Category Archives: Pacific islands

Son of Fijian prime minister faces NSW court on domestic violence-related charges

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Ratu Meli Bainimarama has been charged with assault, stalking, choking and other charges in Windsor local court

The son of the Fijian prime minister is facing criminal charges in relation to domestic violence-related allegations in a New South Wales court.

Ratu Meli Bainimarama, 36, has been charged with 17 offences related to domestic violence, including five charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two charges of stalking, four charges of common assault, one charge of destroying or damaging property, one charge of intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent and four counts of intentionally choking a person without consent.

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Australia is funding just one-tenth of its fair share of global climate action, study finds

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Wealthy high-polluting countries to face growing calls from poorer nations to help cover cost of extreme weather and sea level rises

Australia is being urged to increase its investment in climate action, with a new report estimating the country is funding just one-tenth of its fair share globally.

The study being released by Oxfam and ActionAid Australia on Thursday calls on Australia to immediately increase its climate finance commitments to $3bn ahead of the UN climate meeting Cop27 to be held in Egypt in November.

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Solomon Islands to delay election as PM tells Australia to ‘get ready’ to fund vote

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Manasseh Sogavare pushed for the election to be delayed, saying country could not host election and Pacific Games in the same year

The Solomon Islands’ government has voted to delay its national elections, after it passed a controversial bill submitted by the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, to postpone the poll until after the country has hosted the Pacific Games in November 2023.

The vote passed with 37 votes for, nine against and three MPs absent during the voting.

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Ex-president demands inquiry into Marshall Islands ‘mini-state plot’

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Hilda Heine calls for investigation into Chinese couple’s alleged efforts to bribe officials to help set up tax haven

A former president of the Marshall Islands has called for an investigation into an alleged plot by a Chinese couple to establish a mini-state inside its borders and set it up as a lucrative tax-break haven.

The pair were charged by US prosecutors with bribery and money-laundering offences over a “multi-year scheme” that included establishing a non-governmental organisation, allegedly bribing five Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) officials and attempting to bribe a sixth. One of the five was allegedly given cash to bribe others into supporting the carving out of a Hong Kong-style territory.

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Solomon Islands refuses Australia’s offer to help fund election as ‘foreign interference’

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Manasseh Sogavare calls Australia’s offer ‘an assault on our parliamentary democracy’ after saying his country had to delay elections because of cost

The prime minister of Solomon Islands has responded furiously to an offer from the Australian government to assist with funding for the national election, calling it “foreign interference”.

Manasseh Sogavare’s government added that the timing of the offer from Australia was “inappropriate” coming “at a time when a bill to defer the elections … is now before the National Parliament of Solomon Islands for deliberations”.

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Coup leader versus coup leader: strongman election shows the cracks in Fijian democracy

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Whatever the outcome of this year’s election, the next prime minister will likely be someone who first came to power through the barrel of a gun

The last time the Australian Labor party came to power (in 2007), Australia was imposing sanctions against Fiji as a result of the country’s fourth coup in 2006. Relations worsened before they improved and, partly at Australia’s prompting, Fiji was suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum in 2009.

Fast forward to 2022. Fiji’s 2006 coup leader is now its prime minister, Fiji is chairing the Pacific Islands Forum, and it was the first Pacific country that Australia’s new foreign minister, Penny Wong, visited.

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The ‘egregious’ history of likely new Nauru operator includes allegations of gang rape and murder in its US prisons

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A Guardian investigation reveals the firm has been accused of ‘gross negligence’ that allegedly led to gang rape, murder and mistaken solitary confinement in its US facilities

The US private prisons operator likely to take over Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru has previously been accused of “gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures that allegedly led to the gang-rape of a woman in detention, the murder of two retirees by escaped prisoners, and the months-long solitary confinement of a US citizen wrongfully held in immigration detention.

The Department of Home Affairs is finalising negotiations with the US-based Management and Training Corporation, which the department has announced as its preferred tenderer to provide “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” for Australia’s offshore regime on Nauru from next month. No contracts have yet been signed.

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Papua New Guinea PM takes out advert urging journalists to stop calling him direct

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Notice in two major newspapers asks reporters to use ministerial emails instead of contacting James Marape

The Papua New Guinean prime minister’s office has taken out a full page advertisement in the country’s two major newspapers urging journalists to stop calling and texting him directly.

“This circular is to advise all members of the media fraternity, both national and international, that the Prime Minister Hon. James Marape MP will no longer accept direct press enquiries from the date of this correspondence onwards,” said the public notice published in the Post Courier and the National on Friday.

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Papua New Guinea hopes to have Australia security deal signed by end of year

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Country’s foreign minister says China’s interest in the Pacific required a ‘strengthened’ PNG-Australia treaty

Papua New Guinea hopes to sign a security deal with Australia, as well as possibly New Zealand and the US, by the end of the year, the country’s foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko has said.

Tkatchenko said the security treaty with Australia has been in the works since 2019, but that the recent security deal struck between China and Solomon Islands would require Australia and Papua New Guinea to strengthen the treaty.

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Solomon Islands bans all foreign navy ships from its ports

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Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations while it works on new processes for docking of military vessels

The Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on all nations requesting to send in naval ships while it works on new processes for military vessels entering port.

