Pacific News In Brief For 1 July
A round-up of news from around the region, including Niue government announcing its budget for 2025.
Niue – budget
Health, education, social welfare and government salaries have receives a boost in the Niue government's new NZ$12.5 million (US$7.6m) deficit budget.
Last week, the island's finance minister announced the largest expenditure of the government is to cover the salaries of its workforce and the cost of social services.
TV Niue reported the health department gets the highest increase in this budget of more than $880,000, a 26 percent boost.
Cook Islands – firearms
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has announced several new initiatives aimed at enhancing firearm regulation and safety across the Pa Enua (outer islands).
Cook Islands News reported this includes the resumption of police-issued ammunition and plans to simplify the driving licensing process for tourists.
Speaking in parliament, Brown confirmed that the Cook Islands Police has reinstated its role as the official supplier of ammunition to the Pa Enua.
The move is expected to assist island communities in managing issues such as wild animal control.
Papua New Guinea – chicken
East Sepik Governor Allan Bird has raised concerns over a drop in chicken sales nationwide.
Bird said the government banned the importation of frozen chicken from Australia and New Zealand with the pretext of protecting the Papua New Guinea industry from foreign competitors and diseases.
He said it was a short-sighted decision and now as imported chicken stock runs out, the impact is being felt around the country.
He said imported chickens retail at about 22 kina ($US5.33) per kilo, while locally produced chickens retail at about 40 kina.
Bird said local chicken production will remain expensive because the chicken feed is imported and 80 per cent of the cost of producing a chicken is the feed cost.
Samoa – festival
A large Samoan festival – the Teuila Festival – has been cancelled this year.
The festival, which features cultural performances and the Miss Samoa pageant, has been cancelled to avoid a timing clash with Samoa's general election.
The Miss Samoa pageant has been rescheduled, to run from 27 October to 9 November.
Fiji – ICC
Fijian Nazhat Shameem Khan has been elevated to the topmost prosecutorial position at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Fiji Times reported the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC has announced that deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang have taken over leadership, following prosecutor Karim Khan KC's temporary leave of absence.
In May Khan, who is British, stepped aside pending the outcome of a United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services investigation into alleged misconduct.
Nazhat Shameem Khan is a Fijian diplomat and former judge.
Fiji/PNG – anniversary
Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is poised to attend Papua New Guinea's 50th independence anniversary celebrations in Port Moresby on 16 September.
Local media reports Rabuka praising his PNG counterpart James Marape for his leadership in strengthening the region and expressed Fiji's commitment to maintaining strong diplomatic ties with PNG.
Fiji and PNG established diplomatic relations in 1975 and continue to build on their traditional, political, and economic partnership.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
7 hours ago
- Scoop
Taxpayer Funded Satellite Likely "Irrecoverable" After Losing Contact With The Ground
, Climate Change Correspondent Space Minister Judith Collins has declined to answer questions about the loss of a taxpayer-funded satellite. The New Zealand government put $29 million towards MethaneSAT, which has been lost in space after going off course. The government invested in MethaneSAT in the hopes of growing the space industry. The mission's goal was to name and shame oil and gas producers that are allowing planet-heating methane to escape into the atmosphere. RNZ has been asking about problems with the satellite since September and was previously told its issues were "teething problems". Asked if the public had been kept adequately informed, Minister Collins said she had nothing to add and questions should go to the New Zealand Space Agency, which is part of the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment. The Space Agency released a statement saying the owners of the MethaneSAT satellite had advised contact with the satellite was lost on 20 June and attempts to restore communication have been unsuccessful. "Clearly this is a disappointing development. As those who work in the space sector know, space is inherently challenging, and every attempt, successful or not, pushes the boundaries of what we know and what we're capable of." "New Zealand has been a partner in the MethaneSAT mission since 2019, which is a collaboration with the US-based Environmental Defense Fund. "While the mission's primary focus has been detecting and measuring global oil and gas emissions, New Zealand's involvement extended the focus to a science programme to investigate the detection of methane emissions from agriculture and other sources." It said New Zealand's involvement had "strengthened our expertise and space capability as a country" and generated 97 measurements over agricultural land including 13 measurements over New Zealand, which scientists at Earth Sciences New Zealand, formerly NIWA, would work with as part of their $6 million project using the satellite. The satellite's owners released a statement overnight saying the taxpayer-funded climate satellite had lost contact with the ground and "is likely not recoverable." "While this is difficult news, it is not the end of the overall MethaneSAT effort, or of our work to slash methane emissions," said a statement released by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the US group behind the satellite. The mission has been plagued by delays, first to its launch date and then to the arrival of its promised data about global methane emissions. The University of Auckland has been waiting to take over the mission control at its new, partly taxpayer-funded Te Pūnaha Ātea Space Institute. The announcement of the satellite's demise came just two days after the latest deadline for handing control over to university