Comments

We travel to Timor regularly so it was interesting to read of the housing program; we also would like to connect with any Timorese here in Perth

Mike & Brendon thanks for some guiding comments. I hope DAL and its Minister have taken note, seriously. I will concentrate on the subsistence sector, in my comments. The MASP & PNG Rural Development Handbook were cutting edge work then and remain so now. We need to delve into each Farming System to have recorded all the varieties, their atributes, food uses, cultural agronomic practices in local language and english. Research needs to focus on these farming systems to determine the major limiting factors within each. And suggest or do applied research to determine 'solutions'. It's not about maximising production, but having reliable production that results in sufficient food being available on the plate every day, day in, day out. I feel too much emphasis is put on dimdim breeding to maximise yield (& subsequently the need to increase putting into the system what the plant is taking out of it in doing so). We need to research and collate all the experiential agriculture/horticulture knowledge that is still in existence in each of the 287 unique food-cropping systems and in each of the 850 languages. We are in the digital age so it can be done. And that is just the beginning.

150 tons of garbage per day from Port Moresby can be converted in to 500 KW Power per Hour and the investment is just about €600,000. Amny business person interested in setting up thios project may contact mizun@ymail.com and i will explain all the aspects of the project. Best wishes, Mo

Hi Stewart, The counting process this time seems to be different from 2014. The provisional results available on Wed night/Thursday morning, which gave Fiji First and PM Bainimarama a lead, came from the polling places phoning their tallies into the FEO central. Now all the votes - minus those of the 22 stations where voting was halted due to rain, and won't be open again until tomorrow, Saturday - are with the central FEO. These are being counted but not necessarily in the same order as the results were phoned in previously. Attempts to compare how parties are going using the current counting by comparing the results with the earlier tallies are fraught with difficulties. Eg. one rumour going the rounds in Suva is that SODELPA is now leading because the results from Vanua Levu, which are expected to favour Mr Rabuka, and from areas around Bau, which might favour Ro Teimumu Kepa, have already been counted giving SODELPA an early lead. I have no way of knowing what is actually occurring and am taking FEO advice that final results won't be available until late Sunday and probably even Monday. Until then rumour and speculation rules. Regards,

Yes it's preemptive and anticipates the election result but the provisional tally in Fiji's well-run elections is also accurate. I may be a percentage point out, especially if SODELPA does well in the remaining 20 percentage of the vote, but the overall result will not be changed.

Devpolicy, please correct this erroneous and preemptive call on the outcome of the Fiji elections- as at the release time of your blog, the final count is still in progress, with only 20% of the polling stations counted. The figures used are from the provisional count, which until verified, remain just that, provisional!

Most importantly, on her watch Australia lost PNG to the Chinese. The lessons of the Kokoda campaign have been forgotten. Most current troubles in PNG are caused not by the public actions of Chinese Communist Party stooges (official and companies), but by the covert actions. Kickbacks of 50% are the rule not the exception on all contracts. Any building is done with Chinese workers only, and badly. We have seen it in Africa, and are seeing it everywhere in the Pacific.

Completely agree Jemima, thanks for the comment. Even as someone who watches a fair helping of trash TV, not a fan of this. Seems like they really threw the baby out with the bathwater when ditching Australia Network, when it probably just needed to be better resourced and thought out. For those of us who put a lot of work into preparing submissions for reviews, it's also incredibly annoying when they are ignored. Or when a very similar topic comes around again a few years later with no lessons learned or concrete action from the first time it was investigated. In this case, the reviews you mention haven't even reported back and they are already being sidelined. A new and expedited way of wasting our time it seems.

It is good to see the PM paying more attention to the Pacific and recognising broadcasting has an important role but both the content and the budget for this needs more thought. And any budget decisions should wait for the results of the two relevant government reviews currently underway: the Soft Power Review and the Review of Australian broadcasting Services in the Asia Pacific. The plan to go with commercial television is not meeting approval from the Pacific community in Australia or the region. A Sydney-based member of the Fiji community had this to say in response to the Friends of the ABC release posted on the Facebook page 'Supporters of Australian broadcasting in Asia and the Pacific': 'In Australia people are turning off commercial tv in droves probably because of the lacklustre content. Why would we want to subject our Pacific neighbours to reruns of the Bachelor, Farmer Wants a Wife and Love Island??? I thought we were trying to build stronger relationships with these people? ' Dorothy Wickham, one of Solomon Islands leading journalists and former managing director a local commercial television company describes what Australian commercial TV has to offer as cabbage: 'This is the most stupid idea I have ever heard!!! This is from someone who stood in front of her own people after the intervention force arrived in my country led by Australia and told them that Australia was a good neighbor and wanted the best for us! I hosted the talk back radio show that travelled around Solomon Islands repeating this message...! Come on Australian political leadership.. Was I wasting my time? The worst thing you can do is push in the face of our young people who are just emerging from a civil war during which people died - cabbage that commercial TV will offer! I am disgusted at this idea!' It is worth noting that in the past, when it had the money, ABC under its international mandate rebroadcast the best of all Australian television including the commercial, SBS and NITV to the region and it could do so again. But this is just one aspect of international broadcasting. The important thing is to be having a two-way conversation, with programs made in collaboration with the region and for regional audiences including in the culturally appropriate languages. International broadcasting is a lot more complicated than a few commercial TV shows ...and a few commercial TV shows are not what the aid budget should be spent on!

thanks Rieko

Thanks for the comment Satish. It would be excellent to have that data - though unfortunately I don't know anyone who has it either - and I don't think it is the kind of thing that gets reported on - as you probably know Lowy looked at bilateral aid to the Pacific - which has data at the project level. But calculating returns would be a whole other project entirely. But Jono Pryke, Alexandre Dayant or Philippa Brant from Lowy might have some more info.

While much of the focus on APEC has been centered around the costs associated with hosting the event (and rightfully so); very little has been discussed concerning the issues or agendas that the PNG Government should be championing as the chair. One of the hallmarks of the success of APEC will be the legacy and the immediate impact that PNG can have in advancing important reforms and agendas such as climate change and ensuring an equitable playing field when it comes to trade between Pacific island countries and the big players such as China, US, Canada, Japan and so forth. The tussle between China and US for influence over the Pacific presents PNG with an opportunity to shape the geopolitical landscape in the Asia-Pacific region in the next decade to come.