The announcement from the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, comes after it was revealed the US had been issued with a notice of the moratorium.

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US ship unable to get Solomon Islands’ permission to dock, says Washington

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Honiara did not respond to request for coast guard vessel to refuel amid tensions over security pact with China

A United States coast guard vessel was unable to enter Solomon Islands for a routine port call because its government did not respond to a request to refuel and provision, a US official said.

The Solomons government did not immediately answer a Reuters request for comment. It has had a tense relationship with the US and its allies since striking a security pact with China in May.

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Court lashes Kiribati government over treatment of Australian-born judge

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Kiribati’s court of appeal said government’s latest bid to deport high court justice David Lambourne on national security grounds was ‘far-fetched’

Kiribati’s constitutional crisis is no closer to resolution, with the country’s court of appeal criticising the government for its conduct towards suspended high court judge David Lambourne, an Australian citizen.

In an extraordinary judgment on Friday, the appeals court – consisting of three retired New Zealand judges – upheld an earlier decision that had found efforts to undermine Lambourne’s tenure unconstitutional. Lambourne is a longtime resident of Kiribati and formerly the nation’s solicitor general. His wife, Tessie Lambourne, is the opposition leader.

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Solomon Islands to ban foreign journalists who are not ‘respectful’ – report

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PM office says journalists cannot operate in the Pacific as they do in other countries, accusing Australia’s ABC of ‘racial profiling’ in China coverage

The Solomon Islands government has reportedly threatened to ban foreign journalists from entering the Pacific nation if they are not “respectful” or if they engage in “racial profiling” in stories about the country’s ties with China.

The office of the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that overseas journalists needed to understand they could not operate in the Pacific the same way they did in other countries, the ABC has reported.

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Papua New Guinea brings in minister for coffee

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Prime minister says new appointment shows the government’s commitment to expanding key agriculture industries

The Papua New Guinean prime minister has announced his cabinet, which contains not only some new faces, but some new positions as well, including a minister for coffee.

The post – believed to be a world first – shows the government’s commitment to expanding key agriculture industries, said the prime minister James Marape, who won re-election earlier this month after an election plagued by violence and allegations of voter fraud. For the first time Marape also named a minister for palm oil.

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Huge fireball erupts on fuel barge in Vanuatu bay

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The vessel was delivering fuel in mangrove-rich South West Bay on Malekula Island when it burst into flames, injuring at least three people

A massive fireball has erupted after a fuel transport barge caught fire in a pristine bay on a remote Vanuatu island, injuring at least three people.

The Western Star, a barge fitted out to carry fuel and cargo, burst into flames at South West Bay on Malekula, Vanuatu’s second largest island, on Wednesday.

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Canstruct loses lucrative Nauru offshore processing contract to US prisons operator with controversial record

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Management and Training Corporation is set to take over running Australia’s immigration regime on the island

Canstruct has lost the lucrative contract to run Australia’s offshore immigration regime on Nauru with the Brisbane firm to be replaced by a US-headquartered private prisons operator that has a controversial past.

Sources have told the Guardian that Canstruct’s current contract, set to end on 30 September, will not be renewed and from 1 October “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” will be run by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) Australia.

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Marshall Islands, haven from Covid for two years, gets 3,000 cases in space of weeks

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Pacific country had recorded no community transmission of the virus until last week, and healthcare is struggling to cope

After dodging the Covid-19 pandemic for two years, the Marshall Islands is grappling to control the spread of infections, which have tripled since the first community transmissions were detected a week ago.

The number of positive cases in the north Pacific nation, which has a population of about 60,000 people, has skyrocketed to more than 3,000 cases with four Covid-linked deaths and seven hospital admissions.

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Kiribati constitutional crisis deepens as it detains Australian-born high court justice

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Judge David Lambourne was detained after a failed bid to deport him, which he called a ‘devastating assault on the rule of law’ in Kiribati

Kiribati is in the midst of a constitutional crisis after its government detained one of its most senior judges, Australian citizen David Lambourne, after a failed attempt to deport him.

Despite an order from the Kiribati court of appeal that Lambourne should not be removed from the country, police and immigration officials sought to forcibly deport him at Bonriki international airport on Thursday.

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Solomon Islands PM insists extending his term is ‘one-off’, says Australian minister

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Manasseh Sogavare has moved to change the constitution to stay in office until after the Pacific Games in November 2023

The Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, has offered assurances any changes to the constitution to extend his time in office would be a one-time move, Australia’s Pacific minister says.

Sogavare has moved to change the constitution to extend his term in government until after the Pacific Games in November 2023.

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James Marape returned as prime minister in Papua New Guinea after fraught election

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Marape, leader of PNG since 2019, defeated ex-PM Peter O’Neill in an election plagued by violence and electoral fraud

James Marape has been returned as Papua New Guinea’s prime minister for its 11th parliament after a fraught and violent election period that has run for roughly six weeks.

Marape – who became prime minister in 2019 after toppling his predecessor and former party leader, Peter O’Neill – was invited to form government by the governor general, after his Pangu Pati secured 36 seats and was able to strike deals with coalition partners to bring its numbers to more than 80.

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