PINA

An additional 10 members of the third Australia and New Zealand Medical Assistance deployment – Charlie team arrived in Nadi today. ANZMAT Charlie will be deployed for three weeks at the request of the Fijian Government and on advice from ANZMAT Bravo medical experts already in Fiji. They will join forces with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to support...

Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa is urging all public servants not to let their support for a political party cloud their professional duties and obligations to their calling. “In any Government, the Cabinet is the decision maker and the public servants are the arms and legs of Government to implement those decisions,” she said. The Members of Parliament, according to...

Seasonal workers will be able to travel to New Zealand from Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu without undergoing a two-week stay in managed isolation, the Government has announced. The Government are keen to get this arrangement in place before September, but the decision has only been made in principle by Cabinet. The new travel corridor is aimed at helping industries that are...

Cases and deaths resulting from COVID-19 continue to climb worldwide, mostly fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, which has spread to 132 countries, said the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO Almost 4 million cases worldwide were reported last week to WHO and the agency expects the total number of cases to pass 200 million, in the next...

Australia will provide a $68 million (US$49 million) loan to Fiji to upgrade its airports as part of a step-up in infrastructure lending across the Pacific to help the region recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and compete with China’s decade-long spending spree. In the first deal of its kind, the Australian government and the ANZ bank will use a $2...

Vanuatu has taken ownership of its new Guardian-class Patrol Boat. The RVS Takuare is the 12th vessel delivered under the Australian Government’s Pacific Maritime Security Programme and was handed over by Australia on Vanuatu’s Independence Day at a ceremony in Henderson, Western Australia. Samson Fare, Vanuatu’s High Commissioner to Australia, accepted RVS Takuare on behalf of the Republic of Vanuatu alongside...

Small island nations across the world are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, and their problems have been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has severely affected their economies, and their capacity to protect themselves from possible extinction. We take a look at some of the many challenges they face, and how they could be overcome. Low emissions, but...

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has offered a “formal and unreserved apology” Sunday to the Pacific communities left traumatised by the dawn raids in the 1970s. The practice saw immigration officials target the homes of Pacific Islands people in the early hours of the morning, beginning in the 1970s, in a crackdown on alleged “overstaying” on their visas. The policy...

The princess of Tonga shed tears as she formally accepted Jacinda Ardern's apology on behalf of the Government that oversaw the dawn raids of the 1970s. The practice saw immigration officials target the homes of Pacific Islands people in the early hours of the morning, beginning in the 1970s, in a crackdown on alleged "overstaying" on their visas. Princess Mele Siu'ilikutapu...

Australia’s donations of COVID-19 vaccines to the Pacific last week topped the 1 million-mark, aided in part by some Australians’ reluctance to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca. More than half a million doses have been delivered to Fiji, which is racing to inoculate its population amid a serious outbreak of the fast-spreading Delta strain. About 278,000 doses have been given to...