Goat milking to go on show

Caption: Dr Workneh Ayalew of NARI demonstrating the goat milking technology during a farmers’ field day in the highlands recently

By SENIORL ANZU

Goat milking will be a major attraction at Bubia next Tuesday when National Agriculture Research Institute stages the 2009 Agricultural Innovations Show.
 Farmers and visitors at this annual event will see live demonstrations performed by scientists on extracting fresh milk from goats.
Research programme leader of the NARI livestock programme Dr Workneh Ayalew said his staff at Labu near Lae were preparing to show farmers the goat milking technologies.
“A highlight of our displays will be the use and promotion of goats for milk production and this will be demonstrated during the annual event,” he said.
“Goats are good milk producers, which farmers should look after to obtain fresh milk. But for them to give good milk, they need to be managed and trained properly.” 
Other displays and demonstrations on livestock will be on the use of local feeds such as sweet potato and cassava for making broiler rations; the sweet potato silage feeding system for pigs; and the use of small livestock chicken, ducks, goats, sheep, rabbits, inland fisheries) to diversify sources of quality food and sources of income.
Dr Ayalew added that the livestock programme would also sell small animals at the show including breeding stock of ducks, rabbits, sheep and goats and poultry such as broiler chicken and ducks.
Apart from feeding their kids, goats can produce good milk for human consumption. These ruminants need proper care and training in order to give good fresh milk.
Regular milking exercise is also necessary, and milking can be done once or twice a day. After training for a week or two, they will continue to produce up to half a litre.
Goats also need to be fed well; not only with green feed but some concentrates, and they need to be kept in good condition.
The agricultural innovations show will be staged for the third consecutive year.
It is an ‘information exchange and knowledge sharing’ event in which partner and collaborating organisations in agricultural and rural development will be invited to display and exhibit their innovations and improved technologies and interact with farmers and the general public.
 The theme of this year is ‘Adapting PNG Agriculture to Climate Change’.

More from Graham Davis

Graham Davis May 01, 2009

Article from: The Australian

IT'S the eve of Frank Bainimarama's 55th birthday and he's in a jovial mood as we stroll the manicured path to the officers' mess at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks. Tomorrow at dawn, his troops will march to his home bearing cake and champagne, and the army band will play the local version of the traditional birthday song that always includes the extra stanza, "happy long life to you!" Not everyone in Fiji will be joining in.

The military commander turned prime minister has just shown me the bullet holes that riddle the timber panels of his office in an adjacent building that came under attack by rebel soldiers during the mutiny of 2000.

"We leave it unrepaired to remind us just how close we came to disaster. It was only because I was at lunch in the mess that I survived," Bainimarama says.

"When we realised we were under attack, my security detail rushed me through the back door and down the hill to safety. We were dodging bullets and rocket-propelled grenades. Three loyal soldiers died that day, and we must never forget."

Bainimarama readily concedes that five captured rebels were beaten to death, but denies reports that one had his penis cut off, another his tongue ripped out. Any mention of extrajudicial killings is curtly dismissed. "These people came to kill us. What do you expect, a kiss on both cheeks?"

As we approach the mess, a uniformed non-commissioned officer springs to attention and salutes. The commander is in mufti: tailored Fijian sulu (a wrap skirt) topped with a green floral shirt. To my astonishment, he raises his right hand in a Nazi salute. "Heil Hitler!" he exclaims. "Isn't that what dictators are supposed to do?" His entourage explodes in mirth, the shrill Fijian kaila that's an infectious mix of cackle and laugh. Later, he repeats the joke with some goosesteps thrown in, skirt akimbo, brown legs flashing.

It dawns on me that Bainimarama is being ironic, making light of the ugly stereotype into which he feels he has been unfairly cast.

He dislikes the term dictator, he tells me, because he doesn't see himself as such, and is irritated when I persist with the description.

"I am not a dictator. I'm the prime minister of this country and there's a president. We may not have a constitution right now but we're bringing the law back by decrees. I can't go and dictate to a family what they have for lunch today. I wish I could, so I can join them for lunch but no, my word is not the word."

OK, what about "virtual dictator", the term used by Kevin Rudd? "No. The President (Josefa Iloilo) is head of state and commander-in-chief of the military, and he makes decisions for himself and for the Government. He tells me what to do. He has advisers and I'm one of them," Bainimarama insists. Mmmh.

Yes, it was the octogenarian high chief Iloilo who formally abrogated the 1997 constitution, dismissed the judiciary and reinstalled Bainimarama's regime when three Australian judges declared it illegal on appeal.

Most Fiji citizens believe that whatever Frank wants in the "new order" Iloilo declared, Frank gets.

Not so, says the commander, in comments indicating that the new order's five-year election plan may not have been his preferred option: "The President wants me to hold elections in five years and that will happen. But it's the shortest five years in Fiji's history because we need a lot longer than that to change the racial attitudes of our people and establish true democracy."

Bainimarama's immediate focus has been to stabilise the country in the wake of the dramatic events and head off civil unrest. The calm, even relaxed, air in Suva suggests he's succeeding, with no overt opposition and no armed troops on the streets as in other times of national crisis through the years.

A month-long state of emergency has muzzled Fiji's boisterous media and the regime has rounded up several people identified with indigenous extremism, including Iliesa Duvuloco, one of the main figures behind George Speight's 2000 coup. Bainimarama accuses him of distributing leaflets trying to incite an indigenous uprising against the military.

The emergency regulations are due to expire on May 10 but the military chief tells me they'll be extended. "We want this calm to continue for a while and we need media censorship to ensure that," he says.

That means the censors who've taken up residence in local newsrooms will continue to ban stories the regime regards as negative or likely to inflame.

Rather than publish government handouts, some outlets such as the venerable Fiji Times, sister paper of The Australian, have chosen to run no political coverage at all. "That's the way it should happen in Fiji, rugby back on the front page," crows Bainimarama. It's not only "inciteful" messages he worries about, but "irresponsible reporting. That's something we really don't need right now."