staff and students. In May, the mission's chief scientist said more intense solar activity because of a peak in the sun's magnetic cycle had been causing MethaneSAT to go into safe mode. The satellite had to be carefully restarted every time. There had also been a problem with one of the satellite's three thrusters, which maintain its altitude and steer the spacecraft. MethaneSAT had said it could operate fully on two thrusters. The new information helps explain why control of the satellite had to be handed back to its manufacturers in Colorado in March instead of going straight from Rocket Lab to the University of Auckland as planned. The university had said it would still operate the mission control from a delayed start date of June, and staff had been involved in day-to-day tasks ahead of the full hand over. The ability to learn from operating the satellite was a major rationale for the government's investment, after early hopes that it would reveal new information about New Zealand's methane emissions proved incorrect. New Zealand scientists had raised questions about what they saw as a lack of transparency with the New Zealand public about delays to the satellite's data. EDF, the environmental non-profit behind the satellite mission, told RNZ in October that the spacecraft was performing as expected and there were no "notable or particular complications outside the realm of what would be anticipated". But just a few months later, after more questions from RNZ, MethaneSAT announced that control of the satellite had been transferred back to its maker Blue Canyon Technologies so it could fix "challenges." When RNZ previously asked EDF if its response in October had been true it said the issues were "teething problems" and nothing beyond what was expected. "MethaneSAT experienced the sort of teething problems that one would encounter with any new mission using a new platform (bus), but nothing outside the bounds of what was to be expected. The expectation was that developing an efficient, well-honed set of operating procedures takes time," it said. MethaneSAT acknowledged in October the process was taking longer than expected, particularly commissioning the thrusters. However it did not disclose the issue with the satellite having to be brought out of safe mode until RNZ asked a list of specific questions. In March, Collins was asked about the mission's problems - but told Parliament she could not say because of confidentiality. In February, the government's Space Agency also cited the need for confidentiality when it declined to answer questions from RNZ about what was wrong. University of Auckland astrophysicist Richard Easther was among the critics of the mission's lack of communication about its problems. On Wednesday, he said New Zealand needed a "no blame" review to understand "how New Zealand blew past so many red flags about MethaneSAT's operation." "This is a tragedy for the people here who worked hard on it, and for New Zealand science." He said the mission "kept pumping out upbeat comms even after it became apparent that the spacecraft had major problems which in many cases appear to have been present since launch." Full statement from EDF: "On Friday, June 20, the MethaneSAT mission operations lost contact with MethaneSAT. "After pursuing all options to restore communications, we learned this morning that the satellite has lost power, and that it is likely not recoverable. "While this is difficult news, it is not the end of the overall MethaneSAT effort, or of our work to slash methane emissions. "Launched in March 2024, MethaneSAT had been collecting methane emissions data over the past year. It was one of the most advanced methane tracking satellites in space, measuring methane emissions in oil and gas producing regions across the world. "The mission has been a remarkable success in terms of scientific and technological accomplishment, and for its lasting influence on both industry and regulators worldwide. "The engineering team is conducting a thorough investigation into the loss of communication. This is expected to take time. We will share what we learn. "Thanks to MethaneSAT, we have gained critical insight about the distribution and volume of methane being released from oil and gas production areas. "We have also developed an unprecedented capability to interpret the measurements from space and translate them into volumes of methane released. "This capacity will be valuable to other missions. "EDF and MethaneSAT remain firmly committed to our core purpose of turning data into action to protect the climate including reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry. "The advanced spectrometers developed specifically for MethaneSAT met or exceeded all expectations throughout the mission. In combination with the mission algorithms and software, we showed that the highly sensitive instrument could see total methane emissions, even at low levels, over wide areas, including both large sources (super emitters) and the smaller ones that account for a large share of total methane emissions, which were not visible from space until MethaneSAT. "EDF and MethaneSAT remain firmly committed to our core purpose of turning data into action to protect the climate, including reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry. "We will be working with partners around the world to leverage the algorithms and associated software as well as the now-proven high precision technology that was developed as part of the MethaneSAT mission so the world has access to high quality actionable greenhouse gas emissions data on a global basis. "We will continue to process data that we have retrieved from the satellite and will be releasing additional scenes of global oil and gas production region-scale emissions over the coming months. "To solve the climate challenge requires bold action and risk-taking and this satellite was at the leading edge of science, technology and advocacy. "We also will continue to work closely with our partners to reduce methane emissions and implement the goals of the Global Methane Pledge, The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, the United Nations Environment Programme's International Emissions Observatory and Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and so many other efforts this mission was designed to support."
