The jury in the murder trial of Alec Junior Moala has been discharged, and a new trial will have to be held.
Sosaia Vaitohi (left) and Methuselah Talakai (right) are on trial for murder in the High Court of Auckland, accused of killing Alec Moala in May 2021. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Sosaia Vaitohi and Methuselah Talakai appeared in court charged with the alleged murder of Moala, 31, on May 23, 2021.
They had been on trial since last week in the High Court at Auckland before Justice Mathew Downs yesterday called off the trial, which had been scheduled to last three weeks.
Prosecutors have alleged Vaitohi was the gunman and Talakai was the driver early on May 23 last year when Alec Junior Moala, 31, died outside an Ōtāhuhu home from multiple shotgun wounds.
A report by the NZ Herald said: “The bad blood between Moala and the defendants had started the day earlier, after Talakai went to the same home for a drug deal set up by Moala’s cousin that fell through, Crown prosecutor Chris Howard told jurors last week. The cousin, Chanelle Mafileo, was slapped by Talakai as he demanded money from her, the prosecutor alleged during his opening address”.
It said Moala got into a heated phone exchange with the defendants about the slap after he arrived at the property hours later, prosecutors said.
“But defence lawyers Anoushka Bloem, who represents Vaitohi, and Julie-Anne Kincade, KC, who represents Talakai, have said their clients were not at the property when Moala was shot”.
Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku says negotiations are in progress with the bank as part of the government’s attempt to repay a multimillion loan debt it guaranteed by putting the assets used as security on sale.
Dr Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa. Photo/Kalino Lātū
He was responding to questions raised in Parliament asking him to explain the repayment of the $18 million loan to fund what appeared to be a failed government roading project.
Hon Hu’akavameiliku did not deny claims that the bank, apparently the Tonga Development Bank had pursued legal actions against some of the debtors which failed to repay their loans.
The government acted as a guarantor for the debtors namely the state-owned Lulutai airlines, and three other privately owned companies the former government contracted to build new roads under the toppled Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa’s failed multimillion roading project.
The three privately owned companies included the Island Dredging, the Inter-Pacific Limited and the City Engineering and Construction Limited.
The project was stopped at the end of 2021 after Tu’i’onetoa was ousted from power after losing the premiership election.
The controversial project attracted strong criticisms and backlash from the public after the Tu’i’onetoa government was accused of designing the tendering process so the contracts would be given to its friends including Cabinet Ministers’ closed family members.
Critics also blasted the former government for what appeared to be favouritism and nepotism involved in the way the projects were distributed. The roading project was a three-year plan set to run from 2020 until 2023.
Critics predicted at the time that the project could collapse and the multimillion loan would end up being paid by the taxpayers.
Ministry to operate quarries
Hon Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku said the government has yet to pay any money to the bank.
Hon Hu’akavameiliku
He said the negotiation included a proposal for the bank to allow the Ministry of Infrastructure to operate some of the quarries, the assets granted in guarantee, to pay back the loan.
The revelation comes after the former Minister of Finance and MP for Tongatapu 5 Dr ‘Aisake Eke asked the government in Parliament whether the borrowers still paid their loans according to their agreements with the bank.
Dr Eke reminded the government that if the borrowers failed to pay the loan the government has a legal obligation to repay it.
Dr Eke said these companies owed a total of $18 million pa’anga to the bank.
The Prime Minister did not directly answer Dr Eke’s query about the borrowers’ obligation to pay back their loans. He said he could not go into details because the loan now involved legal actions.
As Kaniva News reported last year, the government reached an in principle agreement to sell the national airlines to the privately-owned Flyniu airlines.
The government said at the time the Lulutai airlines was available to be purchased and it was looking for buyers and companies with interests in operating the flight services.
Tonga police have provided a few more details surrounding the fatal crash that claimed the lives of two young adults yesterday.
The car collided with a power pole killing a teenage girl and an adult man
It has confirmed the deceased were a 19-year-old female teenager from Pātangata and a 28-year-old man from Veitongo, who was the driver.
Police said the five people, two men and three women, aged between 19 and 28, were consuming alcohol before the crash.
The two men were first drinking at the Reload Bar and had picked up the three women from Fasi when the bar closed before returning to Lapaha where they continued to consume alcohol.
“Although they were intoxicated and it was curfew time, they decided to go to Vaini to get some drugs”, the police said in a statement.
It said the two men got into an argument while on their way and given the high speed used, the driver lost control of the vehicle causing the crash.
The car collided with a power pole.
“The 3 surviving the crash include a 28-year-old male from Lapaha, 21-year-old female from Fasi, and a 21-year-old female from Sopu.
“There were leftover beers found in the vehicle.
