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The Pacific step up policy initiated by the Morrison government in 2019 to counteract China influence in the Pacific is another key development for the Pacific nations and Australia.

Thank you for your contribution Robin, and I am aware that this article does not contain anything specific to Fiji. The issues you raise are significant and I agree that there is a need for mainstream media to go beyond the simplistic in order to give their audiences a better understanding of what is really going on in our region and what Pacific island people are thinking & talking about.

Thanks David, for reading and for your feedback

Excellent overview.

There appears to be little or no focus by the ANZ media on in depth analysis of internal politics in the Pacific and the stability of governments in a region which is fast becoming an area of geopolitical interest and rivalry. For example, Fiji, an important regional country, remains a very fragile State both economically and politically with an authoritarian government propped up by a military, draconian laws on political activities and undemocratic governance practices. The festering concerns of the indigenous people in Fiji about their voice in governance cannot be ignored by the Fiji Government nor by ANZ. These concerns are deep seated and have the potential to erupt if it were not for the strong arm practices of the government. The government is perceived as an arrogant government with little empathy for grass roots problems. There is a worrying perception that the Prime Minister has his focus more on the trappings of power and that he has abdicated everyday governance both of the Government and the Parliament to his ambitious and more articulate Attorney General who is also a Minister of some half a dozen powerful Ministries and also perceived as interfering in other Ministerial portfolios as if he was the de facto Prime Minister. The indigenous community appears to have little confidence in the politics of the Attorney General.

Thanks for sharing valuable information with us.

Thank you Stephen. But what about the emissions from the bushfires?

Interesting! My take aways: collect the data that is necessary for the program; ensure a role for stakeholders and implementers in the data collection; and assess the context and its implications for the program. Thank you

Politics since Roman times: panem and circenses. Keep city dwellers (including students in the capital) happy and distracted. What happens in rural areas is irrelevant, and in fact the picture there is clear: total neglect since independence. No roads, no piped drinking water, no sanitation, no affordable electricity, no properly supplied, staff and functioning clinics or schools, and soon no access to a cell phone.

Prof. Howes is being very polite. Peter O'Neill was an unmitigated disaster. During his tenure, economic growth in the non-resource sector diminished each and every year, despite him bragging about the economy. At some point, it was uncertain whether the country could pay its fuel bill, and the supermarket ran out of vegetables. In the country side it was much worse. In 2014, because of his misguided economic policies, and El Niño induced drought, there was a fully fledged famine in the highlands, and the World Food Program had to give food to 250,000 people. Meanwhile, judges, journalists, academics or professionals who called out corruption were continuously harassed, and if foreign simply kicked out of the country. Since the stolen 2017 elections, SHP/Hela and Enga provinces have been suffering a civil war between various clans and tribes, a situation conveniently ignored. Miraculously in May 2019 Parliamentary democracy worked and Peter O'Neill lost support for being too selfish and greedy dealing with the Chinese and resource companies. The new crew, is mostly the old crew, and equally clueless and callously ignoring the needs of the good people of PNG.

Thank you all for your views. Lets not undermine the power of God Almighty to raise a group of people in all sectors of our country to stand up and fight CORRUPTION. Once that is done and the battle won, the next agenda would be to realize Vision 2050. Otherwise, the rich and greedy people are getting richer, the poor and disadvantaged people strive to meet daily needs. I am not a prophet but let me assure you that law and order problems will continue to increase to a point where military rule will no longer be an option but a necessaity to save a sinking nation. Can someone please do a serious study in this subject and publish findings for public consumption.

Hi Dr Amanda Watson. Thanks for the questions. Making decisions as politicians and bureaucrats to terminate a person's life who has been convicted of crimes punishable by death is a very difficult and tough choice. It means you are making decisions to determine whether that person (a human being like yourself) must be killed or not based on the law. Since the re-introduction of the death penalty in PNG till now, both politicians and senior bureaucrats responsible for this issue, when answering questions relating to the death penalty especially on PUBLIC MEDIA, they seem to speak for themselves rather than being the office holders, they speak with sympathy for those convicted ones and they speak to defend themselves and not the law. Two obvious phrases that they would use are 'PNG being the Christian Country' and 'life imprisonment' and I think that's exactly how PMJM responded to the Hon Parkop's questions concerning the 10 people who are on death row. But PMJM made very good points by proposing to convert prison camps to an industry and of course to impose life imprisonment instead for those on death row. The so-called 'study tour' (also known as fact-finding mission) has cost US$600,000 according to the current deputy PM and justice minister the Hon Steven Davis, which is quite a lot of money and could have been used to convert prison camps to an industry suggested by PMJM earlier. They toured several countries in Asia and I think in the USA (a prison in the State of California) in 2008 despite the UN Human Rights Resolution in 2003 on the death penalty that PNG with 74 countries voted in favour to abolish the death penalty and establish a moratorium on executions. I think time and money could have been saved for better use if the government had complied with 2003 UNHR resolution and perhaps provided better recommendations in terms of whether to abolish the death penalty or impose life imprisonment instead.