Islands Business - Pacific Update

All eyes on NZ MP Field

By Dev Nadkarni

Taito Phillip Field, New Zealand’s first ever Member of Parliament of Pacific Islands origin, is back in the news.

Taito Phillip Field... in the eye of a storm

A former Labour Party minister, Field is alleged to have hired foreign workers to work at his properties in New Zealand and Samoa for wages way below the minimum wage rate in return for immigration favours to those workers.

He is believed to have tried to influence the assistant minister of immigration as regards a Thai worker’s case for residency in New Zealand.

Queen’s Counsel Dr Noel Ingram spent the better part of last year investigating the case which is believed to have cost half a million dollars to the taxpayers.

Last month, his findings were made public in the face of much criticism from the opposition National Party on a range of fronts.

The investigator blamed the limited powers he had and said he could not get a number of witnesses including the Thai workers to depose before him. The National Party questioned the inordinate delay and expense of the investigation in what actually seemed a truncated finding that stopped just short of completely exonerating Field.
It immediately demanded a fuller investigation with more powers to the investigating authority—even the power to subpoena if necessary. While his dealings were not deemed to have conflict of interest implications, Field was shown to be wanting in knowledge of procedure and propriety.

The case has been a major embarrassment for New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark who, as political analysts pointed out, can ill-afford to dispense with Field at this stage owing to Labour’s wafer-thin majority.

Staying put and taking it on the chin for a while was a much better option than what would follow if she had to shut Field out.

In her public statement, Clark did deliver a rap on his wrists but reiterated the party would stand by him. Field in his statement said he was only human and had made a mistake.

Shortly after the story broke last year, a Samoan family accused Field of pressuring them to sell their home to him which he later refurbished and sold for a profit of NZ$136,000.

Ingram’s investigation cleared the MP of any wrong doing in this instance. But what has swayed public opinion against Field is his stance throughout the investigation and after.

He is said to have told the family to “back off” shortly after they lodged their initial grievance. He is also reported to have been less than forthcoming on the various details regarding the sequence of events concerning his employment of Thai workers at his homes in Auckland and Samoa.

According to Ingram’s “inference”, the worker had been significantly underpaid which was apparently because it was in return for a favour. Once the brouhaha dies down, Field is expected to make his moves to be reinstated as a minister in Clark’s cabinet. Whether that happens will be watched closely especially by the country’s large Pacific Islands constituency.

AUSTRALIA
Kyoto Protocol ineffective: Campbell

Australian environment minister Ian Campbell has defended Australia’s refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol saying it’s ineffective and will actually boost greenhouse gas emissions.

His comments, delivered as part of his opening address at the Queensland government’s Climate Change Summit last month, came only days after former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev stressed the need for countries like Australia and the United States to sign the pact. He accused both countries of “marching in the wrong way” on the issue.

“Australia and the United States have steadfastly refused to sign the 1997 international treaty, which sets targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Taxpayers pay for empty flats

Australian taxpayers are footing the bill for the vacant apartments leased out in Port Moresby.
They forked out A$3.5 million (US$2.6 million) over the past year to lease more than 80 empty apartments in Port Moresby in the hope Australian police would return to Papua New Guinea.
About 150 police officers served in PNG under Australia’s Enhanced Cooperation Programme (ECP) withdrew in May last year after the country’s Supreme Court ruled their legal immunities were invalid under the constitution.
An AFP spokeswoman told AAP the empty apartments cost $A275,000 (US$206,000) a month to rent and since June last year had cost $A3.5 million (US$2.6 million) to keep them on hold.

EAST TIMOR
Horta is new PM

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta is East Timor’s new Prime Minister. He was sworn in after Mari Alkatiri resigned following weeks of unrest and violence that led to the deployment of multinational defence and law and order forces from Australia and New Zealand besides other countries in the young nation. The pressure had been building on Alkatiri to step down after accusations that he illegally distributed arms to civilian militias to foment trouble against his opponents—something he has continued to deny all along.

Reviewing peacekeeping operations

The future of Fiji’s participation in peacekeeping operations abroad will be reviewed, in view of the escalating violence in the Middle East, says Home Affairs Minister, Josefa Vosanibola.

The possibility of soldiers and police officers withdrawing from war-torn countries has not been ruled out, a local newspaper reported.

Vosanibola said in view of the turbulent situation in some countries, particularly in Iraq and the Gaza Strip, he had recommended a review of Fiji’s entire peacekeeping operations in a paper he had submitted to Cabinet.

Three hundred Fiji soldiers are serving in Sinai and over 100 in Iraq, while there are 30 police officers in Liberia, 20 in Kosovo and seven in Sudan.