“Tonga Police is looking to strengthen its strategies relating to Road Safety and Crime Prevention through strict enforcement, in particular, at targeted locations, in addition to outreach programs to raise awareness in our communities”.
The Ministry of Health is reporting four new cases of monkeypox in New Zealand.
Monkeypox vesicles on a hand (file image). (Source: istock.com)
The cases were all reported in the past seven days, and are all people who have returned from overseas travel.
“Three are isolating in the Auckland region, and one in the South Island, following a positive test result,” the ministry says.
“Significantly, in all four cases, there is no current evidence of community transmission and public health staff have assessed the risk of transmission from the cases as low.”
It takes the total number of cases reported in New Zealand to nine.
The Ministry of Health is moving from reporting each individual case to providing weekly updates every Thursday.
“We continue to advise anyone who will have close physical or sexual contact while overseas, or with people who’ve recently been overseas, to be mindful of monkeypox symptoms and the health advice,” the ministry says.
“According to the World Health Organization’s 21 September 2022 report, the number of monkeypox cases reported globally peaked in mid-August and the numbers of cases in Europe and the Americas are declining.”
The government has invited proposals from private sectors to address problems faced by criminals who arrived in Tonga after serving their time in either Australia, the United States or New Zealand.
Air New Zealand
This was according to Prime Minister Hon Hu’akavameiliku who said the government had been notified of the returning of more people who committed crimes back to Tonga after the kingdom had recently lifted its border restrictions.
The controversial diplomatic policy has been the source of ongoing concerns in Tonga with many wanted to know whether it was fair for these overseas countries to send their problems to Tonga.
The Prime Minister had acknowledged in the House that these deportees were being sent to Tonga where they had little to no links to after serving their sentences in foreign countries where they had spent most of their life times.
“They could not speak Tongan. They did not know their families here in Tonga it is a huge challenge to send these people to a place like this,” the Prime Minister said.
The revelation comes, after it was reported last year that the New Zealand government would fund a rehabilitation centre in Tonga for criminals it deports there.
The approved TOP$28,000 was expected to go towards funding a new centre run by Tonga’s Dare to Dream Foundation, which has been providing support for people deported to the Kingdom for years.
The centre would provide cultural and language skills.
That move comes after Tonga criticised New Zealand and Australia over their controversial deportations of Tongan convicts, many of whom have spent little time in the Kingdom.
Henrietta McNeill, who researches criminal deportations to the Pacific at the Australian National University, said the rehabilitation centre was a positive move but believes accommodation and cultural skills will need to be complemented by mental health, drug and alcohol treatment.
She added that Australia and New Zealand needed to provide more support for people serving jail sentences before they are deported to the Pacific.
“There are opportunities to do at the very minimum things like language classes, so it isn’t quite as tough as it would otherwise be on arrival,” reported ABC radio.
Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku says there was a strong public interest in the plan to establish a US Embassy in Tonga.
PM Hu’akavameiliku
He said he would raise it again with the US authorities during the Pacific Island leaders meeting which will be hosted by the US President Joe Biden at the White House next week.
He said a team from the US arrived in Tonga recently and surveyed a “possible site” for the embassy to start with before moving to a “permanent site”.
“It is understood they pushed to speed it up”, the Prime Minister said.
He said he would “reemphasise” the plan for the ambassy when he met the US authorities in Washington.
“Especially the visa, consulate services if they can start with that before the full embassy”.
The Pacific island leaders meeting comes as Washington accelerates diplomatic efforts to counter China’s presence in the region.
The 28-29 September meeting will be the first US-Pacific Island Country summit.
“The summit will demonstrate the United States’ deep and enduring partnership with Pacific Island countries and the Pacific region that is underpinned by shared history, values, and people-to-people ties.”
The US has invited the 12 fully independent Pacific Island countries, but not New Zealand, Australia, Cook Islands, Niue, New Caledonia or French Polynesia.
The 171 islands that make up the Tongan archipelago have a new addition, after scientists said an undersea volcanic eruption in the Vava’u islands had created a new landmass.
The new island in Tonga
The island was formed at the Home Reef, a volcanic island atop a submarine volcano in the area, after it has been pushed up from beneath the waves to about 10 metres above sea level.
It is located southwest of Vava’u, between the islands of Kao and Late along the Tofua volcanic arc.
The new island was built after successive eruptions which dated back to 1852, 1857, 1984 and 2006.
The Ministry of Natural Resources said the new island is six acre with a width of 182m south to north and a length of 173m west to east.
It has issued a hazard alert and put in place a restriction zone around the volcano. However, it said the volcanic activities should not disrupt flights.