As Bainimarama tells it, he and the military are righteous crusaders for all Fiji citizens, as opposed to an agenda of indigenous supremacy masquerading as democracy practised by his opponents and unthinkingly supported by Australia and New Zealand.

"I've tried to explain to Australia and NZ the real story of what's happening here and no one seems to listen," he says. So Bainimarama is embarking on a new tack, seeking a three-way summit with the leaders of both countries to set the record straight and try to rebuild the shattered relationship.

"I would like to see Kevin Rudd and (NZ Prime Minister) John Key face to face immediately so I can explain things clearly about the changes we need to bring about."

Bainimarama says he's willing to give both leaders a "cast-iron guarantee" that elections will be held in 2014 but not before. He's hoping the regional heavyweights may be in a mood to compromise after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton undertook to listen to complaints from a Samoan congressman that Australia and NZ were being "nasty" about Fiji and that its position was more complex than they were portraying. The alternative to a summit, Bainimarama says, is to continue the diplomatic stand-off in which China and India have replaced Australia and NZ as Fiji's closest confidants and sources of aid.

The morning I visit the PM's office, I'm ushered briefly into back-to-back meetings between Bainimarama and Chinese ambassador Han Zhiqiang and Indian high commissioner Prabhakara Jha, both of whom clearly have warm personal relationships with the dictator. In stark contrast, Bainimarama tells me, neither Australian high commissioner James Batley nor his NZ counterpart have been prepared to meet him since the 2006 coup. However principled that may seem from Canberra and Wellington, it's rendering both countries increasingly irrelevant when it comes to influencing events in Fiji.

"We have a wonderful relationship with China and we're trying to build on that," Bainimarama enthuses. He's clearly grateful for a published seven-fold increase in Chinese aid in the year after his coup, evidently much more since and the prospect of more to come.

"Yes, the Chinese are giving us money," he says, without revealing how much except for a $US1 million ($1.37 million) donation to the Prime Minister's Office for Disaster Relief.

"They're very sympathetic and understand what's happening here, that we need to do things in our own way," he says.

China has embarked on several infrastructure projects, including a hydro-electric scheme on the main island, Viti Levu, that will employ 300 imported Chinese workers. Signs of an increased Chinese presence abound, from shops and bars to ships in port and Chinese trucks sporting Chinese lettering, plus the ubiquitous red star, plying Fiji's roads.

What riles Bainimarama is the perceived double standard of Australia and NZ shunning Fiji while not just engaging the dictatorship in China but actively promoting its interests in global forums. "With Fiji, they've approached just about everyone in the world to stay away and asked the UN to have us removed from peacekeeping operations. That will fail," Bainimarama insists.

The shift in Fiji's allegiances leaves many uneasy about what happens when local hearts and minds remain well disposed towards Australia and NZ but pockets begin to fill with yuan and rupees.

While Bainimarama's opponents applaud the tough regional stance against him, others wonder about the price Australia and NZ eventually may pay in strategic terms for a stance that's widely seen as flawed.

Will Bainimarama back down? Not with support from China and India, both with ample means to back their own strategic ambitions as emerging global powers.

What would an early election achieve? Well that's the problem: precisely the same dynamic that triggered the 2006 coup.

All sides concede that, without electoral reform, any poll in Fiji would produce certain victory for Bainimarama's chief political opponent, Laisenia Qarase. And there's the rub, for Bainimarama insists Qarase is finished because of his racist agenda and will return to power "over my dead body". The burly guards who constantly shadow the PM are there to ensure the latter part of the prophecy is not fulfilled.

Bainimarama has some important allies, not just the venerable President but several progeny of Fiji's old ruling elite - the Mara and Ganilau chief families - that took the country to independence from Britain in 1970.

Joining us for tea and pancakes at the barracks is someone lofty in physical stature and status, Tevita Uluilakeba Mara, Bainimarama's army chief of staff and the younger son of modern Fiji's founding father, Kamisese Mara. The country's newly appointed Vice-President Epeli Nailatikau - a former high commissioner and head of the military before being deposed by Sitiveni Rabuka in the 1987 coup - happens to be married to one of Mara's daughters, Adi Koila. She's a former senator who has particular cause to detest indigenous extremism, having been one of Speight's hostages in the 56-day siege of the parliament in 2000.

Bainimarama confirms that the new Vice-President was his first choice in 2000 to lead Fiji after the Speight coup but Nailatikau declined the role, so he turned to Qarase.

On such fateful choices can a nation's destiny depend.

Then, there's Defence Minister Epeli Ganilau, Bainimarama's predecessor as army commander who handpicked him for the post in 1999. He comes from another distinguished family, that of former governor-general and president Penaia Ganilau, and also married one of Mara's daughters, Adi Ateca.

Unlike many chiefs who were bitter rivals, the elder Mara and Ganilau forged a partnership in nation-building that served Fiji well in the years after independence and was notable for their strong personal friendships with people of other races.

But they came to be envied and resented by certain other chiefs, who were the hand in the glove of Speight's intention in the 2000 coup to rid Fiji of what he identified as the "Mara clique". Now that Nailatikau, Mara's son-in-law, is in line to succeed Iloilo as president, some believe the Mara clique is poised to make a comeback, though with Bainimarama in charge running a common agenda.

While no one can be certain of it - given the venal nature of Fijian politics - many will hope this signals a return to some of the more enlightened aspects of the elder Mara's rule.

Chief among these were a healthy economy, infrastructure development and above all the notion, largely abandoned by Mara's indigenous successors, that Fiji can succeed only with all races working together as one nation.

The point is that many of those around Bainimarama aren't the coup-making thugs that have brought Fiji to its knees in recent years (though some, of course, put Bainimarama in this category), but individuals of genuine achievement with some of Fiji's bluest blood coursing through their veins.

Unlike other chiefs who've aligned themselves with the indigenous cause, these individuals are also imbued with the vision of their fathers of a multiracial Fiji where indigenous values are respected but all races enjoy the same opportunities.

