Tonga’s Parliament will now not sit until May, the Speaker said in a statement today.
It said the Legislative Assembly was scheduled to sit yesterday, February 17.
The Lord Speaker made the decision after submitting a request by the Prime Minister to adjourn the House to the the Legislative Assembly’s Business Standing Committee.
“In his letter, the Prime Minister stated his government need time to complete some unfinished business and they are currently working on new initiatives, including the preparation of the 2020/2021 Budget and new Bills to be tabled in the House,” it said.
It is a normal practice for the Prime Minister of the day to
seek the Speaker’s approval of Parliament to convene or adjourn.
The World Bank’s Board has approved US$2 million to be spent on improving statistical and data collection in Tonga.
The
bank has selected Kiribati to be the other pilot programme in the multi-million
dollar Statistical Innovation and Capacity Building in Pacific Islands project.
“With
the Pacific Islands covering an estimated 640 inhabited islands spread over an
area equal to 15% of the globe’s surface, the challenge of gathering accurate,
timely and relevant data is immense,” Michel Kerf, Country Director for the
World Bank in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands said.
The
lack of quality data meant it was hard to properly understand the region’s
levels of poverty, welfare and social developments.
Better
data would help develop better policies to ensure lasting change.
“This
is why we are investing in helping the Pacific to build a common approach to
statistics and data-gathering so that cross-country comparisons can be
conducted and regional trends monitored thereby improving the information
available for policy making,” Kerf said.
The
Statistics for Development Division of the Pacific Community would work with the
National Statistics Offices in Tonga and Kiribati to modernise their data
collection processes.
The
data collected through the project would help inform the monitoring of national
outcomes in the Tonga Strategic Development Framework and the Kiribati 20-year
Vision (2016-2036).
Both
countries were already experiencing the extreme affects of climate change and
capturing climate data related to socio-economic indicators was an important
focus for the National Statistics Offices.
The
project is being paid for by the International Development Association (IDA),
the World Bank’s fund for the world’s most in-need countries and was prepared
with the support of the Australian Government.
The main points
The World Bank’s Board has approved US$2 million to be spent
on improving statistical and data collection in Tonga.
The bank has selected Kiribati to be the other pilot
programme in the multi-million dollar Statistical Innovation and Capacity
Building in Pacific Islands project.
Damaged tyre on takeoff forced a Real Tonga flight from Tongatapu to Vava’u to turn back and make an emergency landing on Friday 14.
“It is understood that on takeoff a tyre was damaged and work gets underway to determine whether or not the damage was caused by “foreign object damage” or it was a “component failure”,” Real Tonga airline CEO Tēvita Palu told Kaniva news this morning.
The national airline was responding after we reported the emergency landing last night.
Palu said work gets underway to send a “formal report” of the incident to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
He said the aircraft landed safely at the Fua’amotu airport.
He said engineers replaced the tyre and after about two hours it returned to services.
As we reported last night, noise had been heard coming from the aircraft shortly after it took off which forced it to circle the air traffic control tower to see if the radar could help identify the problem.
The aircraft finally landed
without further incident and taxied to the terminal.
The emergency services at the airport were put on standby.
A Real Tonga flight was forced to make an emergency landing at the Fua’amotu domestic airport on Friday.
The aircraft was travelling from Tongatapu to Vava’u when it allegedly developed a mechanical issue.
Noise had been heard coming from the aircraft shortly after it took off, a source at the airport who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Kaniva News.
He claimed the aircraft circled the air traffic control tower to see if the radar could tell what the problem was.
The aircraft finally landed without further incident and taxied to the terminal.
The source said emergency services at the airport were put on standby.
Kiliki ‘i he halangaope ‘i ‘olunga’ ke ke fanongo ki he fakataha ‘a e kāinga Niuatoputapu’ mo e ‘Eiki Palēmia’ ‘i he lea fakaTonga’.
