific.

“We have in Tonga today a population that is broken hearted because their hope for something different in the society has been wounded. This government has not been able to deliver [on promises they made].”

He said there were causes for the corruption and there were questions that we needed to ask in the Pacific because every aspect of our society — at least in Tonga — we see the effect of corruption.

“First, we have to first find the cause of corruption and then we have to deal with it.”

Investigative journalists
Dr Shailendra Singh, head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, said: “Politicians are not taking corruption seriously in Fiji.”

However, journalists with the lack of education and skills, were also major issues.

According to his PhD research in 2012, only 32 percent of journalists have more than 3 years of experience that is well below the global average and at the same time only 55 percent of the journalists have less than 6 years of experience.

In addition, Dr Singh said experienced journalists were not out in the front line. They were running newsrooms. Journalists who were reporting on field had less than 3 years of experience.

Oonly 49 percent of Fiji journalists had any formal academic education.

“You need experienced reporters with some investigative skills to analyse and report corruption systematically, which is lacking in Fiji,” Dr Singh said.

He said geopolitics and political correctness could be a further contributor to corruption.

Ask hard questions
Alexander Rheeney, editor-in-chief of the PNG Post-Courier, said Papua New Guinea was going through an economic and global political crisis at the moment.

“Any journalist would love to work in PNG because we have best stories in the world.”

He said journalists need to start asking hard questions now in PNG, as reporting and fighting against corruption was always a work in progress [situation] for PNG.

It is challenging for the PNG journalists to hold the leaders accountable and they are being the “meat in the sandwich”, said Rheeney.

“We have got people passionate about holding government accountable on one side and on the other side leaders want us to cover other issues in Papua New Guinea.”

However, he said as a journalist he and his colleagues were not only the defender of truth but also the defender of freedom of expression.

“The journalists should defend Papua New Guineans’ rights to express themselves,” he said.

Listen to TJ Aumua’s podcast on corruption and the role of the media.

Archived live feed

SBS World News has not been granted a journalist visa to cover Nauru’s general election this weekend, despite a direct approach to President Baron Waqa in April.

A brief discussion and handshake with President Baron Waqa in April saw a senior Nauruan foreign affairs official delegated as my contact for a journalist visa.

Waqa was in Brisbane for negotiations on the proposed Pacific free trade agreement and I took the chance to ask for a rare journalist visa to report on Nauru’s election.

Now the absence of any international media from Nauru for the poll is being examined by the official Commonwealth election observer mission, led by Kiribati’s former President Anote Tong.

“Let us progress forward on this very issue that you did kindly started [sic] back in Brisbane with your daring approached to our President,” said an email in May from the Nauruan official delegated by Waqa.

“Fortunately for SBS, it did worked as accordingly [sic] but unfortunately for me, the President then turn to me with instructions that I will personally assist you to whatever endeavours you are kindly aiming for.”

“Whilst we were in Brisbane, I am of the opinion that we have both already agreed in the preparation of SBS doing a news coverage [sic] of the coming national election in Nauru and I strongly believed that we did cemented [sic] that decision making by the shaking of our hands.”

Visa application
As requested, a visa application and letter of assignment from SBS to report on the Nauruan election was submitted. All was going well, I was told, but all journalist visas must be approved by Nauru’s cabinet.

In January 2014, the Nauruan government had increased the journalist visa application fee from $200 to a non-refundable $8000, even if rejected. In correspondence with Nauruan officials, I was not asked to pay the fee.

Only two Australian media organisations have been granted visas in the past two years, but neither Channel 9 nor The Australian have revealed if they paid.

In May, I also broke the news Nauru had cancelled all visitor visas for Australian and New Zealand citizens.

Nauru’s government responded to my report on Twitter: “Visas to Nauru have not revoked. Procedures have been changed. Gov will issue statement soon.”

In a second tweet, that was later deleted, it said: “Changes in visa policy implemented after ABC dishonestly entered country as tourist & failed to declare they were media”.

The allegation was denied by the ABC.

Biggest aid donor
The government then tweeted: “Gov stands by info in tweets deleted about journalists entering illegally, but wanted to provide clear facts on current visa requirements.”

Australia is Nauru’s former administrative power and still biggest foreign aid donor. The former dependency hosts the controversial regional processing centre for refugees and asylum seekers, a central piece of both Labor and the Coalition’s border protection policies.

Unlike New Zealand, which has cut aid to Nauru, Australia has only offered muted criticism of the Waqa government, especially over commitments to democracy and rule-of-law.

In 2013, Nauru’s Resident Magistrate Peter Law was dismissed and Chief Justice Geoffrey Eames barred from returning to the country from Australia.

Five opposition MPs were suspended indefinitely from Parliament in 2014, including three who criticised the government during foreign media interviews.

Attorney-General David Adeang said at the time: “These MPs have done what no other country would deem acceptable – use the foreign media to trash our international reputation.”

After a visit last month by Channel 9’s A Current Affair to report on the Australian-run detention centre, Nauru’s government issued a statement on media access.

‘No media ban’
“The Government of Nauru has never enacted a media ban or blackout as has been reported by some media outlets. We have a media visa application process and as a sovereign nation we alone choose who enters our country. The lack of respect of our sovereignty by some Australian media outlets indicates extreme arrogance and hypocrisy,” it said.

“It is for reasons of safety and security that we are not able to allow all media onto Nauru, and we will never allow media who we believe will intentionally incite violence and unrest to further their story.

“We should note that other than these few activist journalists, we have received very little interest from mainstream media outlets. In fact some time ago one Australian network was approved to visit Nauru and then decided not to come.”

