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Bula vinaka Alipate Thanks for your comment. Under the first border exception for 2,000 workers in January 2021 only experienced workers were eligible. However, on 10 May the NZ government announced another border exception for an additional 2,400 RSE workers who will start entering the country from June onwards. Under the latest announcement, both new recruits and return workers are eligible to apply. Vinaka vakalevu Charlotte

Literacy is a major concern globally as well as in the Pacific. Reading comments and PILNA reports "Literacy is still a concern for many countries" speaking for the Pacific my personal view is that early literacy skills should be strengthened in the early years compared to upper primary. Very little has been discussed about early childhood education and care whereas this area is the most significant section in an education system.

Please do notify me about the next deployment of Labours to Auckland New Zealand, I gathered that I do not qualify for this particular since "The 2,000 spaces are for skilled, experienced workers who are being brought in for seven months to perform specific orchard and vineyard tasks. New recruits are not eligible under the border exception." Vinaka vakalevu!

Thanks John, point taken and true. I did have another colleague mention this to me also. Informal loans can be very valuable. In my defence, I do say "somewhat perversely" - or, perhaps "having the appearance of perversity" would have been clearer. I say this because there appears to be a belief in some circles that formal loans will be used to replace reliance on informal loans entirely. Although admittedly I was initially surprised to find it, yes, a greater understanding of these dynamics would show that it is both legitimate, and not in fact surprising behaviour at all. To start with, clearly, owning a formal bank account would be a positive signal to an informal lender that a person is able to pay back a loan. Those who are wealthier are more likely to qualify for larger formal, or informal loans. I wonder whether the rate of informal loan use across locations would say something about the differences in the experienced level of service provided by formal banks.. And perhaps could assist in the identification of areas where better formal services would add value? Would be interesting to look in to.

Rohan Fox notes that “somewhat perversely I also found that owning a bank account predicted a higher likelihood of taking out a loan with an informal lender”. He comments that "So women without bank accounts took out loans from informal lenders, but women with bank accounts took out loans from informal lenders even more". This is not necessarily 'perverse' behaviour. There's plenty of evidence that women with bank accounts are likely to be more active as financial 'transactors' than women without accounts. Financial diaries, as pioneered by Stuart Rutherford and MicroSave, indicate that more financially-literate women manage cashflow and asset allocation very actively. This quite often will lead to their employing informal sources of finance. High interest informal loans may be used to 'tide them over' a period of illiquidity and this is a legitimate strategy in some circumstances. See Stuart Rutherford: https://www.microsave.net/author/stuart/

Thanks Stephen for keeping watch. It is alarming to see Australia's aid program in freefall. As you point out, we rank amongst the richest countries but are so lacking in our response to global poverty. All our neighbors are developing countries, many hard hit by COVID-19. We have thankfully helped in response to the health crisis but our neighbors will need increased assistance to rebuild their economies and respond to the impacts of climate change. All Australians have an interest in helping our region to develop and live in peace and stability. We need our Government to reflect the commitment of the majority of Australians to an increased aid program. With our growing economy, now is a good time to boost overseas aid.

Thanks Stephen 10 years ago when Australia was at 0.34 we were only half way to the goal. To know we have fallen so far back in the development investment and commitment to our neighbours and change is disheartening. I suppose the flip side is that we can’t really get too much worse. Onwards and upwards

Thank you for this policy consideration. As a physician trained and experienced in the United States, familiar with the health care system and the policies that guide its delivery, I can only say how impressive Fiji's pandemic response has been since the start. With limited resources, the nation has used every one of them in a most efficient and exemplary manner. The levels of cooperation are also critical for a unified response, which will only suffer under a fragmented population that is at odds with policy. Andrew Jonathan Dorfman MD MP2318

Thanks Stephen. For a long time now all our interests in foreign relations have been centred around our own self interest. Such short term thinking has us now living in isolation from the real world and more and more we have turned our back on the needs of others including our closest neighbours. Our recent move to step up in the Pacific has come only because of our concern about China. We talk about development assistance but forget that basic to development are relationships and while we continue to be so concerned about our own interests there is little room for building genuine relationships with our neighbours.

The matter is not, in most part, due to training, neither the lack of disciplinary actions. Police brutality boils down to leadership and confidence-building in the force - lack of C4 compliance and interoperable synergy amongst the relevant institutional apparatus of the State. Hence, its calls for a collective approach from all key actors. For instance, there must be checks/balances on the leaders in terms of compliance with O.L.D.R.L. The O.L.D.R.L. establishes the specific duties and responsibilities of leaders which the OC as a quasi-judicial/non-judicial body mandated to investigate/ascertain facts and draw conclusions from them as the foundation for official actions against any particular leader, as specified under Section 26 of the Constitution.

`Such comparisons are interesting. Countries naturally want to know why others have done better than them. I look forward to reading your more penetrating analysis'. `Interesting' maybe for economists who delight in making them, in the hope that they will be policy influencers. As for `countries naturally' you presumably mean economists trained to be a-, even anti-,historical `naturally': serious analysis is usually undertaken by people trained in other disciplines, including history and philosophy. One of the funniest, yet saddest books I have ever read in this comparative policy prescriptions genre is by Acemoglu and Robinson Why Nations Fail. Of the USA, American Indians `sidelined' to make an egalitarian paradise possible? Sheltered in their ivory towers, it may be possible to describe the colonial treatment of indigenous Americans as just an act of `sidelining' but few others would agree except other white supremacists and apologists. As for US and other European imperialism's continuing effects on why people are poor world-wide, the word doesn't even appear in the book's index. Colonialism, only appears as `the end of'. (My point applies to accounts of Mauritius and Fiji which either deliberately or out of ignorance ignore imperial and colonial history and the continuing effect on national political economies.) Whether my analysis is penetrating will leave to others to decide, though doubt most economists will read anything I write. For others, I have an essay on labour mobility schemes accepted for publication and another on land tenure in PNG out for review. Comments always welcomed.

Hi Scott, Your mention of the PNG-Botswana comparison reminds me of the PNG national plan from a decade or so ago that early on compared PNG's growth with Malaysia's and Botswana's. Such comparisons are interesting. Countries naturally want to know why others have done better than them. I look forward to reading your more penetrating analysis. Regards, Stephen