Press Release Page

From the Premier’s Office

Cabinet is concerned with the current budget deficit and has advised its Government Departments, that there are to be no more funds expended until the end of the financial year without Cabinet approval and only in emergencies. Cabinet hopes that a balanced budget without adding more to the deficit can be achieved.

Another matter of concern is accessibility to confidential Government documents. A recent leak of a confidential Government report to the media in New Zealand has served only to cause more problems and undermining Government’s effort to achieve a balanced budget. Measures have been discussed during a meeting with senior officials to prevent further incidences from happening again in the future.

Premier Vivian will be away in Okinawa at the end of this week attending a four yearly get together of pacific leaders and the Government of Japan. There will be issues of importance to be discussed, endorsed or approved. Premier Vivian will be accompanied by his Personal Secretary.

Premier has been asked to address the Meeting on the issue of ‘Improved Education and Human Resources Development’ on behalf of the Pacific Region, and thanking the Government of Japan for its contributions and commitment to assisting the Pacific in education, Youth goodwill exchange programmes and training [for example JICA, JVOC] with hope that Japan will continue to support in the years ahead. 

Cabinet Ministers’ Concerns: 

• That Public servants travelling on Government business are not following the proper procedures prior to travel. Some continue to submit their papers either too late for the Minister to make a proper comment or for Cabinet to make their decisions, or else they have already departed from Niue. SOG will be reviewing the Public Service Travel protocols soon.
• Cabinet has made an appeal to travelling public that there will be no freight available on the Friday morning flights on Air New Zealand, apart from personal luggage not exceeding 20 kilograms. Two tonnes of freight is reserved to air freight fish to New Zealand and other markets.
• Cabinet acknowledges that the signed agreement between the Government and Enrich Corporation will remain confusing until everyone knows what part each will play in the proposed timber products development such as furniture and joinery using locally logged timber. There will be consultations with landowners planned by the Minister to begin as soon as possible.

National Geographic Endeavour

 This is a passenger cruise ship that has planned visits to Niue over the next six cyclone-free months. Passenger capacity for the National Geographic Endeavour is just over 110 of which 85 chose to come ashore and see our tourist sites.

In an interview with a few who decided to wander around Alofi for three hours, most of the passengers come from the United States to do the ‘Banana run’ that used to ply our part of the Ocean during the 1950s and 1960s, and they had just been to the Cook Islands and will call into Tonga after leaving here before continuing to Samoa, Fiji and then Auckland.

The visitors were greatly puzzled by the lack of things to buy here. “We were expecting some kind of market,” they said, “but we couldn’t find anything with which to spend our money.”

I guess they mean things that are authentically Niuean – artefacts, hats, mats, beads - just so that they could say when they get home, ‘I bought this hat from an island called Niue that we stopped for a few hours, a quaint little place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean….’

Wouldn’t it be awesome if our weavers and carvers could increase their home production to take advantage of these affluent visitors whose main aim in cruising anywhere is to take back with them memorabilia that give meaning to their lives. The cruise ship is coming back in June and in September this year so there is something to plan for. 

Radio Talkback with Patrick Lino

Last Monday’s talkback session was dominated by the recent Agreement signed by the Government with Enrich Corporation, a Malaysian company who would like to develop our forestry and timber products using local timber. Invariably the topic is highly emotional because most people think that the said Malaysian Company is coming to cut our timber and that the Government of Niue is about to allow carte blanche entry by the visitors into our forests and cut every tree that has timber potential.

This is not so. Legally the Government does not own land and it does not therefore own more than a few twigs if that. But it does have a 50/50 share in the Niue Timber and Furniture Joint Venture Ltd, the part of Enrich Corporation that will establish on the island to make furniture and joinery products for houses that will be sold locally or in overseas markets.

Only the landowners and their families will have the right to allow the trees to be cut. The Agreement that Government signed was primarily to allow the landowners and their families if they wish to sell the timber for money, and the agreement that the Government signed was to make sure that all the guidelines to protect the environment and everyone concerned are followed to the letter.

The amazing thing that emerged from the Talkback was that everyone seemed to be aware of what is going on despite the protests from listeners and participants that Government has been ‘sneaky’ in the way they signed the agreement without consulting the stakeholders first. Niue being a very small island most of the participants were known and the general impression received from the talkback was that the respondents who were well informed tend to be landowners who are without trees on their land, and they were vocal and knowledgeable in local regional and international matters pertaining to logging operations.

