Pacific

“We established our first Suva branch in 1883, and in 1951, the Bank of Australasia merged with the Union Bank of Australia to form ANZ Bank Limited,” explained ANZ CEO Pacific & CEO Fiji, Vishnu Mohan, at a function held in Suva to commemorate the milestone anniversary.

“We’ve since continued to grow our presence in Fiji with the acquisition of the Fiji operations of Barclay’s and Grindlays Banks in 1985, Bank of New Zealand in 1990, and Bank of Hawaii in 2002,” said Mohan.

The agreement includes several key elements that are of particular importance to the Pacific region, including recognition for pursuing a temperature goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels, a strengthened mechanism for loss and damage, and the provision for scaled up and simplified access to climate finance for small island developing states.

The Agreement includes several key elements that are of particular importance to the Pacific region, including recognition for pursuing a temperature goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels, a strengthened mechanism for loss and damage, and the provision for scaled up and simplified access to climate finance for small island developing states.

The Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP) agencies have been working as “One Team” to support Pacific island countries with technical assistance during the lengthy negotiation process.

A report by the PC has found that in some Pacific nations as many as 52 per cent of boys aged between 13 and 15 are smoking.

Nations with high teenage smoking rates include Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati.

The aid agency said that New Zealand must immediately act on promises made under the new global climate agreement, as evidence suggested climate change may increase the frequency of extreme El Niño occurring.

Around 4.7 million people face hunger, poverty and disease across the Pacific alone due to El Niño-related droughts, erratic rains and frosts. Globally, 18 million people are already in need of assistance.

This is consistently recognised by the United Nations General Assembly in its annual resolutions on oceans and the law of the sea, the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and by the Small Island Developing States Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway adopted in 2014.

Marine scientific research is also at the core of the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ and the Sustainable Development Goal 14a officially adopted by the General Assembly in September 2015.

EU’s Head of Delegation to Fiji and the Pacific Andrew Jacobs has praised Pacific leaders for making their voices heard by the developed countries to combat climate change that’s affecting the region.

Jacobs says the EU has lauded the coordinated efforts from the Pacific as the outcome worked out well.

This responds positively to the demands of the Pacific Island Countries in the PACER Plus negotiations, which seek to enhance their participation in international trade. 

In June 2015, Australia took the unprecedented step in lifting the cap under the Seasonal Workers Program and extended it to the entire agriculture sector and to the accommodation sector in selected locations in the country. 

At climate talks in Paris, experts called for strong language on respecting human rights and the rights of indigenous people to be included in the agreement.

Craig Mokhiber of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says the climate crisis is a human rights crisis and it needs to be addressed as such.

Yesterday was Human Rights Day, which was marked across the Pacific.

The UNHRO Pacific head, Catherine Phuong, says ratification of human rights treaties is still very low in the region - one of the lowest in the world.

She says understanding of human rights is limited in some countries, rates of violence against women and children are very high and more needs to be done to address allegations of police brutality.