PINA

Member of Parliament for Mauke Tai Tura was last night sworn in as the new Speaker of Cook Islands Parliament at a special ceremony held at the Queen’s Representative Sir Tom Marsters’ residence in Titikaveka. The Member of Parliament for Mauke had held the role of Deputy Speaker for nearly 10 years – since the time of the former Speaker,...

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr, who is scheduled to visit Taiwan next week, said Monday that he has informed Beijing that Palau cherishes its relations with Taiwan and that no one should ask Palau to cut ties with Taipei. In a special interview via videoconferencing, Whipps said Beijing had contacted him last year after he won the presidential election, trying...

School children in cyclone affected areas will benefit from an additional F$15 million package of support that was announced today by Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, John Feakes. The new package of Australian support will assist the Fijian Government to reconstruct schools damaged or destroyed by Tropical Cyclones Yasa and Ana. High Commissioner Feakes said Australia is pleased to be able...

Fostering Pacific regional cooperation and organisational operational stability are the focus for the Pacific Aviation Safety Office (PASO) over the next twelve months to enable continued delivery of aviation safety and security Member services agreed the PASO Council of Directors at their Annual General Meeting. The PASO Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 11 March 2021 was attended virtually by representatives...

Written by Sujiro Seam The European Union (EU) “tax list” is the primary instrument of a more ambitious agenda to promote the principles of tax good governance around the world, to curb tax fraud, tax evasion, tax avoidance and to ensure a level playing field for all taxpayers. In this respect, the EU’s first focus has been to put its own...

NRL superstar Jarryd Hayne has been told by a judge a jail sentence is “inevitable” after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at her Newcastle home two-and-a-half years ago. After three days of deliberating a jury on Monday afternoon found Hayne, 33, guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent. He was found not guilty of the...

-Fiji is meeting with regional countries to explore potential quarantine-free travel. Minister for Tourism Faiyaz Koya said hey have had some discussion with New Caledonia and Tuvalu on this possibility. “We have had an introductory meeting with New Caledonia and Tuvalu’s health officials to try and explore some quarantine-free travel and of course there are a number of variables to consider...

For more than twenty-five years, deep in the remote and inaccessible tropical forests of Papua New Guinea, a huge industrial complex has been operating; foreign owned companies have been bulldozing tracks, felling huge trees, cutting logs and dragging them to the coast to be loaded onto ships and sent overseas. According to official records, since 1993, at least 78 million...

ANZ will extend its fee waiver until September 2021 for online foreign currency payments made from Australia and New Zealand into 10 Pacific countries. Latest figures show the value and volume of transfers made by ANZ customers to the Pacific has increased substantially on the same period last year. In February 2021 ANZ Australia and New Zealand customers sent a combined...

The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in Fiji has recommended to Parliament to ratify the 2005 Agreement establishing the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). “Fiji is the only country that has yet to ratify the 2005 Agreement and since it will be hosting and chairing the PIF Leaders Summit in 2021, it would be timely for Fiji to ratify...