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 14 April 2007 includes the following:
- Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs has been suspended by the Interim Government amidst the impasse over the nomination of a new Vice President. This follows Wednesday’s rejection by the GCC of President Iloilo’s nomination of Ratu Epeli Nailatikau to be the next Vice President. Johnny Blades reports.
- Relief workers in the Solomon Islands say the government will now handle the food distribution to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Western and Choiseul Provinces this month. With seventy per cent of emergency relief supplies now air-lifted to the stricken areas, relief workers say they can hand over the food distribution to the Solomon Islands government. New Zealand Red Cross’ Information Delegate, Rosemary North, says their focus now is to find shelter for the up to 5,000 people who fled to the hills. There are also comments from local Red Cross Secretary, Charles Kelly, and government spokesperson Alfred Maisulia.
- The Tongan government has appointed an Advisor on Reconciliation to the Prime Minister. The move comes in the wake of the rioting in Nuku’alofa last year, and as hundreds of court cases for those involved in the riots are about to be heard. Linda Skates reports that the country remains under a state of emergency, and emotions are still raw in Nuku’alofa.
- Rising sea levels are a huge issue for the Pacific’s lowest-lying countries, whose people have been dealing with, and adapting to, the effects of climate change for some years. A study released this week for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that all Pacific Islands will be hit hard with the effects of climate change by the middle of this century. Leilani Momoisea reports.
- New Caledonia’s nickel projects are again in the spotlight after a local scientist warned of a disaster to the territory’s biodiversity, as a result of the mining operations there. The territory has about a third of the world’s nickel supply, and major developments are planned. But the concerns publicised by the scientist are being dismissed, as Dubravka Voloder reports.
- The French Polynesian Assembly has elected a new Assembly President for a one-year term. After weeks of unprecedented disarray in the ranks of the ruling majority, it chose Édouard Fritch of the Tahoeraa Huiraatira party, to the third highest office in the territory. Walter Zweifel reports.
- An Indonesian Democratic Party MP says the implementation of special autonomy status for Papua province is improving. Sutradara Ginting made the comment during his recent visit to Wellington, where he and other members of the House of Representatives met New Zealand’s Defence Minister, Phil Goff.
- A group of prominent New Zealand-Niueans and New Zealand-Niuean representatives were part of a delegation who accompanied the Governor General of New Zealand, Anand Satyanand, to Niue this week. New Zealand is the main aid donor to Niue, and the group had a chance to visit a number of aid-funded projects. The Director of the Special Relations Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, David Payton, told Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor what priorities New Zealand has for Niue in terms of aid.