“I’m committed to picking up more of the recommendations from the Ministerial Committee on Poverty and implementing Māori-driven strategies in health, housing, education, family violence, economic development and te reo Māori,” Mr Flavell.

The Māori Party signed a Relationship Accord with the National Party yesterday afternoon called Te Tatau ki te Paerangi (a doorway to our horizons).

“The Māori Party is in Parliament to make a difference. We look forward to working constructively with the Government to progress issues that are important to whānau,” says Co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell.

Mr Flavell said that after an intensive week of consultation with Māori Party members the message was clear.

“Our people said it’s vital for the Māori Party to be in Government so we can help reset the current landscape and deliver more tangible gains for Māori.”

Te Tatau ki te Paerangi provides confidence and supply in return for support of policy priorities. Those policy priorities include ongoing investment in Whānau Ora, a sustained focus on eliminating poverty through the Ministerial Committee on Poverty, a focus on Māori economic and regional development and encouraging greater Māori participation in the electoral process.

Te Ururoa Flavell will be appointed the Minister for Māori Development (formerly the Minister of Māori Affairs), Minister for Whānau Ora and Associate Minister for Economic Development. The name change for the Minister for Māori Development signals a more forward-looking approach.

“I’m committed to picking up more of the recommendations from the Ministerial Committee on Poverty and implementing Māori-driven strategies in health, housing, education, family violence, economic development and te reo Māori,” said Mr Flavell.

Māori Party Co-leader Tariana Turia added, “While the two parties have disagreed more than we have agreed with each other on policy and legislation over the last six years we have always worked with each other in good faith and built a relationship on mutual respect.”

The two parties have also committed to an engagemed Māori organisations so it has a clear understanding of how policies are impacting on communities at a local level.

The Māori Party will continue to provide a strong and independent Māori voice in Parliament, raising issue and vote according to what it believes is in the best interests of Māori.

“I’m thrilled to have Māori Party List MP Marama Fox on board with me for the next three years. We’ve got a lot of work to do and I know she will be a great advocate for Māori and the party,” concluded Mr Flavell.

“The United Nations recommended that the New Zealand Government examine ACC’s processes for assessing compensation and asked the Government to ensure the system has a human rights focus.” Dr Denise Powell

The United Nations, after examining New Zealand against the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has made key recommendations regarding ACC to the NZ government to look into.

The UNs’ recommendations are based on Acclaim Otago Shadow Report: The Costs of Paradigm Change: Access to Justice for People with Disabilities Caused by Personal Injury in New Zealand.

Acclaim Otago Spokesperson Dr Denise Powell and Mr Warren Forster, representing Forster and Associates who prepared the shadow report have just arrived back in New Zealand after presenting the Report to the United Nations in Geneva. They are “pleased with the results,” according to a press statement issued yesterday.

“The United Nations had no problems accepting that the Convention applies to people who have disabilities caused by injury and that ACC must comply with the rights of these people” said Mr Forster, the lead author of the Shadow Report.

Dr Powell, who has lived with a disability for over 25 years said “I am delighted that the United Nations has recommended that the New Zealand Government examine ACC’s processes for assessing compensation and has asked the Government to ensure the system has a human rights focus.”

The UN Committee also made recommendations about the proposals to remove access to the District Court and replace it with a Tribunal, and educating judges about the rights of persons with disabilities.

“It is an exciting time for injured New Zealanders and we look forward to working with the new Ministers for Justice, Courts and ACC to address these problems and make our Accident Compensation system a world leader again” said Dr Powell.

“We hope that the United Nation’s findings are taken seriously by the Government and they take this opportunity to work with injured people to improve ACC” said Mr Forster. He added “Providing proper access to justice will ultimately improve ACC as it will allow problems with the system to be identified and fixed, rather than rumbling away under the surface.”

New Zealand ratified the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities on 2 September 2008.

OPINION: Julia Suryakusuma, the author of Julia’s Jihad, tries to untangle the contradictions of press freedom in Indonesia with the unrelenting stranglehold on West Papua amid controversy over the continuing detention of two French journalists.

When you are a journalist, you know that following your journalistic instincts sometimes means big trouble.

That’s why a slew of films have been made on this topic, including: The Killing Fields (1984) a drama about the civil war in Cambodia; The China Syndrome (1979), an American thriller about the dangers of nuclear power; and Veronica Guerin, a 2003 biographical Irish film about the drug trade in Dublin.

