Press Release – Ministry of Health

Overall influenza H1N1 activity continues to decrease below baseline levels. While some cases and clusters of influenza are likely to continue, this is much less frequent now and at a national level we are nearing the end of the second wave of pandemic … Read more »

Press Release – Environment Canterbury

Environment Canterbury commissioners adopted the Regional Council’s Annual Report at their public meeting today. Read more »

Press Release – Royal Commonwealth Society

New research published today by the Royal Commonwealth Society shows that a Commonwealth country’s trade with another member is likely to be a third to a half more than with a non-member, even after taking into account other possible contributory factors … Read more »

Press Release – Royal Commonwealth Society

New research published today by the Royal Commonwealth Society shows that a Commonwealth country’s trade with another member is likely to be a third to a half more than with a non-member, even after taking into account other possible contributory factors … Read more »

The Greater Sunrise oil field in the Timor Gap between the Timorese coastline and Australia. (Map: Timor Hau Nian Daben.)

East Timor has been standing up to the Australian oil company Woodside Petroleum over development of gas and oil fields in the Timor Sea. But the stakes are high for the country’s viability.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Nicholas Jones.

East Timor will lose more than revenue if a dispute with Woodside Petroleum over where gas from the Greater Sunrise field will be processed is not resolved, says an academic researching politics in the country.

“This is going to be seen internationally as a marker of East Timor’s capacity to engage with international investment,” says Damien Kingsbury, a professor at Deakin University’s School of International and Political Studies. Read more »

A move to bring back fluoridated water across the Fiji Islands for the first time in three decades has a lobby group up in arms claiming the mineral is “toxic”.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Jessica Tasman-Jones.

A controversial debate over fluoridation of water supplies has sprung up in Fiji in the past few months with plans to reintroduce the public health measure.

Last month, the Ministry of Health revealed it is working with the Water Authority of Fiji to fluoridate water supplies across the country. Read more »

Press Release – New Zealand Law Society

The New Zealand Law Society has said it recognises that there were unprecedented circumstances which led to Parliament passing the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act 2010. Read more »

Tongan publisher Kalafi Moala, keynote speaker at this year's Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) conference, and columnist Tapu Misa, Photo: PMC

Journalism schools around New Zealand are recognising the need to offer specific education to diverse ethnic groups in order to attract them to the industry. AUT University is introducing the country’s first Graduate Diploma in Pacific Journalism for next year.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Olivia Caldwell

When a Thai family’s pain and anguish from the Christchurch earthquake was printed on the front page of the Dominion Post earlier this month, Asia New Zealand Foundation’s media adviser Charles Mabbett was more than happy to read on.

Although Mabbett is sympathetic to the family’s loss of their livelihood through their damaged restaurant, it was one of the few articles that he believes has displayed good ethnic reporting. Read more »

Press Release – PPTA

PPTA has voted to support a national languages policy in a bid to prevent Pasifika languages from dying out. Read more »

Press Release – Volunteer Service Abroad

VSA (Volunteer Service Abroad), New Zealand’s largest and most experienced international volunteer agency, is adding a new kind of assignment to its volunteering options – short-term volunteering. Read more »