Training guise
pp. 7-9 · Read in the full issue
Headlines
Niue
Tax haven not for
New Zealanders
The New Zealand government has intro duced new legislation aimed at blocking attempts by New Zealand tax-payers to use the tax haven in Niue.
Revenue minister Wyatt Creech said the Taxation Reform Bill will amend conces sions to ensure that New Zealand resi dents cannot benefit the from current law which grants concessions to New Zealand companies which do business mainly on Niue.
Creech says the Niue government has been consulted before making changes which he says signal to tax planners and foreign governments that New Zealand will protect its tax base.
Palau
UN's 185th
member
The United Nations has endorsed an application by newly independent nation Palau to become its 185th member.
The Security Council approved a favourable report from its committee on the admission of new members, which will formally admit Palau to membership at a forthcoming meeting.
Palau was the last of the UN trust territo ries and had been administered since 1947 by the United States. It became self governing on October 1 in a compact of free association with Washington.
Solomon Islands
Log laws loosened
The new Solomon Islands government of prime minister Solomon Mamaloni has almost halved export duty on round logs imposed by former prime minister Francis Billy Hilly.
The new Cabinet decided the export duty should be 35 percent of the greight on board price of each cubic metre, down from the previous 65 percent. The new measure was backdated to November 1.
The government has also thrown out the former government’s proposal that 20
percent of the duty on log exports be returned to the resource owners. Instead, it decided that 7.5 percent of the levy be returned to the resource owners.
Cabinet further decided the timber levy be held in trust accounts until landowners submitted development proposals on which to spend the money.
As well, Cabinet decided that logging companies could also request a further remission of five percent of the export duty to be used for community projects and services in areas where they were operating.
Vanuatu
Training guise
for child labour
Vanuatu has been employing child labour for years under the guise of “training”, according to the president of Vanuatu Council of Trade Unions, Obed Masing.
He warned that the number of children in employment would continue to rise.
Masing said children had been working in some garages for as little as US$20 a month.
He warned that with hundreds of 11 and 12-year-old students released into the streets from primary schools every year, many more under-age children would be forced to enter the job market.
Masing put the blame on the youths unawareness of their trade union rights and the Vanuatu constitution. He said the VCTU was preparing a major trade union campaign to explain the workers’ rights to the people in the islands and the gov ernment should do the same.
The Employment Act prohibits the employment of children under 15 years old.
Papua New Guinea
PNG's money
matters
Papua New Guinea’s banks are having problems lending to businesses because of severe constraints on liquidity recently imposed by the Central Bank. It’s also affecting new lending to customers.
There have been recent claims that com mercial banks were reluctant to entertain loan requests from locally-owned busi nesses because they were less favoured than foreign companies.
However, the managing director of the Bank of South Pacific, Noel Smith, says whilst commercial banks have approved too many loans, most have not performed because of a lack of management and book-keeping skills.
Police versus
army
Drunken Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldiers, angry after a confrontation with police, destroyed traffic lights and stoned vehicles in the capital Port Moresby on December 3- Police had to divert traffic from parts of the city to avoid further damage to vehi cles. A number of motorists had their vehicles damaged and at least one bus driver was injured.
The incident was sparked off by a fight involving soldiers and a Boroko police unit after a dance at the Port Moresby Rugby Club.
Police reinforcements managed to dis perse the group by firing warning shots but aggravated the situation which later led to the stone throwing incident.
The tense stand-off eased when police units withdrew and the soldiers returned to their quarters. It was not known whether anyone had been arrested.
Western Samoa
Fiji to reject
Samoan copra
Five containers of copra from Western Samoa was expected to be rejected by Fiji when the consignment arrived in Fiji at the end of December.
The Apia suppliers received a letter from the Fiji government, saying that a ban was in place against any plant or crop from Western Samoa because of fears of harm ful leaf blights and the giant African snails found on plantations in recent years.
The shipment was bound for Punja and Sons Limited edible oil refinery.
Fiji
Where's the
money?
Fiji troops who took part in the failed Bougainville peacekeeping mission are still waiting to receive allowances owed to them nearly a month after their return because the Fiji government has yet to receive the money promised to it by the Papua New Guinea prime minister Sir Julius Chan.
