Over the weekend, Associate Foreign Minister Aupito Williams announced that a medical and logistics team had been sent from New Zealand to Papua New Guinea to assist with the Covid-19 crisis there. Oxfam Aotearoa says this is a good start but argues that New Zealand can do more to support Papua New Guinea. News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Oxfam Aotearoa's Communications and Advocacy Director Dr Jo Spratt about how Covid-19 has impacted PNG, how New Zealand is stacking up as a good neighbour to PNG on an international scale and whether New Zealand has the means to support other nations during the economically devestating pandemic.
Papua New Guinea's National Capital District is heading to the polls today, amid fears the election will be subverted. The governor of Port Moresby has claimed there are problems with the electoral roll and polling places. He's also told media that reports are circulating of illegal ballot paper printing, and people bribing officials of the Electoral Commission. Amidst all this, Transparency International have set up a corruption hotline to help people report wrongdoing in the election. Daniel spoke to head of Transparency Papua New Guinea Arianne Kassmen, and started by asking what they hope to achieve with the hotline.
Andreas Harsano reports on Indonesia for the Human Rights watch, and is one of the leading figures in press freedom and training of journalists in Indonesia. Sherry talks to Andreas on Indonesia’s history of violence and mass killings, the rise independent journalism post dictator post-suharto era, and what’s next for West Papua.
Andreas recently published his book: Race, Islam and Power on Ethnic and Religious violence, so Sherry begins by asking him to summarise his research.
In November 2019, the autonomous region and island of Bougainville held a referendum to decide whether they should express a desire for independence, instead of continued autonomy as a part of Papua New Guinea. The result of the vote saw a landslide 97.7% majority vote for independence and would see Bougainville seek to replace South Sudan as the newest country in the world.
Yet, despite this, Bougainville remains an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea six years later. The difficult transition period has resulted in political tensions rising between the island and Papua New Guinea. However the recent signing of the Melanesian agreement in June is seen by experts as a significant step towards independence for Bougainville.
To talk about why this situation has dragged on for so long and what we can expect moving forward, Producer Max spoke to Gordon Nanau, the head of Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland.
This week on The Wire we speak to Green Party co-leader James Shaw about Labour's immigration policy and whether the Greens are becoming too centrist. AUT Pacific Media Centre's Kendall Hutt speaks with two Papua New Guinea students Stephanie and Kenneth about the upcoming Papua New Guinea elections. bFM producer Ben Goldson speaks to Labour's spokesperson for housing, Phil Twyford, about MBIE's Housing Affortability Measure and to E Tu's assistant national secretary, John Ryall about the fight for pay equity in the mental health center. Ben also speaks to President of the Psychological Society, Quentin Abraham, about New Zealand's poor showing in Unicef's 14th Innocenti report. Amanda looks at what happened in the Grenfell Tower fire and if something similar could happen in New Zealand.
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Pacific Media Centre's Jean Bell stops by the studio to discuss a group of customary land owners in Papua New Guinea regaining access to their land, the struggles of delivering education to indigenous peoples in the Philippines and a special new girl band in Papua New Guinea.
AUT students Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom also talk about their upcoming trip to Fiji as part of the Bearing Witness programme.
Today on the Southern Cross, Jemima talks to AUT Pacific Media Centre's reporter Rahul Bhattarai. Topics include, the iconic, internationally acclaimed human rights film on Paga Hill that was banned from a Papua New Guinea festival and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, responds to backlash against his purchase of 40 Maseratis.
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