Comments

Hi Richard, a colleague of mine forward this to me. This is an excellent piece and thanks for sharing about the ACIAR PASS-CR program. I 100% agree with you and your points here. I am not one of the alumni of the program but I am one of those Pacific Island researchers supporting the ACIAR-PASS Scholars for some years. I think it has been a successful program and the support component from the University of the Sunshine Coast is excellent in providing that enabling environment for students and supervisors. The ACIAR-PASS-CR to my own experience has been really critical in building "research capacity" of the ACIAR PASS scholars. I was the Principal Supervisor for few ACIAR PASS scholars when I was with the University of the South Pacific and now a co-supervisor from Unimelb. I have seen the evolution and improvement of research skills of ACIAR scholars before and after the 2019-2020 initiative. I also agree, the Climate Resilient component has been a fantastic opportunity to build/add in that "climate change light-bulb moment skills" into agricultural research thinking, framing and in practice. This is fundamental for two reasons - 1) traditional agriculture education and research in the Pacific Islands "rarely or with some level" cover climate change (adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage), meteorological and disaster risk management skills in the curriculum and in research framing. CR provides that opportunity to build in the CR research capacity and research framing into the "traditional agriculture research approach" of the scholars. 2) It is a very important priority in our Pacific Island governments (sectors including agriculture), communities and at household levels to integrate climate change, disaster risk management and resilience thinking and skills into planning, implementation, evaluation and learning. This requires not just CR skillset and capacity to do, but also a knowledge system that is starting to generate from the CR program, as you rightfully pointed out Christian's excellent work. For example, his work is now adding that important climate resilience lens on taro food loss and milk loss research and knowledge creation. Then add the specific vulnerabilities and also the great roles of women, and youth in the mix - we are starting to see the CR knowledge systems built. But sad to hear it is changing now. The CR program provided the opportunity for Christian to study the climate resilience of dairy farmers in Central Victoria in collaboration with Murray Dairy (wonderful support from MD), School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences (SAFES) and Oceania Institute (in Unimelb) and also dairy farmers in Fiji. There is a huge networking happening as a result of the CR component when Christian visited and spent a month with us at Dookie Campus of the University of Melbourne. We are having discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture and Waterways in Fiji to build an initiative to do more research with dairy farmers in Fiji; a farmers exchange program with Dookie campus and probably a larger research with development partnership on Dairy and Livestock and Climate Resilience for Fiji and the Pacific Islands. The CR enables a lot of capacity and networking building that will leave a strong legacy - wow only for 2 years and this is just one testimony from one scholar, imagine the rest. Thank you again for sharing and I hope you will do a thorough evaluation of the programs as you mentioned and get some good learning on scaling up and out with ACIAR or with other partners. ACIAR has been doing outstanding research work in the Pacific Islands. Amazing research network, partnership and impacts on the ground benefiting our farmers, fishers and local partners and I'm sure the evaluation will generate important lessons to build on. Oh before I forget, just another suggestion on these research capacity building programs to find ways to increase the involvement of Pacific Island researchers who are based in Australia and NZ and other regions in research programs and supporting the research scholars who are based in the Pacific Islands. No need to be territorial, the living words of our own Professor Hau'ofa come to mine, we are Oceania, we are in our journey and the Pacific Ocean connects us, so please do not separate us. It does not mean that I, like many of us are based outside of the Pacific Islands then we are outside of the capacity building, research, development engagements of our communities - we are still children of Oceania. For example, I am still a Samoan matai, a Tuvaluan citizen and a proud son of Oceania living and working in our beautiful rural Victoria Dookie campus of the University of Melbourne. Thanks again and Merry Christmas.

Hi Joel, Congratulations on your selection for the PEV! Thank you also for sharing your experience with paying for the associated costs that work out to be cheaper for you and for many others who are in Tuvalu compared to those who are PNG based. It's great that you and your wife were also able to secure jobs which remains a significant challenge for many who are still job hunting. As for visa turnaround time, there is no updated information of the Home Affairs website under "Visa Processing Times" for subclass 192 so unfortunately everyone will just have to wait for whenever a visa decision is made. See https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-processing-times/global-visa-processing-times Keep monitoring your immi account for updated information is the best advice I can offer at this time. Regards, Natasha

Malo Ema! Yes. And the King trying to assert a role in the day to day affairs of government is making for days of living dangerously!

Including sections on sustainable practices in poultry farming could be a great addition to the blog.

Hi Natasha, I'm originally from Enga, PNG and married to a Tuvaluan and got my Tuvalu citizen through my wife , I recently moved here to Tuvalu in 2022 to settle with my wife and four kids . We got this opportunity last year and we tried both in the Tuvalu ballot. My wife didn't make it and I received a notification of selection. Before starting to do our documentation I thought it's going to be costly. But when we go through our documentation I realised how cheap everything here and easy to obtain such documents as police clearance and passports costs. Full health examination is cost $30 for adults and free cost for kids under 18. We both secure our job offers from one company in Bundaberg, Australia and it commence when we arrived in Australia. Our medical examinations was finalised from the Bupa medical visa services last week, so we are now waiting for our visas. I've been searching through the Australia home affairs page about processing time and I can't find a processing time for the Pacific engagement visa. Would you mind give me a hint about how long we gonna wait for our visas? Thank you very much Natasha. I find your article very informative and I would to subscribe for more news from you. You have a blessed day. God Bless.

The saying that 'politics makes for strange bedfellows' has never been more true in light of this week's political developments in Tonga.

You have brought up a very superb points, thanks for the post.

Hi Bernadette, Sorry to hear of your situation. It’s understandable your frustrations pending a visa decision that has impacted on your job security. Unfortunately, a valid 12-month job offer is a current PEV requirement. While trying to email Immigration to follow up can be pointless, there is no harm in uploading a separate letter of urgency into your immi account explaining your situation and requesting an estimated visa decision turnaround time so you and your prospective employer can plan accordingly. I hope this helps and continue to persevere. Thanks, Natasha

I have a passport but need my BC re-issued and have been trying for months, from Australia, to get it happening via email (nobody ever answers phone lines) and I get a reply maybe once or twice a month. It is infuriating.

Hi Eileen, The 2024 PEV round closed 1st August. If you did not receive a "notification of selection" then you are unsuccessful for this round. You can register again next year when the ballot opens for 2025. Thanks, Natasha

Dear Natasha, I have been selected for PEV and secured a job in Melbourne 2 months ago but due to the fact the visa is still pending for further assessment, I lost the job. Australian Home Affairs contacted me last month for me to provide documents from my daughter's father which I have. Recently I secured a job again and lost it because the visa is still pending. Do I really need to secure an employment or should I wait for the visa to be granted then I look for employment? I remember that I stated in the PEV site that successful applicant must secure employment before the visa will be granted.

Hi Peter. Yes, that's possible. In the Census, each person can claim up to two ancestries. So it is possible to identify the number of people who claim only Pacific ancestries, as well as those who claim both Pacific and other ancestries.