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 Don Wiseman.
The programme for 17 February 2007 includes the following:
- Fiji’s deposed leader could be charged with treason by the military regime, following police investigations. The military has lodged a complaint with the police over Laisenia Qarase’s request for foreign armed intervention from Australia and New Zealand. Margot Staunton reports.
- A Barrister representing Laisenia Qarase has filed papers to begin a constitutional High Court challenge of the overthrow of the government. Suva Barrister, Tevita Fa, speaks to Janine Sudbury.
- The Niue government is looking at new ways of reducing its spending after widespread opposition to plans to cut the work hours of public servants by twenty per cent. The government says it needs to cut around a million US dollars from its spending over the next five months – though there are claims that the debt level may be much higher. There are comments from Mike Cross, from the Chamber of Commerce; Amanda Heka, spokesperson for Niue’s Public Service Association; David Payton, the head of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Special Relationship Unit; and Niue’s Finance Minister, Fisa Pihigia.
- There is protest over a bill in American Samoa which proposes increasing the salaries of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. The Governor could end up with $100,000 USD in salary, while the minimum wage is $2.96 an hour. The Governor and the Lieutenant Governor are also entitled to free government housing, a vehicle, and travel allowances. Linda Skates speaks with President of the group ‘Common Cause’, Ben Teo.
- The signatories of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, on greater autonomy for New Caledonia, will hold their annual meeting in Paris next week to review progress in implementing the document. Changes to voter eligibility criteria in New Caledonia are also set to be made. Walter Zweifel reports.
- Taiwan is to contribute 40 million US dollars over the next 16 years to the Trust Fund for the Marshall Islands. The money will be added to the amount that the US has already contributed, with the fund standing at 75 million dollars at the end of 2006. Linda Skates looks at why the fund is being boosted. Giff Johnson and Peter Cousins comment.
- The opposition in French Polynesia has been staging a weekly march in Papeete as part of a campaign for fresh elections, two years ahead of schedule. Stanley Cross comments on the march.
- An Australian composer, Dr Martin Wesley-Smith, is angry after being forced to withdraw a piece of music from Wellington’s Asia-Pacific Festival after the intervention of the Indonesian Embassy. Wesley-Smith was to present an audio-visual piece called ‘Papua Merdeka’, which focused on the plight of the indigenous people of Papua. The Embassy put pressure on the festival organisers to remove the piece, and he says that this is an infringement of the rights of New Zealanders.
- A recently launched book on the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975 draws parallels with what is happening in Papua province. The book ‘Negligent Neighbour: New Zealand's Complicity in the Invasion and Occupation of Timor-Leste’ is by Maire Leadbeater – she is interviewed by Don Wiseman.