According to the Fijian government, more than 15,000 Fijians are employed through labour mobility schemes in Australia and New Zealand.
Photo: Facebook / Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale has signalled a long-term departure from seasonal worker schemes.
He said this while asking Australia and New Zealand to rapidly increase their worker intakes for the PALM and RSE schemes.
Wale discussed labour mobility with his counterparts on his recent trips to Australia and New Zealand.
Upon his return, he said he requested both governments to rapidly increase their intake of Solomon Islands workers – but not for long.
He said a policy is in the works to cut back on seasonal work in the long term, with the hopes that they can employ their people at home at similar wages.
He accused previous Solomon Islands governments of failing to do this.
Tuvalu
Tuvalu has made its first payout under a new climate-related insurance scheme.
Islands Business reports the program is designed to provide automatic cash support to households affected by coastal flooding and unusually high tides, without requiring claims or damage assessments.
Just over 400 households received AU$75 through the Development Bank of Tuvalu, after three March high-tide events triggered the policy’s lowest threshold.
Tonga
Tonga’s King Tupou the sixth is visiting the Marshall Islands this week, where he met with the President of the country, and honoured the graduation ceremony of the University of the South Pacific Marshall Islands Campus.
Matangi Tonga reported President Hilda Heine, welcomed the King in both his sovereign capacity and in his role as Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific (USP).
President Heine reaffirmed the close friendship between the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Kingdom of Tonga.
Discussions between the two leaders touched on key regional priorities, including climate change, resilience, and energy security.
Fiji
Fiji’s Ministry of Education has frozen all new infrastructure spending.
The Fiji Times reported any contracts that have not yet been signed have been frozen, pending review, and projects that have not reached the contract award stage have been put on hold.
Schools are also advised not to enter into any new financial commitments, while the Prime Minister will need to personally approve any new hires.
It follows broader government directives aimed at conserving fuel.
Fiji
A grandfather-figure in Fiji has been sentenced to ten years in jail for raping an intellectually impaired teenager.
fijivillage.com reported that the 49-year-old admitted one count of rape and one count of sexually assaulting the young woman in October last year.
The prosecution told the Labasa Magistrates Court that the 16-year-old victim had regarded the accused as her grandfather.
Justice Lee James Burnley set a non-parole period of six years and a half years.
New Zealand
The New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Composer Tuilagi Igelese Ete was a member of the very first iteration of the choir in 1986.
He has since gone on to work on the film scores for Tīna, Moana, and The Lord of the Rings.
Tuilagi, now an associate professor at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, told Nine to Noon what the choir meant to him all those years ago.
He will MC an event celebrating 40 years of New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral on 4 July.