These three films were all based on true stories.

The characters of Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterson), Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda), Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) and the eponymous character of Veronica Guerin (Cate Blanchett), all risked their lives in their pursuit of the truth — the ultimate aim of investigative journalism. For that Guerin also paid the ultimate price: She was murdered in 1996.

I reckon a film entitled Live from Papua could also be made about the two French journalists, Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois, who have been detained in Papua since August 6 this year. They were arrested while filming the conditions in which the local population lives.

The trouble was, they were there on tourist visas.

So when the authorities caught them not long after they arrived, it would have been pretty easy to hit them with immigration violations and deport them.

A clear-cut case, huh?

Still detained

So how come two months later they are still being detained, especially after they admitted they were working without press visas and have apologised? It turns out that because Bourrat and Dandois had contacted local pro-independence activists, seeking to film their demands, they are facing the possibility of subversion charges.

If brought to trial, they could face up to five years in jail and a fine of up to Rp 500 million (US$41,000). Heavy stuff.

The Alliance of Indonesian Journalists (AJI) has condemned the detention of the two French journalists. They say that it adds to the long list of the failures of the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when it comes to press freedom in Indonesia.

There is certainly precedent for this sort of thing.

In 2010, another French journalist, Baudoein Koening, was also kicked out.

Unlike Bourrat and Dandois, he was legit: He came with a press visa. His crime was filming a peaceful student demonstration in favor of autonomy.

According to Endy M. Bayuni, former editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post, it has always been very difficult to get permission to go to Papua as a journalist.

‘Go slow’

Even when international news agencies like Agence France-Press (AFP), Reuters or Associated Press (AP) journalists apply, it can take more than a year to get a visa.

This “go slow” approach enables the government to deny there is a ban on foreign journalists visiting Papua.

Tourists on the other hand, can travel freely in Papua. No wonder so many journalists come to Indonesia using a tourist visa. They just have to be careful not to get caught.

Bourrat and Dandois were unlucky. They came at a time when tension and violence were at a peak, with five separatist rebels shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with the Indonesian military just a few days earlier.

The political transition was another factor, with local military authorities exploiting the gap between the end of the Yudhoyono administration and the start of that of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Benjamin Ismail, head of the Asia-Pacific desk of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has a take on this.

“For the local authorities it might be the last opportunity to send a big message internationally not only to foreign journalists but also to human-rights activists, NGOs and even the UN, as they have tried to send inspectors in the region,” says Ismail.

Foreigner blackout

The reality is that there has been a foreign-media blackout imposed on Papua whereby the central government has restricted the access of journalists, activists, researchers, diplomats and aid workers ever since it was annexed by Indonesia in 1963.

Yet this has not prevented Papua’s separatist movement from becoming well known. Activists are jailed for raising the banned separatist flag, and security forces are heavy-handed, engaging in abuse, violence and even torture.

Despite Papua’s vast natural wealth, most Papuans live in extreme poverty. Is it any wonder they are resentful and want independence?

Indonesia ranks 132 on the RWB press freedom index, lower than Thailand (at 130), and Brunei (at 117). Ismail says that Indonesia’s rank would be much higher if Papua were excluded. They do that for Hong Kong (60) and Taiwan (50), which rank much higher than China (175).

Ismail points out that in 2006 Indonesia ratified the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. It therefore must be implemented as part of Indonesian law.

The covenant says you cannot discriminate regarding the entry of foreign journalists, especially to sensitive regions where there are allegations of human-rights abuse.

Ah well, it certainly isn’t the first time Indonesia has ratified an international convention and then not applied it domestically.

After his expulsion, Koening wrote of his experience: “Why does Indonesian democracy stop at Papua?” (The Guardian, June 9, 2010).

The answer is that since its annexation, Papua was basically set up as a colony. This has been the case under every single Indonesian government since 1963.

Will things change with Jokowi? While campaigning in Papua, our incoming president stated that the region’s development was a priority program for his Cabinet and he was committed to implementing it immediately after his inauguration on Oct. 20. He also promised to open Papua to journalists.

Will it finally be possible then, to shoot Live from Papua?

Source: The Jakarta Post

Samoa continues the momentum to a Tobacco Free Pacific by 2025 by enacting a regulation forcing manufacturers to display health warning and graphic images on all tobacco products. These new measures will be enforced on 1 November 2014 through the Tobacco Control Regulations (2013) under the law.

