By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific news editor

There are conflicting reports of the official death toll from this week’s massive earthquake in Vanuatu as rescue teams continue to scour the rubble for survivors.

On Tuesday, the Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office reported 14 deaths.

It said four people had been confirmed dead by the hospital, six others were killed in a landslide and four others died in a collapsed building.

• READ MORE: Stranded workers desperate to get home to their families in quake-stricken Vanuatu
• Live RNZ News feed

But yesterday, the disaster management office reported only nine people had been confirmed dead by the hospital and made no mention of the deaths it had earlier attributed to the landslides and collapsed buildings.

One consistent figure is the more than 200 people injured, with the hospital saying many patients were being treated for broken bones.

Damage and destruction
According to the Vanuatu government’s disaster assessment team, most of the damage from the earthquake had been to the Port Vila CBD on the main island of Efate.

This area has been closed to the public and search and rescue operations were ongoing.

Any buildings still standing had sustained significant structural damage.

The Port Vila main wharf remained closed due to a major landslide.

The two main water reservoirs supplying Port Vila had been totally destroyed and would require reconstruction — an assessment of the rest of the water network was ongoing.

A boil water notice is in place for all of Vila.

Power and telecommunications
The utility company Unelco is working to restore power and water supply.

Vodafone Vanuatu informed its customers that instant messaging on Messenger, Viber and WhatsApp had been restored on its mobile network.

Audio and video calling via these platforms, however, was still unavailable by today.

Vodafone said its team was working hard to resolve these issues and fully restore its internet services.

State of emergency
A one-week state of emergency was declared on Tuesday by the President, Nikenike Vurobaravu, for the worst affected areas.

Police had been urging people to adhere to the nightly curfew of 6pm to 6am local time.

They had also warned of a greater chance of opportunistic crimes being committed after the disaster and urged everyone to look out for each other.

Commercial flights
There were no commercial flights operating into or out of Vanuatu.

Local authorities said on Tuesday they were closing the Bauerfield International Airport to commercial flights for 72 hours to repair damage and prioritise disaster relief flights.

Passengers booked to fly Fiji Airways to Vila on Thursday had their flights moved to December 21.

Solomon Airlines had also indicated it would resume flying to Vanuatu from Saturday.

Virgin Airlines has cancelled flights until Sunday and a spokesperson for the Qantas Group told the ABC they were monitoring the situation closely.

International aid
International defence and medical personnel, search and rescue teams and disaster response experts from New Zealand, Australia and France were now on the ground in Port Vila.

They were helping local emergency response teams, which had been working around the clock since Tuesday’s 7.3 magnitude quake alongside locally based staff at UN agencies and non-government organisations in Vila.

Time is of the essence for the teams scouring the rubble for any sign of survivors.

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

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the 12-day state of emergency imposed in New Caledonia on May 15 would not be extended “for the time being”.

The decision not to renew the state of emergency was mainly designed to “allow the components of the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) to hold meetings and to be able to go to the roadblocks and ask for them to be lifted”, Macron said in a media release late yesterday.

The state of emergency officially ended at 5am today (Nouméa time).

• READ MORE: French repressive policies in New Caledonia have ‘betrayed’ Kanak hopes — David Robie video
• Amid Kanaky New Caledonia’s unrest, I saw first-hand the same colonial white privilege that caused it
• West Papua independence group slams French ‘modern-day colonialism’
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

It was imposed after deadly and destructive riots erupted in the French Pacific archipelago with a backdrop of ongoing protests against proposed changes to the French Constitution, that would allow citizens having resided there for at least 10 years to take part in local elections.

Pro-independence parties feared the opening of conditions of eligibility would significantly weaken the indigenous Kanak population’s political representation.

During a 17-hour visit to New Caledonia on Thursday last week, Macron set the lifting of blockades as the precondition to the resumption of “concrete and serious” political talks regarding New Caledonia’s long-term political future.

The talks were needed in order to find a successor agreement, including all parties (pro-independence and “loyalists” or pro-France), to the Nouméa Accord signed in 1998.

Attempts to hold these talks, over the past two-and-a-half years, have so far failed.

House arrests lifted
Not renewing the state of emergency would also put an end to restriction on movements and a number of house arrests placed on several pro-independence radical leaders — including Christian Téin, the leader of a so-called CCAT (Field Action Coordination Committee), close to the more radical fringe of FLNKS.

The CCAT is regarded as the main organiser of the protests which led to ongoing unrest.

In a speech published on social networks on Friday after Macron’s visit, Téin called for the easing of security measures to allow him to speak to militants, but in the same breath he assured supporters the intention was to “remain mobilised and maintain resistance”.

Since they broke out on May 13, the riots have caused seven deaths, hundreds of injuries and estimated damage of almost 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion) to the local economy. Up to 500 companies, business and retail stores had also been looted or destroyed by arson.

Following Macron’s visit last week, a “mission” consisting of three high-level public servants has remained in New Caledonia to foster a resumption of political dialogue between leaders of all parties.

More reinforcements
In the same announcement, the French presidential office said a fresh contingent of “seven additional gendarme mobile forces units, for a total of 480” would be flown to New Caledonia “within the coming hours”.

Macron said this would bring the number of security forces in New Caledonia to 3500.

He once again condemned the blockades and looting, saying “this violence cannot pretend to represent a legitimate political action”.

In parallel to the lifting of the state of emergency, a dusk-to-dawn curfew remained in force.

On the ground, mainly in Nouméa and its outskirts, security operations were ongoing, with several neighbourhoods and main access roads still blocked and controlled by pockets of rioters.

At the weekend, intrusions from groups of rioters forced French forces to evacuate some 30 residents (mostly of European descent) some of whose houses had been set on fire.

La Tontouta airport still closed
Meanwhile, the international Nouméa-La Tontouta airport would remain closed to all commercial flights until June 2, it was announced on Monday. The airport, which remained cut off from the capital Nouméa due to pro-independence roadblocks, has been closed for the past three weeks.

French delegate minister for Overseas Marie Guévenoux, who arrived with Macron last week and has remained in New Caledonia since, assured on Sunday the situation in Nouméa and its outskirts was “improving”.

“Police and gendarmes are slowly regaining ground… The (French) state will regain all of these neighbourhoods,” she told France Television.

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

After a week of violence that broke out in the capital of Nouméa following a controversial parliamentary vote for a bill expanding the settler electorate in New Caledonia, RSF said in a statement that the crisis was worrying for journalists working there.

RSF called on the authorities and “all the forces involved” to ensure their safety and guarantee the right to information.

• READ MORE: President Emmanuel Macron to fly to New Caledonia within hours
• Liberation for New Caledonia’s Kanak people ‘must come’, says media educator – Audio
• ‘You are not alone’ Pacific messages of solidarity for Kanaky
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

While covering the clashes in Nouméa on Friday, May 17, a crew from the public television channel Nouvelle-Calédonie La 1ère, consisting of a journalist and a cameraman, were intimidated by about 20 unidentified hooded men.

They snatched the camera from the cameraman’s hands and threatened him with a stone, before smashing the windows of the journalists’ car and trying to seize it.

“The public broadcaster’s crew managed to escape thanks to the support of a motorist. France Télévisions management said it had filed a complaint the same day,” RSF reported.

According to a dozen accounts gathered by RSF, working conditions for journalists deteriorated rapidly from Wednesday, May 15, onwards.

Acts of violence
As the constitutional bill amending New Caledonia’s electoral body was adopted by the National Assembly on the night of May 14/15, a series of acts of violence broke out in the Greater Nouméa area, either by groups protesting against the electoral change or by militia groups formed to confront them.

The territory has been placed under a state of emergency and is subject to a curfew from which journalists are exempt.

RSF is alerting the authorities in particular to the situation facing freelance journalists: while some newsrooms are organising to send support to their teams in New Caledonia, freelance reporters find themselves isolated, without any instructions or protective equipment.

“The attacks on journalists covering the situation in New Caledonia are unacceptable. Everything must be done so that they can continue to work and thus ensure the right to information for all in conditions of maximum safety,” said Anne Bocandé,
editorial director of RSF.

“RSF calls on the authorities to guarantee the safety and free movement of journalists throughout the territory.

“We also call on all New Caledonian civil society and political leaders to respect the integrity and the work of those who inform us on a daily basis and enable us to grasp the reality on the ground.”

While on the first day of the clashes on Monday, May 13, according to the information gathered by RSF, reporters managed to get through the roadblocks and talk to all the forces involved — especially those who are well known locally — many of them are still often greeted with hostility, if not regarded as persona non grata, and are the victims of intimidation, threats or violence.

“At the roadblocks, when we are identified as journalists, we receive death threats,” a freelance journalist told RSF.

“We are pelted with stones and violently removed from the roadblocks. The situation is likely to get worse”, a journalist from a local media outlet warned RSF.

As a result, most of the journalists contacted by RSF are forced to work only in the area around their homes.

“In any case, we’re running out of petrol. In the next few days, we’re going to find it hard to work because of the logistics,” said a freelance journalist contacted by RSF.

Distrust of journalists
The 10 or so journalists contacted by RSF — who requested anonymity against a backdrop of mistrust — have at the very least been the target of repeated insults since the start of the fighting.

According to information gathered by RSF, these insults continue outside the roadblocks, on social networks.

The majority of the forces involved, who are difficult for journalists to identify, share a mistrust of the media coupled with a categorical refusal to be recognisable in the images of reporters, photographers and videographers.

On May 15, President Emmanuel Macron declared an immediate state of emergency throughout New Caledonia. On the same day, the government announced a ban on the social network TikTok.

President Macron is due in New Caledonia today to introduce a “dialogue mission” in an attempt to seek solutions.

To date, six people have been killed and several injured in the clashes.

Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

The suspected ringleaders of the unrest in New Caledonia have been placed in home detention and the social network TikTok has been banned as French security forces struggle to restore law and order.

The French territory faced its fourth day of severe rioting and unrest yesterday after protests erupted over proposed constitutional amendments.

Four people have now been confirmed dead, Charles Wea, a spokesperson for international relations for the president’s office, said.

• READ MORE: Why is New Caledonia on fire? According to local women, the deadly riots are about more than voting rights
• NZ families worried as loved ones shelter from violent unrest in New Caledonia
  France declares state of emergency in New Caledonia – four die in riots
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

The death toll has been revised today to five people after officials confirmed the death of a second police officer. However, RNZ Pacific understands it was an accidental killing which occurred as troops were preparing to leave barracks.

A newly introduced state of emergency has enabled suspected ringleaders to be placed in home detention, as well as a ban on Tiktok to be put in place.

French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said Nouméa remained the “hottest spot” with some 3000-4000 rioters still in action on the streets of the capital Nouméa and another 5000 in the Greater Nouméa area.

Wea told RNZ Pacific the demonstrators “were very angry when their friends and families had been killed”.

‘Shops still closed’
“Shops are still closed. Many houses have been burnt. The international airport is closed, only military planes are allowed to land from Paris.”

Reports RNZ Pacific are receiving from the capital paint a dire picture. Shops are running out of food and hospitals are calling for blood donations.

Enforcing the state of emergency in New Caledonia.  Video: [in French] Caledonia TV

“This morning [Thursday] a few shops have been opened so people can buy some food to eat,” Wea said.

RNZ Pacific former news editor Walter Zweifel, who has been covering the French Pacific territory for over three decades, said New Caledonia had not seen unrest like this since the 1980s.

The number of guns circulating in the community was a major problem as people continued to carry firearms despite a government ban, he said.

“There are so many firearms in circulation, attempts to limit the number of weapons have been made over the years unsuccessfully.

“We are talking about roughly 100,000 arms or rifles in circulation in New Caledonia with a population of less than 300,000.”

More details about fatalities
One of the four people earlier reported dead was a French gendarme, who was reported to have been shot in the head.

“The other three are all Melanesians,” Le Franc said.

One was a 36-year-old Kanak man, another a 20-year-old man and the third was a 17-year-old girl.

The deaths occurred during a clash with one of the newly formed “civil defence” groups, who were carrying guns, Le Franc said.

“Those who have committed these crimes are assassins. They are individuals who have used firearms.

“Maintaining law and order is a matter for professionals, police and gendarmes.”

Le Franc added: “We will look for them and we will find them anyway, so I’m calling them to surrender right now . .. so that justice can take its course.”

‘Mafia-like, violent organisation’
French Home Affairs and Overseas minister Gérald Darmanin told public TV channel France 2 he had placed 10 leaders of the CCAT (an organisation linked to the pro-independence FLNKS movement and who Darmanin believed to be the main organiser of the riots) under home detention.

“This is a Mafia-like body which I do not amalgamate with political pro-independence parties . . . [CCAT] is a group that claims itself to be pro-independence and commits looting, murders and violence,” he said.

Similar measures would be taken against other presumed leaders over the course of the day [Thursday French time].

“I have numerous elements which show this is a Mafia-like, violent organisation that loots stores and shoots real bullets at [French] gendarmes, sets businesses on fire and attacks even pro-independence institutions,” Darmanin told France 2.

Massive reinforcements were to arrive shortly and the French state would “totally regain control”, he said.

The number of police and gendarmes on the ground would rise from 1700 to 2700 by Friday night.

Darmanin also said he would request that all legitimate political party leaders across the local spectrum be placed under the protection of police or special intervention group members.

Pointing fingers
Earlier on Thursday, speaking in Nouméa, Le Franc targeted the CCAT, saying there was no communication between the French State and CCAT, but that “we are currently trying to locate them”.

“This is a group of hooligans who wish to kill police, gendarmes. This has nothing to do with FLNKS political formations which are perfectly legitimate.

“But this CCAT structure is no longer relevant. Those who are at the helm of this cell are all responsible. They will have to answer to the courts,” he said.

However, CCAT has said it had called for calm.

Wea said the CCAT “did not tell the people to steal or break”.

The problem was that the French government “did not want to listen”, he said.

“The FLNKS has said for months not to go through with this bill.

France ‘not recognising responsibility’
“It is easy to say the CCAT are responsible, but the French government does not want to recognise their responsibility.”

Wea said he was hopeful for a peaceful resolution.

The FLNKS had always said that the next discussion with the French government would need to be around the continued management and organisation of the country for the next five years, he said.

The FLNKS also wanted to talk about the process of decolonisation.

“It is important to note that the [Pacific Islands Forum] and also the Melanesian Spearhead Group have always supported the independence of New Caledonia because independence is in the agenda of the United Nation.”

The Melanesian Spearhead Group and Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Charlot Salwai called on the French government to withdraw or annul the proposed constitutional amendments that sparked the civil unrest.

French President Emmanuel Macron said from Paris, where a meeting of a national defence council was now taking place every day, that he wished to hold a video conference with all of New Caledonia’s political leaders in order to assess the current situation.

