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Climate change demands plan for emergency we hope won’t happen, says Sio

By
Philip Cass
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New Zealand needed an emergency plan to deal with the worst case scenario of climate change in the Pacific, Minister for Pacific People Aupito William Sio said last night.

Hon. Sio told Kaniva News  last night New Zealand had to be prepared to deal with climate driven immigration from the Pacific.

Many Pacific islands, especially those with constitutional ties, may look to New Zealand if their populations had to relocate because climate change made their countries uninhabitable.

New Zealand had to recognise that migration and re-settlement might be necessary and its policies on issues like migration and employment must be sufficiently flexible to deal with the situation.

“How do we act in an emergency we don’t want to happen?” the Minister said.

“Every factory has an evacuation plan it doesn’t ever want to use.

“We need to be thinking about that.

“Would we be ready?

“Would we have the infrastructure in place?

“Is New Zealand mentally and psychologically prepared for what could happen?”

The Minister, who spoke at last week’s international climate change conference in Wellington, said New Zealand needed to envision what could happen. Talking about the possibility could pre-empt it.

He said this was an idea he had shared with his political colleagues.

He said New Zealand would have to work with the Pacific Islands and listen to what they wanted, especially with the leading Pacific economies, Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

There were practical questions to be asked about who would fund migration from the Pacific Islands if they went under.

As a Pacific nation New Zealand had a responsibility to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Island nations and help ensure their views and aspirations were heard in international settings.

“Can we look to the Pacific region with humanitarian eyes and an open heart?” Hon. Sio asked.

“It’s the right thing to do.”

The government could explore a number of opportunities through talking with Pacific nations, education, helping island workers upgrade their qualifications, employment and resilience.

The Minister said New Zealand was committed to ensuring its emissions kept temperature temperature changes to 1.5C and becoming carbon free by 2050.

He said the large Islander population in New Zealand meant it was part of the Pacific and would talk not as a big brother, but as a member of the same family.

The main points

  • New Zealand needed an emergency plan to deal with the worst case scenario of climate change in the Pacific, Minister for Pacific People Apito William Sio said last night.
  • Speaking to Kaniva News, Hon. Sio said New Zealand had to be prepared to deal with climate driven immigration from the Pacific.
  • Many Pacific Islands may look to New Zealand if their populations had to relocate because climate change made their countries uninhabitable.
  • New Zealand would have to work with the Pacific Islands and listen to what they wanted.

For more information 

Pacific Climate Change conference hears sea level rise of two metres by 2100

Lord Ma’afu resigns as Minister of Lands and Natural Resources

By
Kalino Latu
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Lord Ma’afu Tukui’aulahi has resigned as Tonga’s Minister of Lands and Resources as well as Minister of His Majesty’s Armed Forces.

The Prime Minister has accepted his resignation this afternoon.

The reason behind the resignation was not released.

“I received this afternoon Lord Ma’afutukui’aulahi’s letter of resignation from Cabinet and I have accepted it,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office quoted Hon. ‘Akilisi Pōhiva as saying.

“I will now recommend to His Majesty, King Tupou VI, in accordance with clause 51(3)(a) of our Constitution that because I have received his letter of resignation, that Lord Ma’afutukui’aulahi’s appointment as Minister for Lands and Natural Resources as Minister responsible for His Majesty’s Armed Forces be revoked forthwith”, the statement says.

The Hon Prime Minister said: “I take the opportunity to publicly thank Lord
Ma’afutukui’aulahi for his dedicated service to Cabinet and to His Majesty’s Government”.

The noble’s resignation came after the Minister of Police Māteni Tapueluelu resigned on Tuesday but the Prime Minister, his father-in-law, did not accept it.

Tapueluelu resigned because he believed there was a lack of support from cabinet members over his proposal regarding his power as Minister of Police given by the constitution.

Police charge Lord Tu’ivakanō with passport offences, money laundering and bribery

By
Kalino Latu
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The king’s noble and former Prime Minister, Lord Tu’ivakanō has been charged with passport offences, money laundering and bribery.

As Kaniva news reported this morning Police arrested the former Speaker of Parliament yesterday March 1.

