The opening ceremony of the Pacific Islands Forum in Majuro, the Marshall Islands, last week. Image: Pacific Islands Forum

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel

Australia has elected a new leader, Fiji has passed a new constitution and Pacific countries have signed a new declaration on climate change at the end of a ground-breaking week in Pacific politics.

Tony Abbott led the Liberal-National Coalition to electoral victory on Saturday, to become Prime Minister-elect of Australia and one of the most powerful players in the Asia-Pacific region.

He was due to clarify an arrangement for asylum seeker resettlement in Papua New Guinea in the near future, and incoming Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told ABC that developing a “strong mutually respectful relationship with Indonesia” would also be a top priority.

Read more »

Pacific Media Watch’s Daniel Drageset interviews British filmmaker Tajinder Singh Hayer about the Film Raro festival in the Cook Islands. Still photos by Del Abcede/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Daniel Drageset of Pacific Media Watch

After participating in the Raro Challenge on Rarotonga, British filmmaker Tajinder Singh Hayer flew into Auckland full of praise for the inaugural Cook Islands film festival Film Raro.

When arriving on Rarotonga in mid-May, Singh Hayer and his crew had only just over a week to shoot a short film for the festival, organised by Drum Productions of New Zealand.

Five other film crews from around the world, including New Zealand, competed in the same intense competition as the English filmmakers.

To succeed, Singh Hayer and his team were dependent on local support – but that was never a problem. Read more »

Samoa’s Gatoloaifaana Amataga Alesana-Gidlow … seeks a NZ ban on fatty meat exports to the Pacific. Image: IISD

At last month’s Pacific parliamentary forum in Wellington, delegates from around the region called for New Zealand to stop exporting fatty meat to the Pacific. The fatty offcuts being exported have been partially blamed for the rise of non-communicable diseases in the Pacific. But Holly Ryan reports for Asia-Pacific Journalism on other concerns.

Pacific Scoop:
Backgrounder – By Holly Ryan

While non-communicable diseases in the Pacific have been on the rise over the last few decades and are partially blamed on the dumping of cheap, fatty food in the region, shortages of healthy locally grown foods are also a problem.

Fatty food supplies from New Zealand again faced controversy at last month’s Pacific Parliamentary and Politics Forum with calls for such exports to be banned.

“All we can do is keep reminding the government and ministries to not back off and to keep pushing for change,” says Cook Islands Democratic Party MP Selina Napa, who was among those at the forum. Read more »

Climate change … along with depleted fisheries and savage storms, this is one of the great challenges facing the Pacific. Image: Fiji Times

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott

Rising sea levels, falling fish stocks and more extreme storms have proven destructive and deadly, Pacific leaders told a Wellington forum at the weekend.

New Zealand Green MP Kennedy Graham launched an apology to delegates at the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum on behalf of New Zealanders who disagreed with the government’s decision not to sign the Copenhagen Agreement on reducing carbon emissions and alleviating climate change.

Other delegates spoke of the threat that rising sea levels posed to low-lying islands, the effect of overfishing and environmental changes on the Pacific fish stock, and the recovery efforts after severe storms in Samoa, Tonga and other countries. Read more »

Finance Minister Bill English … outvoted by “sustainable development” vision. Image: NZ Parliament

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott

Pacific leaders have overwhelmingly rejected a push from the World Bank and New Zealand to free up trade and loosen regulations in the region.

About 60 delegates from 18 countries heard World Bank economist Tim Bulman and New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English argue for higher economic growth and smaller governments, during the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum in Wellington this weekend.

But a majority of the leaders – representing governments, oppositions and NGOs – have committed themselves to sustainable development over economic growth and to sound and balanced governance over more severe austerity measures. Read more »

Mutton flaps banned in New Zealand and the US but not in the Pacific. Image: Kiva.org

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott in Wellington

New Zealand must stop the export of fatty foods to Pacific countries if it wants to deal with the region’s record high rates of obesity and diabetes, a Samoan MP told a forum of Pacific leaders today.

Gataoloaifa’na Amataga Alesana Gidlow told delegates at the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum in Wellington that New Zealand is largely to blame, for failing to stop the exporting of fatty meats and other products.

“In the true spirit of supporting each other, we ask our developed brother, partner and neighbour, New Zealand, to stop exporting to your poor and less developed neighbour in the Pacific all your fatty products that are not for sale in your country because they are not consumable,” she demanded. Read more »

Pacific politics delegates in the parliamentary chamber in Wellington. Image: Michael Sergel/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott in Wellington

Pacific political leaders agree that action needs to be taken on gender equality in the region, although they disagree with the urgency of measures.

Delegates from 17 countries addressed the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum in Wellington on Friday.

For a Palauan politician, Senator Rukebai Kikuo Skey-Inabo, gradual change was not good enough. Read more »

Samoan master carver Tuailevaoola Pio Timu creating frangipanis on the Cook Island column. Image: Alistar Kata/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alistar Kata

A new early childhood centre will keep South Auckland’s culture alive by erecting pieces of artwork on its Mangere campus.

Six columns, or pou mamanu, will be designed and carved especially for the school, representing some of the main islands in the Pacific, including the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand (Aotearoa).

This display will coincide with the opening of the learning centre in November this year. Read more »

The leak of 2 million emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) – and including the Cook Islands, is causing a seismic shock worldwide to the booming trade through investigative reports by the Center for Public Integrity. Video: Euronews

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Nicky Hager and Pacific Media Watch

The story of Portcullis TrustNet and its birthplace — the Cook Islands — is in many ways the story of the offshore banking system itself.

It is a largely invisible world, a curious blend of the parochial and the global that’s made up of the minor personalities and politics inside each offshore jurisdiction — many with populations no larger than a small town.

But by establishing special zones, these tiny provinces have changed the face of international finance and business and impacted law enforcement, tax policies and political and economic transparency across the planet. Read more »

Niue youngsters and a laptop … access to technology is limited across the Pacific. Image: Tan-Rose Fatalupe/PMC

National media associations in many Pacific Island nations are “disconnected from the new reality”, says a recent report. But critics say that in spite of problems there is optimism for the future.

Pacific Scoop:
Asia-Pacific Journalism Report – By Finian Scott

Media commentators believe a recent report has highlighted the slowness of national media associations in the Pacific to address the “new reality” in the digital age and conflicts between stakeholders over future development.

Bob Howarth, media communications fellow at the Institute for Peace and Democracy in Bali, Indonesia, and a former general manager of the PNG Post-Courier, regards the “conflicting dialogue” between key stakeholders as a concern for the Pacific.

This is reflected in a contrast between editors and journalists and government officials over where they see the media industry heading. Read more »