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 »

Vanuatu’s Ralph Regenvanu … self-confessed “notorious critic” of free trade and foreign ownership. Image: WikiCommons

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott

The government minister behind major land reform in Vanuatu says the country’s indigenous peoples must retain title over their customary lands, and the displacement that has happened in Papua New Guinea cannot be allowed  in his own country.

Ralph Regenvanu, the newly-appointed Minister of Lands, Geology, Mines, Energy and Water, is a self-confessed “notorious critic” of free trade and foreign ownership – and has serious concerns about Vanuatu people being disenfranchised from the lands of their ancestors.

“One of my priorities is to reform land law to really enshrine customary tenure over land,” Regenvanu has told Pacific Scoop. 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 »

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 »

Vanuatu Prime Minister Moana Carcasses holding the West Papua Morning Star freedom flag flanked by the visiting West Papuan delegation. Image: Vanuatu govt

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Godwin Ligo in Port Vila

If Vanuatu national leaders, and some top brass in the opposition, mean what they say of the support to the West Papuan cause towards self-determination, Indonesia will likely be voted out and West Papua voted in as observer to the Melanesian Spearhead group at the June MSG Meeting in New Caledonia.

Vanuatu Prime Minister Moana Carcasses has assured a West Papua delegation during a meeting in his office that he will support a West Papua request to grant and admit the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region as an observer in the meeting in Noumea.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Ham Lini has already pledged his support in the last government to move for Indonesia to be stripped off MSG status and West Papua to be granted MSG observer status instead. Read more »

Communications Fiji’s news director Vijay Narayan speaking at the Media and Democracy symposium at the University of the South Pacific last year. Image: David Robie/PMC

National media associations in the Pacific have been reported as “dysfunctional and fractured” and are seen by some as irrelevant. However, a proposed new scheme may help provide a solution to some of these issues.

Pacific Scoop:
Asia-Pacific Journalism Report – By Holly Ryan

When asked to think about the Pacific, sandy beaches and remarkable underwater caves with a myriad of tropical fish are often the first thing to come to mind for New Zealand audiences

A history steeped in financial and political pressures, civil wars and fighting, however, is sometimes more accurate.

This “darker side” to the Pacific is often overlooked or only briefly brushed over in the news. So how can an area that has been so fraught be so largely overlooked in the media? According to a recent aid agency report, it comes down to a lack of media unity in the Pacific. Read more »

Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and former Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare (right) at the MSG conference at the University of the South Pacific. Image: Atu Rasea/The Fiji Times

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Salaseini Tawake in Suva

Fiji should not be pressured into creating a constitution simply to please development partners or suppress criticisms from big foreign countries, says Papua New Guinea’s founding prime minister Sir Michael Somare.

The grand chief said this during the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Melanesian Spearhead Group yesterday.

The three-day event began on Monday at the University of the South Pacific, Laucala Campus, in Suva, Fiji. Read more »

The free West Papua concert in Port Moresby marking Benny Wenda’s global tour. Image: Masalai blog

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By Airi Ingram and Jason MacLeod in Port Moresby

Melanesian support for a free West Papua has always been high. Travel throughout Papua New Guinea and you will often hear people say that West Papua and Papua New Guinea is ‘wanpela graun’ – one land – and that West Papuans on the other side of the border are family and kin.

In the Solomon Islands, Kanaky, Fiji and especially Vanuatu, people will tell you that “Melanesia is not free until West Papua is free”. This was the promise that the late Father Walter Lini, Vanuatu’s first prime minister made.

Ordinary people in this part of the Pacific are painfully aware that the West Papuan people continue to live under the gun. It is the politicians in Melanesia who have been slow to take up the cause. Read more »

Melanesian Solidarity Group Director-General Peter Forau (right) receives the application from West Papuan John Ondowame (left). Image: Jubi/WPNCL

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Victor Mambor in Jayapura

Officials from the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) have submitted an application for Melanesian Spearhead Group membership at the organisation’s headquarters in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

The WPNCL officials had a one hour meeting recently with Director-General Peter Forau of the MSG. The delegation comprised the WPNCL’s vice-chairman, secretary-general, head of the Vanuatu mission, a woman representative and a student and youth representative.

They were accompanied by former Prime Minister and staunch advocate for West Papuan independence, Barak Sope Maautamate and a representative from the FLNKS of Kanaky/New Caledonia. Read more »

The Pacific Plan … under review, criticised. Image: PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By the PMC news desk

An independent review team of leading experts has been named to consider the Pacific Plan during this year.

Pacific Islands Forum leaders nominated a former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Mekere Morauta, to lead the review at the Forum meeting in the Cook Islands last September.

Following a competitive selection process, the rest of his team has been named. Read more »