Scoop
7 hours ago
- Scoop
Pacific News In Brief For 2 July
Fiji/Australia - visit Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is leading a delegation on a high-level visit to Australia this week. The Fiji government said Rabuka will meet with the Fijian diaspora in Canberra and Brisbane and tour some significant Australian institutions and sites that reflect the ties between the two nations. As part of the visit, discussions would focus on strengthening border and ports capabilities, deepening security cooperation, and reinforcing regional solidarity in support of a safe, stable, and resilient Blue Pacific. On Tuesday, Rabuka met with Sam Mostyn, governor-general of the Commonwealth of Australia, where they reaffirmed the enduring strength of the renewed and elevated Fiji-Australia Vuvale Partnership. Rabuka also reiterated Fiji's support for Australia's bid to host COP31. Vanuatu - information Vanuatu's Parliament has passed an amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, exempting all decisions made by the Council of Ministers (COM) from public disclosure. The amendment, introduced during the first ordinary session of Parliament this year, has drawn concern from civil society leaders, media organisations, and transparency advocates. Vanuatu Daily Post reported a major concern for critics is the delay in releasing the Citizenship Report from the Commission of Inquiry, recently submitted to Justice Minister Job Andy. A government source warned shielding Cabinet decisions from scrutiny could damage public confidence, adding that when decisions are made behind closed doors, without accountability, it opens the door to abuse of power. In New Zealand, the Official Information Act allows people to request government documentation, including correspondence. Samoa - babies In Samoa, a church leader has called on the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) to only give 1000 tala (US$366.28) to babies whose parents are married - and not to babies born out of wedlock. Preaching at the HRPP manifesto launch in Savai'i last week, Reverend Tuigamala addressed their proposal to give money to every newborn baby. He said such promises must be carefully reviewed through a spiritual lens. HRPP deputy leader Lauofo Fonotoe acknowledged the reverend's comments and confirmed that the party has taken note of his concerns. Tuigamala also raised concerns about the state of Samoa's prayer buildings, urging for their restoration as a sign of national spiritual alignment. Fiji - dynamite Dynamite and a detonator normally used by mining companies have been found on a farm in Sigatoka, Fiji. The dynamite stick, mining blast cables and detonator were found by a farmer at the weekend. Police spokesperson, Ana Naisoro, said they were found inside a water tank about 200 metres away from his house. The scene has been cordoned off and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces have been asked to investigate.