But Wea said the problem was that “the French government don’t want to listen”.

“You cannot stop the Kanak people claiming freedom in their own country.”

He said concerns were mounting that Kanak people would “become a minority in their own country”.

That was why it was so important that the controversial constitutional amendments did not go any further, he said.

Economic impact
In the face of massive damage caused to the local economy, Southern Province President Sonia Backès has pleaded with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal for a “special reconstruction fund” to be set up for New Caledonia’s businesses.

“The local Chamber of Commerce estimates that initial damage to our economy amounts to some 150 million euros [NZ$267 million],” she wrote.

All commercial flights in and out of Nouméa-La Tontouta International Airport remain cancelled.

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

Worried New Caledonian expats in Aotearoa admit they are “terrified” for friends and family amid ongoing violence and civil unrest in the French Pacific territory.

The death toll remained at four tonight, and hundreds have been injured after electoral changes sparked widespread rioting by pro-independence supporters in the capital of Nouméa.

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared a 12-day state of emergency and about 1200 police enforcements are due to arrive from France.

• LISTEN TO RNZ CHECKPOINT: Latest on unrest in New Caledonia
• Expats worried about families in New Caledonia
• READ MORE: Nouméa ‘was on fire’ – New Zealander in New Caledonia tells of unrest
  France declares state of emergency in New Caledonia – four die in riots
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

Many worried locals have been confined to their homes.

New Zealand-based New Caledonians have explained how the situation in their homeland has left them on edge.

Pascale Desrumaux and her family have been in Auckland for two years.

With parts of the country in turmoil, she said she was scared for her family and friends back home in Nouméa.

“I’m terrified and I’m very stressed,” Desrumaux said.

“[My family] are afraid for their lives.”

‘Locked in’
The precarious situation is illustrated by the fact her family cannot leave their homes and neighbouring stores have been ransacked then torched by protesters.

“They are locked in at the moment, so they can’t move — so they feel anxiety of course,” Desrumaux said.

“On top of that, shortly they will run out of food.

“The situation is complex.”

Desrumaux is checking in with family members every few hours for updates.

Amid the current climate, she said she had mixed emotions about being abroad.

“This shared feeling of being relieved to be here in New Zealand and grateful because my kids and husband are not in danger,” she said.

“At the same time I feel so bad for my friends and family over there.”

‘A beautiful place’
She stressed her home country remained “a beautiful place” and hoped the crisis could be resolved peacefully.

Fellow Auckland-based New Caledonian Anais Bride said she had been left distraught by what was unfolding.

In the past 48 hours, her parents have vacated their Nouméa home to stay with Bride’s sister as tensions escalated.

Based on her conversations with loved ones, she said that international news coverage had not fully conveyed the fluid crisis facing citizens on the ground.

“It took my mother a little while for her to accept the fact that it was time to leave, because she wanted to stay where she lives.

“My sisters’ just told her ‘at the end of the day, it’s just your house, it’s material’.

“It’s been hard for my parents.”

One supermarket standing
She said there was only one supermarket left standing in Nouméa, with many markets destroyed by fire.

Kevin, who did not want his surname to be published, is another New Caledonian living in New Zealand.

While his family has not seen much unrest first hand, explosions and smoke were constant where they were, he said.

He said it was hard to predict how the unrest could be straightened out.

“It’s hard to tell,” he said.

“The most tragic thing of course is the four deaths, and many businesses have been burned down so many people will lose their job.

“The main thing is how people rebuild connections, peace and of course the economy.”

‘Timely exit’ from Nouméa
Christchurch woman Viki Moore spent a week in New Caledonia before making a “timely exit” out of Nouméa on Monday as civil tension intensified.

“There was a heavy police presence out at the airport with two [armoured vehicles] at the entrance and heavily armed military police roaming around.

“Once we got into the airport we were relieved to be there in this sort of peaceful oasis.

“We didn’t really have a sense of what was still to come.”

She admitted that she did not fully comprehend the seriousness of it until she had left the territory.

Warnings for travellers
Flights through Nouméa are currently grounded.

Air New Zealand said it was monitoring the situation in New Caledonia, with its next flight NZ932 from Auckland to Nouméa still scheduled for Saturday morning.

Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan said this “could be subject to change”.

“The safety of our passengers, crew, and airport staff is our top priority and we will not operate flights unless their safety can be guaranteed,” he said.

“We will keep passengers updated on our services and advise customers currently in Nouméa to follow the advice of local authorities and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”

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

A New Zealand man has described scenes of chaos in the New Caledonia capital of Nouméa during the escalating civil unrest.

Four people have died and hundreds have been injured during rioting by pro-independence supporters over electoral changes.

French president Emmanuel Macron has declared a 12-day state of emergency and about 1200 police enforcements were due to arrive from France.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: Tourists stuck in New Caledonia as riots continue
• Period of instability on cards for New Caledonia, says former Australian consul-general
• France declares state of emergency in New Caledonia – four die in riots
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

New Zealand has upgraded its SafeTravel alert for parts of New Caledonia.

All commercial flights to and from the Nouméa-La Tontouta international airport have been cancelled and many holiday makers have been stuck in Nouméa.

Aucklander Mike Lightfoot is one of those people. He arrived in Nouméa in Monday and described the scenes in the city for RNZ Morning Report.

Lightfoot said that as he and his wife started to make their way to their hotel they saw protesters, some with machetes, but they were not too worried.

‘Intersections on fire’
“It was very peaceful, we thought at the time, but as we got closer into town we could certainly see there was unrest.

“There was intersections on fire . . . as we came into the town itself there were the Gendarmerie in full gear . . . we thought this was getting serious.”

Lightfoot said his wife needed a doctor for a chest condition and as they were in the doctor’s surgery “we heard explosions and gunshots very close to us”.

“They were rioting right through town, the town was on fire. Fortunately our taxi driver pulled down a side street, stopped for a second, got himself together. There were people running around our car and carrying on and he took off.

“We climbed up in through the suburbs and as we came down to try and get back to our hotel we came to a roundabout and they had the roundabout completely blocked off, there would have been, we estimate, around 150 of them there protesting.

“The whole roundabout was on fire, they had big blocks in the middle of the road.

“As we edged through, the smoke was so black we couldn’t really see the road. One of them whacked the car as we went through but yeah, it was pretty unsettling . . . ”

‘Be prepared to evacuate’
His hotel, Chateau Royal, has asked people staying there not to step foot outside of the complex and “they’ve asked us to be prepared, that we may need to evacuate”.

About 51 New Zealanders were staying at the hotel, he said.

“We’re sort of feeling that people in New Zealand are really not understanding how serious this is and it’s quite unsettling for us all here, in fact we want out of here very quickly to be fair.”

Lightfoot said the airlines were keeping them informed.

“As soon as we are able to get to the airport they’ve [one airline] said that we are definitely on one of those planes. Air New Zealand at this point are planning to have a flight here on Saturday, if that goes ahead they also have us listed on that flight to get us out.”

Supplies in the issue were a problem and staff were living on site for their own safety, he said.

RNZ Pacific’s Koroi Hawkins said some Kanak leaders have told him they seem to have lost control of the youth.

Other residents in the city of Nouméa, some of them pro-French, have began to arm themselves as vigilantes.

Unrest a concern – Sepuloni
Labour Party’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni told RNZ’s First Up the growing unrest in New Caledonia was a concern.

Sepuloni said it was a worry, but she was not sure whether New Zealand would have any involvement in trying to bring the situation in the French territory under control.

At last year’s Pacific Leaders Forum, French Polynesian representatives were already expressing concern about how some policies from the French government might affect its inidgenous population, she said.

Glimmer of hope, says former envoy
A former Australian consul-general for New Caledonia Denise Fisher said measures in the French territory could hopefully fix the immediate security problem, but this was not the core issue.

“The key issue that set off the situation was about representation, who can vote in local elections.

“And it seems such an esoteric issue but it’s a critical issue, especially for the independence supporters.”

Fisher said 40 years ago, when peace agreements were reached after four years of violence, the key issue for the Kanak independence leaders was to constrain voting to only those with long term residence in New Caledonia.

“So it’s a core issue with the breaking down and the expiry of these agreements. We’re now in a political kind of a vacuum and talks about this haven’t got very far.”

She said there was a glimmer of hope on Wednesday.

“Some independence parties and some loyalist parties issued a joint communiqué calling for peace

“They’ve been having, as they have at the end of last year, informal talks, that they think they can talk and come to some sort of agreement to put to the French in the next couple of weeks.”

France has declared a state of emergency on the Pacific territory of New Caledonia — New Zealand’s closest neighbour — after four people, including a police officer, have been killed in pro-independence riots over voting changes that further marginalise indigenous Kanaks, news agencies report.

The move came as the French government confirmed an additional 500 members of the French national police and gendarmerie were being sent to the territory to reinforce the 1800 already there and to try and quell the violence.

The state of emergency will last 12 days and give authorities additional powers to ban gatherings and forbid people from moving around the French-ruled territory.

• READ MORE: Three killed in riots after France backs New Caledonia vote changes
• Flashback explainer: Betrayal of Kanaky decolonisation by Paris risks return to dark days – David Robie
• New Caledonia violence ‘unfortunate’ but ‘not surprising’, says Pacific Forum chief
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

The last time France imposed such measures on one of its overseas territories was in 1985 —  also in New Caledonia in the middle of a similar upheaval known as “Les événements“, the Interior Ministry said.

Rioters torched vehicles and businesses and looted stores and this video below (in French) from the local Caledonia TV shows the destruction in the wake of the protests.

Deaths amid the third day of rioting.               Video: Caledonia TV

Last year, the Papua New Guinea government moved in a subtle way into the Fourth Estate.

It tried to — and is still trying to — find a way to curtail and restrict your access to mainstream and social media by trying to gag media organisations.

Obviously, this was an attack on media freedom. We were not going to take it sitting down.

• READ MORE:  Masiu vows 10-day shutdown of PNG’s social media after capital riots
• PNG political fallout from deadly riots stirs call for vote over Marape
• PNG’s Gerehu became a ‘ghost town in the blink of an eye’ after riot
• Marape accuses ‘rogue police’ of being part of Port Moresby’s riots
• ‘Uphold right to life’ says watchdog in aftermath of deadly PNG unrest

We met the government head-on to protect our country’s media freedoms, and to ensure the public — that’s you — are well informed on what is happening in our country.

Today, we report on a government endeavor, which we consider extremely dangerous and an affront to the intelligence of Papua New Guineans, which we also believe is impinging our constitutional freedoms.

The government, in introducing a State of Emergency, has gone to a dangerous level of invoking section 70 of the NICTA Act.

Section 70, according to our Prime Minister, gives absolute rights to government agents including police, soldiers and undercover agents, to enter any home and check private house and property.

Section 70 also gives these agents all the power to search your phone. This is in our view draconian and extreme.

What will become of democracy? Is this a test run for what is yet to come?

We will support any move to impose restrictions that will save lives and protect properties and ensure peace and good order.

But we do not promote laws that will instill fear, limit freedom and impinge on the rights of the common people.

No to draconian governance, no to dictatorial leadership.

While we support the State of Emergency as a deterrent to further violence, looting and acts of terror against businesses and citizens, we consider the power to search without a warrant as a direct attack on the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution to our people.

This Section 70 of the National Information and Communication Technology (NICTA) Act 2009 seems to be the same section used by government in its recent attempt to curtail the media.

While this action seems to have been sparked by the Black Wednesday looting in Port Moresby on December 10, one cannot rule out the perplexity of the first sitting of Parliament on February 13 where a Vote of No Confidence in the government is looming.

The NICTA Act allows the government to require operator licensees, such as telecommunication companies, to provide ICT services, restrict or delay certain communications, disclose the content of specified communications to the Minister, and coordinate with other government organisations if necessary.

The activation of Section 70 is likely to agitate citizens regarding privacy rights and the protection of personal information.

However, the government contends that these measures are necessary to address public emergencies and ensure public safety.

The government has yet to come clear on how this section 70 will be enforced and carried out.

Will the police and army use section 70 to conduct raids on suspected homes, communities, and people?

Will there be search warrants for these phone searches, home searches, bag searches?

What is the recourse for the public if they are caught in the crossfire of section 70?

The Prime Minister and his Minister for Internal Security must explain this clearly.

This editorial was published by the PNG Post-Courier on 16 January 2024.

Papua New Guinea’s Communications Minister Timothy Masiu has announced stringent measures to control social media in the country for the next 10 days of the State of Emergency.

The government’s threat drew a sharp rebuke from former prime minister Peter O’Neill who called the move a “sinister fear campaign against the people” and “a threat on the media freedom” of ordinary citizens.

Masiu, a former journalist before becoming a politician, warned that the government would not hesitate to shut down social media applications and sites if there was continuous abuse and misuse of social media in spreading fake news, misinformation and disinformation in the country.

• READ MORE:  PNG political fallout from deadly riots stirs call for vote over Marape
• PNG Post-Courier editorial – Draconian and dangerous move
• PNG’s Gerehu became a ‘ghost town in the blink of an eye’ after riot
• Marape accuses ‘rogue police’ of being part of Port Moresby’s riots
• ‘Uphold right to life’ says watchdog in aftermath of deadly PNG unrest

He issued the warning citing significant evidence of serious abuse of social media spreading false information that led to destruction of properties in the capital Port Moresby and parts of the country in last week’s Black Wednesday resulting in deaths.

Masiu said people who engaged in such bogus activity would lose their social media accounts and they could be arrested and charged for fomenting acts of violence.

He said: “I have statutory power under the National Information and Communication Technology Act 2009 to restrict access to social media sites and applications if this continues.

“The Ministry of ICT has observed a sharp spike in the use of social media from Wednesday, January 10, 2024, and many are misinformation and disinformation and we now give 10 days effective from today for people to adhere or face a complete shutdown of social media sites and applications for the duration of the State of Emergency. ”

‘Monitoring of false information’
He said discussions on social media that incited violence, destruction, spreading of false information or confidential government information, opinions that were wrong, or sending false information would be monitored and legal action taken immediately.

Masiu said national security, public emergency and public safety was critical to a secure nation and a “happy and safe country”.

“I have instructed the agencies under my ministry to strengthen monitoring and report any abuses of social media to the police cybercrime unit to begin investigations, arrest and prosecute and also take down fake accounts and sites.”

Last Friday, when introducing the two-week State of Emergency following Black Wednesday, Prime Minister James Marape announced draconian emergency measures including searches of private homes, property, vehicle and phones by government agents.

Masiu said PNG was a civilised country and citizens must abide by rules and laws. Every citizen had a duty and obligation to ensure “we progress to be a better country”.

However, an irate O’Neill said: “It is not surprising that we see intimidating armoured personnel carriers on the streets today in Port Moresby and now threats that our freedom of speech will be removed with the potential cancellation of social media.

