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I am pretty much concerned which was the scenerio, all played out in the regional processing centre here in manus. The partnership or a form of bileteral motion between the hosting Provincial Government and the development package was never present. Local and private companies took the outside context to bid or be sub contracted. Sadly manus government was left in blank with damaging effect to clean-up and pursue second handed outcome that was left behind after closure.

First of all I would like to pay my respects and condolences to those that lost their lives and the families and friends who survive them. However, I feel I should point out that MV Taemarehu sailed against the advice of government. A cyclone warning had been issued and all ships advised not to sail. Covid-19 is not something that will go away in a few weeks. We are blessed that it has not yet reached our shores (as far as we know). We only need to look at what is happening in the USA right now to see how bad can be. Then, look at NZ and we see how it can be effectively managed. There only way to escape relatively unscathed is for everyone to be smart, and do the right thing. Those days should not be in vain, and hopefully no more deaths occur from covid-19 in SI

Firstly, the Government of Papua New Guinea's response to the first case of COVID-19 case was slow and lacked supporting policies, legislations, and municipal laws or regulations. However, these were slowly but surely enough addressed in light of WHO declaring COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Secondly, current Health Infrastructure, Health facilities and medical equipment as well as drugs are poorly maintained to international standards. Thirdly, addressing the many health problems within our Health system requires updated statistical figures and daily reporting in harmonization to the PNG National Health Plan 2018 - 2022. There are eight pieces of legislation in the health sector that need to be harmonized to the Medium Term Development Plan 3 and the PNG Provincial Health Authorities or PHA. There must be clear reporting processes, procedures and protocols in place. Similarly, there must be clear demarcations in roles and responsibilities between the PHA, Provincial Governments, District Development Authorities or DDA and the Provincial Health Board. In sum, the Governments response to the COVID-19 Epedemic is satisfactory and there is room for improvement.

In a recent development, we have two cases in the NT particularly relevant to the conversation around Labour Market Testing. Specifically referring to the desire to offer Australians work first, which in the following cases, demonstrates the glaring necessity of being able to redeploy Seasonal Workers quickly during this pandemic. A melon grower in the NT was due to see his five Timorese Seasonal Workers arrive late March. They didn't travel. He advised us he would give some locals an opportunity. He asked 11 local people to go to his farm to meet and discuss the job. One of them turned up, then declined the opportunity. In another case where four local NT hospitality workers who were laid off as their resort was shut down were offered harvest work. They were due to start on 30th March at a citrus and mango operation. Only one person turned up, another contracted tonsillitis on the weekend, and his girlfriend stayed home to look after him . The forth candidate had his birthday that day so he took the day off.. without calling the employer or our staff. The one person who did start, emailed our staff on the first day to say that he could not go back anymore, because he would have to have a shower everyday as soon as he got home, and would have to wash his work clothes daily. I'm looking forward to finding out how many Australians will forego the $550 per week Job Seeker payments to actually travel out to the regions and pick fruit.

I want to share with you my own experience. I'm from US and as you might know, today US is the country with the most cases of COVID-19 virus in the world. You guys really do you work pretty well, holding only 20+ place in the world of coronavirus' pandemic cases. I hope you won't face this disease in such a big scale. From this survey - https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-june-2019/, 28% of Americans don't have emergency savings and only one in four have a rainy day fund, but not enough money to cover three months’ worth of living expenses. Week ago 3 mln of Americans lost their jobs! https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/26/upshot/coronavirus-millions-unemployment-claims.html. And it's not even the peak of the disease that's expected in mid-April. If COVID-19 cases will continue to grow for the next few weeks, then all these people without savings mentioned below will struggle really a lot. In our case, we're trying to save our workers' jobs. We're lucky because of our field of activity (mold remediation services). So on our customer's request, we released a COVID-19 disinfection service to help our neighbors to fight against this virus. (https://www.fdpmoldremediation.com/sanitizing-and-disinfecting.aspx). What I want to say is just to keep you guys from our US experience. For the moment, here in Australia, you're in a much better situation then we are, so take advantage of this. Act faster, act stricter, act ahead and you'll avoid the major crisis.

Speaking from his vast experience in the Public Service

Thanks Dan for your article and more generally to all the others providing updates around the region. In terms of the Solomon Islands, I think there is more that can be said about the country at this time. 1. On 1 April 2020, the Government announced a reduction in budgeted expenditures of $209.2 million. This was done by a combination of a 50% reduction in non-essential and discretionary expenditures (ends up with a 11% across the board cut in the budget), a freeze in recruitment and a 15% reduction in the Development budget. 2. Economic growth has been revised to 1.8% in 2020 (but I think this will again be revised in coming months). The Solomon Islands main economic partners are expected to report weaker growth (ADB in early April has revised China’s GDP growth to 2.3% in 2020) and continue facing increases in unemployment and the effects of weakened supply-chain connections due to disruptions in global transport and storage connectivity. This will affect the availability of many capital, intermediate and consumption items in the Solomon Islands. 3. The shutdown in all air passenger traffic and refusal to allow cruise ships to dock has meant that all tourism revenues have fallen to zero. Accommodation in Honiara is now at around 18-20% occupancy and is expected to fall further by May. Overall, weaker exports markets, lower global prices for commodities and falls in tourism will see a decrease in export and import duties and foreign earnings. The Solomon Islands currently has enough foreign reserves to cover over 11 months of imports, which is at a healthy level. But a prolonged period of weakness will see that fall further. There is a also a lack of information on what is happening outside of Honiara and how the economic and social effects of the current economic situation will affect people in the provinces. Kind regards and stay safe, Scott Hook