Mara's dream was to emulate the success of his friend Lee Kuan Yew in creating a smaller but equally thriving version of Singapore in the South Seas. Replete, of course, with the same respectful media and intolerance of anything or anyone posing a threat to national unity. As with Bainimarama now, this theory holds that in developing countries with nascent democratic structures, keeping the peace comes before freedom of expression.

Mara's vision was lost in the naked opportunism of the likes of Rabuka in the coups of 1987, Speight in 2000 and, arguably, Qarase in the months before Bainimarama says he had to draw a line under Qarase's own racist agenda.

Had Qarase got his way, Bainimarama maintains, his reconciliation bill would have seen Speight and his violent ilk again strutting the streets of Suva. And his coastal resources bill would have made non-indigenous Fiji citizens obliged to pay cash to their neighbours to use the seas. Another of Qarase's proposed bills put a question mark over the sanctity of freehold title.

Some opponents, notably in legal circles, argue that Bainimarama acted prematurely in 2006 because a power-sharing arrangement with the Opposition, forced on Qarase by the constitution, might have been a brake on the more extreme parts of his supremacist agenda. Dismissing this as naive, Bainimarama says his critics should focus more on Qarase's record and what that would have meant for Fiji's minorities, rather than support a process that would see Qarase restored.

He's also asking Canberra and Wellington to better understand his own motives, to go beyond the power-hungry stereotype and genuinely examine why he took the journey from hero, for locking up Speight in 2000, to regional pariah nine years on.

"My vision for Fiji is one that's free of racism. That's the biggest problem we've had in the last 20 years and it needs to be taken out," he explains. "It's the lies that are being fed to indigenous Fijians that are causing this, especially from our chiefs who are the dominating factor in our lives. And the politicians take advantage of that. We need to change direction in a dramatic way.

"We need to get rid of Qarase and everything associated with the 2000 coup and begin entirely on a new path."

That path is already evident in some of the faces in the corridors of power, overwhelmingly indigenous in recent years but now showing a modicum of diversity.

More Indo-Fijians are appearing in senior roles, notably high-profile attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum - the bete noir of legal purists - and recently appointed Reserve Bank governor Sada Reddy, who replaced an indigenous Fijian, Savenaca Narube.

Bainimarama says he'd be appointing a lot more were it not for Australian and NZ travel bans on members of the regime, which are deterring some of the best and brightest potential recruits with family connections abroad. He's also lifted the prohibition, under the abrogated constitution, on Fiji citizens holding dual citizenship, something he hopes will attract back many who've fled since 1987 and can return with their boltholes secured.

At 55, Bainimarama is part of the generation old enough to have grown up under reasonably enlightened British rule, with indigenous chiefs who commanded respect, and the promise of a bright future and independence as a beacon for other emerging Pacific nations.

Remarkably in republican Fiji, Bainimarama still sees himself as "a Queen's man" and works, in all his offices, under photographs of the distant sovereign and her consort, junked after the second coup 22 years ago.

"I'm still loyal to the Queen. Many people are in Fiji," he says. "One of the things I'd like to do is see her restored as our monarch, to be Queen of Fiji again."

As they say, nostalgia ain't what it used to be. But maybe that's what drives Bainimarama most of all; the notion, however quixotic, of a multiracial meritocracy belatedly fulfilling the great promise Fiji had in its early post-independence years, when a visiting pope John Paul II famously described it as a model for the developing world. Before the greed, the racism and the gun.

Graham Davis is a Fiji-born journalist and a principal in Grubstreet Medi

Climate change is our greatest challenge

By SENIORL ANZU

 

Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today.

This global phenomenon is a definite process and is a fact of life with a complex manifestation in terms of its impacts on agriculture and food security.

National Agriculture Research Institute will stage the annual Agricultural Innovations Show next Tuesday at Bubia outside Lae, which will focus on climate change and agriculture in PNG.

NARI director general Dr Ghodake says PNG must take the initiative and urgently address the imminent impacts of climate change on the nation’s food and water security. He says PNG has to prepare and adopt a multidimensional strategy.

This includes the dissemination and adaptation of drought-coping strategies developed by researchers following the 1997 El Nino-induced drought.

Among them were drought tolerant and early maturing crop varieties of sweet potato, banana and cassava, both for the highlands and lowlands.

 

Pictures of decomposing Port Moresby morgue bodies being laid to rest

Those of you who have been following the Port Moresby morgue saga would remember that the rotting corpses - which caused a big stink  - were finally laid to rest at Nine-Mile Cemetery last February 13.

A total 75 corpses, including 26 babies, and various body parts (limbs) were mass buried.

I spent the day at the morgue and later at Nine-Mile with two Australian photographers, Steve Dupont and Sean Davey, and it was a very 'smelly' affair.

In traditional Papua New Guinea society, bodies of the dead are treated with respect; however, this seems not to have been the case.

Sean has just published a graphic photo essay of the recent mass burial of bodies, starting from the Port Moresby general hospital morgue, to the sad "disposal" of the bodies at Nine-Mile without any human dignity.

See the images at http://media.theaustralian.com.au/multimedia/2009/04/27-png/index.html but note that the scenes are quite graphic!

Blogs rule as Fiji regime cracks down on media

From AFP

 

Fijians keeping up with political developments since the media clampdown by Voreqe Bainimarama's military regime this month are turning to a growing band of Internet blogs.

The latest political upheaval in the troubled South Pacific nation was triggered by the regime's repeal of the constitution on April 10, accompanied by the sacking of the judiciary and emergency regulations to control free speech.

Regime censors have been sent into newsrooms to prevent sensitive political stories being published or broadcast.

Most media have responded by refusing to run any political news, leaving a vacuum quickly filled by the blogs, many contributed to by journalists who have lost their conventional outlets.

Blogs played a part in the 2000 coup and again when military chief Bainimarama toppled the elected government in late 2006, with authorities helpless to restrict them in the same way as the traditional media.

"I think the Fiji journalists are enormously resilient and courageous and they have shown in the past they are very adaptable at dealing with oppressive regimes as they have with the previous three coups," says Pacific journalist and academic David Robie.

Experienced journalists in Fiji are all too familiar with attacks on media freedom after a series of four coups between 1987 and Bainimarama's 2006 takeover.