“The government is doing its very best to shut down our constitutional rights in a fear campaign.”

Government ‘fears people’s voices’
O’Neill continued to counter the government plan by suggesting the government now feared the people’s voices.

“It seems that the government is in fear of the voice of its own people when it should instead be listening to the struggle of the people who discuss online the bad governance practices of this government; high unemployment; budget in a mess and crippling cost of living,” he said.

“That is what people are talking about on the street, in their homes and on social media. Will they next enter our homes and monitor conversation’s between family members?

“Government should listen up and stop this nonsense of trying to control our vibrant democracy.

Get back to basics and build our country; live within our means and develop jobs and provide quality healthcare and education. Get back to old fashioned policing not intimidation.”

Opposition Leader Joseph Lelang and his deputy Douglas Tomuriesa did not respond to PNG Post-Courier questions last night.

Republished with permission.

Fires from the 24-hour spate of looting, rioting and mayhem in Papua New Guinea’s Port Moresby — the worst ever social unrest in the city — have all but subsided into skeletal remains of ash and buildings in National Capital District (NCD).

The smoke has cleared with six members of Parliament resigning from the Pangu Pati-led government, 10 people are dead in in Lae and NCD, 46 are wounded and hospitalised, and multiple people are suffering non-threatening injuries.

The government responded by declaring a State of Emergency in NCD and suspending Police Commissioner David Manning and secretaries of the Department of Finance Sam Penias, Treasury Andrew Oeka, Personnel Management Taies Sansan for 14 days.

• READ MORE: PNG’s Marape under pressure to resign as 6 MPs quit after Moresby riots
• At least 15 dead in Papua New Guinea rioting and looting – China lodges protest
• At least 10 dead after looting, fires on Port Moresby’s ‘darkest day’
• Violent riots in PNG leave 16 people dead, as PM declares state of emergency for 14 days
• Café Pacific’s report on the rioting as death toll rises
• Looting breaks out in PNG capital during police and military strike
• Contingent of Highlands Mobile Squad expected in Port Moresby
• Kavieng town under siege

The Post-Courier understands there was disagreement on the suspension and that the SOE was not the way forward. However, National Executive Council decided on going ahead with the SOE and suspension.

According to details released by Prime Minister James Marape, cabinet deliberated yesterdy afternoon and in a decision invoking Section 226 of the Constitution a a 14-day SOE was declared in Port Moresby only.

“14 days is the limit of the SOE, any longer period would require Parliament approval,” Marape said.

Meanwhile, according to the details released by Marape, Deputy Commissioner of Police-Special Operations Donald Yamasombi is now acting Police Commissioner and Controller of the country.

“Secretaries for Treasury, Finance and Personnel Management who are suspended for 14 days, their respective deputies are now acting.”

Prime Minister Marape reiterated his claim that Wednesday’s riots in Port Moresby had been organised, but declined to say they were political, instead saying his government would only be removed on floor of Parliament.

He said that Chief Secretary and others would undertake an investigation of what happened in Port Moresby.

In other coverage of the crisis by the weekend edition of the Post-Courier, Claudia Tally reports:

Few shops open
Port Moresby was in confusion yesterday following the aftermath of the worst ever civil disorder as reality sets in leaving people with no shops open to buy food and essentials from.

While the PNG Defence Force and members of the police patrolled the city’s streets in an attempt to restore normalcy many genuine city residents were queued at the only three service stations open to refuel their vehicles in anticipation of the weekend.

A-Mart supermarket at Manu Auto Port was the only shop open within the vicinity of Taurama and Boroko suburbs where angry shoppers crowded around the shop begging for entry which was heavily guarded by PNG Defence Force soldiers.

On Wednesday, more than 20 shops were looted and 8 others burnt leaving the streets of Port Moresby covered in papers and plastics from the items that were looted by hundreds of people who took advantage of the city polices strike over their salaries.

A mother of four who wished to be anonymous was worried where she would buy food for her children over the next couple of weeks as all the shops, she knows have been either looted, burnt or are closed for security reasons.

“I went to a shop at Hanuabada and waited for three hours for it to open to buy my children’s food but unfortunately, it was not open so I came back,” she said.

‘How are we going to survive’
“If these issues are not resolved, how are we going to survive.

“These shops are our gardens. They are where we get our food from.”

Meanwhile, many tucker boxes and canteens in the city were open today and their prices have sky rocketed only hours after Wednesday’s wild rampage.

For example, at Konedobu a 1kg packet of rice now costs K10 (NZ $4.50) — double the price prior to the looting.

Following the disorder, many clinics were also closed to the public over safety concerns.

Miriam Zarriga, Gorethy Kenneth and Claudia Tally are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

Papua New Guinea’s opposition has called on Prime Minister James Marape to immediately recall Parliament to address the escalating killings in the upper Highlands provinces.

The opposition also wants the debate to include other law and order issues that have spiralled out of control in other parts of the country.

The call was made by Deputy Opposition leader Douglas Tomuriesa following images of victims lined up along the highway in the Enga Province.

• READ MORE: Other PNG crime reports

“I strongly urge the Prime Minister to recall Parliament for us leaders to come together as one and discuss the possibility of passing an Emergency Act as allowed for by the Constitution to address this serious issue,” he said.

“These gruesome images of human beings been murdered, stripped naked and lined up next to the highway by their enemies or criminal elements, especially in the upper Highlands provinces of Enga, Hela and Southern Highlands, is becoming a regular activity and the government and elected leaders must not take this lightly, its human lives we are talking about.

“It’s a national emergency and I call on the Prime Minister to immediately recall Parliament for a bipartisan committee to be formed to address this issue,” Tomuriesa said.

He said parliamentarians were elected to lead and address such serious issues affecting citizens and the country as a whole.

‘Killings too frequent’
“We as elected leaders shouldn’t be taking long breaks — these killings are becoming too frequent and we should be addressing them head on during Parliament sessions.

“We just cannot ignore it as fake social media posts,” he said.

Tomuriesa said he was making this call as a concerned citizen, a Papuan leader and deputy opposition leader.

“The spillover effects of what is happening up in the upper Highlands region will be felt everywhere — in Mamose, New Guinea Islands and the Southern Region. So as mandated leaders we must do something.”

Republished from PNG Post-Courier with permission.

A New Zealander on holiday in Maui says the wildfires devastating the Hawai’ian island are unlike anything he has seen before.

Deadly wildfires on Maui prompted a county-wide state of emergency, and several brush fires have also caused evacuations on Hawai’i Island.

Officials say at least 53 people have died and more than 270 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, the BBC reported.

• READ MORE: ‘It’s gone forever’: Wildfires ravage town at heart of Hawai’ian culture

US President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state of Hawai’i, meaning the federal government will provide funding to assist state and local recovery efforts.

Canada-based New Zealander Tim Hoy, who was on holiday in Maui, said powerful winds fuelled the fires as they spread.

“We’re located in between two fires right now, and the wind forces have been nothing like I’ve witnessed before,” he said.

“I’ve spent a lot of years in Wellington, it’s stronger than what you’d see on the strongest day in Wellington.”

Hundreds of NZers in Hawai’i
House of Travel chief operating officer Brent Thomas said hundreds of New Zealanders were on Hawai’i when the fires started.

“It’s a very popular destination, particularly given it’s winter in New Zealand,” he said.

“We’ve got hundreds of people up there at the moment, but obviously not all of them are impacted.”

WATCH: On-air view of Hawaii County after the fire incidents. #Hawaiiwildfires #mauifire #Hawaiifire #MauiWildfires pic.twitter.com/5lf8vvvjOM

— Forsige Breaking News (@ForsigeNews) August 10, 2023

Hoy said one of the fires was under control, but the other was still raging.

“They’ve done a great job of controlling one of the fires,” he said.

“The other one, it’s completely wiped out a township and it’s unable to be contained.”

Maui County estimated more than 270 buildings had been damaged in the fires.

“My daughter’s friend, her family’s house was burned down,” Hoy said. “They’re currently a few miles down the coast staying at accommodation there.”

Lāhainā devastated
The fire on the island’s west coast tore through the town of Lāhainā. Hoy said everyone there was told to evacuate.

“The area that got wiped out was a major tourist destination, and everyone’s been asked to leave Maui if they can,” he said. “So they’ve headed to the airport, and there’s people in shelters.”

Hawaii wildfires scorched land ‘like an apocalypse’
The wildfires began on Tuesday and spread quickly, fuelled by strong winds generated by Hurricane Dora#Hawaiiwildfires pic.twitter.com/CqG6o8Y5er

— Uelinton Arakaki (@ArakakiUelinton) August 10, 2023

Hawai’i Tourism Authority public affairs officer Illihia Gionson said Lāhainā, which was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawai’i, had historic and cultural importance.

“One of the most historic towns on Maui, Lāhainā, is for all intents and purposes burnt to the ground,” he said.

“Little left there other than ash and rubble, lots of older buildings [made of] wood. So it appears a lot of those landmarks are gone.”

Gionson said the safety of tourists was vital, but local residents needed the most support.

“We think about the importance of assisting visitors in getting out, to free up those resources and attention for the thousands of residents whose homes were affected, whose businesses were affected, whose livelihoods were affected,” he said.

“We’re keeping them front and centre in our thoughts and prayers.”

Victoria University Pacific Studies lecturer Dr Emalani Case, who was born in Hawai’i, said residents of Maui should come first.

She urged would-be tourists to stay away while the island recovered.

“A really important message to come out of what’s unfolding right now is: don’t go to Maui,” she said.

“If you’re planning a trip, don’t go there. The resources and the energies and the money on that island right now really needs to go to the people who are living there and who are going to have to struggle for a while.”

Dr Case said it was an emotional time for all Hawai’ians.

“It’s so hard to be so far away,” she said. “I don’t even think we know the scale of it all yet, but just watching it online has been heartbreaking.”

New Zealand’s Fire and Emergency said it was prepared to send firefighters to Hawai’i if the US government asked for help.

“We keep in frequent touch with our counterparts in Canada and the US during the northern hemisphere fire season,” a spokesperson said.

“So far we have not received a formal request for assistance from the USA.”

Service delivery wildfire manager Tim Mitchell said fires like those on Maui were extremely destructive.

“They get very hot, we’re talking hundreds or even thousands of degrees,” he said. “Under those conditions they’re just not survivable, and they absolutely consume everything in their path.”

He said it was vital for people to be aware of wildfire risks.

“They will spread faster than what you can outrun,” he said.

New Zealand will enter its own wildfire season within the next couple of months.

Mitchell said a fire could start anywhere and at any time.

“Historically, we wouldn’t have necessarily thought of Hawai’i as a high wildfire risk place, there’s places in New Zealand that we wouldn’t consider high risk,” he said.

“It just goes to show that, if you’ve got the dry vegetation and you get a spark or an ignition, that wildfires can occur everywhere.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. Additional reporting by the BBC.

A state of local emergency has been declared in Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest city Auckland today as heavy rain and thunderstorms affect the region.

Auckland’s Emergency Management duty controller said a band of heavy rain was expected to come across the Auckland region between now and 7pm.

Controller Parul Sood said that while there had been a lull in the rain further downfalls were possible with localised downpours of around 20 to 33 mm expected.

• READ MORE:  Body found at Whangārei caves during search for missing student
• RNZ live updates

She said Auckland Council had received about 490 stormwater related calls, the majority of which were to do with surface flooding, and only about 18 to do with flooding in homes.

Fire and Emergency has received 277 weather-related call outs today, most from Auckland.

Its on-call commander for Tāmaki Makaurau, Brad Mosby, said that about one third of the calls were urgent.

He urged people to avoid unnecessary travel and stay clear of floodwaters.

Meanwhile, thunderstorms continued to roll across the top half of the North Island.

Metservice said severe thunderstorm warnings were in place for South Waikato, Matamata Piako, Western Bay Of Plenty, Taupo and Rotorua until just before 4.30pm.

A severe thunderstorm Watch was also in force for Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula and the rest of Waikato and Bay Of Plenty.

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

A state of emergency has been declared in Vanuatu following the damage to infrastructure and homes left by severe tropical cyclone Judy.

It comes as the country deals with a second cyclone, called Kevin, bears down on the country.

At 2am local time the category 2 cyclone was about 165km south-west of Santo and 225km west north-west of Malekula.

• READ MORE: Other Vanuatu cyclone reports

Red alerts are in place for Sanma, Malampa, and Penama, with damaging gale force winds expected to affect those provinces within the next 12 hours.

Yellow alerts are in place for Torba and Shefa.

Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake has struck just offshore of Vanuatu.

The US Geological Survey reports the quake struck just after 5am local time, and was 10km deep.

No tsunami warning has been issued.

Action plan announced by PM
Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau said that declaring a state of emergency would allow the islands most affected by Judy to receive help immediately.

“I am pleased to announce that the Council of Ministers has met this afternoon [Thursday] and it has approved a request from the National Disaster Committee to ask the President of the Republic of Vanuatu to declare a State of Emergency for the islands that have been highly affected and impacted by tropical cyclone Judy — effective this evening.

“We have had two opportunities to meet with our partners and I am pleased to reveal everyone that has approached us are standing by to assist us in regard to conducting assessments and a quick response and whatever we require them to help us with.

“Therefore, on behalf of the people of Vanuatu and the government, I want to say to all these people thank you so much.

“To all our development partners who even as the tropical cyclone [Judy] started to approach us had already reached out and said they were standing by and ready to assist us.

“Our officials are working around the clock to try and assess the impact of the cyclone [Judy] on all the provinces in the country.

“At this stage they are still compiling an official report that we will be able to work with and which will enable our development partners to appreciate the level of assistance that we will require from them.

“As we speak aerial assessments are being undertaken along with other assessments on the ground to enable us to declare disaster zones in areas that are highly affected.”

Prime Minister Kalsakau said development partners have also offered help with assessments or quick responses to the most affected communities, or any help required by the Vanuatu government.

Aid group ‘gearing up’ to help
The country director for World Vision Vanuatu, Kendra Derousseau, said her organisation stood ready to help in the recovery.

“We are gearing up for some key response areas that we know happen after severe cyclones,” he said.

“That is emergency shelter provisions, such as tarps and also hammers and nails, and also hygiene kits to ensure that basic needs are met, as well as jerry cans so families can have access to clean water.

“And we will be standing by ready to go with those when the government approves us to respond,” she said.

Derousseau said said that while the capital Port Vila lost power its water service was quickly restored.

She said most of the city’s infrastructure appeared to have stood up to the storm but not some residential housing.

“So anyone who was living in either a tradtional house with a thatched roof or a less sturdy house than those with cyclone strapping and nailing would have suffered significant damage to their houses.”

Derousseau said the big concern now was Cyclone Kevin expected to arrive midday today in Port Vila.