FRENCH POLYNESIA
‘Youth suicide rate too high

The high suicide rates amongst youth in the region has prompted Fiji’s Speaker Pita Nacuva to urge Pacific islands countries to immediately address the issue.
“In the Pacific, we are undergoing an enormous economic and social transformation. These changes place Pacific people in a difficult stage of transition as they attempt to adapt,” said Nacuva.
“Poor adaptation to change is evident in substance abuse, high level of teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, malnutrition and high suicide rates.”
Nacuva was one of the speakers at the first Pacific Youth Festival held in French Polynesia

MARSHALL ISLANDS
PIF addresses radioactive issue

The Pacific Islands Forum chair, Sir Michael Somare has sent letters to the President of the United States and Congressional leadership in support of the Marshall Islands (RMI).

“I am writing on behalf of the Leaders of the sixteen Forum member countries with regard to the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Testing Programme which was conducted in the RMI from 1946 to 1958.

“I wish to express the hope of the Forum leaders that your government will fully participate in an effort to address the lingering burdens associated with the testing programme,” said Somare.

NEW ZEALAND
Heuheu chairs UN heritage committee

Ngati Tuwharetoa paramount chief, Tumu te Heuheu, has been appointed chairman of the United Nations’ World Heritage committee, the global watchdog for cultural and natural heritage areas.

te Heuheu has been on the committee since New Zealand was elected to it in 2003.

He has a personal interest—Tongariro National Park—New Zealand’s first property to be added to the World Heritage List in 1993. It was gifted to the Crown by te Heuheu’s ancestors Te Heuheu Tukino IV in 1887.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the appointment was a “momentous achievement.”

NORTHERN MARIANAS
Unpaid vacation for Mariana govt

The Senate bill that will shut down the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana (CNMI) government’s operations every other Friday may no longer be necessary.

Governor Benigno Fitial says he has signed a directive requiring 1200 government employees to take unpaid “vacations” from 01 - 30 September this year.

The governor acknowledged the “furlough will be painful to all affected,” but said there was no other alternative, the Marianas Variety reported.

The cash-strapped government’s over US$6 million bi-weekly payroll budget has to be reduced, he added.
He said the furlough, which will be carried out on Saipan, Tinian and Rota, is designed to balance the government’s spending for the fiscal year 2006, which ends on September 30.

These “holidays” are equivalent to 96 hours and will amount to an estimated savings of US$7.29 million for the government.

SAMOA
Ban mutton flaps, govt urged

The Samoan Government has been urged to ban the importation of mutton flaps and turkey tails.
MP Dr Motuopua’a Aisoli Vaai told parliament that such food items are unhealthy and the government must ban them from the country if it is serious about promoting health. The first-term parliamentarian said Samoa has seen an increase in diabetes, heart attacks and other weight-related diseases.

Vaai said Tonga and Fiji have banned mutton flaps and turkey tails and Samoa should do the same. He said if the government does not support a ban, it should increase excise tax on such food items.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said a ban should have been imposed a long time ago. But he warned that if cheap food items were banned, more expensive brands would have to replace them.

SOLOMON ISLANDS
MSG’s security force?

Member countries of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) are planning to set up their own security force.
Following a meeting of senior officials in the Solomons, MSG Chairperson, Gabriel Pepson, said such a force could respond to unforeseen political situations in the MSG such as the civil unrest that broke out in Honiara earlier this year.

He said the force could also be used during times of natural disasters such as tsunamis, cyclones, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Pepson said because members of the force would be indigenous to the sub-region, they would be able to relate well to MSG citizens. The establishment of the regional security force will be put before the MSG Leaders Summit to be held in Vanuatu next year. The MSG is made up of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Aust judge to head riot inquiry

Solomon Islands has set up a commission led by a retired Australian judge to investigate the April riots that wracked the nation’s capital and saw the Chinese business area torched. The April 18-19 civil unrest in Honiara was sparked by the election of Snyder Rini as prime minister. He was forced to resign from office eight days after his election. Thousands of rioters burned down buildings in Chinatown, torched vehicles, in riots that injured up to 30 Australian police who were in the city helping re-establish the rule of law after several years of communal violence ended in 2003. Hundreds of Chinese, many of them Solomon Islands nationals, fled the small Pacific nation in the wake of the violence. Many said they would not return to the country. Sogavare said the four-member commission will be chaired by retired Australian Federal Court judge Marcus Einfield.

TONGA
Teacher shortage

A teacher shortage in Tonga has forced the country’s education ministry to hire 85 new teachers to fill 227 vacant positions. The new recruits will replace those that took the voluntary redundancy package last month.

The rehiring was a calculated move, according to the Director of Education, Viliami Takau, who said that they knew by June 1 they would need 85 new teachers by the end of the month. “But it was agreed to with the Public Service Commission (PSC) to let those teachers go and recruit new teachers from outside and not to recall teachers who had accepted the redundancy package,” Takau said. He said his office has already recruited 56 new teachers and he was optimistic that within one or two weeks they would have resolved the anomalies over the shortage of teachers.