"But this is the first time we have had really systematic censorship and for getting on for two weeks now," said Robie, an associate professor at the Auckland University of Technology.

Former Fiji Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Sireli Kini said the clampdown on the media was creating more uncertainty, with news being replaced by rumours.

"It's human instinct, people want to know what's happening and when somebody spreads a rumour it spreads like wildfire and it's very destructive," said Kini, who now lives in Auckland.

Some of the blogs have relayed rumours and wild anti-regime rhetoric, but others, such as Fiji Uncensored and Coup Four and a Half, have a strong news focus.

With Fijian journalists contributing material, these blogs are filling the gap left by the muzzled media.

"They have taken over the role of the conventional journalism by informing the members of the public," said Kini.

"Some of them are on the target. There are some well written stories there."

Under the latest crackdown Bainimarama has announced any person or entity which fails to comply with government media orders may be told to "cease operations".

"We want to come up with these reforms and the last thing we want to do is have opposition to these reforms throughout. So that was the reason we've come up with emergency regulations," Bainimarama said in explanation.

When the censors first entered the newsrooms on April 11, the newspapers and broadcasters devised their own ways of protesting.

The television news bulletin was cancelled and the next day the Fiji Times appeared with blank columns with "This story could not be published due to government restrictions" written across them.

The rival Fiji Post tried a satirical approach, reporting on what staff had eaten for breakfast on the front page.

These reactions angered the regime, which threatened to close down the offenders if there was any repeat.

The government also expelled three foreign journalists who had arrived to report on the upheaval and at least two local journalists were detained but later released because of work they had done for foreign media.

Now the main media are not carrying any political news at all, leaving Bainimarama unable to communicate effectively with Fijians.

"They've shot themselves in the foot by doing this, because by clamping down they've cancelled out any chance of getting their side of the story across as well," said Robie, who was coordinator of Suva's University of the South Pacific journalism programme during the 2000 coup.

Judging by past experience, the regime is likely to gradually ease the restrictions.

"I think there will be a loosening in time, but it's hard to say with the degree of paranoia at the moment just what will unfold," Robie said.

Until then, the blogs will continue filling the news void.

 

Somare lies to Australia and the world about poverty in PNG

Below is part of the transcript of a press conference held by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Papua New Guinea counterpart Sir Michael Somare. Here, we see that Somare tells a lie to Australia and the whole world, that there is no poverty in PNG. Get real Chief, walk the streets of any of our major towns and cities, see the beggars, scavenging the streets for food, living out of cardboard boxes. Two months ago, I took a French journalist and an Australian photographer to the Baruni Dump in Port Moresby, and they were moved to tears to see school-aged children looking for scrap of food among the tonnes of rubbish. Children do not go to school because their parents can’t afford school fees, people die because they can’t event afford the hospital fee, while Sir Michael can fly to Australia when he has a small headache. I will be walking the streets of Port Moresby to profile its poverty…Malum

 

JOURNALIST: I have got a question for Mr Somare. As a witness to your country’s poverty, I know that there are children starving, scavenging the streets for food, living out of cardboard boxes. Can you guarantee Australians that every cent of their $300 million is going where it needs to? And Mr Rudd are you 100 per cent satisfied that $300 million is being well spent and that Papua New Guinea is fulfilling its role under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals?

PM SOMARE: We have of course people in the streets of Port Moresby, the streets of Lae who don’t have, who don’t reside in their villages, come and of course their parents may be looking for work and you find that there are (inaudible)

You find, if you compare Papua New Guinea, with starvation, I think you have got it completely wrong, because our people have plenty in their villages. We have village society, we live in our traditional villages.

When one village is poor, the other village helps. In Port Moresby it is a different situation. Now you may have just visited Port Moresby recently and witnessed what is there. There is no-one in Papua New Guinea starving in the traditional villages. You probably see one or the two in Port Moresby - kids who come to look for opportunities for education and health, when they miss out, then they of course roam the streets.

We have catered for all our provinces and our districts. We, when we allocate the budget, it’s first time in the history of Papua New Guinea since I know Papua New Guinea from the beginning, it is the first time we have allocated amount of almost 980 million kina to concentrate on the districts, improvement of village, farming, infrastructure development, education and health.

Most people, most people live in the villages. What you see in Port Moresby is similar. If you look around, you look around some of the other countries like Papua New Guinea, maybe third world countries, you look at, see what is happening, what is being televised by CNN in Ethiopia, in Africa, in these places.

We don’t have circumstances like this in Papua New Guinea, and I can assure you, what you have seen, what you probably have seen in Moresby are kids who did not have places in schools, maybe because of the expansion of the population, influx of more people coming in, looking for opportunities in Port Moresby, could not get chance for them to provide food.

But everywhere in Port Moresby alone, if you have been in Moresby, you see the hills and mountains, people have gardens, they have sweet potato gardens, they have tapioca gardens, they have bananas.

And I don’t think anyone in Papua New Guinea starves. If you are talking and you might be talking about the people who come into the city looking for job opportunities and bring their kids along with them and I think that could be the kind of people you are talking about.

But I just want to give you assurance that Papua New Guinea, no one is starving in Papua New Guinea. We always have something to eat.

 

Kevin Rudd Press Conference with Sir Michael Somare

From Australia.to News

 

PM RUDD: Good morning ladies and gentleman and it’s a pleasure to have here in Canberra, in the nation’s capital today an old, old friend of Australia, the Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. I’ve known the Chief for a long, long time, he has known successive Australian Prime Ministers for an even longer time, going back to the days of independence in the mid-1970s and Chief, you are a welcome guest in Australia and we are privileged to have you with us today.

We have had a good meeting this morning about the future of the Australia-PNG relationship. This is a relationship rich in history and a relationship with a rich future because what we do together is important not just for our two peoples but also important for the wider Pacific region.

Reflecting on our past, it’s been our privilege just now to meet with veterans of the Second World War. Veterans who are great Diggers from Australia who fought on the Kokoda Track, veterans of the 3rd Battalion, we are honoured to have you with us today.