Meanwhile, 11 babies from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Vila Central Hospital have a new refuge following damage caused by Cyclone Judy.

The babies have been moved to the former outpatient section in tho colonial hospital after the ceiling in the maternity Ward was damaged, causing leaks, making the ward unsafe for the babies in incubators.

There were also leaks in the children’s wards forcing a similar evacuation.

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

At least 2500 people have been displaced by Cyclone Gabrielle this week, says Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty.

About 1000 of those are in the Far North and another 1000 in Hawke’s Bay. The rest are mostly from Auckland, with some also in Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

But little is known about the situation in the east, with communications minimal and access hampered due to continued high winds and rain.

• READ MORE:  NZ declares national emergency as Cyclone Gabrielle unleashes fury across North Island
• Cyclone Gabrielle: Flooding and land slips isolate some Auckland regions
• Firefighters trapped, injured in Auckland’s Muriwai house collapse
• By the numbers: Cyclone Gabrielle’s impact
• Widespread damage: Cyclone Gabrielle in pictures
• Follow RNZ’s live news blog

Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence said a women had died in Putorino, after a bank collapsed onto her home.

Wairoa is of particular concern, with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) “working very hard” to find out what is happening in the northern Hawke’s Bay region.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, speaking to media yesterday with McAnulty, said the Telecommunications Emergency Forum “has been activated and is working closely with NEMA and local Civil Defence organisations”.

“The first priority… remains the restoration of regional cellphone signals. High winds and ongoing poor weather is hampering progress in that area.”

There has also been a fibre cut affecting Taupō, Hastings and Napier and other areas.

‘Completely isolated’ Wairoa only has one day’s food, Civil Defence says https://t.co/UBjWe4suda

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 14, 2023

Comparisons to Cyclone Bola
Hipkins called Cyclone Gabrielle the most significant weather event in New Zealand so far this century.

“The severity and the breadth of damage we are seeing has not been seen in a generation.”

Asked how it compared to 1988’s destructive Cyclone Bola, Hipkins said he “wasn’t around in this kind of role” then so could not immediately compare the two. Officials were still building a picture of the impact of the cyclone, he said.

“In the last 24 hours or so, Fire and Emergency New Zealand have 1842 incidents related to Cyclone Gabrielle in their system . . . Two-hundred defence force personnel have so far been deployed and there are more on standby.”

Transpower had announced a national grid emergency, following the loss of power to the Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, with potential for extended periods of outages, Hipkins said.

“This is a very significant event for the electricity network and the companies have not seen this level of damage since Cyclone Bola . . .

“The situation is changing rapidly and the lines companies are expecting more customers to be affected. They are working to restore power as quickly as possible… but restoration in some parts may have to wait until weather conditions improve.”

Many supermarkets in Northland have been affected and closed. People were asked to only buy what they needed, Hipkins said, urging people to avoid non-essential travel. If it was unavoidable, people should let friends and family know where they were going, he added.

“A high number of roads have been affected by surface flooding and by slips.”

The latest available information is on the Waka Kotahi website, which remained the best source of information for anyone having to travel, Hipkins said.

“On behalf of all New Zealanders I want to extend all of our gratitude to our emergency responders. They are putting in the hard yards and their lives are on the line in the service of their communities.

“To the families of the volunteer firefighters who responded to events in Muriwai last night and to the wider Fire and Emergency New Zealand family, our thoughts and hopes are with all of you.”

“To the men and women of the Defence Force, the linemen and women, the communication companies, the supermarkets, the transport companies getting goods to where they are needed, the roading crews that are making that all possible, thank you to you also.”

Danger remains
The good news is the weather is expected to ease overnight, Hipkins said. But that did not mean the danger would ease as quickly.

“People should still expect some bad weather overnight, particularly on the East Coast . . .  as we know from experience over the last few weeks, even if the rainfall eases off a bit, more rainfall can compound on top of the rainfall that we’ve already seen.

“So when it comes to slips and so on, we could still see more of that even as the weather starts to ease. We’re still in for a bumpy time ahead.”

The prime minister declined to put a figure on what the recovery might cost, but said insurance companies would cover a “significant portion”.

“People will pick numbers out of thin air and they may be right or they may be wrong. It’s really too early to put an exact number on it.”

He said it could impact on already fast-rising food prices, and would not rule out seeking international assistance.

Some farmers’ land has been damaged not just by the flooding, but forestry waste known as “slash”.

Hipkins said something would definitely need to be done to lessen the risk of slash destruction in the future.

Climate change’s contribution
As for climate change’s impact on the sheer scale of the storm, Hipkins rejected a suggestion that his actions since taking over as Prime Minister have weakened New Zealand’s efforts towards reducing emissions.

As a part of his policy reset, Hipkins canned a planned biofuels mandate and extended subsidies for fuel, a major contributor to warming.

“There is significant debate about whether the biofuels mandate was the right way of reducing our emissions from transport, when there are the other alternatives and other things that we can look at,” he explained.

“In terms of extending the fuel subsidies, we have to acknowledge that actually, there are people still having to get in their cars every day to drive to work, and we need to support them through what is a very, very difficult time at the moment.

“That does not in any way — I don’t believe — undermine our commitment to tackling the causes of climate change.”

He said Gabrielle’s impact would have “underscored” the need to keep reducing emissions.

“It is real, it is having an impact and we have a responsibility to do something about it.”

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

Cyclone Gabrielle: Rural Hawke’s Bay residents scramble onto roofs to avoid flooding https://t.co/7qEDU7dSkh

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) February 14, 2023

It has been a soggy few weeks for Aotearoa New Zealand’s upper North Island, with late January’s Auckland downpour and now, Cyclone Gabrielle.

States of emergency have been declared across Ikaroa-a-Māui, schools and non-essential services shut and public transport in the country’s biggest city running at a minimum.

Forecasters knew early on Gabrielle would be serious, prompting Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown to pre-emptively extend a state of emergency already in place to handle the previous month’s record rainfall and subsequent flooding.

• READ MORE:  Cyclone Gabrielle lashes NZ’s North Island – Whāngarei basin residents told to evacuate
• Thousands without power, evacuations begin as Cyclone Gabrielle hits NZ
• Northland declares state of emergency as Cyclone Gabrielle hits NZ
• Red weather warnings as Cyclone Gabrielle makes NZ landfall
• Cyclone Gabrielle in pictures with RNZ
• Follow RNZ’s live news coverage

“This summer just keeps on giving to the top of the North Island,” said Dr Dáithí Stone, a climate scientist with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

“Each summer, Northland and Auckland are usually on the verge of drought, with a pretty severe one experienced just three years ago. Not this summer.”

So what has changed?
“Tropical cyclones feed off of the energy provided by hot ocean waters,” said Stone, noting recent summers — including the one we are in now — have seen “unusually warm water in the Tasman Sea and around Aotearoa”.

“This warm water is partly an effect of the warm ‘La Niña’ waters spanning the western tropical Pacific and partly some local ocean activities happening in the Tasman Sea, but the ongoing warming trend from human-induced climate change is playing a big role too.”

La Niña is an atmospheric phenomenon that usually happens every few years, when winds blow warm surface water from the eastern Pacific Ocean towards Indonesia.

In New Zealand, the result is “moist, rainy conditions” in the north and east of the country and warmer-than-average sea and air temperatures.

“Large-scale climate drivers (like La Niña) have elevated the risks of [a tropical cyclone] happening this summer,” said Dr Luke Harrington, a senior lecturer in climate change at the University of Waikato.

“In fact, seasonal predictions pointed to elevated chances of multiple [tropical cyclones] occurring in this region of the Pacific as early as October.”

Climate change cannot be blamed for Gabrielle’s existence — recent studies have suggested the globe’s warming is actually reducing the frequency of tropical storms in the Pacific — but the extra energy it affords systems could be making those that do form stronger.

“It’s likely that the low pressure centre of the system will be slightly more extreme than what might have been in a world without climate change, with the associated winds therefore likely also slightly stronger,” said Harrington.

Not many cyclones make it this far south intact, but the combined effects of climate change and La Niña are helping there too.

“The waters in the Tasman Sea and around New Zealand have been unusually warm,” said Dr Joao de Souza, director of the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment-funded Moana Project.

“The rate of warming has been above the global average since 2012-2013, with the last two years presenting record-breaking ocean temperatures leading to unprecedented marine heat waves around Aotearoa.”

The current La Niña has been “protracted”, the World Meteorological Organisation said in August, and it is only just now starting to ease, after three Southern Hemisphere summers – the longest this century.

As a result, Stone said extreme weather systems like Gabrielle “can maintain themselves much closer to us than before and are not disrupted so much by cooler seas that are no longer there”.

“La Niña events also change the winds, bringing more hot and wet air from the tropics our way.

“Finally, the warmer air of a warming world can hold all of that moisture until it meets the mountains of Aotearoa.”

More to come?
And there could be more like Gabrielle on the way, sooner than you might expect.

“As the storm passes over New Zealand we see the ocean surface temperatures decrease as a consequence of the energy being drawn and surface waters being mixed with deeper, cooler waters. This is happening right now with Cyclone Gabrielle,” de Souza said.

“Once the cyclone moves away we should see the ocean surface temperatures rise again . . . All this means we have the pre-conditions necessary for the generation of new storms in the Coral Sea and their impact on New Zealand. And this situation is forecasted to prevail at least until April-May.”

The Coral Sea is a region of the Pacific between Queensland, the Solomons and New Caledonia.

The longer-term remains unclear, said Stone.

“Is Gabrielle’s track toward us a fluke… or does it portend the future? We do not really know at the moment, but NIWA, the MBIE Endeavour Whakahura project, and colleagues in Australia are developing techniques that we hope will help us answer that question very soon.”

Information for this article was provided by the Science Media Centre. It is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Northland has declared a state of emergency and the Auckland Harbour Bridge has been closed as steady rain and strong winds from Cyclone Gabrielle hit Aotearoa New Zealand today, but MetService says this is just the beginning.

The Northland Regional council said a precautionary state of emergency had been declared for an initial period of seven days, as part of the regional response to Cyclone Gabrielle.

It said emergency declarations were relatively rare in Northland, with only six emergency declarations in the past 50 years, some of which affected only parts of the region.

• READ MORE: Red weather warnings as Cyclone Gabrielle makes NZ landfall
• Cyclone Gabrielle in pictures with RNZ
• Cyclone Gabrielle closes in on Aotearoa: Warnings and forecasts
• Cyclone Gabrielle: Auckland sandbag stations run out of bags, people told ‘bring your own’ as storm approaches
• Follow RNZ’s live news coverage

Meanwhile, Waka Kotahi confirmed all lanes on the Auckland Harbour Bridge were closed due to strong winds at 3.40pm.

Its website said the closure is “until further notice” and motorists were urged to delay their journey or use detours such as the Western Ring Route.

A red heavy rain warning has been issued for Coromandel, Gisborne north of Tolaga Bay, and Auckland, including Great Barrier Island and other islands in the Hauraki Gulf, while strong wind warnings are also in place — including a red one for Coromandel Peninsula, Northland and Auckland.

Speaking at today’s official update, MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths said that even with significant wind gusts in Northland already being reported, the weather today was just the start.

“This is the entree. This is not the impact day.”

She said they had not seen pressure this low in 40 years.

“This is a serious event for New Zealand.”

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

Many Pasifika families affected by the flash floods and torrential rainfall that have lashed New Zealand’s North Island over the past few days were braced for more bad weather overnight.

With four people dead and hundreds forced out of their homes over the weekend a state of emergency remained in force for Auckland and one has also now been issued for Northland.

The predominately Pasifika neighbourhood of Māngere is among the worst affected areas in Auckland.

• READ MORE: Auckland floods: Hundreds of flooded cars, uninhabitable homes
• Other Auckland flood reports

Streets throughout the suburb were submerged after torrential rain last Friday caused rivers to overflow their banks.

Māngere resident Louisa Opetaia said the water rose so suddenly that it rapidly flooded her entire home while she was still asleep.

“When I got home from work, I took a nap at about 7.30pm. When I woke up an hour later and I got off my bed, I splashed into water,” said Opetaia.

“It was already halfway up my calf and up to my knee, and the three rooms in my house were flooded,” she added.

Emergency centres were quickly set up, providing supplies and temporary shelter over the weekend and even now to the dozens of families displaced by the floods.

One of the busiest centres is the Māngere Memorial Hall in Manukau.

Auckland city councillor Alf Filipaina, who has been helping to organise relief efforts, said many families continued to arrive at the hall on Tuesday, requiring basic goods and household items ruined by the floods.

“Heaps of families have been affected and we’ve been working tirelessly,” said Filipaina.

“We’ve had all the groups here from KaingaOra, the Fono, Ministry of Social Development and others. They’re all here helping people,” he said.

“We’ll be open 24/7 for people who also want a roof over their heads.”

Filipaina said that some families were in a desperate situation, being forced out of their homes and having lost most of their possessions, including even their vehicles.

“There are people who need financial assistance,” said Filipaina.

“Some of them have lost everything, and we can only give what donations and goods that we have,” he explained.

The community response has been swift in Manukau with various agencies and good Samaritans donating goods and providing services, including from local heroes such as David Tua and All Black Ofa Tu’ungafasi.

“People are always offering to help,” Louisa Opetaia said.

“People have been taking our laundry to the laundromat for us, which is really helpful, and we’ve received a lot of food. That’s what I love about our Pasifika community in Māngere, everyone comes together when people need help.

“We were able to talk to Ministry of Social Development at the Māngere Memorial Hall. I’m not on the benefit so I wasn’t sure if I would qualify for any help but I do.”

Opetaia said she was now moving out of her house as it was too hazardous to live there.

She said the biggest challenge for her at the moment was getting rid of damaged furniture drenched and ruined by the floods.

“We are trying to get the council to help us get a skip bin so that we can throw anything that was affected by the flood waters, and we have a big pile of stuff at the moment,” Opetaia said.

“I understand that there a lot of people who are more severely affected than us. We do need help but at the same time we are grateful because we are in a better situation than others.”

Meanwhile, according to the NZ Metservice many Aucklanders living south of Orewa may not see heavy rain last night — but localised downpours were still forecast for some.

Meteorologist Georgina Griffiths told RNZ Checkpoint that the key danger was rain falling on saturated soil making the region flood quickly.

But she predicted some parts of the city would escape a deluge.

Georgina Griffiths said Auckland was nearly out of the woods, with a drier weekend forecast and a dry week from Tuesday.

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

It is unlikely that the Mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, took any lessons from the city’s devastating floods but the rest of us — and journalists in particular — could learn a thing or two.

Brown’s demeanour will not be improved by a petition calling for his resignation or media columnists effectively seeking the same. He will certainly not be moved by New Zealand Herald columnist Simon Wilson, now a predictable and trenchant critic of the mayor, who correctly observed in the Herald on Sunday: “In a crisis, political leaders are supposed to soak up people’s fears…to help us believe that empathy and compassion and hope will continue to bind us together.”