To discuss all the main points of the agreement is beyond the scope of this publication, but here are some of issues that might help reach better understanding of the Government’s intentions:

• The Government of Niue would be grossly negligent if it did not actively engage economic opportunities that will benefit its people. With this agreement the landowners are given the choice to improve their financial standing by selling some of their assets if they so desire.
• The government’s role initially will be one of trusteeship in making sure that in the extraction process of timber from the environment there are rules and regulations which must be followed to minimise damage to both land and family property.
• The Agreement also requires that before any logging is done the landowner must consult all members of the other family owners and that the land is clearly defined, surveyed and titled. Doing so will avoid serious family squabbles in the land courts and hold up of any economic development.
• The Government is a 50/50 shareholder in the Niue Timber and Furniture Joint Venture that will use the timber to make timber products such as furniture, joinery or other items.
• The logging company will be held responsible for unnecessary damage to the bush environment and will be charged with replanting three new trees for each one logged, removal of invasive species in the immediate area such the fue [a creeper that is continuing to strangle native plants] and shred the remaining foliage from a cut tree to be left behind as mulch.

Niue Ki Mua will endeavour to update readers of the ‘logging’ issues as they emerge. 

Ms Satui Bentin from SPREP [Samoa]

 Ms Bentin [from SPREP] is the Resource Centre Manager and Co-ordinator of SPEIN [Pacific Environment Information Network] and is currently on the island to conduct the first phase of Technical Assessment of National facilities, personnel and audience in Niue.

“My role right now is to physically assess personnel and infrastructure on Niue and how it works within legislation and government policies that are currently in place so that we can proceed with phase 2, which is to set up an information and database system within the Department of Environment.”

“The donor, EU/ACP, has donated the necessary equipment that will be used to create a database network of information for Environment Niue and will also provide linkages with Libraries, SPREP, and other environment agencies in the Pacific Region where sharing and exchanging of resources and other relevant issues and information to the environment in the Pacific are made more efficient and open.”

Being ‘open’ of course does not necessarily mean giving away or giving up national and individual Intellectual property. “The network that will be put in place will provide avenues of protection for your IPs,” explained Ms Bentin. “For too long the Pacific has been plundered and pillaged by international interests and we need systems in place with flags that say ‘hey, that’ ours!’ to combat against further pillaging and protect what are left.”

But physical assessments and establishing a network [internal, inter-governmental, inter-regional and international] is only a beginning, according to Ms Bentin. Capacity building, placing staff on attachment exercises and constant reviews are equally as important, a promise Ms Bentin herself is determined to succeed as a personal crusade. “Without the support systems in place,” she added philosophically, “we might as well give up.”

The priority of protecting Pacific environments is low and often red tape restrictions do not help when governments are more interested in promoting economic development and food security projects. It’s a pity that not everyone can accept [most probably from misunderstanding] the most fundamental principle, ‘that in Nature everything is intrinsically and intricately connected.’

Ms Bentin leaves Niue on Friday.   

INCREASING AWARENESS OF HIV/AIDS IN THE PACIFIC

By Talava Tuhipa – Turner

From Monday to Thursday this week a workshop is being held at the Niue Sports Club to raise the awareness of HIV/AIDS among Niue community leaders.  The workshop is being facilitated by Bob David, a member of Wan Smolbag Theatre from Port Vila, Vanuatu and is funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Nga Hoe Tuputupu-Mai-Tawhiti (NZ Agency for International Development). 

This is the first time this workshop has been held in Niue.  There are around 30 attendees, including representatives from the Church, various government departments and youth groups.  The philosophy behind the workshop is to train community leaders to be future trainers, so that these messages can be passed on to the wider community by its own people.

Mr David said the primary objective of the workshop is to provide an opportunity, in a safe and non threatening environment, to discuss attitudes and facts regarding sensitive issues such as HIV/AIDS, relationships, drinking, safe sex and harassment.  The workshop is based upon a DVD and workbook resource “Mr Right Guy”, in which characters are faced with making decisions about these issues.  Fun, ice breaker activities are used to break down barriers such as shyness, helping to create an open and sharing atmosphere.  The workshop incorporates much debate and role playing to encourage discussions.

Having fun while learning

Trainers, like Mr David, travel throughout the South Pacific holding workshops and other community activities, including the making of films and other resources.  Follow up workshops are normally held on a yearly basis to reinforce the messages delivered in the initial workshop.

According to 2004 figures quoted in the workbook, Niue is one of only three Pacific Island countries with no recorded cases of HIV/AIDS.  However, it is difficult to be sure of the actual number of cases, as there is little testing for HIV and many Pacific countries do not conduct post mortems when a person dies.  It is important that Niue does not become complacent about this issue and continues to encourage initiatives such as this workshop, to raise awareness and education about HIV/AIDS.

Public Relations Office 

Premiers Department

Falefono

Alofi, NIUE

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