We are equally honoured to have with us today two representatives of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and all of us in Australia know full well the enormous support, practical support and friendship extended to Australian diggers during the last war by the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. And it’s been our privilege today to confirm that we’ll be issuing medallions to be issued by the Australian Government to honour the service and the sacrifice of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who are so much part and parcel of our ability to prevail in the New Guinea campaign in the darkest days of World War II.

The Chief and I also discussed today our new Pacific Development Partnership. This is a new framework for development cooperation between Australia and Papua New Guinea and also an important framework for Australia’s development cooperation relationship with other Pacific Island countries. What we’re seeking to do is to anchor our Pacific Partnerships for Development in lifting the major development indicators across the region. Development indicators in terms of education achievement, health achievement, health outcomes, child and maternal health as well as a range of other clearly measurable indicators.

And one of the indicators that we’ve agreed to frame within our Pacific Partnership for Development for Papua New Guinea for the future is to raise the level of primary school participation from its current level of 53 percent to 70 percent by the year 2015. This is going to take a lot of work but until we get school education right in all the villages across Papua New Guinea and up the level of attendance in schools and then there will be big challenges for the future and I appreciate very much the Chief’s support for that particular initiative.

The Chief and I also discussed today the importance of our wider region, the Pacific Island Forum and within it of course recent developments in Fiji. Papua New Guinea has taken a strong line on the question of Fiji and the actions taken by the Fijian Government. In particular the most recent decision by the Fijian Government to suspend its Constitution, to suspend press freedom and also the assault which has been delivered to the independence of the judiciary in Fiji. These decisions have received appropriate condemnation from around the world, including on behalf of our Government as well.

What is necessary is this - that the declaration that we arrived at conjointly in Port Moresby earlier this year concerning Fiji’s actions and Fiji’s automatic suspension from the Pacific Island Forum to take effect as of 1 May proceeds.

Fiji has not responded positively to the suggestions that were made by many of the Pacific Island leaders in the period since January for them to return to democratic rule and to announce a timetable for an election. In fact the Fijian Government have gone in precisely the reverse direction.

Therefore, two important milestones lie ahead of us. One is Fiji’s suspension from the meetings of the Forum and that is a decision which was taken by leaders back in January to take effect from 1 May in the absence of Fiji taking any steps to the contrary, like announcing an election date.

The second of course lies in Fiji’s future status within the Commonwealth. Australia’s position is hardline and that is that you cannot sustain within a family of democracies within the Pacific Island Forum or a family of democracies within the Commonwealth a Government like that of Fiji which simply treats with contempt the most fundamental democratic institutions and press freedoms of its people.

Finally the Chief and I also discussed something which is near and dear to the hearts of his own people and ours, which is the great game of rugby league. And what can be done further to develop the code in Papua New Guinea and in particular how players from Papua New Guinea can have greater opportunities in Australia as well. We are working to refine a proposal between us which we hope to have concluded by the time our Ministerial Forum meets in June in Brisbane.

The broad concept is this, how do we working together, the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Government of Australia, develop a genuinely comprehensive national competition across PNG, with proper coaching, with proper support for players and teams. And secondly how do we better integrate the PNG competition long-term within the activities of the Queensland Rugby League, the Australian Rugby League and the NRL. This of course also goes to the adequacy of major facilities within Port Moresby as well.

And our idea is this, and we want to do some work on this to reach conclusion at the Ministerial Forum in June, is if we develop effectively rugby league nation-wide in Papua New Guinea and pair that with a school attendance strategy and with a public health strategy,

then we believe we can achieve great results.

For example, if participation in this new, elevated, national rugby league competition and the training programs associated for kids in their villages across Papua New Guinea can be made conditional on school attendance, primary school attendance and the rest, then we begin to make some progress. We’ve seen progress in other such programs in Australia and the Chief and I have discussed the possibility of the application of that approach within Papua New Guinea as well. Good for primary school education, good for education attendance and more broadly good for public health promotion including HIV-AIDS awareness.

Chief, this has been a good discussion. We appreciate very much the work which we undertake together within the South Pacific and I would acknowledge your continuing leadership across the region, particularly in dealing with difficult questions like Fiji. Over to you Chief.

PM SOMARE: Thank-you Prime Minister. I have only a few comments to make. All I want to say first is it’s always, every year, we always renew our acquaintances between Australia and ourselves. Australia has been our very close partner and friend, partner since before independence and after independence and continues to give us the support, give us support to Papua New Guinea and budgetary support in support in all fields. Particularly in terms of our relationship it has been an excellent relationship that we’ve had. We have small ups and downs but all the governments that there have been in Australia, in my role and other Prime Ministers who have come in Papua New Guinea, our appreciation and our thanks to Australian people and Australian governments for always giving us support.

In terms of our trade relations and all, we have discussed these issues between the two of us. There is a lot of good will and good understanding between Australia and us. Australia’s trade with us is always, we take it as a number one, as paramount to us because they are a very close neighbour, much closer than anyone else and we have always seen it as very important for us in Papua New Guinea.

We are now trying to divert ourselves in trying to make sure that you know, we, with our technical assistance program, we talked about education earlier on this morning and education, we just want to place more emphasis on primary and secondary education and of course up to tertiary education. I think that’s an area where we have an understanding now and I’m sure that the Ministerial Forum in June when it meets will come to some of the final conclusions of our understanding and MOU to reach an agreement on.

Also on the other aspects of (inaudible) like sports, we’re putting more emphasis now on our sports, particularly rugby. Australian Government, Australian people have been taking great interest and of course most of us in those days are going to school, a lot of them who came down to Australia were indoctrinated with rugby. Some of us play soccer of course with different friends, and Victorian Football, I don’t know if there is such thing as Victorian football -

PM RUDD: It still exists.

PM SOMARE: It still exists? Okay, right.

PM RUDD: And it’s spread.