Wilson’s lofty words may be wasted on the mayor, but they point to another factor that binds us together in times of crisis. It is communication, and it was as wanting as civic leadership on Friday night and into the weekend.

• READ MORE: Auckland deputy mayor talks up media role in disasters in wake of mayor Brown ‘drongos’ text
• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘I’m talking to you now, I’ll talk to you at any time’ – Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson
• Other Asia Pacific Reports on the North Island floods

Media coverage on Friday night was limited to local evacuation events, grabs from smartphone videos and interviews with officials that were light on detail. The on-the-scene news crews performed well in worsening conditions, particularly in West Auckland.

However, there was a dearth of official information and, crucially, no report that drew together the disparate parts to give us an over-arching picture of what was happening across the city.

I waited for someone to appear, pointing to a map of greater Auckland and saying: “These areas are experiencing heavy flooding . . . State Highway 1 is closed here, here and here as are these arterial routes here, here, and here across the city . . . cliff faces have collapsed in these suburbs . . . power is out in these suburbs . . . evacuation centres have been set up here, here, and here . . . :

That way I would have been in a better position to understand my situation compared to other Aucklanders, and to assess how my family and friends would be faring. I wanted to know how badly my city as a whole was affected.

Hampered by deadlines
I didn’t get it from television on Friday night nor did I see it in my newspaper on Saturday. My edition of the Weekend Herald, devoting only its picture-dominated front page and some of page 2 to the flooding, was clearly hampered by early deadlines. The Dominion Post devoted half its front page to the storm and, with a later deadline, scooped Auckland’s hometown paper by announcing Brown had declared a state of emergency.

So, too, did the Otago Daily Times on an inside page. The page 2 story in The Press confirmed the first death in the floods.

I turned to television on Saturday morning expecting special news programmes from both free-to-air networks. Zilch . . . nothing. Later in the day TV1 and Newshub did rise to the occasion with specials on the prime minister’s press conference, but it seems a small concession for such a major event.

Radio fared better but only because regular hosts such as NewstalkZB’s All Sport Breakfast host D’Arcy Waldegrave and Today FM sports journalist Nigel Yalden rejigged their Saturday morning shows to also cover the floods.

RNZ National’s Kim Hill was on familiar ground and her interview with Wayne Brown was more than a little challenging for the mayor. RNZ mounted a “Midday Report Special” with Corin Dann that also tried to break through the murk, but I was left wondering why it had not been a Morning Report Special starting at 6 am.

Over the course of the weekend the amount of information provided by news media slowly built up. Both Sundays devoted six or seven pages to the floods but it was remiss of the Herald on Sunday not to carry an editorial, as did the Sunday Star Times.

It was also good to see Newsroom and The Spinoff — digital services not usually tied to breaking news of this kind — providing coverage.

“Live” updates on websites and news apps added local detail but there was no coherence, just a string of isolated events stretching back in time.

Inadequate information
Overall, the amount of information I received as a citizen of the City of Sails was inadequate. Why?

Herein lie the lessons.

News media under-estimated the impact of the event. Although there were fewer deaths than in the Christchurch earthquake or the Whakaari White Island eruption, the scale of damage in economic and social terms will be considerable. The natural disaster warranted news media pulling out all the stops and, as they did on those occasions, move into schedule-changing mode (and that includes newspaper press deadlines).

Lesson #1: Do not allow natural disasters to occur on the eve of a long holiday weekend.

Media were, however, hampered by a lack of coherent information from official sources and emergency services. Brown’s visceral dislike of journalists was part of the problem but that was not the root cause. That fell into two parts.

The first was institutional disconnects in an overly complex emergency response structure which is undertaken locally, coordinated regionally and supported from the national level. This complexity was highlighted after another Auckland weather event in 2018 that saw widespread power outages.

The report on the response was resurrected in front page leads in the Dominion Post and The Press yesterday. It found uncoordinated efforts that did not use the models that had been developed for such eventualities, disagreements over what information should be included in situation reports, and under-estimation of effects.

Massey University director of disaster management Professor David Johnston told Stuff he believed the report would be exactly the same if it was recommissioned now because Auckland’s emergency management system was not fit for purpose — rather it was proving to be a good example of what not to do

Lesson #2: Learn the lessons of the past.

The 2018 report did, however, give a pass mark to the communication effort and noted that those involved thought they worked well with media and in communicating with the public through social media.

Can the same be said of the current disaster response when there “wasn’t time” to inform a number of news organisations (including Stuff) about Wayne Brown’s late Friday media conference, and when Whaka Kotahi staff responsible for providing updates clocked-off at 7.30 pm on Friday?

Is it timely for Auckland Transport to still display an 11.45 am Sunday “latest update” on its website 24 hours later? Is it relevant for a list of road closures accessed at noon yesterday to have actually been compiled at 7.35 pm the previous night? Why should a decision to keep Auckland schools closed until February 7 cause confusion in the sector simply because it was “last minute”?

Lesson #3: Ensure communications staff know the definition of emergency: A serious, unexpected, and potentially dangerous situation requiring immediate action.

There certainly was confusion over the failure to transmit a flood warning to all mobile phones in the city on Friday. The system worked perfectly on Sunday when MetService issued an orange Heavy Rain Warning.

It appears that emergency personnel believed posts on Facebook on Friday afternoon and evening were an effective way of communicating directly with the public. That is alarming because social media use is so fragmented that it is dangerous to make assumptions on how many people are being reached.

A study in 2020 of United States local authority communication about the covid pandemic showed a wide range of platforms being used and the recipients were far from attentive. The author of the study, Eric Zeemering, found not only were city communications fragmented across departments, but the public audience selectively fragmented itself through individual choices to follow some city social media accounts but not others.

In fact, more people were passing information about the flood to each other via Twitter than on Facebook and young people in particular were using TikTok for that purpose. Media organisations were reusing these posts almost as much as the official information that from some quarters was in short supply.

Lesson #4: When you need to communicate with the masses, use mass communication (otherwise known as news media).

Mistakes will always be made in fast changing emergencies but, having made a mistake, it is usual to go the extra yards to make amends. It beggars belief that Whaka Kotahi staff would fail to keep their website up to date on the Auckland situation when it is quite clear they received an enormous kick up the rear end from Transport Minister Michael Wood for clocking off when the heavens opened.

Or that Auckland Transport could be far behind the eight ball after turning travel arrangements for the (cancelled) Elton John concert into a fiasco.

After spending Friday evening holed up in his high-rise office away from nuisances like reporters attempting to inform the public, Mayor Brown justified his position with a strange definition of leadership then blamed others.

Sideswipe’s Anna Samways collected a number of tweets for her Monday Herald column. Among them was this: “Just saw one of the Wayne Brown press conferences. He sounded like a man coming home 4 hours late from the pub and trying to bull**** his Mrs about where he’d been.”

Lesson #5: When you’re in a hole, stop digging.

Dr Gavin Ellis holds a PhD in political studies. He is a media consultant and researcher. A former editor-in-chief of The New Zealand Herald, he has a background in journalism and communications — covering both editorial and management roles — that spans more than half a century. Dr Ellis publishes the website knightlyviews.com where this commentary was first published and it is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

The Moungavalu family in Aotearoa New Zealand are grateful to be alive.

Their Māngere home in Auckland, along with others in their street, was hit hard by flooding with chest-deep water sweeping down the road.

Mohe Mougavalu says the water went down their no exit street but because there was no outflow at the other end, it came back twofold on the homes.

• READ MORE: Auckland floods a future sign – city needs stormwater systems fit for climate change
  NZ’s first climate adaptation plan is a good start, but crucial questions about cost and timing must be answered
• With seas rising and storms surging, who will pay for New Zealand’s most vulnerable coastal properties?
• GALLERY: Massive volunteer effort in tackling Auckland’s floods
• Other Asia Pacific Report coverage of Auckland’s flooding
• Follow RNZ live news updates

“We weren’t going to leave the house but the only way to survive is to get out. It’s really testing, especially me deciding the fate of our family,” he said.

“We actually have to hold on to the fence and make our way up the street and get out.”

The family returned at 6am today to start cleaning and are devastated at the level of damage. They’ve lost nearly everything they own.

Community advocate Dave Letele and his community group BBM were first on the scene to offer help.

Arranging replacements
Through his contacts, he is arranging for furniture and damaged appliances to be replaced. He has also delivered food parcels and rugs to where the family is sheltering with one of their aunts.

Barbara Dreaver’s report on the Moungavalu family.     Video: 1News

It’s much appreciated as there are 19 people there.

This isn’t an isolated case — it’s unknown how many homes are affected in South Auckland but it’s believed to be widespread.

Letele says that’s the issue.

“It’s the people who are already struggling – that’s the issue here. The areas that are hit, these people are already struggling.”

The BBM team has sprung into action and a call for volunteers and donations has brought a steady stream of people wanting to help.

Te Aroha Isaia is one of them. She and her family have brought baby items, clothes and food.

‘Stand up and deliver’
“I like to think if we were in need people like ourselves, if they have something to give them, why not?”

Letele says the support from the community wanting to help is incredible.

“We do what the community does best and we stand up and deliver in times of need,” he said.

Just as well, as everybody 1News spoke to felt South Auckland had been left to fend for itself.

Tuala Tagaloa Tusani, chairperson of charity group ASA Foundation says it’s disgraceful that little official focus was put on the area.

“It’s bloody late. The community again is trying to find solutions to the problems.”

The ASA Foundation and Graeme Avenue Pharmacy teamed up to deliver prescribed medication free of charge to those who needed it today.

Tusani says he is concerned about how struggling families will be able to cope with replacing flood-damaged items and repairs on homes.

“School is supposed to start next week so a lot of our money has already been put into school fees,” he said.

There’s no doubt families like the Moungavalus have taken a financial hit, but they say at least they can rebuild together as a family.

Republished with permission.

First came the devastating flash floods in Auckland on Friday night. Then came the huge effort to help families evacuate to community shelters. And finally the ongoing clean-up operation.

We’re saddened by this unprecedented extreme weather that has impacted on some of our communities in Aotearoa. It was great to see the community come out to support and help evacuate flooded-out people to the community shelters. We were going door-to-door to help families as the flood waters were rising.

Special thanks to the volunteers who came out yesterday to help clean up at the NZ Ethnic Women’s Trust in Mt Roskill which was impacted by the flooding. Volunteers at the Wesley Primary School helped families with food, clothes and hot meals.

• READ MORE: Other Auckland flood reports

Thanks to the school leaders who opened the space to give shelter to families.

A massive thanks to the volunteers that worked alongside me to distribute food today in Albert-Eden and Puketāpapa. We distributed food and needed information door to door on O’Donnell Avenue in Mt Roskill to families and the church affected by the flood.

We also reached out to affected families in Fowlds Avenue, Kitchener Street and Lambeth Avenue.

About 80 meals delivered to 30 families — thanks to Humanity First International for the meals and to the Whānau Community Centre and Hub’s Nik Naidu.

All over Auckland, volunteers were doing a great job.

• Accommodation support: 0800 222 200
• Clothes, bed, and blankets etc: 0800 400 100

Auckland's flash floods

1 of 12

The belt of torrential rain which has brought flooding and slips across northern New Zealand is currently mainly centred over the Waikato and Waitomo district.

But it is also reaching northern Taranaki and parts of the upper South Island.

A train was derailed in Te Puke due to heavy rain.

• READ MORE: Auckland floods a future sign – city needs stormwater systems fit for climate change
• GALLERY: Massive volunteer effort in tackling Auckland’s floods
• NZ’s first climate adaptation plan is a good start, but crucial questions about cost and timing must be answered
• With seas rising and storms surging, who will pay for New Zealand’s most vulnerable coastal properties?
• Other Asia Pacific Report coverage of Auckland’s flooding
• Follow RNZ live news updates

Residents in already hard-hit areas like Auckland, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty are on watch for thunderstorms and more heavy rain.

MetService now says there could be heavy rain and thunderstorms as far south as the Marlborough Sounds and the Rai Valley as well as Tasman.

It has put in place heavy rain warnings for Auckland, Waikato, Waitomo, Mount Taranaki, Marlborough Sounds and Tasman northwest of Motueka.

In other developments:

• At least three people have died and one person is still missing after slips and heavy flooding in Auckland
• A train has derailed in Te Puke due to rain on the tracks.
• Auckland and now Waitomo are under a state of emergency
• Heavy rain has completely cut off Coromandel and hit Bay of Plenty overnight
• A house has collapsed in Tauranga but no injuries were reported.
• An Interislander ferry lost power in Cook Strait but managed to restart its engines and arrived in Wellington about 9pm on Saturday

Officials say people in immediate danger should call 111, keep an eye on social media, and evacuate to a nearby shelter if they need.

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

Radar update: thunderstorm bringing heavy rain to Pukekohe

Keep an eye on the radar at https://t.co/7k3nmeeZKF

Severe Weather info https://t.co/qHyE5zzql5 pic.twitter.com/F97wV6fpU9

— MetService (@MetService) January 28, 2023

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has acknowledged the way Aucklanders have come together and opened their homes to those in need, with the New Zealand government focused on providing the resources needed to get the city back up and running.

The new prime minister — just four days into the job — has been speaking to media after assessing flood damage and talking to locals around West Auckland this afternoon.

Hipkins was joined by Auckland mayor Wayne Brown and Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty in northwest Auckland.

• READ MORE:  Auckland thunderstorm: Furore over unsent Civil Defence warning texts
• Three dead, at least one missing, and airport closes in Auckland floods
• Auckland thunderstorm damage in pictures
• Follow RNZ News live updates

With three deaths now confirmed, the prime minister offered his condolences to the families of the deceased.

He said he was focused on supporting Aucklanders through this event and providing the full resources to get Auckland back up and running in the safest way possible

“I want to focus on getting Auckland through the next period.”

Hipkins said the government’s priority was to ensure Aucklanders were housed. He said there was an assessment of public and community housing underway today.

Having surveyed the damage, he said it was clear it was going to be a big clean up job after Auckland’s wettest day on record.

Watch a live stream here

PM Chris Hipkins and mayor Wayne Brown speaking.      Video: RNZ News

Hipkins said it was important for Aucklanders to avoid unnecessary travel and to stay out of the water.

He said this was the time to check in with loved ones and “take care of each other”.

He acknowledged the way Aucklanders had come together and opened their homes to those in need, when dealing with an unprecedented event in recent memory

The prime minister said Aucklanders should expect more rain — “don’t take the good weather for now for granted”.

Hipkins thanked those working in the emergency services, the lines companies, supermarkets and health sector.

