PINA

By Jo Chandler When she first tried for a seat in the Papua New Guinea parliament in 2017, Rufina Peter was a political novice who’d had a gutful. While many candidates solicit votes with lavish feasts and hollow promises, her shoestring campaign – handing out copies of her CV – struck a chord. She won the highest vote of any...

The former two-time coup leader hoping to return as Fiji’s prime minister has ruled out a security pact with China if he wins government, saying it was time his country returned to its “comfortable niche” with Australia. Sitiveni Rabuka has also flagged he will be asking Canberra for greater freedoms for Fijians working in Australia. Rabuka made the comments in a...

A Chinese state-owned company is negotiating to buy a deep-water port and World War II airstrip in Solomon Islands, as new documents detail how money from Beijing has helped keep the Pacific nation's controversial leader in power. As a battle for influence plays out in the region, an investigation by Four Corners has found China is aggressively pursuing economic opportunities...

A bipartisan group of senators will introduce legislation to establish three new embassies in the Pacific Islands region to strengthen America’s relationships there and counter China’s growing influence. The “Pacific Islands Embassy Act,” co-led by Senatorss. JON OSSOFF (D-Ga.) and TODD YOUNG (R-Ind.), would establish new U.S missions in Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tonga. As of today, America has a Fiji-based...

The U.S government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched a five-year partnership with The Asia Foundation (TAF) worth US$10 million to commemorate World Day Against Trafficking on 30 July. The purpose of the partnership is to implement counter-trafficking in persons interventions in Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Papua New Guinea, and Tonga. USAID’s Pacific...

A poll conducted by Cook Islands News has revealed a divided electorate in the lead-up to this year’s election, however a large percentage prefer Prime Minister Mark Brown to lead the country. According to the results, Brown, the leader of the governing Cook Islands Party, leads by 44.2 percent, with 16.7 percent of 120 voters polled preferring United Party leader...

A Pacific farmworker who left his fruit picking job to work for a labour hire company ended up in hospital, without access to Medicare, after he was allegedly set alight by another worker. Sione Lavalu spent 74 days in the Royal Brisbane hospital with stage three burns earlier this year. When he was first admitted, almost half his body was...

Since its launch four years ago, a financial technology firm has helped over 20,000 Malaysians overcome their lack of a credit score to access micro-financing. Global Psytech, led by founder Hanizah Yon, was able to do this with a fintech product it developed to understand the borrower's behaviour and assign him an alternative credit score. Pacific Islanders will likely be the...

The best approach to safeguarding democracy in the region is for both countries to demonstrate the prosperity and human flourishing that can flow from good governance. By Grant Wyeth Are Australia and New Zealand overlooking democratic decay throughout the Pacific Islands for fear of pushing their neighbors closer to China? This is the assertion of the leader of Fiji’s National Federation...

South Africa swept aside double Olympic champions Fiji to win men’s rugby sevens gold as Australia clinched the women’s Commonwealth Games title for the first time here. Muller du Plessis helped himself to a brace of tries while Jc Pretorious, Shaun Williams and Mfundo Ndhlovu crossed the whitewash in a crushing 31-7 victory over Fiji at a packed Coventry Stadium. Fiji...