PM SOMARE: And it’s spreading and I think with our sports in PNG, we are taking a great interest, which we, we are also preparing our people for, we will be having a South Pacific Games soon. We’ve asked for 2015 for South Pacific Games to be held in Port Moresby and we’re preparing our stadiums and so on. So I think with sports, foundation now we’ve established, we want to pay a lot of money, $20 million we hope that with the Australian assistance we will be able to expand not only rugby but all the other sporting facilities.

And I’d like it in schools, I think it’s lacking. I remember in my old days every school that we go to had sport as a very important part of the curriculum and going back to reviewing our primary education curriculum, I think athletics is very important.

Discipline is one thing in our schools. We have to make young people adhere to the rules in schools. Some of our schools are now getting a little bit out of hand. Maybe not enough discipline but I think we manage it, we’ve managed and a lot of our young people are now in schools and in university, some leaving and going to find their jobs elsewhere.

In other fronts like, I’m very proud of the fact that we could, I could be here to witness the recognition of the effort by our Fuzzy Wuzzies, and Australian Government that’s now decided and we’ll be hoping the medals sometime this week for veterans’ medal, to be worn by our people.

Our people take great pride in the support they’ve given and we are very thankful that you know, our arrangements in our cooperation, we’ve also taken into account the, particularly the Kokoda Track, and the development along the track for people who reside in the area.

I also want to express our sympathies for those who took part and I think recently, I think two weeks ago, about a week ago, we had two people (die). It’s hard exercise and I think a lot of people need exercise and when you walk our mountains, can be very steep.

You feel the experience of how veterans like this, two gentlemen sitting in front of us here, have walked the hills of Papua New Guinea. It’s not that easy. I think you can survive in deserts of Australia, but you can’t survive on the hills and mountains and rivers of Papua New Guinea.

And I think this great effort by these men, supported by our people, I’m very thankful that Australia’s now recognising those efforts.

On the other matter like Fiji, we’ve taken, I’ve been very vocal in the Pacific about Fiji’s situation. And I have been trying to get the leadership of Fiji, political and military interim Prime Minister Bainimarama now has been declared. And we are not very happy with Fiji because now they’ve suspended the Constitution, and you have a country that has no constitution, no common law system and a legal system, that was suspended, and I think it’s not very good.

All the Pacific leaders are not very happy with the outcome of what has happened in Fiji. We always, I’ve always said the door is open for Fiji to negotiate with them and to make sure that people of Fiji are given an opportunity to stay within the Forum.

But I think the exercise they’ve taken recently, particularly the suspension of the Constitution and dismissal of the judges, leaves no room for others because what’s in Fiji now without a legal system. Legal system in many democratic countries are very important. People have to work within the framework of a constitution, and if you don’t have a constitution, how do you administer, how do you make things work in your country.

So we are disappointed, but I’m hoping that there’s still room for them to reconsider. But I think Forum has taken the stand, the Forum gave an ultimatum that if Fiji does not agree to set the date for elections, then the Forum has no option, Forum has to declare for its suspension.

I think the majority, most Forum members have taken that stand, apart from two or three leaders have some reservation about the suspension of Fiji, but I think the outcome recently would now make them also realise that how important it is to have a country with a constitution, and constitutional framework and strong legal system.

So with Fiji, as I said you know my view has been that I’ve been giving, and the Australian Government, particularly the Australian Prime Minister - Kevin has been very flexible because of my demands for what I think we could reach the decision on Fiji, and so is the new Prime Minister of New Zealand and then Prime Minister Helen Clark. They have always been flexible, particularly when I made an appeal to give an opportunity to Fiji to come back.

Now Fiji has decided. You know opportunities are given, even the Australian Government went to the extent to allow Fiji to have its diplomatic mission still operating in Australia. And so is New Zealand.

They’ve all bent over backwards. We have bent over backwards. I have. I’ve tried my best, but they’ve decided to suspend the Constitution, which is not in the books of those who like to profess democracy in their respective countries. So with Fiji that’s something that Fiji themselves will have to decide and let the Forum, but the Forum has made its mind and the Forum will now be looking at next Forum meeting what would happen to Fiji. That’s on the question of Fiji.

On the media, on the media front, I think I believe that the media was, our media’s always, Australian media everywhere in Papua New Guinea and Fiji and Samoa and Tonga, everywhere. Media also have a responsibility too. Free press comes with the responsibility. And sometimes when you are dealing with countries, that societies which are different, when you’re dealing with those countries you find that though suddenly something has happened to the press. And it’s always asked what the press do.

You have to have some responsibility when you are writing or when you are criticising certain countries. Of course on the very tense issues, you must be a little bit cautious, because sometimes people are people and they retaliate in their own way. And that’s what Fiji has done with the press. Now, I think our PINA association has come out, PINA is the Pacific Island News Association, Papua New Guinea and Fiji have come out to condemn what has happened, but it’s a military government and sometimes very difficult.

And I always say this, someone with a gun in his hand, a rifle in his hand, it’s very difficult for him to decide that’s his fighting weapon. The Fijian Prime Minister has used that and got rid of the press. We’re not very happy with what has happened.

I get it all the time in Papua New Guinea. Press doesn’t give me a good run at all in Port Moresby. Never give me a good run.

I sympathise with him because they don’t understand a lot of these things. So I just forgive them for their wrongdoings, for what they write about me, because they don’t even know me. They think they know but they don’t. So with the press, that’s my view on press in Fiji.

So all I want to say is thank-you very much Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for inviting me to come down and work, I mean be with you today and wonderful hospitality that you’ve extended to me yesterday and today.

And I’ll be also travelling to Melbourne. I don’t why you organised this, but I am going down to Melbourne also and then to Townsville. The Victorian Premier asked me to be included in the list of people visiting the State. So I’ll be in Melbourne and of course Queensland, always up there. I’m going up to Townsville to look at the flood-affected areas and the fire in Victoria. Because we did, Papua New Guinea did give some support for the national disaster that affected Victoria and northern part of Queensland.

So I’ve been invited to do that so, thankful that your hospitality has been extended to me and my delegation, and Australia I think, you can rest assured that that will be extended to you when you make your next visit up to Papua New Guinea.

