{"id":6872,"date":"2020-02-05T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/?p=6872"},"modified":"2020-02-06T06:57:54","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T20:57:54","slug":"weekly-pacific-bulletin-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testblogs.griffith.edu.au\/asiainsights\/weekly-pacific-bulletin-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Pacific Bulletin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pre-campaign activities in the Vanuatu elections<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pre-campaign activities are well\nunderway in Vanuatu. The country will go to elections on March 19<sup>th<\/sup>\nto elect the 52-seat Parliament. The official campaign period commences on\nMarch 2<sup>nd<\/sup> and runs until March 16<sup>th<\/sup>. Nominations for\ncandidates are now open until the 11<sup>th<\/sup> of this month. There have\nalready been some significant announcements around who will run. The outgoing\nDeputy Prime Minister, Jotham Napat, has claimed there have been <a href=\"https:\/\/dailypost.vu\/news\/caretaker-dpm-says-dirty-tactics-in-play-already\/article_538c526a-4569-11ea-aac3-4f26ef4078ed.html\">\u2018dirty\ntactics\u2019<\/a> on the part of political opponents. He has said he has taken legal\nadvice further to an alleged smear campaign against him, which is an offence\nunder Vanuatu law. There have been announcements of <a href=\"https:\/\/dailypost.vu\/news\/vanuatu-has-a-new-moderate-party\/article_437d84ad-ee40-503c-9363-44403f02409b.html\">new\nparties<\/a> and some candidates have opted to run as independents. In the 2016\nelections 17 political parties won seats along with eight independents. The\nfractured nature of politics in Vanuatu means that a collation government is\nthe most likely outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fiji government suspends five unions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government of Fiji has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/408790\/fiji-governmentt-suspends-five-unions\">suspended\nfive trade unions<\/a>. The suspension is for failure to submit annual audited\nfinancial reports. The unions face further penalties and deregistration if the\nnon-compliance continues. There are 49 registered unions in Fiji. However,\nthere have been numerous reports of difficulties that unions face in getting\npermits to hold rallies and marches. This adds to ongoing concerns over the\nrestrictions on the right to free association in Fiji. The General Secretary of\nthe Fiji National Workers\u2019 Union, Felix Anthony, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/393153\/fiji-union-leader-arrested-again\">currently\non trial<\/a>. He is charged with \u201cmalicious behaviour\u201d under the <em>Public\nOrder Act. <\/em>This is in relation to his allegedly having told a journalist\nfalse news relating to the expiry of workers\u2019 contracts at Fiji Water Authority\nlast year. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and will face court next in\nMarch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exxon negotiations with Papua New Guinea stall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afr.com\/companies\/energy\/png-gas-talks-collapse-as-marape-calls-time-20200201-p53wst\">Negotiations\nhave stalled<\/a> between the government of PNG and Exxon to develop the P\u2019nyang\ngas project. The development was expected to see the country\u2019s exports of\nLiquid Natural Gas double by 2024. However, the government\u2019s senior negotiating\nteam withdrew from talks recently. The Minister for Petroleum and Energy, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/radio-australia\/programs\/pacificbeat\/png-petroleum-minister-lashes-exxon\/11925050\">Kerenga\nKua<\/a>, claims the company has not moved sufficiently since late last year. Kua\nsays that the PNG government, led by James Marape, is looking for a deal that gives\na much higher take to the government than currently on offer. He has pointed to\ndeals in countries such as Malaysia as examples of that. Exxon\u2019s partner in\nPNG, Oil Search, has argued that what the government wants would make the\ndevelopment uneconomic. Since coming to power last year, Marape and Kua have\nmade negotiating for better returns from resource extraction projects a focus\nfor the government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pacific Pathways 2020<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US has announced Oceania as the focus for this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/army-pacific-pathways-exercise-china\">Pacific Pathways<\/a> operations. Pacific Pathways is a program run by the US Army aimed at improving the force\u2019s capacity to engage and operate in the region, including with partners and allies. It has been in place since 2014. This will see troop rotations into numerous Pacific island countries including PNG, Vanuatu, Samoa, Timor-Leste, and Tonga. The purpose of these rotations is to foster linkages not only with defence agencies in the host countries, but also with civic organisations. However, this is also driven by a desire on the part of Washington to counter the influence of China in the region. Meanwhile <a href=\"https:\/\/fijivillage.com\/news\/US-General-Joseph-Lengyel-holds-talks-with-the-RFMF-Commander-in-Suva-k592sr\/\">US General Joseph Lengyel<\/a> (military adviser to the President and National Security Council) met recently with Rear Admiral Viliame Naupoto in Fiji to discuss opportunities for collaboration between the military forces of their countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Coronavirus measures cause confusion and disruption<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Measures taken to counter the spread of the\ncoronavirus are causing confusion and disruption in the region. Numerous\nPacific island governments have introduced restrictions and bans on people\nentering their countries from or <em>via<\/em> mainland China. As yet there are no\nconfirmed cases of the Wuhan virus in any Pacific island country. However,\nexperts are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/programmes\/datelinepacific\/audio\/2018732752\/coronavirus-prevention-better-than-pandemic-warns-professor\">concerned<\/a>\nat the impact it could have in countries that do not have extensive health\nservices. There are a number of people in quarantine in Samoa. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/408840\/coronavirus-two-in-fiji-isolated-with-mild-symptoms\">Fiji<\/a>,\ntwo people have been hospitalised with \u2018mild symptoms\u2019 and authorities are\nawaiting test results from Australia in relation to them. There has been some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/radio-australia\/programs\/pacificbeat\/confusion-as-pacific-students-stranded-in-wuhan-want-to-evacuate\/11926978\">confusion<\/a>\nas to whether Pacific students in China will be evacuated or who is responsible\nfor their welfare if they remain. A charter flight flown by Air New Zealand has\nuplifted a number of Pacific islanders and Australians as well as NZ citizens\nfrom Wuhan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"author label wp-block-paragraph\">AUTHOR<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tess Newton Cain<\/strong>&nbsp;is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pre-campaign activities in the Vanuatu elections Pre-campaign activities are well underway in Vanuatu. The country will go to elections on March 19th to elect the 52-seat Parliament. The official campaign period commences on March 2nd and runs until March 16th. Nominations for candidates are now open until the 11th of this month. There have already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":6664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1021,248],"tags":[323,969,1050,935,1022,478,1027,961],"class_list":["post-6872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pacific-outlook","category-png-and-the-pacific","tag-fiji","tag-pacific-islands","tag-pacific-outlook","tag-papua-new-guinea","tag-samoa","tag-timor-leste","tag-tonga","tag-vanuatu"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Jill Moriarty","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Weekly Pacific Bulletin | Griffith Asia Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pre-campaign activities in the Vanuatu elections Pre-campaign activities are well underway in Vanuatu. 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