Volcano expert Professor Scott Bryan, from the Queensland University of Technology, said Home Reef’s earlier eruptions only lasted a few months.
But this time, things might be different.
“This effuse eruption has produced lava, which is a hardened and more resistant rock, so this island may last a little bot (sic) longer than the previous islands,” he said.
“Over the next thousands I would expect that if Home Reef continues to erupt with this frequency that it will be able to make itself a permanent island.”
A man and a woman are dead and three people have been injured after a serious smash on Nualei’s Taufa’āhau road this morning.
“Five people were heading west in a vehicle at high speed where the driver lost control and the vehicle swerved and crashed head-on to an electric pole on the opposite side of the road resulting in the death of the male driver and a female front passenger”, Deputy Commissioner Operations Command Tevita Vailea said.
Three passengers sustain serious injuries and are currently at the Intensive Care Unit, Vaiola hospital.
“It is suspected that driving under the influence in addition to high speed contributed to the incident”.
Vailea urged the public to be extra cautious and make responsible decisions especially when alcohol is involved.
“It is another sad day for us and the families of the two people that died today because the incident could have been avoided. There is only one life, and we must value it.”
“Let us work together in complying with our laws and current curfew and be always responsible for safety on our roads.
This incident has tallied up road fatalities to ten so far this year.
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio began a speech to introduce a new health Action Plan for Pacific Peoples recently by singing a well-known spiritual.
The Minister asked about 100 guests to join him in singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, visibly heightening the emotion at the Fale O Sāmoa in Mangere.
Afterwards, the Minister briefly reminisced about how the song had become popular in Samoa. He said it brought to mind people who pursued difficult tasks and those who prayed for the success of those tasks.
Hon. Sio was speaking at the launch of the Pacific Health Promotion Action plan.
The Minister said the plan was designed to address the inequity in the New Zealand health outcomes.
The new initiative for the Pacific Peoples has been given the Tongan name Siu Ki Moana, meaning to travel, to sail or to fly over deep water.
He acknowledged the use of Pacific peoples’ knowledge, wisdom, cultural values and practices as centrepiece of the plan.
The Minister said the only way for the Pacific Peoples to address their own problems was to totally abandon what he referred to during his speech as “colonial approach to health education”.
He compared his statement to the African-American writer and civil right activist who fought for Black American rights, Audrey Geraldine Lorde. Lorde wrote the “The master’s tools, will never dismantle the master’s house”. It was a metaphor which was interpreted as meaning the people could not solve problems of oppression working with the tools of a system of oppression.
Hon. Sio said the only way forward for Pacific Peoples to get rid of the inequity was to start fresh and create their own tools.
“Where do you get the inspiration to create your own tools?” he asked.
“Our traditional knowledge, our cultural intelligence, the stories that are carried in our songs, in our poetry, in our oratory”.
Siu Ki Moana was created for Pacific peoples to enjoy the full benefits of equitable health outcomes.
Siu Ki Moana represented the journey of Pacific youth, not only in developing this plan but also in their roles and positions within their community. It offered advice on how to work towards equitable Pacific health promotion by doing things differently where necessary.
This meant Pacific Youth would create and deliver health messages, Pacific Communities were enabled to advocate for change, Pacific Communities could access funding easily, health workforce teams were culturally intelligent and connected and health promotions and service delivery was cohesive and connected.
Alongside the launch of Siu Ki Moana, was the announcement of the Tanoa Community Grants programme which provides a pool of funding to local Pasifika communities who are well connected, trusted and well placed to improve health and wellbeing outcomes and address inequities.
The New Zealand gang member who stabbed a Tongan seasonal worker to death in central Blenheim was sentenced to seven years in jail at the High Court in Blenheim on Thursday.
Auckland man George Junior Pikaahu, 34, plunged a 24-centimetre knife into 23-year-old Lynch who was trying to defend a wounded friend during a large brawl in central Blenheim in the early hours of June 20, 2021.
The knife pierced Lynch’s heart and he died at the scene, reported the Stuff.
The fatal incident happened after an altercation between local RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer) workers and members of the Rebels gang from outside Marlborough.
Another gang member Peter Uelese was sentenced to six months community detention, 100 hours community work, and 12 months supervision for the charge of assault with intent to injure.
Lynch was out celebrating a friend’s birthday when the fight broke out.
Lynch arrived in New Zealand from Tonga as a Recognised Seasonal Employer worker. He worked for Hortus farm.
His body was returned to Tonga on a repatriation flight after his relatives and friends in Auckland held prayer services in front of his coffin.
Lynch, one of seven children, had been in New Zealand since 2019 working in the horticulture and viticulture industries. He hadn’t been able to return home between seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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