Sponsored:
An audio of the Prime Minister’s meeting in Niuatoputapu was provided by the Prime Minister’s office and transcribed and translated into English by Kaniva News. This English version of the audio had been abridged.
Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa told a meeting with Niuatoputapu residents that in 50 years no government had attended to the priorities they had reported to Parliament year after year.
He said these priorities were reported during the annual
visits by Members of Parliament to their individual constituencies.
Hon. Tu’i’onetoa said before they came to Niuatoputapu, he did a research and he found out what these priorities were.
He shortlisted them into seven major needs which
included roading, a wharf upgrade, safer drinking water, electricity, telephones,
a request to widen and broaden the sea passage to Tafahi island and oversea
markets for their crops, handicrafts and fishing.
The Prime Minister said he undertook to do his best to
address all these urgent needs.
He said he was the first Prime Minister to visit Niuatoputapu and gave residents an opportunity to share their concerns and needs directly with him.
He invited the people to talk to him and said this was the government of the people.
He said his roading project had gathered momentum,
although some people did not support it.
He said about three kilometres of road had been sealed
in Niuatoputapu which meant 62 more kilometres remained to be filled and
sealed.
He publicly denied allegations on social media which
alleged the government had given away TP$3 million each to some cabinet
ministers because of the government’s road project.
Hon. Tu’i’onetoa said the truth was these monies were
part of a deal to buy rocks from ministers who owned quaries. He previously
said there was nothing illegal about these deals.
When the floor was open for the people to speak, the government agent for Niuatoputapu said the sea entry to Tafahi was blocked by rocks which were pushed there by tropical cyclones. He said this had made it difficult for Tafahi residents to sail. When the tide was low no boat could sail through the passage, he said.
He asked the Prime Minister to install new signal ights
so that vessels could dock at the wharf at night.
A building at the wharf was believed to have asbestos-containing
material and he asked the Prime Minister to send experts to remove it.
There were also requests to upgrade and repair the foreshore, have solar power for the school and for the government to include Niuatoputapu in the government’s domestic animals donation project.
Rev Dr ‘Ilomaisini Lea of the United Church of Tonga in New Zealand has died.
His death has been reported this afternoon.
Tagata Pasifika reporter John Pulu said on Facebook he “was fortunate enough to work with the nicest and hardworking Reverend Dr ‘Ilomaisini Lea at radio 531 PI a few years ago.”
“Every Sunday morning we have the radio on at home and
‘Ilomaisini is doing his sermon. He was the president of the United Church of
Tonga and always made time to attend community meetings.
I rang his home on Tuesday to chat with him about a story I was
working on and never realised that will be the last time I’ll hear from him 😢 our
thoughts are with the Lea family during this sad time.”
Authorities said Tonga has launched a rescue mission to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, through the United Kingdom tomorrow Sunday 16.
The sports teams will be quarantined in London for two weeks and they would be looked after by Dr Faka’osi Pifeleti before they will return to Tonga via Dubai and Singapore.
According to Hon Poasi Tei, the Acting Minister of Health, the 51 sport teams members will leave China in three groups and are expected to arrive home in Tonga in the first week of March.
Meanwhile, officials have yet to comment on report a Chinese
passenger was allegedly refused entry at
Fua’amotu airport Thursday because he failed to show a health declaration card amid
coronavirus outbreak.
The report by Kaniva news yesterday sparked great concerns among online users with many wanted immediate answers from government.
Many had been concerned about the conditions of other passengers who traveled to Tonga together with the traveler.
Questions had also been raised about the reliability of preventive safety measures imposed on travelers at Australia and New Zealand airports.
As we reported yesterday, the Chinese man allegedly failed to
show a declaration document to Health authority, who monitors incoming
passengers at the Fua’amotu airport, to prove he had been health-checked
overseas before boarding a Virgin Australia aircraft, sources who spoke on the
condition of anonymity told Kaniva News.
It is unclear at which destination did the passenger originally
board the aircraft.