“Lord Tu’ivakanō has been charged with numerous crimes including; making a False Statement for the purpose of obtaining a Passport, Perjury, Acceptance of Bribery and Money Laundering,” Police Commissioner Steve Caldwell said.

As we reported last year, Lord Tu’ivakanō and his wife Joyce Robin Kaho have been listed by the Tonga National Reserve bank as being involved in suspicious money transfers.

It followed with a claim by a former staff at Parliament that Lord Tu’ivakanō used parliamentary staff to improperly transferred money overseas. The noble denied it.

“If that was illegal you know which place to take it up with. Anyone in the office of the Parliament is free to do the same thing,” Lord Tu’ivakanō said in response to the former staff.

Passport saga

Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva  told the House during a debate in 2013, while he was leader of Opposition and Lord Tu’ivakanō was Prime Minister, that he had information that Tongan blank passports were being abused.

He described the mishandling of the Tongan blank passports as a “net that was thrown outside the circle of the Tongan authorities”.

In 2014 Kaniva News revealed e-mails between staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which alleged Lord Tu’ivakanō ignored King Tupou VI’s warning not to issue any more diplomatic passports to Chinese man Sien Lee.

According to the e-mails, Sien Lee is a close friend of the Late Queen Mother.

At the time, the former Auditor General, who is now Minister of Finance, Hon. Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa told us Tonga’s passport scandal was one of  the two biggest he had come across in the previous three years.

This morning the Police Commissioner said although he was confined by what he could say publicly, he took the opportunity to thank and commend the Passport Taskforce for their methodical and professional investigation.

As criminal charges are now before a Court of Law no further comments will be made at this time. The Passport investigation continues.”

Police arrest former Speaker and Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakanō

By
Kalino Latu
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Police have arrested Lord Tu’ivakanō yesterday Thursday 1, Kaniva News has been reliably informed.

The arrest comes after Police Minister Māteni Tapueluelu tendered his resignation on Tuesday.

The Minister, whose resignation was not accepted by Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva,  told Kaniva News recently he was confirmed by Police they would arrest the former Speaker of Parliament last month.

But the arrest did not go ahead as initially planned and this had worried Hon. Tapueluelu.

As we reported in 2016, Lord Tu’ivakano’s laptop was confiscated by Police as part of a Police passport investigation.

Last year Kaniva News reported that the current Member of Parliament for Tongatapu 3 denied allegations made against him by a former parliamentary employee saying he was involved in improperly sending money overseas and abused his power by using parliamentary staff to do personal work for him.

Lord Tu’ivakanō is one of the king’s members of nobility.

‘Dead’ boy greets Minister by walking into her office

By
Kalino Latu
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A boy who was reported to have been killed by an electric shock outside the office of the Minister of Internal affairs walked into her office

Tonga’s Minister of Internal Affairs and Sports Hon. Akosita Lavulavu said a local radio station reported a boy had died after he was electrocuted in front of her office.

The Minister claimed the boy did not realise a live power line was near the side of the road.

She said the boy felt a shockwave from the power line and in an attempt to escape it he was electrocuted.

The boy was rushed to hospital and was reported dead on the midday news.

However, shortly afterwards, a boy stood at her door and told the Minister he was the one who had been electrocuted.

Hon. Lavulavu quoted the boy as saying in Tongan: “‘Eiki Minisita Koau na’e soki’i ‘aneuhu ka ko ‘eku ha’u ke fakaha atu ‘oku ou Sai pe, Koau eni ‘oku ou mo’ui pe.”

This translates into English as: “Honorouble Minister I was the one who was being electrocuted this morning and I am coming to tell you I am fine. I am alive.”

Hon. Lavulavu posted photos of her, the boy and her staff on Facebook this morning saying she and her staff were happy he was alive. She thanked Tonga Power Ltd for their quick response to the incident.

As Kaniva News reported last week, a man survived an electric shock in Tongatapu on February 21.

The Vaiola hospital superintendent  said the man was in hospital after being electrocuted, but he was alive.

Tongatapu residents were in the process of cleaning up after Tropical Cyclone Gita ravaged it along with the nearby island of ‘Eua last month.