Other regulations include the prohibition of tobacco product advertising, organising or promoting any activity using trademarks of tobacco products in Samoa and of sale to minors under the age of 21.

Samoa has been a long-time supporter of the move to a Tobacco Free Pacific as part of the move to control non-communicable diseases (NCDS) in the Pacific. According to regional statistics, NCDS account for 75% of all deaths in the Pacific and smoking is one of the major contributors to NCDS.

Samoa is well placed to play a leading role when the Tobacco Free Pacific campaign initiative was launched at the Joint Forum Economic and Pacific Health Ministers Meeting in, Solomon Islands in July this year.

The ambitious campaign aims to reduce smoking in the region to at least 5% by the year 2025. Currently in the Pacific the adult daily tobacco use prevalence is as high as 54.8%. Exposure to second hand smoke in the Pacific is also high. Data from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey indicate that rates of youth exposure in the home range from 56.8% in one country to as high as 76% in another.

Many would question its achievability but the campaign is determined by its official slogan “It can be done”.

Samoa’s been laying its legal structures from early 2000. It became signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003, and ratifying it two years later in 2005. To enable the convention locally, the Samoa parliament enacted the Tobacco Control Act in 2008 with the aims: to protect people from ill-effects and premature death caused by tobacco use; protect non-smokers from exposure to tobacco smoke; regulate marketing, advertising, sale, promotion and distribution of tobacco products; and to monitor and regulate the presence of harmful constituents in tobacco products.

Also, in line with recommendations from World Health Organization (WHO) for excise tax to be at least 70% of the retail price of all tobacco products – as a way to reduce consumption – Samoa has greatly increased the excise tax on tobacco products in recent years.

A recent assessment by Samoa’s Ministry of Revenue indicates the country has achieved or surpassed the target.

 

 

The wait for Misa Fia Turner to become an MP will take a little bit longer after National lost a percentage point after special votes were counted.

The Electoral Commission released the official election results this afternoon and with the drop in percentage point, National now loses one of its 61 MPs after the 20 September elections. The unlucky candidate is West Coast Mayor Maureen Pugh.

If the swing had gone the other way and National gained a percentage point, Misa Fia Turner would have made it to parliament. However, that is not the case. But Pacific Guardians predicts that a number of sitting National MP resignations over the next two years will see Misa Fia installed in parliament. It is important for National’s strategy to win more party votes from the traditional Labour stronghold of Mangere. The 2014 election showed what is possible with a trend of voter migration that hit Mt Roskill, Mt Albert, Manurewa and Manukau East.

When Misa Fia does become an MP, it will raise Pacific heritage MP number to eight, which will be the highest in the history of New Zealand politics. Something to look forward to.

Meantime, on the other side, the Green Party gained a percentage point which meant Steffan Browning returns to parliament. His return restores the Green Party’s number to last term’s 14 MPs.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman was happy about the outcome as it allows parliament to work as the MMP model intended.

“This means National does not have an outright majority on every vote and will require ACT, United Future or the Maori Party support to pass legislation,” he said.

“There is now increased representation for the opposition, which is more in line with how MMP is designed to function.”

The change in numbers means National will need one more MP to form a government. This will not be a problem as it has already signed deals with ACT MP David Seymour and United Future MP Peter Dunne. It is also expected to sign a deal with the Maori Party shortly.

What the result today also confirmed is that the Maori Party will now have two MPs, and for the first time, a list MP in educator Marama Fox.

“This historic milestone warrants putting down the hangi, then Marama and I have got some serious work to do. We’ve got a big three years ahead of us,” co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell said.

Marama Fox was one of the new six Māori Party candidates contesting the seven Māori seats this year.

“As one of the outstanding new candidates, Marama Fox brings fresh energy and ideas to the Māori Party. She’ll be good for our party and good for our people,” said Mr Flavell.

“This results shows how important it was for people to give their party vote to the Māori Party including many non-Māori who weren’t aware before the election campaign that they could give their party vote to the Māori Party.”

Mr Flavell and the Māori Party Executive have been on the road for the last week canvassing people’s views on a proposed relationship accord with the National Party.

“This year’s election result has reinvigorated people’s resolve to ensure more Māori Party candidates are elected in 2017 and that the Māori Party is always part of the Government. It’s an exciting time and a great opportunity to rebuild the party – 2017 is marked for success,” says Mr Flavell.

NZ First is final minor party that will make up the remainder of parliament. Winston Peters on eight per cent will bring in 11 MPs to parliament.