About US$l7B,OOO is owed to the 232 sol diers under the bi-lateral agreement signed by Fiji prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Sir Julius.
Fiji’s Foreign Affairs secretary, Ratu Tui Cavuilati, said Fiji was waiting for money to be remitted from Port Moresby.
An undisclosed sum was remitted in early November, but Ratu Tui said it was to cover the cost of training and equipping the soldiers.
Peace overseas
or harmony at
home ?
A Fiji Opposition Party has questioned the government’s priorities in maintaining peacekeeping forces abroad while failing to maintain law and order at home.
A vice-president of the All Nationals Congress, Mick Beddoes’ comment fol lowed an increase in violent crimes in Fiji, including one in which a 73-year-old church elder died of a heart attack while being robbed.
Expressing outrage at the “cowardly” attack, Beddoes said it appeared police could not cope with the increase in crime.
Fundamentally
flawed
The Director of Public Prosecutions has lodged an appeal in a case in which six men were acquitted of defiling a “well built” 15-year-old girl because the magis trate thought she looked older.
DPP Nazhat Shameem said the appeal was on the grounds that magistrate Moses Fernando had erred in law in acquitting the six after they had pleaded
guilty to having sex with a girl aged 16 or under..
The decision angered women’s groups in the country, and have called for greater gender sensitivity among judges and mag istrates.
Police told the court that the victim, two friends and her boyfriend (one of the accused) were in an old church when the other five defendants appeared. Her friends ran away and the six covered her mouth and took turns at having sex with her.
Fernando asked the victim be brought to the court, said she looked “hefty” for her age and set the six accused free.
Radio talkback shows and women’s rights lawyers were inundated with calls from the public, all expressing their disgust at the magistrate’s comments.
Security remedy
for USP
Security at the University of the South Pacific’s Suva campus looks set to improve with the erection of a two-metre high fence alongside two roads on the campus boundary.
Security at the university has become a major concern following two incidents of campus violence which resulted in seri ous injury to students last year.
More than 140 Solomon Islands and Vanuatu students fled Fiji because of the violence, saying they would only return when security was improved.
Following the violence the number of security guards at USP was increased from five to 13. The new fence is part of a long-term project which began in the 19905.
Marshall Islands
Caging the killer
The proposal to develop a nuclear waste facility in the Marshall Islands is pro gressing with several international com panies expressing interest to the govern ment.
It was reported that one Washington based company had offered US$160 mil lion for the right to develop the facility.
The government is officially saying a fea sibility study must be undertaken before
any decisions are made, but there appears to be high level support for the facility in the Marshalls.
An expert panel is expected to be assem bled to undertake a feasibility study and the project may progress further when parliament meets this month.
Nuclear
worry
Marshall Islanders, whose territory was used for US atmospheric nuclear testing, were to send a mission to the United States to ensure it took responsibility for monitoring their health and environment.
Island leaders are worried responsibility was being passed between different US government agencies and funds for con tinuing radiological, environmental and health monitoring may be cut.
Enewetak Atoll was the site of 43 American nuclear weapons tests from 1948 to 1958, including the detonation in 1952 of the first US hydrogen device.
The islanders were moved off in 1947, but after a clean up by the US Army which finished in 1982, Enewetak islanders moved back to the southern islands in the atoll.
Studies have found thyroid tumours, breast cancer, leukemia and stomach can cer among a list of 23 ailments suffered by some of the 800 islanders, which are pre sumed to be caused by radiation.
War for financial
gain
The American ambassador in the Marshall Islands, David Fields, says budget cuts will lead to reduced operations at the mil itary base on Kwajalein. But Fields assures that the base will not be closed.
Kwajalein is a missile testing range which is a cornerstone for Strategic Defence Initiative or Star Wars.
Earlier, missile range commander David Spaulding had said US$l6 million, or 10, percent of the operating costs, would have to be slashed from the 1995 budget.
Marshall Islands officials are concerned about the cuts which threaten the base’s contribution to the Marshalls economy.
A substantial number of islanders working on the base are also likely to lose their jobs.