Parliament’s new home leads to redrawing of Nuku‘alofa city boundary map

By
Kalino Latu
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The Tonga National Centre in Tofoa has been set to become part of the City of Nuku’alofa.

This has been announced by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources last week.

Tofoa, which is part of the Kolomotu’a municipality, is three kilometres away from Nuku’alofa.

The redrawn map which showed the new changes was made last week on February 23.

The Pōhiva government is setting the stage to allow Parliament meetings to be held at the Centre.

The Tongan constitution says Parliament “shall always meet at Nuku’alofa and at no other place except in time of war.”

Temporal Parliament

As Kaniva News reported recently Tongan authorities were looking for somewhere to host the next Parliamentary sessions from next week, after the historic legislative assembly building was destructed during Tropical Cyclone Gita last month.

It followed with an announcement by the Speaker Lord Fakafanua that the Parliament meetings will be held at the Fā’onelua Convention centre

However, the Chief Clerk of the Legislative Assembly said yesterday the meetings will be temporarily relocated to the Tonga National Centre.

“The Legislative Assembly was due to relocate to the Fa’onelua Convention Centre, but the venue has been changed to the Tonga National Centre, where the Legislative Assembly will be housed until a new Legislative Assembly complex is built,” she said.

“Because the location of the Tonga National Centre was not within the Nuku’alofa area, an amendment was recently made to a Government Gazette made in 1984 for its inclusion in the Nuku’alofa boundary.

The Legislative Assembly and the Office of the Legislative Assembly, including the Lord Speaker, Honorable Members of the Assembly and all staff, will be hosted from the Tonga National Center, at Nuku’alofa as of Monday 5 th March 2018.”

The Legislative Assembly will also reconvene on the same day as previously announced.

Prime Minister refuses to accept Tapueluelu’s resignation

By
Kalino Latu
-

Hon. ‘Akilisi Pōhiva has rejected Minister for Police and Fire Services, Customs and Revenue, Hon. Tapueluelu’s resignation hours after he quit yesterday.

“Hon Prime Minister Does Not Accept Hon. Mateni Tapueluelu’s Resignation”, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office said last night.

“Although I sympathise with the underlying reasons for Māteni Tapueluelu’s resignation from Cabinet I do not accept it. Instead I will, to the best of my ability, continue to dialogue with him as well as other Members of Cabinet in the hope that we can come to a common understanding on how best to resolve the issues that are behind his resignation,” the statement quoted Hon. Pōhiva as saying.

As Kaniva News reported yesterday, Hon. Pōhiva  said Hon. Tapueluelu tendered his resignation because he believed Police Commissioner Steve Caldwell had not done enough in the way he addressed allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Police.

Caldwell told Kaniva News in an email, issues raised in a petition last month addressed to the Minister of Police by the 3 signatories were not new to him.

He said all those issued have been “re-litigated on previous occasions.”

Hon. Pōhiva said his son-in-law, Hon. Tapueluelu was also disappointed because he believed there was a lack of support from Cabinet members over proposals he proposed regarding his power as Minister of Police. This including one he initiated to submit to the Public Service Commission to terminate Caldwell’s employment contract, the Prime Minister said.

Hon. Pōhiva said he believed Hon. Tapueluelu was frustrated after all these did not work.

“I am at the end of my waiting and time may force me to action. At some point the nation will have to come before my Ministry,” Hon. Tapueluelu said in an email.

Hon. Pōhiva said he will do his best, “as I stated earlier, to continue the dialogue with Mateni and the rest of Cabinet to ensure that we address his concerns and retain his membership of Cabinet.”

For further information

Petition complaints nothing new say police, as Commissioner works on cyclone recovery

Māteni Tapueluelu resigns as Minister of Police, Customs and Revenue

By
Kalino Latu
-

The Minister of Police and Customs and Revenue, Hon. Māteni Tapueluelu, resigned from his ministerial posts today.

Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva confirmed to Kaniva News that he had received Tapueluelu’s resignation letter this afternoon.

Hon. Pōhiva  said Hon. Tapueluelu tendered his resignation because he believed Police Commissioner Steve Caldwell had not done enough in the way he addressed allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Police.

