PINA

Pacific Islanders who live as our forefathers lived celebrate biodiversity every day. Every day is biodiversity day. Our native and endemic species and the habitats in which they exist are woven into the fabric of our traditions, cultures, livelihoods and economies. Preserving our Pacific biodiversity is central preserving our identity and our future – it is the very ethos of...

Fiji’s men and New Zealand’s women turned on the style to win the HSBC France Sevens in Toulouse on Sunday. Ireland, led by the excellent Terry Kennedy, played some impressive rugby to reach their first ever men’s Cup final, but in the final the Fijians - off the back of gold in Singapore and silver in Vancouver, Canada – were...

Anthony Albanese will be Australia’s next prime minister, leaving the Coalition in disarray after it lost more than a dozen seats to Labor and independents in an election that has transformed the country’s political landscape. Declaring victory shortly before midnight on Saturday, Albanese thanked voters for the “extraordinary honour” of becoming the nation’s 31st prime minister, and said he would...

Australian voters have delivered a sharp rebuke to the centrer-right government, ending nine years of conservative rule, in favor of the centre-left opposition that promised strong action on climate change. Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese appeared certain to form a minority government, though it was unclear as counting continued if the party would have enough seats for a majority,...

A proposal to double funding in the Pacific to reduce the Chinese infiltration in the region was knocked back by the Cabinet's National Security Committee months before the Solomon Islands security agreement. Foreign Minister Marise Payne proposed doubling Australia’s Pacific aid months before the Solomon Islands-China security pact but the Cabinet’s National Security Committee rejected the proposal. Payne presented the bolstered...

Former Fiji Opposition MP Niko Nawaikula will spend two years behind bars. The matter was called for sentencing in the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court in Suva today. On 03 May this year, High Court Judge Justice Thushara Kumarage found Nawaikula guilty and convicted him on one count of giving false information to a public servant and one count of...

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has concluded its consideration of the combined second to fourth periodic report of Kiribati, with Committee Experts congratulating Kiribati for raising the age of marriage to 18, while raising questions about birth registration and school dropout rates for boys. A Committee Expert congratulated Kiribati for raising the age of marriage to 18. Another...

Papua New Guinea Judge Derek Hartshorn says a one-man Supreme Court bench does not have the power to stop an act of Parliament that has already been enforced. He made the comment while dismissing Opposition Leader Belden Namah’s application to stop the Parliament’s decision of adding new electorates and the Electoral Commission to proceed with the general election with those...

The U.S has announced it will boost military spending in the Pacific to counter China. The White House’s Indo-Pacific Strategy announcement didn’t include any money attached to it, but that should change in the next federal budget, according to Camille Dawson, deputy assistant secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. As every close watcher of the...

National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad says the Fijian government won’t be able to stop them and the People’s Alliance from winning this year’s general election. Prasad said the lies spread by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama during his official tours around the country won’t stop the two parties from winning this year’s election. “We are ready for the 2022 general election...