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 24 March 2007 includes the following:
- Fiji’s public service could come to a standstill if its unions decide to take strike action because of pay cuts and a reduced retirement age. A secret ballot on taking industrial action is nearly complete, and the unions are expected to announce their united stand soon. The military has threatened to sack public servants who strike, challenging their right under the constitution to respond to the pay cuts. Dubravka Voloder reports that Fiji’s Interim Administration announced pay cuts of five per cent for all public servants, and the reduction of the retirement age from 60 to 55. The unions have vowed they won’t accept this.
- Paul Ash is a New Zealand diplomat who for the past two years has been one of the key people in the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), as its Deputy Special Coordinator. He finishes in the role in a couple of days, and then will return to New Zealand. He is interviewed by Don Wiseman.
- The Tongan government says the fourth extension of the state of emergency is aimed at preventing any disturbances. The emergency provisions, which were first put in place after the riots in Nukuʻalofa last November, restrict civic rights. Pro-democracy leader ʻAkilisi Pōhiva says there is no justification for the measures, and he warns that the public might rebel. Walter Zweifel reports.
- The Solomon Islands government is welcoming a twenty-eight per cent increase in its revenues from tax collection. The Finance Minister is attributing this to a beefed-up Inland Revenue division, and a growing economy. Linda Skates reports, and there are comments from the Finance Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo, and from the acting Inland Revenue Commissioner, Ronnie Piva.
- The company that owns a fishing trawler that has been stuck on a reef off Niue for more than a week says that it’s unlikely that the vessel is salvageable. Fears that fuel and chemicals could spill from the trawler were averted last Monday, when a group of around forty civil servants removed just under a thousand litres of fuel and contaminants from the boat, by hand. The owners of the ‘Jay Belinda’ say the future of the vessel is in the hands of their insurance company. Leilani Momoisea reports.
- The leader of French-Polynesia’s Aia Api party, Emile Vernaudon, has been given an eighteen-month suspended prison sentence for corruption - but he says he has been singled out unfairly. Vernaudon has lodged an appeal, which allows him to keep his assembly seat for the time being. Walter Zweifel reports.
- The Cook Islands is trying to preserve its heritage by setting up an office which will monitor the activities of overseas researchers. The office, which has been two years in the planning, in partnership with New Zealand’s Health Research Council will screen all applications before research of any nature can be carried out in the Cook Islands. Elma Maua reports, and there are comments from Trevor Pitt, Advisor for the Cook Islands Prime Minister.
- English cricketer Geraint Jones has returned to the country of his birth, Papua New Guinea, leading a representative team from England’s Marylebone Cricket Club. Jones was born in Papua New Guinea in 1976, and having missed out on a place in England’s current world cup squad, took up the chance to tour Papua New Guinea. The team played three matches. Geraint Jones speaks to Johnny Blades.