Tagata o te Moana is a weekly Pacific programme, broadcast on Radio New Zealand National (Saturdays at 5.30pm). It features news, interviews, and discussion of issues. Presented by Elma Maua.
The programme for 3 February 2007 includes the following:
- Fiji’s military has revealed it is likely to ignore findings from the region’s foremost political body on the current crisis. The Eminent Persons Group has been talking to stakeholders in Fiji to try and find a way forward after the coup. The deposed Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, is urging the Group to call for widespread sanctions to rein the military-backed government in. But the military, headed by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, says it will do what it wants - as Margot Staunton reports.
- Fiji’s interim administration is continuing to investigate the options for the future of the country’s only gold mine. The operation at Vatukoula was shut down by Emperor Gold Mines on 5 December 2006, the day of the coup. As Linda Skates reports, there has been a call for the mine to be re-opened and nationalised. A total of 1,700 workers lost their jobs and their future remains uncertain, with a military appointed committee set up to investigate what should be done. The Interim Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations, Bernadette Rounds Ganilau, is interviewed.
- Bilateral talks between the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Tonga have been held in Auckland, to discuss the rebuilding of Tonga’s capital, Nukuʻalofa, as well as the future of constitutional reforms. Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, and Prime Minister of Tonga, Dr Feleti Sevele, met for the first time since the riots in Nukuʻalofa of 16 November 2006. The talks appear to have been positive, with Helen Clark revealing that 2 million dollars from Tonga’s annual 10-million-dollar New Zealand aid fund will be redirected towards a business recovery facility. There are comments from Helen Clark, Dr Feleti Sevele, and New Zealand Aid Chief Executive, Dr Peter Adams.
- Niue debates its relationship with New Zealand, as it battles to make ends meet. Niue’s Premier, Young Vivian, says the country faces a budget shortfall of about a million US dollars, with five months of the financial year still remaining. He has outlined plans for cuts to services, and to put public servants on four-day weeks. The nature of the involvement with New Zealand, Niue’s main aid provider, is also being discussed in the Assembly. Don Wiseman reports, and MP O’Love Jacobsen and Associate Finance Minister, Hima Douglas, comment.
- French Polynesia’s election system has been changed for a second time in three years, in an attempt to bring about more political stability. Since the first change in 2004, Tahiti’s political scene has been marked by shifting coalitions, four no-confidence votes, and even a brief spell of rival governments. The lesson for the ‘political masters’ in Paris has been that it should not have tinkered with the established proportional system. Walter Zweifel reports.
- There are calls for an urgent solution to tribal warfare in Papua New Guinea’s Western Highlands, following Friday’s violent clashes in the provincial capital, Mount Hagen. Clansmen armed with bush-knives turned Pope John Paul Oval into a battlefield and clashed with police on the streets of Mount Hagen, in violence that is linked to a tribal feud. Johnny Blades reports.
- The Solomon Islands budget for the coming year will be up for discussion next week, amid worries that it has been affected by the continuing poor political relations with Australia. The government calls itself the ‘Grand Coalition for Change’ and has promised bottom-up policies, but there are questions over whether this budget will deliver. Philippa Tolley reports.