SBS does have a reputation for reporting on asylum seeker detention in Nauru.

In 2003, Dateline’s Bronwyn Addock gained access to the original, Howard government era detention centre on Nauru by slipping under its perimeter fence.

Her report “Inside Nauru; Pacific Despair” won or was a finalist in numerous journalism awards, including the UNAAs, Walkleys and Logies.

Throughout May and early June correspondence continued with Nauraun officials.

“I did finalised [sic] everything with my boss, the Secretary for DFAT to who was [sic] with the President in Brisbane when you did put in your request for doing a media reporting [sic] on the Nauru’s coming general election,” one official said.

‘Passed on’
“The matter has been pass onto the Nauru Media Department to who are [sic] the office responsible for coordinating foreign media visit into Nauru.”

After the election date for Nauru’s 8000 voters was set for July 9, there was silence from Nauru on my visa application.

Finally after more emails to officials, Director of Immigration Rajeev Keerthiyil responded on Monday.

“We are sorry to inform that we will not be able to process your request for media visas currently,” he said.

Nauru’s Government Information Office (GIO) and other officials from the Pacific nation did not confirm to SBS if any other international media have been granted access to cover the election.

Head of the Commonwealth election observer mission in Nauru, former Kiribati President Anote Tong, told SBS they were not aware of any foreign journalists.

“That is something that we will have to consider further because the question is, ‘Why is there none?’, and we’re not in a position to make that analysis at this point,” Tong said.

“We have to understand the context of how it is. It’s a very small country. The fact is there really is no media except the state-owned media.

“In terms of freedom of speech, we are talking to candidates, they are saying what they want to say in public. We don’t see anybody being harassed because of it, so I think freedom of speech is present.”

Stefan Armbruster is Brisbane-based Pacific correspondent of SBS News. This article is republished with permission.

• Nauru goes to the polls for a new government
• Nauru government accused of silencing opposition

The launch of the New Zealand Institute of Pacific Research (NZIPR) at the University of Auckland last night has been hailed as a milestone for advancing student learning on Pacific issues.

The new institute has been established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with the University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology and Otago University as a consortium for Pacific research and engagement.

Newly appointed director of the NZIPR, Associate Professor Damon Salesa, said it was the first time the NZ government had funded a national centre of excellence in Pacific research.

“It is a remarkable opportunity not only to research but to deliver opportunities to learn and to grow our students and research, especially our Pacific students, which our consortium has counted are in the thousands.”

Salesa said the institute also created opportunities for solo researchers to engage in conversations for purposeful and transformative Pacific relationships and resolutions.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully launched the institute at the Fale Pasifika, saying the think-tank’s objective was to support sustainable development in the Pacific region.

A pro vice-chancellor of Otago University, Tony Ballantyne, said the intellectual programme of the NZIPR would connect students with “cutting edge” research on the Pacific region.

The NZIPR will also offer students supervision in specific Pacific postgraduate research, postgraduate scholarships and student internships and placements.

The Head of Pacific Advancement at AUT, Walter Fraser, said the move for a nationally recognised Pacific institute had been desired for a long time.

Informed position
He said the NZIPR was a result of two years of discussions but its launch finally gave an opportunity for institutions to advise governance with an informed position on Pacific issues.

Professor Jenny Dixon, deputy vice-chancellor of strategic engagement at the University of Auckland and chair of the new institute, said the challenges of the consortium had concerned how the three institutions would achieve a strategy and operations consensus for the new institute.

“I think we have to remember the institute will be present at a number of places, events are going to take pace at the other universities and also overseas, so it is very much a collective effort.”

“AUT, like Otago, has a large representation of Pacific students, Pacific staff. AUT has the Pacific Media Centre — these were assets the collective bid offered.”

A launch statement noted:

• The three universities in collaboration educate 75 percent of all Pacific Island university students in New Zealand, and produce 60 percent of Pacific PhDs. They also employ 90 percent of the 175 Pacific academics working in universities across New Zealand.

• The ministry is contributing $7.5 million over five-years to the NZIPR.

• Research of the NZIPR is agenda-driven by the ministry. The first five research cases of interest for the institute are: Mapping donor contributions in the Pacific, labour markets for sustainable and economic development in the Pacific, commercial potential of land in the Pacific, private-sector investment in the Pacific and the role of sovereign trust funds.

From Marshall Islands Journal

By Giff Johnson in Majuro

The ousting this week of President Casten Nemra, only two weeks into his term as president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, by a successful vote of no confidence, suggests family ties have trumped customary authority that once dominated the Nitijela’s leadership lineup.

Dr Hilda Heine’s election on Wednesday — with 24 out of 30 votes — is another unprecedented twist in the leadership battles that have played out in Nitijela this month — she is the first woman elected president in the RMI.

Indeed, she is the first female head of state of an independent nation in the Pacific Islands.

She was sworn in on Thursday by District Court Judge Milton Zackios. Her husband, First Gentleman Tommy Kijiner Jr., was with her.

Despite Kwajalein Senator and Iroij Mike Kabua’s orchestration of Nemra’s one-vote victory as President on January 4, the coalition that propelled him to the presidency as the youngest and only the second commoner president collapsed in fewer than five days.

Key to this was the defection of the three Heine family members — all Cabinet ministers during the past four years of the Loeak administration — to the opposition.

The Heines’ move to the opposition followed Nemra offering Cabinet postings to only two of the three — Hilda and Wilbur, but not Thomas.

Read more about this saga in the weekend edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.

Hilda Heine elected first female Pacific leader as president of the Marshall Islands