I just read this <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-07/coronavirus-government-covid19-modelling-experts-on-response/12128950" rel="nofollow ugc">article</a> and understand that everything will be fine!

G'day Carolyn, I am in Vanuatu and saw the results of Cyclone Pam and even though my home was safe the devastation made my heart bleed. I am appalled by the housing here. In Australia you would not keep your chickens in such places in case it collapsed and fell on them, but families live like that. I am not a charity but I wanted to do something so when I could not get much interest from the Government I decided to build a "proof of concept" display so that they could touch and see what I think is a perfect cost effective solution where I can train the locals in a whole new way of construction using reinforcing that has never been in the South Pacific before which will allow me to build concrete domes structure that are totally cyclone proof , earthquake safe, fire proof, termite proof and will never suffer from concrete cancer. The life expectancy of the buildings should be measured in hundreds of years. The cost will be very, very competitive and the VALUE FOR MONEY unbeatable. I have run into a brick wall, the Government says that because my cyclone shelters CAN BE TURNED INTO A DOMESTIC DWELLING as a foreigner I am not allowed to build them and no one else in the country has the equipment and knowledge to do it either. The story is far too long to post here, but you can look at my website www.pacificoceandomes.com for details and pictures. I have never done anything in the way of dealing with a government for something like this and after 3 years I seem to be getting nowhere . Everyone who has visited my display loves them and only two Government Ministers have been to the site. I don't like imposing on you but from what I read you seem to be on the same page in regards to not getting value for money for the $billions of Australian taxpayers money. I do not want to walk away as I am fully committed to improving the housing situation here for safety reasons but at 77 I worry that I will run out of time if something doesn't happen soon. I would love to hear from you by e-mail , the contact details are on my web page.

Well explained. Thank you

Dan, you say, "The old tactic of flooding the zone with technical advisors won’t work either. Nobody wants to be separated from their family at a time like this, and few would dare to bring them here. Moreover, every single skill set required to combat disaster in the Pacific is already required at home."and I can mostly agree with that, but there is a case that I am currently dealing with and that is multi purpose life saving cyclone shelters. I have spent a considerable part of my life savings building a proof of concept display of such structures at Erakor Bridge, Tassiriki. I already live here, and have imported from America, the equipment to build them. They are basically concrete domes with new technology basalt reinforcing that has higher tensile strength (stronger) than steel and will NEVER RUST, this means they will never get concrete cancer, one of the most destructive problems when building with concrete. These building are multi purpose, they can be a gazebo, a kava bar, a health clinic, a roadside market stall, a shed in the backyard, a home or many other uses. The most important thing is THEY WILL SAVE LIVES. I realise that a lot of people would like to convert the cyclone shelter into a domestic dwelling, but that is their business , not mine, I do NOT intend to fit them out as domestic dwellings, but just empty shells which once form ply is put over the openings will guarantee safety to several families during a cyclone. As a foreigner I am not, by law, allowed to build a domestic dwelling and I have no intention of ever doing it for a client. If my clients can't do the additional work to customise them for their chosen use they can employ a local builder. What I offer is training in a totally new system of building which has a disaster resilience factor far beyond and above anything done in Vanuatu before at a cost that is within reach of a considerable portion of the community. All I need is for the appropriate Government Department to recognise my structures for what they are, CYCLONE SHELTERS, and not domestic dwellings and not to include them in the incorrect list. Nothing more, just stop saying "but it can be turned into a dwelling", by saying that they agree with me that it IS NOT A DWELLING, but could be TURNED into one, the same as sheets of iron and sticks of timber can also be turned into a dwelling. Lets face reality having just seen the damage from Cyclone Harold and acknowledge the fear in the minds of it's victims, that cyclone safe structures are amongst the most important things needed in this country. Stop playing pedantics with words and let us get on with saving lives. My website is www.pacificoceandomes.com Regards . . . Daryll Kelly

Wow! The measures seem onerous but are totally necessary. I visited Funafuti with my partner for 5 days in early 2019 as tourists, and we are now in lockdown in the UK. Every day hundreds are dying here, and our own Prime Minister is in intensive care. If this virus gets to Tuvalu without the ability to contain it, it would be disastrous. My thoughts and prayers are with the citizens of Tuvalu.