‘Tough night for all’
Mayor Wayne Brown said last night was a “tough night for all”.

Brown said he shared concerns and worries for families deeply affected — especially those who had lost their lives.

He said the response to the storm last night took a lot of concentration, happened quickly and the response was way quicker than people believed.

“Everyone was out there way before [the emergency was declared] and lasted all night long.”

He said he followed the advice of the professionals when deciding whether to declare an emergency.

“It’s not something you do lightly.”

He said the council would review “everything that took place”.

‘Lessons to be learned’
Hipkins said he accepted people would have questions and observations — and there would be an appropriate time soon to go through those.

“There will be lessons to be learned from the experience.

“The most important thing is supporting Auckland through the next 24 hours and beyond.”

Duty Controller Andrew Clark from Auckland Emergency Management said the event was “beyond anything we’ve ever seen”.

He said rescuing people was the priority, while also providing shelter for those in need.

“We had a crisis within a crisis.”

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

Auckland flooding: Third death confirmed after body found in Remuera house https://t.co/DW8P4F1kMG

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) January 28, 2023

Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty has asked for communication on support after the severe thunderstorm in Auckland to be stepped up.

It comes after a Civil Defence warning text failed to be sent out, and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told RNZ they will be reviewing the response, including why texts did not go out.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins spoke to media after assessing flood damage and talking to locals around West Auckland this afternoon as the death toll from the storm rose to three.

• READ MORE: Three dead, at least one missing, and airport closes in Auckland floods
• Auckland thunderstorm damage in pictures
• Follow RNZ News live updates

McAnulty told RNZ he was concerned about the lack of communication.

“It’s important that people get the information they need.”

McAnulty said he had specifically asked for social media channels and websites to have half-hour updates.

Even if there was nothing to update, it would be reassuring for affected people to look at the channels and know that the situation was not deteriorating, he said.

“If it looks like that their neighbourhood will require evacuation I want that to go out so that people are aware and that they can get prepared.”

Mayor defends time taken to declare state of emergency
The state of emergency in Auckland was declared about 9.30pm — with heavy rain and strong wind starting in the region since early morning on Friday.

Asked if it should have been declared earlier, Auckland mayor Wayne Brown told Kim Hill on RNZ that all resources were already being used by then and “thousands” were already helping.

“I had to wait until I had the official request from the Emergency Management Centre and the moment I got that, we were prepared, I signed it and it was put in place.

“[The state of emergency] just allowed the people that were helping to have some powers … to actually say to people that you have to go evacuate.”

Emergency management managers told him that some evacuation centres were compromised, but that did not have anything to do with the time taken to declare the emergency, he said.

“The state emergency wasn’t called earlier because at that stage, my belief was … they were coping, but when they got to the stage they were being overwhelmed, when police and fire and emergency announced they were being overwhelmed, is when they recommended I declare a state of emergency.

“I was following the recommendations of the professionals.”

‘Record rainfall . . . in quick time’
McAnulty said once the emergency declaration was made, it meant additional resources from other regions were able to be brought in to help.

“When the weather clears, NEMA [National Emergency Management Agency] will be bringing in additional personnel up from Wellington as well,” he said.

“This is record rainfall and it happened in such a quick time period. We’ve seen people having to abandon their cars leaving their windscreen wipers on.

“We knew it was going to be wet, and we were getting prepared for that just in case, but the level of rain in such a short period of time was not forecast.”

The threshold for declaring a state of emergency depended on local circumstances and resources, he said.

“If you take, for example, a level of rainfall that might occur in Marlborough could cause damage [but] the same level of rainfall on the West Coast wouldn’t cause anywhere near as much damage because they’re used to that sort of rain.

“A smaller rural region with less personnel may declare an emergency earlier because they need that additional support from NEMA.”

McAnulty said over the next day or two, as people came to grips with their own personal circumstances and reported any issues, that would be when authorities would have a real gauge of the damage across the city.

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

The weather is all over the show, the storm water system clearly hopelessly inadequate, the house prices are insane, the public transport is crap — and I bloody love the place.

It’s Auckland Anniversary weekend. Tomorrow is the actual day of the anniversary and it is recognised with a public holiday on the closest Monday.

A Google search finds it described thus: “Residents don’t just celebrate the origins of Auckland but the diverse culture of the region by celebrating with warm days, clear skies, carnivals, concerts, and more.”

• READ MORE:  Auckland thunderstorm: Furore over unsent Civil Defence warning texts
• Three dead, at least one missing, and airport closes in Auckland floods
• Auckland thunderstorm damage in pictures
• Follow RNZ News live updates

Seems like a bad joke really, right at the moment, doesn’t it? Still at least Auckland mayor Wayne Brown is on the job.

“My role isn’t to rush out with buckets.” – Wayne Brown

Oh.

Well, that is an interesting response from the mayor, still let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

To be fair I’d rather he was ensuring people got the information, and the support they needed, than have him rocking up to where people are being rescued using things like jet skis with a mop and bucket.

At 9.30pm last night, councillor Josephine Bartley tweeted: “You just have to look online to see the chaos out there. No need to wait. Declare state of emergency.”

Let’s leave the timing of the state of emergency declaration, you can find an excellent summary of events and communications at the Spinoff here: Where’s mayor Wayne Brown?

Let’s also park that the primary concern from Wayne Brown seemed to be defending himself. I’m quite interested in the last line, no doubt clearly crafted by Mayor Hooton. Sorry, I mean Mayor Brown.

“This is not something that you just respond to because of a clamour from the public.”

That is an interesting point of view to take in an emergency. Apparently Mayor Brown does not see it as his role, even in an emergency, to respond to the clamour from the public.

The public, aka voters, are important — at election time. But let’s be honest once Hooton and Brown have flogged off the assets for short term gain, and cut services creating long term pain, I imagine Mayor Brown will disappear never to be heard from again.

For now the public clamour is no doubt an irritation.

Nick Rockel is a “Westie Leftie with five children, two dogs, and a wonderful wife”. He is the publisher of Nick’s Korero where this article was first published under the title “We need the rain to stop”. Read on here to subscribe for the full paywalled article.

RNZ News

Three people are dead and at least one person is missing following the flooding overnight in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.

About 1000 people were still stranded today after Auckland Airport was closed last night because of flooding of the arrival and departure foyers. Flights were cancelled for the morning but domestic flights resumed in the afternoon.

Police responded to a call after a man was found dead in a flooded culvert in Wairau Valley, about 7.30pm last night.

• READ MORE: Auckland mayor declares emergency as wild weather lashes NZ’s north
• Heavy rain batters Coromandel, Whitianga cut off by flooding and slips on highway
• RNZ’s live news updates on Auckland’s wild storms

The spokesperson said police were called to a flooded carpark on Link Drive, also in Wairau Valley, after a report of another man found dead about 12.30am on Saturday.

Inquiries into the circumstances of both deaths were ongoing, police said.

Police are also investigating reports of a man having been swept away by floodwaters in Onewhero shortly after 10pm on Friday.

A search and rescue team will deploy today to search for the missing man.

Landslide brings down house
Emergency services also responded to a landslide that brought down a house on Shore Road, Remuera about half past seven. One person remains unaccounted for and the property will be assessed this morning.

Police continue to urge people to stay home and not drive unless absolutely necessary today.

Police said they were continuing to respond to a high number of calls after the severe weather.

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown said staff would today be assessing what damage had occurred and what steps needed to be taken next.

He declared a state of emergency last night that will remain in force for seven days.

Unprecedented flooding
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the flooding in Auckland was an unprecedented event.

Hipkins said more should been known in a few hours about how bad the damage was after a day of torrential flooding.

He was with a team at the Beehive bunker overnight, talking to the teams coordinating the response in Auckland.

Hipkins said it was difficult to get information about what is going on but up to 1000 people were still stranded at Auckland airport, and right across the region there were many people just simply stuck somewhere where they would not normally be early on a Saturday morning — including in their car, or at a business.

MetService said the airport had smashed its all-time record for rainfall in a single 24-hour period — recording 249mm yesterday, beating the previous record set nearly four decades in 1985 — 161.8mm.

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

Record breaking rain in Auckland. Although the heavy band of rain has moved off to the east there is still a change of showers so the total for rainfall could climb even higher. The impacts of the last 24 hours will be felt by many in Auckland for a long time. Take care out there pic.twitter.com/kiIm6Tsrro

— MetService (@MetService) January 27, 2023

Hundreds of people in Nelson in Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island spent the night out of their homes and a state of emergency was declared after the Maitai River burst its banks.

Occupants of 233 homes near the Maitai River were evacuated and cordons put in place at Tasman and Nile Streets.

Soldiers have been patrolling the streets to keep an eye on evacuated properties and all residents are being asked to stay home if possible.

• READ MORE: Building in flood-prone locations needs to stop, insurer IAG says
• Follow RNZ’s state of emergency live blog

The country’s largest insurer, AIG, said building in flood-prone areas had to stop.

IAG has released a three-part plan to try speed up efforts to reduce flood risk from rivers.

It said climate change was having an enormous impact on the insurance sector, and there needed to be simple, practical, concrete actions quickly.

IAG has released a three-part plan to try speed up efforts to reduce flood risk from rivers.

There have been 10 major floods in the past two years with total insured losses of about $400 million, while the wider economic and social costs extend into the billions.

People in 160 homes in low-lying parts of Westport were been asked to leave so they would not have to be rescued if their homes were flooded.

On the West Coast, the Buller River levels are dropping but civil defence remains on alert with more rain forecast.

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

Evacuated Nelson residents wait to discover extent of flood damage https://t.co/wTXwBuWJor

— RNZ News (@rnz_news) August 17, 2022

National Capital District Metropolitan Police Superintendent Gideon Ikumu has ruled out a proposal to impose a curfew in the capital city Port Moresby in the wake of the recent spate of violence.

He said the situation was expected to return to normal after soldiers yesterday joined policemen on the city streets monitoring the crisis.

A fight started on Sunday evening following a dispute between scrutineers of the Moresby Northeast candidates inside the counting venue at the Sir John Guise stadium.

• READ MORE: Commonwealth observers call for ‘urgent review’ of PNG electoral process
• PNG police arrest 18 suspects following election attacks in Port Moresby
• Armed PNG election supporters cause chaos in capital, attack bystanders
• Post-Courier editorial: Our capital Port Moresby our last stand for peace
• Other PNG election reports

It spilled onto the main road where men armed with machetes attacked each other.

It continued yesterday morning.

Most business houses told their employees to stay at home yesterday for their own safety.

Vanimo-Green MP Belden Namah called for an immediate declaration of a State of Emergency in troubled zones throughout the country.

Namah calls for ‘state of emergency’
“I am now calling for immediate declaration of the State of Emergency and curfew in Port Moresby, Enga and all the trouble zones,” Namah said.

But Ikumu said a curfew was not necessary as security personnel were monitoring the situation.

He hoped everything would return to normal today.

He said police had rounded up 18 suspects since Sunday.

“Less than 10 [people were] injured. Most didn’t go to the hospital,” Ikumu said.

“No deaths. Police have to link those suspects to the incident.

“They are subject to further investigations.”

Police chief turned to military
Police Commissioner David Manning asked Defence Force Chief Major-General Mark Goina for assistance.

Caretaker Prime Minister James Marape yesterday said the National Capital District was no place for criminals.

Marape said that additional manpower from the Papua New Guinea Defence had been deployed to support the Royal Papua New Guinea constabulary to police the nation’s Capital District.

“If you do not like the results of the counting, take it to the court of disputed returns,” he said.

“And let the Electoral Commission do its job and complete the counting process, send your scrutineers in to witness, and all candidates and supporters stay away from counting sites,” he said.

Marape said that candidates who were contesting to become leaders should not try to take the law into their own hands.

Gynnie Kero is a reporter for The National in Papua New Guinea. Republished with permission.

A brutal massacre in Porgera town yesterday afternoon in which 18 innocent people were killed has rocked Enga province and shocked Papua New Guinea.

Local police chief acting Superintendent George Kakas was shocked by the act of violence in the wake of the country’s national elections — he was left speechless when told by field officers about the killings.

Last night, caretaker Prime Minister James Marape said Porgera was now in a state of emergency.

• READ MORE: As Annaisha, 22, held her baby and waited to cast her vote, PNG police ‘switched their guns to auto’ and fired
• Other PNG election reports

“We have called out additional manpower from both the military and police, not just for Porgera but for other areas that need special assistance as well,” he said.

“We will beef up security as election requirements have diluted normal police work and the present killing is related to an ongoing tribal fight.”

In his policing career, Kakas has seen worse but yesterday’s act was one he thought was the work of a deranged mob who had no respect for the sanctity of life.

Of the 18 dead, 13 were men and 5 were women. They were going about their normal lives when men armed with machetes and axes hacked them to death.

Hour of wanton destruction
It was an hour of wanton destruction in which no one in the path of the rampaging tribesmen was spared, Kakas said.

Pictures of the dead posted online showed a trail of destruction with murderous intent. It seemed none of the dead had any chance of escaping.

In one picture, a woman clad in a PNG meri blouse lay next to a young girl, probably her daughter.

In another, a man and a woman lie side by side, having fallen where they were attacked.

The woman is on her knees, cowering in a foetal position, probably having begged for mercy — a futile attempt to evade the inevitable.

Men examining the scene looking for relatives were shown carrying bush knives and axes.

In turbulent Enga these are normal weapons.

Disputed gold mine
Porgera is the site of the disputed giant gold mine which has been closed for almost two years.

A violent tribal fight between the Aiyala and Nomali tribes has been raging, which has severely affected the elections in that part of the region.

The 18 deaths brings to 70 the number of people killed in Porgera in the past four months.

Although an emergency was declared in Porgera, the fighting between Aiyala and Nomali has continued, Superintendent Kakas said.

Security forces are present in Porgera Town. Together with local police, there are about 150 police and army personnel, however they are outnumbered by the tribal warriors, who are heavily armed.

“The 13 men and 5 women were killed in Paiam and Upper Porgera on Wednesday afternoon,” Kakas said.

Of the 18, five people were killed in Upper Porgera Station and 13 people killed at Paiam.

“Out of the 18 deaths, 3 men from Porgera town area were killed by Kandeps. This killing related to the ongoing tribal fight at Paiam has now escalated to Pogera Town.”

Troops moving in
“Police Commissioner David Manning said last night the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) contribution troops for the task force were in the process of moving into Enga.

“There is no SOE declared, 120 soldiers from the 2nd PIR Bravo Company were sent in yesterday afternoon. They are based in Wabag and once all logistics are in place, they will further deploy to the electorates of Porgera, Laiagam, and Kompiam and join their RPNGC MS counterparts who are currently on the ground.”

Manning said the task force had 60 days to restore the rule of law in the electorates, secure the mine and provide protection for repairs to be done on damaged bridges –– especially on the Wabag-Kompiam road.

