More Top Stories
Fifth weekly Sydney flight to Rarotonga announced
23 October 2024
CIIC directors seek $350,000 in damages over defamatory claims
21 October 2024
Man found guilty of rape, burglary
24 September 2024
Tenants face water bill burden
8 October 2024
BRO CHECK campaign: ‘Reach out, you’re not alone’
8 October 2024
Concerns over Minister’s role in inmate work releases: PAC
5 October 2024
Tourism contribution set to surpass half-billion dollar mark
25 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Parliament Clerk sparks outrage over deep sea mining statement
23 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Tapaitau and Charlie-Puna released to ‘family jobs’
21 September 2024
3000 companies at risk due to Act oversight: Browne
23 September 2024
Police apprehend four juveniles in connection with motorcycle thefts
23 September 2024
Deep sea dilemma: Cook Islanders weigh the cost of mineral riches
21 September 2024
Anxiety on the rise: Cook Islands faces mental health challenge
7 September 2024
Cook Islands deep sea mining poll sparks controversy
7 September 2024
Helmet safety concerns raised amid enforcement challenges
2 September 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
STI cases on the rise
2 September 2024
Rising seas, rising costs: Climate impacts on Cook Islands economy
2 September 2024
Inflation eases but concerns remain
31 August 2024
Prime Minister defends $659,000 MPs travel bill
23 August 2024
Taxpayers foot $659,000 bill for MPs travel and allowance
22 August 2024
Corruption report exposes ‘bribe and sexual favours’
17 January 2023
PM Brown eager to hand over Forum chair role to Tonga
13 August 2024
ICI explains road works delay in front of old Sheraton site
10 August 2024
Diaspora dismayed over lack of Te Maeva Nui livestream
8 August 2024
Everyone is a winner, says Culture
7 August 2024
Local women outshine global peers in business leadership
8 August 2024
Housing crisis hits tourism industry
27 July 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
Tapaitau appeal dismissed
17 July 2024
Challenging ‘rape culture’
8 July 2024
Pacific
Tahiti sailors win 2024 Regatta in Raro
Sailors from Tahiti edged over Rarotonga, proving to be very competitive taking out first place in both the Lasers and the Optimist classes, winning the 2024 sailing challenge overall trophy.
Former PM Puna first Cook Islander elected to East-West Center Board
Former Cook Islands prime minister and secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum, Henry Puna, has been confirmed as the first Cook Islander appointed to the East-West Center Board of Governors based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
'Door open' to cap global warming
NEW YORK – Carbon-cutting pledges from 146 nations for a universal rescue pact leave the “door open” to capping global warming below the danger threshold, the United Nations says, a month ahead of crunch talks in Paris.
Fiji conference shapes Paris approach
SUVA – It is hoped the outcomes of a climate resilience conference in Fiji will give the region a strong platform before next month’s global climate change conference in Paris.
PNG on brink of financial black hole
PORT MORESBY – Australia is not the only country in the region facing a budget black hole because of lower commodity prices. Papua New Guinea is more dependent on mineral and energy exports than Australia and has been hit hard by falling prices and drought. As PNG’s treasurer Patrick Pruaitch prepares to deliver his 2016 budget next week, economists are warning the country is facing a revenue collapse of historic proportions. Economist Paul Flanagan, a former PNG treasury official, said the budget due to be delivered on Tuesday would be “very, very tough”, precipitated by what he described as “an extraordinary collapse in revenues”. “International commodity prices have dropped and that has taken about 10 per cent of their revenues,” Flanagan told the ABC’s Pacific Beat programme. Drought and other pressures such as exchange rate controls have slashed revenue predictions further. “These are cuts of about 20 per cent in revenues even from the 2015 budget,” Flanagan said. Pruaitch announced a delay in the return to budget surpluses from 2017 to 2020 when he released his 2016 budget strategy statement last week. Flanagan said that was “a sensible and overdue move” but the cuts to spending proposed by the government were huge. “They are looking, for example, on the expenditure side, to go from government expenditure being about one third of the economy to only 21 per cent by 2020,” Flanagan said. PNG’s prime minister Peter O’Neill has moved to calm public nerves because of the predicted big spending cuts. “This is a conservative budget that carefully manages spending to ensure essential services are delivered to the people,” O’Neill said. O’Neill said school fees, access to health care and critical infrastructure would continue to be properly funded, while more would be spent on police, courts and prisons. “The budget is one that better positions our economy to confront international challenges including low commodity prices and global economic uncertainty,” he said. But the quarantining of so many areas from spending cuts is also raising eyebrows. Former prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta said in a statement that PNG needed to take urgent action to save itself from a looming economic and financial storm. “The prime minister has had plenty of warning from his own expert advisers in treasury and from eminent foreign institutions and observers,” Sir Mekere said. Local business have praised the treasurer’s 2016 budget strategy but they have also warned about the scale of the task ahead. “Confidence may only be maintained by continued disciplined and zealous fiscal constraint over the next three to five years,” the Business Council of PNG and Manufacturers Council said in a rare joint media release. Concern has also been expressed about the government’s enthusiasm for taking large investments in resource projects, such as its purchase of Oil Search shares, controversially funded with a $1.2 billion loan from UBS. “We do caution government that it should not spend its scarce revenue on greenfield and brownfield projects,” said Douveri Henao, executive director of the Business Council of PNG. Sir Mekere – an economist, former head of treasury and a political rival of O’Neill – has warned that the country is facing one of its biggest budget crises in history. “A series of foolish deficit budgets and mini-budgets have brought Papua New Guinea to the brink,” Sir Mekere said. He said economic conditions were similar today to those caused by notorious former PNG prime minister, Bill Skate, who was a mentor to O’Neill. “Only urgent action saved the nation from disaster in 1999,” Sir Mekere said. “Only a well-structured and disciplined recovery package, implemented consistently over the next four to five years, will create the environment necessary for sustainable economic and social advancement.” - ABC PNG ‘no place for struggling refugees CANBERRA – Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has criticised moves to resettle refugees in Papua New Guinea, describing the country as struggling. PNG announced earlier this month that it would begin resettling processed refugees from within Manus Island, three years after the detention centre opened. The development was welcomed by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and his Opposition counterpart Richard Marles, despite concerns for the welfare of gay refugees in a country where homosexuality is still illegal. Professor Triggs also voiced concerns over the economic capabilities of PNG. She told the ABC that the country was facing pressure to provide services to its own people, many of whom live in unsafe and unhygienic situations. “Seventy per cent of the women there allege rape or sexual assault in their lifetime,” she said. “Infant mortality is poor, the mortality of the mothers i s poor. Health care generally, access to clean water, is very limited. Access in particular to the courts or police services is very limited.” “I think it is not a country that should be asked to accept the burden of refugees, whereas obviously Australia is a wealthy country with huge opportunities.” “I think it’s an extraordinary request to make of a country that struggling to service the needs of its own people.” Her comments come ahead of the unveiling of PNG’s budget next week, which economist and former PNG treasury official Paul Flanagan said would be “very, very tough”. Flanagan told Pacific Beat that falling commodity prices, drought and pressures such as exchange rate controls have slashed revenue predictions. - ABC
Fact check: Is Nauru virtually a failed state?
Australian independent Federal MP Andrew Wilkie recently made the claim that the “Republic of Nauru is virtually a failed state”. ABC Fact Check took a closer look and determined that such claims about Nauru are exaggerated.
Fans prepare for 'Bledisloe on steroids'
TWICKENHAM – Tickets are still available for seats at the Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham, with prices ranging from $1300 to an eye-watering $18,000.
Wanted officer walks out of court
LAUTOKA – A Fiji military officer, who is wanted over a high profile assault-in-custody charge, has appeared in a separate rape case in court in Lautoka and walked out on bail.
Vanuatu chiefs call for unity
PORT VILA – The chiefs and churches in Vanuatu are calling for the political impasse in the country to be settled quickly.
O'Neill outsmarts opposition
PORT MORESBY – Papua New Guinea prime minister Peter O’Neill has seen off an opposition attempt to throw out the country’s government.
Media accused of 'racial superiority'
YAREN – Nauru’s justice minister David Adeang has rejected calls for greater media access, accusing Australian journalists of treating his country with “great arrogance”.
Refugee Abyan to return to Australia
YAREN – A pregnant refugee who says she was raped on Nauru will return to Australia to talk to doctors about having an abortion, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says.
Nauru attacks foreign media
YAREN – Nauru’s justice minister has rejected foreign journalists’ calls for greater access, saying the country’s government has no obligation to answer to foreign media.
O'Neill's leadership challenged
PORT MORESBY – Papua New Guinea’s opposition has formally given notice it will move a motion of no confidence in the government of prime minister Peter O’Neill.
PM's former bodyguard still at large
SUVA – The Fiji police say they have made no progress in tracking down a former member of the military who is on bail and wanted in relation to the beating of two prison escapees.
War of words in Vanuatu's power struggle
PORT VILA – The Vanuatu Opposition Deputy Leader, Ham Lini, is maintaining his call for the Prime Minister Sato Kilman to step down.
Tonga joins fight against illegal fishing
NUKU‘ALOFA – Tonga has made a commitment to work with other Pacific nations to stamp out illegal, unregulated fishing.
Palau sanctuary seeks transition partners
KOROR – Palau will develop partnerships with a number of charitable foundations and other groups to help the country with the implementation of the newly-created Palau National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS).
Refugee resettlement at last
LORENGAU – Papua New Guinea will begin to resettle refugees, three years after the Manus Island detention centre opened.
Concern for plight of gay refugees
LOFRENGAU – With the prospect of refugees being resettled, concerns have been raised over the welfare of gay refugees in Papua New Guinea, which is yet to legalise homosexuality.
Police on high alert in Honiara
HONIARA – Police in the Solomon Islands capital have gone on high alert over a risk of political unrest following moves to unseat the government.
Abyan becomes focus of refugee debate
A pregnant Somali asylum seeker, known as Abyan, has become a focal point in the continuing dispute over Australia’s refugee policies. Her plight has captured global attention. This report is from the New York Times.
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