Hon. Pōhiva said Hon. Tapueluelu was also disappointed because he believed there was a lack of support from Cabinet members about a proposal he initiated to submit to Judicial Appointments and Discipline Panel and to Privy Council to terminate Caldwell’s contract.

Tapueluelu told Kaniva News last week he was concerned at how cases regarding suspended Police officers were treated by the Police Commissioner.

“I am greatly concerned with the visibly uneven application of the suspension law on police officers. It can imply unfairness and bias and affect morale. In fact it has,” Tapueluelu said.

As Kaniva News reported last week, complaints were raised last month in a petition to Hon. Tapueluelu about Caldwell by a group of suspended policemen.

Caldwell told us the complaints “were not new.”

“The suspensions and continuation of suspensions are for very good reasons,” he said.

Hon. Tapueluelu later issued a statement that appeared to at last partly support the petitioners.

The Minister said that if the Commissioner did nothing, then corruption could cause chaos in the police force.

“I have waited far too long with hope that these internal fights can be solved in a timely and impartial manner,” Hon. Tapueluelu.

“Unfortunately Tonga lacks what New Zealand has, that is an Independent Police Conduct Authority which is not part of the police, but has the authority to investigate the police impartially.

“We do not want the watchers to watch themselves.

“There is a tough call on the Ministry to bring the force together and not split it in half with measures that appear highly questionable.

“However I am barred by law from getting involved. Tonga’s Ombudsman and Auditor General are also barred by law from investigating police. So investigation of high ranking officers are done internally. What can go wrong? A lot.

“I am at the end of my waiting and time may force me to action. At some point the nation will have to come before my Ministry.”

The main points

  • The Minister of Police and Customs and Revenue, Hon. Māteni Tapueluelu, resigned from his ministerial posts today.
  • Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva confirmed to Kaniva Newsthat he had received Hon. Tapueluelu’s resignation letter this afternoon.
  • Pōhiva  said Hon. Tapueluelu tendered his resignation because he believed Police Commissioner Steve Caldwell had not done enough in the way he addressed allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Police.

For further information

Petition complaints nothing new say police, as Commissioner works on cyclone recovery

Tongan feta‘aki design showcased at Buckingham Palace  

By
Kalino Latu
-

A design by a Tongan fashion designer was displayed at Buckingham Palace last week as part of the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange.

The event was hosted by The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton.

Bou Fonua Tanginoa, who designed the work, said the experience was priceless. She said she met some great designers from around the world and had more potential to participate in further events.

She said she has chosen feta’aki for her design, a papery material made from the bark of the Mulberry tree lined with raw silk.

She said it represented the cultural wealth of Tonga, dating back many centuries and used as a sign of respect in gift giving.

“The silk is also made from the mulberry trees and signifies wealth and prosperity,” Tanginoa said.

“The look has been completed with traditionally inspired handmade jewellery made by Rendina Edwards from Nauru.”

Designers were required to choose partners with another country in the Commonwealth to work together and Tonga was paired with Nauru.

She designed the gown and the artisan from Nauru provided the jewellery.

She said she was invited to represent Tonga in the event last December.

International media reports said the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange aimed to create partnerships between designing talent in Commonwealth countries.

Tanginoa said she was given £1000 to spend on her participation including the materials for her gown and airfare.

“We are fortunate to have close family in the London to stay with,” she said

“Most definitely the experience is priceless and at the same time I have met some great designers from around the world and have more potential to participate in further events in different parts of the world,” she told Kaniva News.

For more information

Pregnant Duchess of Cambridge hosts Commonwealth Fashion Exchange at Buckingham Palace

Homicide investigation launched after two bodies found in Lakepa

By
Kalino Latu
-

A homicide investigation has begun after two bodies were found in a bush allotment in Lakepa.

Police said the bodies of the Chinese couple in their early 50s were found with stab wounds to their heads and necks, Sunday afternoon.

As Kaniva News reported yesterday, the couple’s vehicle was missing.

Police were looking for a silver Toyota Sparky 2000, registration plate L16768 “as of interest to their homicide investigation,” a statement said.

Police are appealing for anyone who have any information about this alleged homicide to come forward or contact Police Emergency 922, 23417 or the nearest Police station to you.

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