“We received reports of continuous killings in Porgera that began over the weekend. Priority deployment is to the Porgera valley, to quell the fighting between the local Porgereans and settlers from other parts of Enga Province,” he said.

“We have received urgent pleas to also evacuate non-Engans who currently work up there — for them to be escorted to safety.

“The 3 meter wide, 4-5 meter deep trench that was dug across the Surinki stretch of Wabag-Porgera road is still undergoing repairs. However, a temporary bypass has been constructed to allow traffic.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

A state of emergency has been declared in American Samoa because of severe weather conditions resulting in damage to roads, infrastructure, property, and coastal villages.

American Samoa Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga declared the state of emergency after homes, the school and church on Aunu’u island were swamped by huge waves, the building housing the generators on the island were flooded and sustained damage.

Several sections of the road are not accessible on the eastern side while Fatumafuti was covered with sand and debris and huge waves washed onto vehicles stalling them.

• READ MORE: Unexpected sea surges slam into Cook Islands and Tahiti

Bulldozers are at work clearing the highway and Utulei Beach has been littered with plastic bottles, wrappings and rocks.

Residents of east side villages said this was the worse they had seen as far as waves crashing onto the road.

Huge rocks, all sorts of debris and garbage was dumped onto low lying beach side roads from the eastern end of the island to the western most tip of the island.

On Tutuila, several sections of the road are not accessible on the eastern side while Fatumafuti was covered with sand and debris and huge waves washed onto vehicles stalling them.

The Emergency Operations Centre has been activated and Governor Lemanu said everyone’s cooperation was appreciated during this untimely event, and he asked that people in American Samoa remained vigilant and kept their families safe.

Flooding at Fatanafuti on Tetuila Island.

Pago Pago International Airport will remain closed due to damage from heavy waves to the runway, and all government offices are closed.

The Hawaiian Airlines flight scheduled for last night has also been cancelled and will resume as soon as the runway can reopen safely. Hawaiian Airlines is hoping the flight would operate today during the day.

Unexpected sea surges slam into Cook Islands and Tahiti
An unexpected weather event has damaged properties and flooded roads in the Cook Islands while French Polynesia is dealing with the aftermath of huge swells.

Swells of up to 4.5 metres inundating coastal areas, driven by a high pressure system pushing up from New Zealand have been labelled a highly unusual weather event by the Cook Islands Emergency Management Director John Strickland.

He said the impacts were the most far reaching he had seen in a decade.

“It was a sudden hit at night, there was damage that took place Tuesday night local time,” Strickland said.

He said there was an “unexpected sea surge” in Rarotonga.

“Rough seas, debris and rocks, you name it, it was shifted onto the road.”

Low lying coastal areas in Puaikura District along with Titikaveka, in Takitumu District, were the most severely impacted areas.

“At the Rarotongan Hotel, guests were shifted from their rooms, because some of the rooms were on the beach,” he said.

National emergency operation teams were activated from three vilages to support the infrastructure team as they were busy.

Strickland said while things have settled down, early on Thursday morning local time he received reports of northern Islands experiencing high seas, resulting in the closure of schools.

Emergency services remain on high alert and fresh warnings have been issued for the Northern parts of the Cook Islands.

A meeting is underway between Red Cross, police and other emergency teams.

Cook Islands’ meteorological service director Arona Ngari said homes were evacuated in Titikaveka and Arorangi districts.

“There seems to be a couple of events that have exceeded expectations and that revolves around a couple of the high tides. So it is a pity, it is awful to see the damage from the high pressure system,” he said.

Houses and roads submerged in French Polynesia
The level of the ocean surrounding French Polynesia has significantly risen and has submerged roads and houses bordering the oceans on the west coast of Tahiti.

La Premiere television reported that 15 houses on the coast were submerged and the homeowners evacuated.

French Polynesia was battered this week by 8-9 metre swells.

All marine and water related activities are forbidden for most of the territory including going to the beach.

According to local meteorological authorities this is an “exceptional phenomenon” which hasn’t been seen in French Polynesia since 2005.

A local fisherman, Benjamin Tematahotoa, said he is worried his boat will be lost in the flooding.

“Of course it’s worrying, thats why we are staying vigilant and we are staying here,” he said.

“If we really need to bring the boat back then we will tow it home. It’s stressful especially if this is only the start. It’s rising, it’s rising, every five minutes, it’s rising it looks like its going to keep rising”.

La Premiere reported that two surfers were injured while attempting to surf during the high swells.

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

Yap State Governor Jesse Salalu has declared a state of emergency over a mass resignation of 40 doctors and nurses at Yap State Hospital after authorities declined to consider their grievances.

“Due to the sudden departure of staff, the Department of Health Services is now in need of finding and recruiting qualified nurses and doctors to fill vacancies, so as to minimise disruptions to its operations and services,” stated the emergency declaration.

“There is no sufficient pool of qualified nurses and doctors available on island for immediate recruitment to help prevent or minimise disruptions to the operation and services of the hospital,” Governor Salalu said in his emergency declaration on March 31.

• READ MORE: Public health in FSM
• Covid updates in other Pacific states

The emergency status authorises the Department of Health Services to work with Waab Community Health Center to allow the sharing and realignment of human resources to the main hospital.

DHS will also look into the possibility of rehiring local retired medical professionals on a temporary basis.

Led by Dr James Yaingeluo, the doctors and nurses handed in their resignations on March 29 after Salalu declined to hear their grievances.

When Salalu failed to appear at a meeting requested by the medical staff, a representative from the Office of the Attorney-General and a cabinet member refused to discuss the matter with them.

Severe understaffing
Among the grievances are persistently severe understaffing, low salaries resulting in the inability to attract and keep qualified professionals, working without contracts, and the Yap State Legislature’s refusal to release JEMCO-approved Office of Insular Affairs grant funds for wage increases.

Many of the unresolved issues that date back to 2019 have been exacerbated during the pandemic.

Yap is reported to have the lowest pay rates in FSM’s health care sector and has difficulty recruiting qualified doctors and nurses due to the higher compensation offered by other health care institutions in the region.

This is especially true since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic when health care professionals began receiving significantly higher offers from employers.

A year ago, then Governor Henry Falan submitted a supplemental budget request to the Yap State Legislature. Included in the request was $108,614 for doctors’ salaries. The money had been approved by JEMCO, granted by OIA and sourced from the Compact Health Sector.

Dr Mandela A. Bodunrin, the hospital’s then chief-of-staff who has since left, requested the grant to increase doctors’ salaries in order to fill open positions for doctors that were going unfilled.

DHS was unable to compete in the marketplace for the talent it required at the salary levels it was offering.

Further review needed
The legislature has the power to approve all OIA grants prior to their release, but the finance committee stated that further review was needed.

The doctors then on-staff signed temporary contracts at the pay level authorised in the prior budget year while they awaited the legislature’s approval of Falan’s supplemental budget request.

Their overtime and on-call remuneration tapped out the DHS’s FY2021 budget early due to the dearth of doctors.

The temporary contracts expired in February 2021. The money from the grant was “to ensure continuity of the compensation until September 30, 2021,” Falan said. The money would not come from the state’s general fund.

Understaffing and the inablity to attract qualified professionals became an even larger concern as the pandemic rapidly grew in importance within the medical community and compensation ballooned worldwide.

During one of the meetings of the state’s emergency task force addressing covid-19, it was revealed that a number of nurses stated that they would quit once the border was opened and the first case was identified, adding another layer of stress to an already overburdened organisation.

Yap’s border has been closed since April 2020. Repatriation of the state’s citizens who are stranded off-island has been in fits and starts, challenging the small medical team to manage quarantine and testing protocols while tending to the daily needs of the hospital’s patients.

Repatriation flight postponed
The most recent announcement for a repatriation flight arriving from Guam on Wednesday has been postponed.

A team from the FSM Department of Health was on Yap the week of March 27 assessing the state’s readiness to reopen its borders. Their report is being awaited but the lack of medical personnel will now undoubtedly influence that decision.

According to the Yap State Constitution, employees “have the right to form associations for the purpose of presenting their views to the government” and to be “free from restraint or reprisal in exercising this right.

The government shall give reasonable opportunity to representatives of such associations to present their views.”

However, it also states that “employees, whether or not exempted by the public service system, shall not strike or cause work stoppage for the purpose of collective bargaining or presenting their views.”

Further, “the regulations shall prescribe a system for hearing the views of employees on their working conditions, status, pay and related matters and for hearing and adjudicating grievances of any employee or group of employees.

“These regulations shall ensure that employees are free from coercion, discrimination, and reprisals and that they may have representatives of their choice.”

Dominic Taruwemai, the acting DHS director, has not accepted the doctors’ and nurses’ resignations as of this writing.

Joyce McClure is an American journalist who lived on Yap for five years and is now based in Guam. She is a contributor to the Pacific Island Times. This article is republished with permission.

• READ MORE: ‘Under attack’: Report says repression of rights persists in Asia
• Other reports on people power under attack

An open rating means people are free to form associations, demonstrate in public spaces, and share information without fear of reprisals.

Concern in the report highlighted those civic rights are not respected across the region; Fiji, Nauru and Papua New Guinea remain in the “obstructed” category, meaning that restrictions of freedoms of expression, association and assembly have been raised by civil society in these countries.

Restrictions relating to media freedoms, access to information and the right to protest led to the Solomon Islands downgrade. Freedom of expression is of particular concern — in early 2021 the cabinet threatened to ban Facebook over worries about posts with “inflammatory critiques of the government”.

The government eventually backtracked after condemnation from civil society and the opposition.

Public Emergency extended
Freedom of assembly have been documented in the Solomon Islands. In July, the State of Public Emergency was extended for another four months in response to covid-19, even though there were only 20 reported cases in the country.

A march in Honiara to deliver a petition to the government by people from the Malaita province was disrupted and dispersed by the police.

Accessing information is not available to the media in the pandemic as Solomon Islands does not have freedom of information legislation. Additionally, the environment towards civil society groups is becoming more hostile in the country.

For example, in late 2019 the office of the Prime Minister called for an investigation into a number of civil society groups after they called for the prime minister to step down.

“Excessive restrictions on civic freedoms imposed by the government under the guise of preventing covid-19 led to the downgrade of the Solomon Islands. Constant threats to ban Facebook and attempts to vilify civil society have also resulted in the failure of the Solomon Islands to retain a top spot in our global rights rankings,” said Josef Benedict, Asia-Pacific civic space researcher at CIVICUS.

The use of excessive restrictions against activists and critics was the leading violation in 2021 with at least seven countries having been found to have transgressed in the report.

Target on Fiji journalists, activists and critics
In Fiji, provisions relating to sedition in the Public Order (Amendment) Act 2014 have been used to target journalists, activists, and government critics, while other sections of the act have been used to arbitrarily restrict peaceful protests.

The Fiji Trade Unions Congress (FTUC) was denied a permit to hold a rally in Suva, on International Labour Day, 1 May 2021 — no reason, written or verbal for the rejection was given.

The use of restrictive laws is a concern across the Pacific. New criminal defamation laws passed in Vanuatu and Tonga cast a chilling blow to freedom of expression.

In Australia, the government continues to hound whistleblowers through the courts, as seen in the case of Bernard Collaery, the lawyer of an ex-spy, who was charged with allegedly exposing Australia’s bugging of Timor-Leste.

In 2019, Australia was downgraded by the CIVICUS Monitor due to attempts to silence whistleblowers who reveal government wrongdoing, among other concerns.

New Zealand and Australia, which was downgraded in 2019, did not get off scot-free. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association said the pandemic was not reason enough to quell peaceful assembly of protesters.

Indeed, protesters to the lockdown rules were detained this year for violating covid-19 rules.

Intimidation of Pacific activists
Other civic rights violations highlighted by the CIVICUS Monitor include the harassment or intimidation of activists and critics across the Pacific, as documented in Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.

Fijian surgeon Dr Jone Hawea was detained for questioning after criticising the government’s response to covid-19 in his Facebook live videos, while Papua New Guinean lawyer Laken Lepatu Aigilo was allegedly detained and assaulted by police in April 2021 after lodging an official complaint against a politician.

“The state of civic space in the Pacific may seem relatively positive. However, over the year we have seen restrictive laws being used in several countries, including criminal defamation laws. Protests have also been denied or disrupted under the pretext of handling the pandemic, while activists have faced harassment and intimidation,” said Benedict.

However, there have been some positive developments this year. After strong civil society pressure, Tongan authorities moved swiftly to charge the alleged murderer of leading LGBTQI+ activist Polikalepo “Poli” Kefu, after his body was found on a beach near Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island

More than 20 organisations collaborate on the CIVICUS Monitor to provide an evidence base for action to improve civic space on all continents.

The Monitor has posted more than 500 civic space updates in the last year, which are analysed in People Power Under Attack 2020.

Civic space in 196 countries is categorised as either closed, repressed, obstructed, narrowed or open, based on a methodology which combines several sources of data on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression.

France has declared a health emergency in New Caledonia after covid-19 was detected in the community, RNZ Pacific reports.

The state of emergency was decreed by the French Prime Minister Jean Castex, effective immediately.

The decree, which is valid for a month, allows the authorities to impose restrictions, such as curfews or a lockdown — which the New Caledonian government had already imposed on Tuesday.

• READ MORE: Three delta cases of covid detected in New Caledonia – schools closed
  
• New Caledonia begins two-week lockdown in new covid-19 outbreak
• Other New Caledonian covid crisis reports

Southern province schools were also closed from Monday afternoon.

Today, a law is expected to pass in the French Senate to extend the health emergency in several French overseas territories, including New Caledonia and French Polynesia, to the middle of November.

A government statement said the pandemic had turned into a “health catastrophe” in New Caledonia because hospital capacity was limited, and people had made little use of the access to vaccines.

Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes reported today that there were 66 positive cases in the community after health authorities announced three on Monday night.

The government reported 16 covid-19 cases yesterday, but provincial and local authorities had warned the number was fast rising.

Medical experts in New Caledonia warned last month that the number of vaccinated people needed to be doubled within weeks, prompting the territorial government last Friday to make vaccinations compulsory for adults.

They also said the territory only had about one third of the number of nurses needed to be able to use the intensive care units available.

The virus is now said to be in wide circulation, and yesterday the public was told that in two to three weeks the hospitals would be full.

Until the latest outbreak on Monday, New Caledonia had recorded fewer than 140 covid-19 cases and there had been no fatality.

Since March 2020, the borders have been closed and people allowed to enter have had to spend two weeks in government-run isolation facilities.

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

A Papua New Guinea provincial governor has defending his actions for speaking up in Parliament yesterday on the government’s mooted proposal to extend the state of emergency (SoE) for two more months.