He was one of more than 100 passengers arriving from New Zealand
and Australia on Virgin Australia VA61 AKL TBU which landed in Tongatapu
yesterday February 13.
The Acting Minister of Health Poasi Tei responded to our request
for comment saying he has cc’d (copied) his Ministry of Health Acting CEO “so
he could respond and clarify it to us.”
Tongan workers in Tasmania said this week they wanted to warn people in the kingdom what they were getting themselves into by joining the Seasonal Worker Programme in Australia.
“We want them to know the truth. People just pay for the airfares
and come over here because they don’t have the information they need,” the
workers told the ABC.
Their comments came after the latest accusations of substandard housing
of Tongan workers employed by Costa, this time involving accommodation owned by
Burnie Mayor Steve Kons
Despite the benefits remittances and labour mobility bring to Pacific
Island workers, recent events have shown they need to be offered proper protection
from exploitation.
There have been concerns about the treatment of regional workers on both
sides of the Tasman.
New Zealand
In New Zealand a major case has
been brought to trial over the alleged exploitation of 13 Samoan workers.
Legal expert Dr Jade Lindley told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat
programme that many Pacific Islanders travelling to New Zealand and Australia
were vulnerable to trafficking.
Dr Lindley said reports of
trafficking and slavery in the seasonal agricultural industry were
common.
“We definitely have seen these types of cases before,” Dr
Lindley told Pacific Beat.
Last year Australia’s National Union of Workers said the exploitation of
migrants was rampant in the agricultural sector.
The union NUW said it was launching an investigation into exploitation
in Australia’s fruit picking industry where some foreign farm workers were
enduring “slave-like conditions” and receiving wages as low as $8 a day.
Fiona Reynolds, chair of the UN Financial Sector Commission on Modern
Slavery and Human Trafficking said that while Australia’s anti-slavery laws set
a global benchmark, labour laws needed
to be reformed to address the risks of slavery in agriculture.
Australia had a long and unenviable reputation of exploiting Islander
workers on its colonial sugar plantations.
Unfortuntaley, there have been too many stories of workers from across
the Pacific having bad experiences in Australia under the current scheme for the
days of blackbirding not be recalled.
Legislation
Australia has legislation in place that should oblige companies to
report infringements.
Australia’s new Modern Slavery Act requires both public and private
organisations turning over more than $100 million annually to report on actions
to mitigate risks of slavery in their operations and supply chain.
However, with the agricultural industry often fragmented into
contractors and sub-contractors it would not be hard for a company to claim
that it was unaware of what one sub-contractor was doing with another.
Earlier this week Kaniva news reported about 70 Tongan workers who were crammed into a five bedroom house in the Tasmanian town of Latrobe, which has drew condemnation from Australian trades union.
Australian unions said the Tongan workers’ employer, Costa, had
committed what amounted to human rights abuse.
The Retail Supply Chain Alliance said Costa should face significant
penalties for breaching its employer responsibilities.
“Employers like Costa are taking advantage of vulnerable people for
profit and they deserve to face the full brunt of the law in this matter.
“I think Australian shoppers will be horrified to discover that the
berries they eat every day come as a result of worker exploitation at its very
worst level.”
A government enquiry is underway, but questions have to be asked about
whether Australian legislation is inadequate to protect seasonal workers.
If the legislation proves to be inadequate or unenforcable, then perhaps
the best to reinforce it is with
boycotts by shopper who may well decide they do not want to buy products that
may be the product of exploitation.
Companies, contractors and sub-contractors may fear suffering
financially from boycotts and public exposure more than government legislation.
Tongan workers in Australia must feel that they are properly protected.
They must know the law will protect them if they speak out and they must know
that unions and customers will stand by them.
However, they should also expect support from their own Parliament. They
should have the assurance that the Tongan government will step up and demand that
Canberra will meet its obligations to ensure that workers are paid, housed and
treated fairly.
Definition
UNESCO defines human trafficking very broadly as “the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat
or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the
giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person
having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