PM RUDD: Thanks very much Chief and before we take two questions a side, I should also acknowledge as I did at the time in the Australian Parliament, the contribution which was made by the Government of Papua New Guinea to the victims of natural disasters in Australia, for which I’d again publicly like to acknowledge my thanks.

Now, questions.

JOURNALIST: Colin Barnett, the only Liberal leader in power, has made the bold promise to never preside over a Budget deficit. As the Labor Prime Minister, can you tell Australians today when you plan to bring the Federal Budget back into surplus, and how you plan to do it?

And secondly, can I ask what was the intention of sending Mike Pezzullo to Beijing ahead of the White Paper delivery sometime later this week, or next week. What were you trying to reassure China about?

PM RUDD: On the first question concerning public finance, all governments around Australia, and all governments around the world are wrestling with one core challenge which is the collapse of taxation revenues, coming off the back of the global economic recession.

You’ve already seen the write-down in Australian Government revenues which came off the back of the impact of the recession so far. You’ve seen what Access has had to say further about that today.

And therefore, given the collapse in government revenues, it follows as a matter of course that to offset the collapse in government tax revenues that you, as a responsible government, have to engage in temporary deficit and temporary borrowings.

On the question of Liberal governments and the Liberal Party more broadly, could I say this. It’s time for Malcolm Turnbull to get fair dinkum about his own $177 billion deficit and debt strategy, which when he is pressed he admits to, and then in the next moment, seeks to attack temporary deficit and temporary borrowing on the part of the Government.

Will the real Malcolm Turnbull stand up on deficit and debt.

On the second question that you raised which concerns the Government White Paper, I can only assume that government officials are visiting a range of capitals to discuss elements of our thinking and I presume elements of our wider foreign policy context.

On the detailed travel arrangements of the gentleman you refer to, I would need to take further advice as to where he’s travelling and for what particular purpose in particular. But can I just say it is probably normal to speak to a range of countries within the region and our allies about any thinking that we have in relation to the long term trajectory of our defence planning.

Now next question.

JOURNALIST: On the flu epidemic, airports throughout the region are equipped with these thermal scanners. Why don’t we have them and do we have any plans to introduce them, and also on that, will there be a national distribution of face masks? What’s our approach to dealing with the crisis and do you think we can avoid it?

PM RUDD: This is a serious international concern for public health and therefore we share that concern with other Governments around the world, which is why the Australian Health Protection Committee has been actively monitoring developments around the world and providing the Australian Government with advice as to the necessary sequence of actions to take here.

First of all, in terms of public awareness, you would be familiar with the establishment of the relevant swine influenza hotline, and the associated Health Department website. That is an important piece of public information about the nature of swine influenza.

Secondly, as of midnight last night, all planes landing from the Americas will be required to report on the health status of passengers. And from 5am today, airports will also have a clinical presence with nurses available as well.

On top of that, as you may be aware, the Australian Government for some time has been stockpiling anti viral drugs. We have one of the largest per capita stockpiles of these drugs in the world and that has been put in place against any such contingencies for the future and of course that will be drawn upon, based on the advice of the relevant Australian Health Protection Committee.

Furthermore, the Chief Medical Officer with whom I have been speaking over the course of the weekend and the Health Minister will be briefing cabinet today on the current status of the swine influenza crisis around the world.

I notice also, I would note also that the World Health Organisation overnight raised its influenza pandemic alert from Level Three to Level Four.

So this is an evolving threat. We base our actions on the expert advice of the Australian Health Protection Committee. The Commonwealth Medical Officer, the Chief Commonwealth Medical Officer will be briefing the Cabinet today on actions taken to date and whatever further actions will be necessary.

This is a serious matter. The Government takes it seriously. All necessary resources will be deployed to meet the threat, calibrated to how it unfolds.

Next question – do we have questions from the Papua New Guinea side?

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) what are some of the likely tough measures you will take against Fiji (inaudible)

PM RUDD: Well the decisions that we took in Port Moresby in the meeting chaired by the Prime Minster of Papua New Guinea was clear cut.

The communiqué issued in Port Moresby at the time went to the whole question of if Fiji does not announce a timetable for elections within a reasonable period of time, then Fiji will automatically be suspended from the meetings of the Forum and Forum bodies.

That was a decision taken, taken unanimously in Port Moresby, giving Fiji a final opportunity to do the right thing.

What the Fijian Military Government decided to do was exactly the reverse. The wholesale assault on the constitutional integrity of the Fijian state by the suspension of the constitution, the wholesale assault on press freedom by the wanton acts against journalists, both print and electronic, in Fiji and furthermore, the assault on the independence of the judiciary. Fiji has therefore done this to itself, in warranting suspension from the Pacific Island Forum.

Let us be clear about this. In the history of the Pacific Island Forum - I stand to be corrected on this chief, you have been around longer than I- but this has not happened with any other state before. This would be a first. The Pacific Island Forum has been around for a long time and we pride ourselves in one thing: we are a family of democracies. We have our problems, we have our challenges but we are a family of democracies.

And an important member of our family, through its military leader, has turned his back on the way in which this community of states chooses to organise its democratic affairs.

The second thing I referred to in my remarks before is what the Commonwealth now chooses to do. There is an important meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, from memory on the 15th of May.

Important decisions will need to be taken then about Fiji’s future status.

Also, there is one further point, and that goes to the United Nations, over recruitment arrangements in relation to peace keeping forces which come from Fiji. The revenue remittances to Fiji from Fijian forces working with UN operations around the world are important sources of revenue back into military families in particular within Fiji.

Through our own interventions with the United Nations and supported by New Zealand and other countries, the United Nations now is not going to engage future or new Fijian troops for new operations.

There is a question which now arises, given the actions taken by Fiji on the 10th of April, as to whether there should now be a further tightening on top of that, of the approach taken by the UN.

What is the common denominator with all these things? It is to send a clear cut message to the people of Fiji, the people of Fiji with whom we have had a wonderful relationship over so many decades, that the military Government which now presides over them is unacceptable because of what it has done to traverse, what it has done to traduce I should say, basic democratic principles.