Writing on social media, Governor Allan Bird of East Sepik cited instances of police abuse under the SoE implementation and the lack of comprehensive and relevant government data on covid-19 in PNG as reasons for his argument, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

“If women who market food are beaten up by police and money collected from them and they have to report to me, then I have serious issues with [the] SoE and the way it is being implemented,” he posted on his Facebook account.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus updates – Spain extends emergency until June 21

Using East Sepik provincial government (ESPG) funds, Governor Bird asked provincial administrator Dr Clement Malau to commission a study to determine if Sepik people had contracted covid-19 and recovered before testing started.

A team comprising four IMR staff and three PHA medical doctors sampled 1153 people over 10 days in six locations. Fifty people were detected IgG and IgM positive. A total 4.3 percent showed covid-19 antibodies.

Bird said all testing for covid-19 during the SoE returned negative.

“This is a clear indication that covid-19 passed through our population long before we started testing for it. This means our people had covid-19 and recovered. Nobody got sick and nobody died from it. This is important data which at the very least deserves to be factored into our decision-making process,” he said.

‘It is their duty’
“I expected senior ministers to commission similar studies and inform Parliament. That is their duty.

“Members of Parliament have to make very important decisions for you, on important matters like this. We can’t simply rely on government numbers. And we can’t be using US, China or Australian infections as a justification for our response.

“We are not Americans, Chinese or Australian, we are PNG. We must expect and demand PNG data.”

Bird further stressed that such decisions were important as they would take away the people’s constitutional freedoms and stop people from working to earn money to feed their families.

He said it was emotional hearing of a mother getting beaten by police for selling market goods to feed her children.

“I have reports of police collecting fines at road blocks. My people report these things to me through their councilors and LLG presidents. And when the Police Minister defends that, it’s simply unacceptable,” he said.

“The police are fast becoming the enemy of the people. When police take away our people’s right to liberty, who do you report to? The police station? Their minister? Who?”

Many police work tireless
At the same time, he also acknowledged that many policemen and women worked tirelessly for the safety and security of the people while a few did not and continued to hide in the uniform.

“PNG can’t afford a prolonged SoE where civil liberties are curtailed and abused. We have rioting in America against police brutality. How long will our people remain silent here?

“These are relevant and pertinent questions. I had no desire to speak in Parliament today, I had not planned to. I only did so because I heard a proposal to extend the SoE for another two months.

“That is unacceptable based on what is happening on the ground,” he said.

In response to critics, Bird reiterated that the East and West Sepik provincial governments had used provincial taxes to pay for soldiers’ allowances to patrol the borders, helicopters and hire cars used by soldiers and medical personnel to protect the nation’s borders.

He said this was done without complaint and in full support of the national government, adding they would do that again even though they only received national government funding last Friday.

“I am grateful that [Prime Minister James Marape] proposed a 14-day extension rather than the two months being mooted. PMJM justified that this period is necessary to comply with legal requirements of passing an emergency bill.

“This new bill will be heavily scrutinised because that is the job you elected us to do. We are not sheep, we have a brain, we hear and we feel and we must do our best for you,” he said.

By Assumpta Buchanan in Honiara

Solomon Islands police are investigating several people, including prominent female development and social justice commentator Wendy Amangongo, for recent articles published in print and social media.

Acting Police Commissioner Mostyn Mangau confirmed this during his weekly press conference this week.

“There are reports received and investigators are still investigating that matter,” Mangau told reporters.

READ MORE: When China came calling – inside the Solomon islands switch

When asked by a reporter if police were focusing on Amangongo’s articles because she had allegedly breached certain regulations under the country’s state of emergency, Mangau said the investigation was not only on Amangongo but also on several others.

“What we are investigating here is to find out if there is a breach on the regulation issued under the state of public emergency that can incite illegal activities, riots, or fear among our people,” Mangau added.

He said that if evidence was available under the regulation they could then proceed to lay the charges but if there was no evidence available to instigate charges then they would analyse that.

Asked again if police were trying to “silence” people doing their work, Mangau said that the state of public emergency regulation clearly defined it as an offence to pass on any information that would incite illegal activities, cause riot, disharmony, fear or mislead people.

“So police are mandated to look at such issues, investigate them and ensure that the regulation is enforced,” Mangau said.

Directive from Attorney-General
The Solomon Star understands the directive for police to investigate Amangongo and others came from the Attorney-General’s Chamber.

Responding to the police investigation, Amangongo said it appeared to her that the government was using the excuse of covid-19 state of public emergency to intimidate her and interfere with her constitutional rights.

“I sense the police are under undue influence by the Prime Minister’s Office,” she told the Star. 

“I will continue to exercise my constitutional right to freedom of expression,” she added.

Amangongo said section 12 of the national constitution offered her protection for expressing her views.

Amangongo has penned several articles in recent weeks, some of which were critical of government actions and decisions, which she has published on print and social media.

Robust development articles on China
Pacific Media Watch reports that Amoangongo writes robust development articles for publications such as island Sun News and on her Facebook page, some of them critical of Honiara’s relationship with China.

In a recent article headed “Blacklisted by the World Bank? Engaged in Fraud?” about two state-owned Chinese companies involved in development projects in the Solomon islands, she wrote:

“In August last year, both China Railway Group (‘China Rail’) and China Civil Engineering Construction Company (‘CCECC’), both state-owned by the Chinese government, were blacklisted by the World Bank for fraudulent practices in Africa.

“Then a month later, in September 2019, China Rail [was] found again to be engaging in fraudulent practices on a hydro power project in Pakistan. China Rail received a further two-year ban from bidding for any World Bank-financed projects.

“The following month an official SIG delegation in China, headed by Hon Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, spent the day with China Rail and this included speeches by Hon Sogavare where he praised China Rail for their work and said how he hoped Solomon Islands and China Rail can work together.

“At the same time a $7 billion deal for work at Gold Ridge [gold mine involving Chinese miner Wanguo International] was announced with China Rail as the contractor for development. As to CCECC they have been awarded contracts for the development of SINU [Solomon Islands National University] in Honiara.”

Papua New Guinea’s former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has been arrested after arriving back in the country.

Police say O’Neill was arrested on suspicion of misappropriation, abuse of office and official corruption, regarding the purchase of two generators from Israel.

The Police Assistant Commissioner of Crimes, Hodges Ette, confirmed the MP was brought in for questioning yesterday afternoon in Port Moresby after flying in from Australia where he has been for much of the year.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Far-right protests in Spain over lockdowns

• Bat-linked illness studied in New Caledonia

While anti-fraud police investigators have sought him for questioning for months, O’Neill was reportedly unable to return to PNG since March when border closures were implemented as part of the country’s covid-19 state of emergency.

The allegations against the Ialibu-Pangia MP relate to a purchase he made as prime minister in 2013 involving two 15-megawatt generators for PNG from an Israeli company, LR Group.

PNG’s parliamentary opposition filed a police complaint about the purchase in 2014.

Police allege that O’Neill directed payments for the purchase of the two generators from Israel without due consideration for procurement processes as required under the Public Finance Management Act.

Purchase not approved
The purchase of the two generators was not approved by the national Parliament, while police allege that the purchase did not go through required tender processes, nor was there legal clearance from the State Solicitors for such payment.

O’Neill is alleged to have directed the National Executive Council to convene and approve the payment of 50 million kina (US$14 million) for the generators after the purchase was made.

Ette said there was reasonable evidence for misappropriation, abuse of office and official corruption.

The former prime minister, who lost power to incumbent prime minister James Marape a year ago, is being allowed bail.

He is expected to be quarantined at his own residence for the next 14 days after the interview, as required under PNG’s covid-19 emergency measures for all citizens repatriating.

• This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.
• Follow RNZ’s coronavirus newsfeed

By EMTV News

Papua New Guinea expects a spike of covid-19 cases this month – but no new cases have been detected in the country beyond the eight previously reported.

State of Emergency Controller David Manning said an anticipated 947 test results were pending from laboratories in Brisbane, Australia.

About security operations, the Controller said the police, defence force and correctional services were continuing to support the health authorities response over the coronavirus pandemic in trying to stop the spread.

The Pacifiic Media Centre republishes EMTV News items with permission.

The President of Timor-Leste, Francisco Guterres Lú-Olo, has declared a state of emergency to enable the government to address the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The state of emergency started last night at midnight and it will run until the night of April 26.

Timor-Leste’s National Parliament unanimously approved the state of emergency declaration in a vote on Friday evening, Tatoli newsagency reports.

READ MORE: Fears Covid-19 quarantine site could actually help spread the virus

The vote followed a formal request from President Lú-Olo. The emergency legislation grants the government additional powers to tackle the virus.

Meanwhile, Interim Health Minister, Élia dos Reis Amaral, said authorities would make “every effort” to facilitate social distancing at its Covid-19 quarantine sites – but conceded there were not enough beds for people to sleep separately.

Crowded, unclean quarters
As Tatoli reported yesterday, some of the residents quarantined at Novo Horizonte hotel in Metiaut reported sleeping arrangements of two or three people to a room, and in an unclean environment.

Amaral said the ministry had “registered” those concerns.

“There are cases where two to three people sleep in the same room… The Ministry of Health will continue to strive to resolve this issue,” she told the National Parliament.

The lack of beds forced authorities earlier this week to place 34 Timorese workers returning home from Australia at a government office in Comoro for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Timor-Leste has one confirmed Covid-19 infection case so far.

The Philippines Senate and the House of Representatives have passed identical bills granting extra powers to the president to deal with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, such as the takeover of medical and transport facilities and flexibility in disbursing the national budget.

Normally both chambers pass their own versions and then hold a bicameral conference to reconcile conflicting provisions, but during Monday’s special session, the House agreed to adopt the 10-page Senate Bill 1418 instead of its own House Bill 6616, to speed up the legislative mill.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea told House members the Malacañang Palace took note of concerns over wide-ranging emergency powers and said the Executive Branch would settle for “standby powers”.

READ MORE: House, Senate dissenters: ‘Emergency actions, not powers’ needed vs coronavirus

Dissenting lawmakers yesterday condemned the bill, saying what was needed was “emergency action” not “emergency powers”.

The approved bill narrowed the establishments that may be subject to a takeover, to only those needed to house health workers, serve as quarantine areas, quarantine centers, medical relief and aid distribution locations, or other temporary medical facilities; and to transport health, emergency, and frontline personnel and other persons.

The draft earlier sent by Medialdea to Congress sought a two-month state of national emergency requiring the temporary takeover of “any privately owned public utility or business affected with public interest”.

The bill, now titled “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act”, declares a state of national emergency to last for three months, and grants President Rodrigo Duterte “powers that are necessary and proper” to carry out a list of 24 emergency measures and “other measures as may be reasonable and necessary”.

Emergency measures
The emergency measures include:

• faster accreditation of testing kits;
• ensure that all local government units are acting in line with the rules, regulations and directives issued by the national government;
• direct the operation of any privately owned hospital and medical and health facility and other establishments to house health workers, serve as quarantine areas, quarantine centers, medical relief and aid distribution locations, or other temporary medical facilities; and public transportation to ferry health, emergency, and frontline personnel and other persons;
• enforce measures to protect the people from hoarding, profiteering, injurious speculations, manipulation of prices and others;
• use savings generated from discontinued programmes to augment funds needed to address the Covid-19 emergency;
• allocate cash, funds, investments, including unutilized or unreleased subsidies and transfers, held by any government corporation or national government agency;
• move deadlines and timelines for the filing and submission of any document, as well as the payment of taxes, fees, and other charges;
• direct all banks, quasi-banks, financing companies, lending companies, and other financial institutions, public and private, including the Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System and Pag-IBIG Fund, to implement a minimum of a 30-day grace period for the payment of all loans;
• provide for a 30-day grace period on residential rents falling due within the period from March 16 to April 15, 2020; and
• implement an “expanded and enhanced” cash transfer programme.

The president was required to submit a report every Monday to Congress on the implementation of the act.

Violators will be subject to imprisonment of two months or a fine of not less than P10,000 (NZ$340) but not more than P1 million (NZ$34,000), or both.

Three month emergency
The bill clarified that no provision “shall be construed as an impairment, restriction or modification of the provisions of the Constitution.”

The state of emergency ends in three months unless extended by Congress unless withdrawn by a concurrent resolution of Congress or ended by presidential proclamation.

Voting at the House was 284-9, with no abstentions. Most of those who voted against the bill belonged to party-list groups Gabriela, Bayan Muna, ACT Teachers and Kabataan. Albay Representative Edcel Lagman also voted against the bill.

At the Senate, it was 19-1, with no abstentions, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said. Twelve members were present on the floor and the rest voted remotely.

Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said “Congress has responded to the call of the times”.

Opposition senator Risa Hontiveros said she voted “no” because the bill granted the president “unchecked powers that are open to abuse and corruption. It also gives him a virtual blank check with no clear plan or strategy to defeat Covid-19″.

“In the measure, the president has near-absolute control over public funds in national government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations. His new powers would authorise him to altogether stop important government projects and divert their funding to other uses, with little checks and balances in place,” she added.

• The Philippines has 552 case of Covid-19 infections and 35 deaths, according to the John Hopkins University tracking map.

By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby

The Papua New Guinea government has declared an immediate state-of-emergency for the earthquake-devastated provinces of Hela, Southern Highlands, Western and Enga provinces.

Cabinet met yesterday and also set aside K450 million for relief and service restoration operations.

Prime Minister O’Neill also announced yesterday that cabinet had approved the establishment of a restoration authority that would manage long-term reconstruction efforts during a four-year period to fully restore normalcy.

O’Neill said that an emergency session of Parliament would be called soon to approve the legislation setting up the restoration authority.

He said K100 million would be released immediately and the remaining K300 million spread over a long term arrangement.

A committee assisted by the Works Department under an emergency disaster restoration team, led by Dr William Hamlin, as the emergency controller would be announced today.

Dr Hamlin and team would manage and co-ordinate all restoration activities working with provincial authorities.

Unprecedented disaster
O’Neill said that this was an unprecedented disaster in the Highlands region with an appropriate response underway by the National Government.

He said while all these decisions were being made, relief efforts were already underway, and further assessments provided to focus operations to areas in need.

“A state-of-emergency has been declared to expedite the restoration of essential public services including healthcare services, schools, road access, airports, power and communications facilities,” O’Neill said.

“An emergency session of Parliament will be convened for the presentation of legislation that will establish the restoration authority, with the date of the session to be announced by the Speaker of Parliament.

“Members of the PNG Defence Force and disaster officers were dispatched to the affected areas immediately following the earthquake, and are working with provincial authorities, particularly with the governors of Hela and Southern Highlands provinces.

“Essential government departments are already delivering relief, and we are further working with partners in the international community to utilise specialist relief capabilities to reach our people and communities affected by the earthquake.”

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist.

• More PNG earthquake stories