Newsroom
13 hours ago
- Newsroom
Humans vs robots: Stuff winning early audience battle
New Zealanders are increasingly favouring Stuff over the site for online news, coinciding with the Herald's move to have AI choose its home-page content. The latest Nielsen monthly audience numbers, for May, show Stuff stretching out to a 570,000 average readership lead over the Herald, with RNZ now looming behind the Herald site as a feasible contender in the future to vie for second. While Stuff has edged its leading audience number up from around 2.2m a year ago to 2.33m, the Herald has dipped by hundreds of thousands in that same period from around 2.1m to 1.75m. Since March this year the gap has widened to between 300,000 to 570,000. And, though it's early days, some of that Herald drop-off and the growth in Stuff's dominance has come after the Herald moved early in the year to having almost all of its home page curated by artificial intelligence. At times just three spots for news items were to be selected by staff. Stuff's main news section at the top of its home page is all human-curated. It adopts automated selections for sub-sections below its Editor's Picks strip further down. So could the AI, or colloquially, robot-edited Herald page be contributing to its audience downturn? Theoretically, the AI decision-making ought to precisely reflect readers' interests, interaction and engagement with content on the site. The site ought to maximise its appeal beyond what a desk of human editors could achieve and allow highly personalised menus of stories. But regular readers might have noticed oddities, including stories lingering in spaces high up on the site, certain themes securing prominence almost irrespective of the news agenda, local yokel articles from NZME papers, and a surfeit of regional crime, court and catastrophe. At the same time, when the Herald newsroom laid off 30 senior journalists and digital editors in March, it made clear its remaining staff would seek to produce fewer, better stories. So the volume of new material is likely to have dropped. Interestingly, the daily statistics via Nielsen for page views were almost even throughout last year between the Herald and Stuff, and the Herald led at weekends, but now Stuff can have a substantial lead regularly across the seven days. RNZ, though slightly down in May to a 1.43m average audience, is now in the rare zone of closing in on the falling Herald monthly number. RNZ has risen greatly over the past 24 months, from about 880,000. But its daily page views, which measures stories looked at, are nowhere near as close to the Herald, falling at times behind 1 News' site which is fourth, at 708,000 on the monthly unique reader metric. The Herald is not solely focused on the total audience number for its site because, unlike Stuff, it also has a large paying subscriber base, which brings in millions in revenue. Balancing the levels of 'quality' news held behind a paywall for subscribers and fast-twitch and high appeal content for attracting eyeballs for the open website is a constant challenge for the Herald. However, the overall slippage at the Herald has not gone unnoticed. One staffer told Newsroom: 'There's been a lot of consternation among staff about story numbers dropping since AI took over the homepage.' The Herald has also pivoted some of its editorial effort to the new video offering Herald Now, with new hirings taking up some of the gaps left by outgoing text journalists and editors. The video project is directed at raising advertising revenue from the open site through content attracting high numbers of eyeballs, so in a sense competes with Herald Premium's subscriber goal. When Stuff's owner, Sinead Boucher, announced the May Nielsen results, she emphasised how far ahead her site was over 'its nearest competitor'. 'Stuff Digital's singular focus on user experience and relevant content has seen three months of significant growth with more than half a million more Kiwis choosing for their news than any other news brand.' The Stuff audience performance will be music to the ears of TradeMe executives, who on Wednesday confirmed their purchase of 50 percent of Stuff Digital had settled and TradeMe Property ads and real estate stories would start to appear on the site. Herald journalists have a chance to hear from editor-in-chief, Murray Kirkness at an all-hands meeting set for next Tuesday, and from chief executive Michael Boggs at a quarterly NZME update the next day, July 9. AI to write stories One topic that could be discussed next week is a new Herald 'editorial futures working group' to address the use of AI, proposing to extend the deployment of automation from curating the home page to directly writing stories. The Herald had an awkward false start last year with AI-driven content when the paper's editorial – notionally the editor's daily viewpoint – was shown to have been produced using AI. Kirkness told RNZ 'more journalistic rigour would have been beneficial' and the Herald had fallen short in that instance. Staff were to be reminded of its standards. The NZME-owned BusinessDesk uses AI to create stories off NZX market information releases, and Stuff processes police, emergency and other one-source official releases using a form of AI, checked by an editor before publication. Both the Herald and Stuff have policies available to readers on their sites. Now, Herald staff have been told the site needs to look at using AI for content generation as well. In an email jokingly entitled 'The Robots are Coming Here,' (sic) Matt Martel, the managing editor of Audience and Platform, tells journalists 'We need to operate at speed to take advantage of the possibilities that Al tools offer. 