Is there a further question from the Papua New Guinea side? We were supposed to do two a side. If not, I’ll go to you Daniel.

JOURNALIST: I have got a question for Mr Somare. As a witness to your country’s poverty, I know that there are children starving, scavenging the streets for food, living out of cardboard boxes. Can you guarantee Australians that every cent of their $300 million is going where it needs to? And Mr Rudd are you 100 per cent satisfied that $300 million is being well spent and that Papua New Guinea is fulfilling its role under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals?

PM SOMARE: We have of course people in the streets of Port Moresby, the streets of Lae who don’t have, who don’t reside in their villages, come and of course their parents may be looking for work and you find that there are (inaudible)

You find, if you compare Papua New Guinea, with starvation, I think you have got it completely wrong, because our people have plenty in their villages. We have village society, we live in our traditional villages.

When one village is poor, the other village helps. In Port Moresby it is a different situation. Now you may have just visited Port Moresby recently and witnessed what is there. There is no-one in Papua New Guinea starving in the traditional villages. You probably see one or the two in Port Moresby - kids who come to look for opportunities for education and health, when they miss out, then they of course roam the streets.

We have catered for all our provinces and our districts. We, when we allocate the budget, it’s first time in the history of Papua New Guinea since I know Papua New Guinea from the beginning, it is the first time we have allocated amount of almost 980 million kina to concentrate on the districts, improvement of village, farming, infrastructure development, education and health.

Most people, most people live in the villages. What you see in Port Moresby is similar. If you look around, you look around some of the other countries like Papua New Guinea, maybe third world countries, you look at, see what is happening, what is being televised by CNN in Ethiopia, in Africa, in these places.

We don’t have circumstances like this in Papua New Guinea, and I can assure you, what you have seen, what you probably have seen in Moresby are kids who did not have places in schools, maybe because of the expansion of the population, influx of more people coming in, looking for opportunities in Port Moresby, could not get chance for them to provide food.

But everywhere in Port Moresby alone, if you have been in Moresby, you see the hills and mountains, people have gardens, they have sweet potato gardens, they have tapioca gardens, they have bananas.

And I don’t think anyone in Papua New Guinea starves. If you are talking and you might be talking about the people who come into the city looking for job opportunities and bring their kids along with them and I think that could be the kind of people you are talking about.

But I just want to give you assurance that Papua New Guinea, no one is starving in Papua New Guinea. We always have something to eat.

PM RUDD: I think when I became Prime Minister, in relation to Governments across the South Pacific, I was not happy with the then framework of official development assistance relationships.

I believe we need to anchor our official development assistance relationships in the Millennium Development goals. And the reason for that is that they are measurable, absolutely clean cut measurable. As you know there are eight of them, and a number of them go to specific measure on health outcomes and education outcomes and maternal health outcomes for the people.

The reason for the Pacific Development Partnerships is to anchor these within the new structure of our official development assistance relationship, and for it to be subject to mutual measurement and monitoring over time.

What the Chief and I agreed to today among other things is that at the Ministerial Forum in June, five implementation schedules for the Pacific Development Partnership of Papua New Guinea will be agreed. And these go across the core components of the Millennium Development Goals.

Furthermore, what the Chief and I discussed this morning was problems in the historical aid delivery into Papua New Guinea whereby too much money has been consumed by consultants and not enough money was actually delivered to essential assistance in teaching, in infrastructure, in health services on the ground, in the villages, across Papua New Guinea.

I am in the business of making a difference on the ground. I am in the business of making a difference to the measures which are attached to the Millennium Development Goals.

I am into the business of measurement. Measurement can be a very uncomfortable thing for us all over time, but it is the best way to hold us all accountable as to whether the measures that we are embracing have effect. And it is within that framework that we are not just simply renegotiating our development cooperation relationship with PNG, but are doing so progressively across each of the Pacific Island countries.

And the reason for doing so, to return to where I began my answer to your question, is because I wasn’t happy with the way in which those relationships were structured at the beginning, particularly on measurement, particularly measurement on poverty, particularly measurement on infant mortality.

Thanks very much.

Rudd backs move to oust Fiji from Pacific forum

By Misha Schubert in The Age

 

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has vowed to maintain Australia's "hardline" stance against Fiji's military dictatorship, as the rogue state heads towards being expelled from the Pacific Islands Forum on Friday.

The Prime Minister also signalled plans to seek fresh moves by the United Nations to pressure the regime to return to democracy by cutting the number of Fijian troops already deployed on global peacekeeping missions.

Such a move — to come on top of a ban on any new Fijian troops on UN missions — would cut foreign income into Fiji and target the military from within its own ranks.

The tough stance was endorsed by Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Michael Somare, in Canberra for annual talks with Mr Rudd, who said Fiji had given its neighbours no option but to suspend it from the forum.

Mr Rudd also questioned Fiji's membership of the Commonwealth, after its "wholesale assault" on the state by suspending the constitution, the independent judiciary and the free press.

"You cannot sustain within a family of democracies within the Pacific Island Forum or a family of democracies within the Commonwealth a government like that of Fiji which simply treats with contempt the most fundamental democratic institutions and press freedoms of its people," he said.

After the bilateral meeting, Mr Rudd honoured the "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels" — the villagers who helped save the lives of Australian soldiers as they repelled the Japanese advance through the muddy jungles of PNG during the Second World War.

Mr Rudd confirmed plans for Australia to print commemorative medallions for those who guided and carried wounded diggers out of harm's way and "who are so much part and parcel of our ability to prevail in the New Guinea campaign in the darkest days of World War II".

The two leaders also discussed a push to track the effectiveness of Australia's substantial aid contribution to PNG by using clearer social yardsticks such as infant and maternal mortality and school attendance.

They set a goal to lift primary school attendance for Papua New Guinean children from 53 to 70 per cent by 2015.

Moves to establish a national rugby league competition in PNG were also canvassed — including the idea of making participation in training and games conditional on school attendance.

Introducing such conditions has been hailed as a huge success in some remote indigenous communities in Australia, where swimming pools have been used as an incentive to increase school attendance by Aboriginal children.