'In the past 18 months, we have built First Gen tools (First Look, First Cut, etc) concentrating on production efficiency. We are now turning toward content generation. 'The risks if we get this wrong are fundamental. 'Our competitors, such as Stuff, are already using Al to generate news articles, and we need to work out the Herald way to do this, and how we will declare what we are doing,' the memo says. 'We're setting up an editorial working group looking at how we quickly advance our use of Al, including for content generation. This could start with processing media releases from official sources in the way that BusinessDesk processes NZX announcements.' Stuff tells Newsroom its views on AI use are set out in this article. Editor-in-chief Keith Lynch: 'Essentially we use AI to process simple press releases (for example police PR) to generate first takes of stories that are then edited by human editors before being published to Stuff. This is to ensure that everything published fully aligns with our code of ethics and high standards. 'Using AI for this type of work frees up our reporters from 'turning around press releases' and allows them to focus on delivering unique journalism – the kind of reporting AI cannot do.' No word yet on the editor's new advisers NZME board director and substantial shareholder Jim Grenon. Photo: NZME While the Herald's editorial futures working group gets into its work, the much-awaited Editorial Advisory Board that emerged during the Jim Grenon-led shareholder push against NZME's board is yet to take shape, much less be publicly announced. The board would in theory advise Kirkness and other editors on editorial strategy. Grenon, a centre-right advocate and a critic of Herald journalism since Covid days, has promised more quality content but also suggested measuring its political leanings, possibly by AI. One of the advisory board members is set to be the former blogger, lawyer and ZB Plus founder Philip Crump, who in the board fight wash-up did not make the cut for the senior directorships. The E Tū union, representing Herald journalists, dismissed Crump's suitability for the editorial advisory role. 'Having worked in the same newsroom as Philip Crump, we do not believe he has the experience, ability, or mana to take on what would be an influential role.' Crump counters that his career in elite law firms overseas and in the area of governance makes him a good fit for the advisory board. As NZME works out what it wants its advisory board to do, and considers the views of Kirkness and others on appropriate nominees, the union has nominated journalist Simon Wilson for one seat. Wilson, an experienced writer and columnist, would be seen by many to be a counterpoint to the centre-right worldview of Crump (and Grenon). Former Herald Premium editor Miriyana Alexander, who drove the hugely successful launch and development of the site's digital subscriptions before resigning last year, is also said to be in the frame for a possible seat. She would likely be warmly received by former newsroom colleagues, including Kirkness, as an editor relentlessly focused on quality journalism. RNZ comings, goings and cuts Incoming RNZ head of AI, Patrick Crewdson. Photo: RNZ Meanwhile, AI is also a top focus at RNZ, with the appointment of senior Stuff executive Patrick Crewdson as the public broadcaster's first director of AI strategy & implementation. Crewdson, a 20-year veteran of Stuff and its allied newspapers who rose to editor in chief of the site, was most recently head of product development. RNZ said: 'Patrick brings a great range of AI skills and knowledge. However, as importantly he understands the pressures of a newsroom and will be able to guide our adoption of AI in a way that follows our deeply held ethical and journalistic standards.' In another major personnel change at RNZ, Martin Gibson, the editor who has led its Morning Report programme on RNZ National for more than 25 of its 50 years on air, will leave in October. Gibson's exit comes as RNZ faces stubbornly declining radio audiences (Morning Report has fallen way behind Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking Breakfast) and pressure from the Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith to boost its listenership and trust. RNZ has repeatedly pledged to act to restore RNZ National audiences but each GfK audience survey brings more bad news. It has suffered badly with the Auckland market and though its online audience (see above) is performing strongly, and on-demand and podcast listenership grows, the radio ratings are an almost intractable challenge. RNZ announced a cost-cutting round after the Budget's $4.6m annual reduction in funding, including an offer of voluntary redundancies and likely falls in external commissions, a health-related payment and marketing bills. One area not expected to be hit is its classical music station, RNZ Concert. Asked by MP Rachel Boyack during Parliament's Scrutiny Week if he could guarantee Concert would be safe from cuts, Paul Goldsmith said: 'I cannot make absolute guarantees because the board is responsible for these decisions,' but cuts were 'certainly not my expectation'. Goldsmith also believed an RNZ proposal not to replace one of two West Auckland AM radio transmitting towers, which could affect a number of community radio stations, would be resolved. 'We're concerned about that. I'm interested in that and certainly in discussions with the RNZ board about that.'
