Money transfer website seeks savings for Pacific families

By Krista Ferguson: Pacific Media Centre

Pacific peoples will get a boost in financial literacy and save some money thanks to a new website-based programme with handy remittances advice.

Pacific Island Affairs Minister Georgina te Heuheu launched www.sendmoneypacific.org at the Otara Markets at the weekend.

“Pacific families in New Zealand are entitled to a fair go,” says Te Heuheu.

Transparency, fairness and speed of remittances are important – the cost is a burden on low income families.

“If $25 is lost for every $100, this is a loss to both the family in New Zealand and the family in the Pacific,” she says.

A joint NZAid and AusAID-funded project, the website provides a comparison of the fees charged by money transfer operators to send money from New Zealand to other Pacific countries.

It also compares the time it takes for the money to arrive.

Client manager for the website developer, Developing Markets Associates (DMA) Ltd, Jonathan Capal says it is a joint initiative that followed on from World Bank studies that looked at remittance costs for transferring money from one country to another.

“This region has the highest remittance costs in the world,” he says.

“In the UK it costs less than 5 percent to transfer money to India. In New Zealand there is a cost of up to 30 percent, including fees and foreign exchange, to send money to the Pacific.”

Heavy loss
Remittances to the Pacific region amount to more than USD$425 million a year, according to a media release by the minister.

Ministry project manager for the Pacific Remittance Project, Kim Hailwood, says it is estimated that NZ$80 million is lost a year on remittance fees to the Pacific Region.

Three-quarters of Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand send money to family in the Pacific Islands, says Hailwood.

“Money sent to the Pacific outstrips aid.”

The minister says remittances are a critical flow of money into the Pacific and provide an important safety net for some families.

“The money sent helps Pacific communities to be strong and sustainable,” says Te Heuheu.

The website shows that sending $200 from New Zealand to Fiji would cost $5.98 using a Westpac pre-paid card and $34.13 through Western Union.

The calculation was based on figures updated on March 20.

Taking note
Both Westpac and the Western Union deliver the money in less than one hour. Other money transfer operators can take up to three days, according to the website.

Money transfer operators have taken note since the website went live, says Capal.

“No-one likes to be seen as the most expensive,” he says.

“Some banks are starting to update us with offers that are relevant to remittance costs.”

Te Heuheu says: “In the end it’s a benefit to the banks as well. If they provide a good service, they will get good business.”

Westpac spokesperson Craig Dowling says it took the World Bank to dig out the scale of the issue. Banks attended forums coordinated by the World Bank and the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, he says.

The World Bank demonstrated how exposed Pacific communities are to these fees. A considerable amount of pressure was put on banks by the World Bank around this issue, he says.

The fees were contributing to a massive burden that could be alleviated, he says.

“A 25 percent fee is definitely too much,” he says. “It’s now up to banks to decide where this lies in their priorities.

“Our parent company, Westpac Banking Corporation, has a large footprint in the Pacific so we wanted to demonstrate our commitment to those communities.

Competitive advantage
It becomes a competitive advantage having the lower cost remittance product, he says.

“We decided we could move more quickly than our competitors. Westpac introduced a new card for remittances to the Pacific last year.

“We think there will be a competitive response. Western Union changed some of their rates when Westpac announced their new remittance product,” says Dowling.

He says a broader response by banks is needed to have a full effect.

“Why hamstring the whole Pacific community,” he says.

Westpac has also used the Otara Markets to promote its remittance product.

“Uptake has been okay, but there is a long way to go,” he says.

Capal says that internet use by different Pacific peoples varies. Samoans have a higher internet uptake compared with Tongan and Solomon Islands communities.

Because of the lower internet access, DMA will be regularly updating printed material to be handed out at churches and community groups, he says.

The website generated interest before the launch.

“It’s been notably picked up by bloggers in Papua New Guinea,” he says.

DMA expect the number of hits, currently several hundred a day, to at least triple following the launches in New Zealand in the weekend and Australia next Friday.

The website is part of a wider Pacific remittances project involving a partnership between the World Bank, Reserve Bank, Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs and the Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF).

PCF programme manager Tina McNicholas says the foundation is co-funding the education phase of the project.

“Phase two is much wider than the website. The focus will be on financial capability and a community education campaign,” she says.

McNicholas says she hopes that the website will also have an impact on the high level of fees “we’ll be able to pass on savings to families in the Pacific.

Picture: Pacific Island Affairs Minister Georgina te Heuheu (left) and project manager Kim Hailwood. Photo: Krista Ferguson.

Krista Ferguson is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

Send Money Pacific

New ethnic paper targets Indian community

By Violet Cho: Pacific Media Centre

A new ethnic newspaper, the Indian Weekender, has been launched in Auckland – and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett was handed the first copy at the Holi Mela festival last weekend.

Chief reporter Thakur Ranjit Singh says the mainstream New Zealand media tend to cover the negative side of the Indian and other migrant communities and there is a need for something new.

“Indian people have needed their own new newspaper to help fill the gap,” Singh says.

“NZ has become cosmopolitan. A lot of migrants are coming here but you can hardly find them in the media.

“You can look at the New Zealand Herald, TV1, TV3, the Dominion Post and they hardly have any people from migrant communities to reflect the cultures, traditions and sensitivities of this country”.

Starting at 32 pages, the Indian Weekender will be published with at least 6000 copies every fortnight from now on.

But the paper plans to go weekly with 10,000 copies in the future.

The target market is predominantly at least 120,000 Indian people from the sub-continent and also diasporic communities from Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.

Binding people
“We felt that there was a vacuum and there was a need for a paper like this. It’s important to have a community-based newspaper,” says Singh.

“Something that binds people together to give the information that's relevant to them.”
The paper was welcomed with enthusiasm by media academics, media personnel and politicians in New Zealand.

Associate professor David Robie, director of Pacific Media Centre, says a paper like the Indian Weekender can focus on issues important to the ethnic Indian community.

“Mainstream media in New Zealand fails in reporting for ethnic minority communities in the country. There are so many tremendous positive things that have been done by a whole range of communities.

“It is really important for the community to have its own media, not just relying on the mainstream.”

Parliament’s first Korean MP, Melissa Lee, former executive producer of Asia Down Under, says ethnic media is important in reflecting minority views.

But she warned that the editorial team should make sure that the standard of journalism is upheld and not to rely on publishing “advertorials”.

“The Indian community has a variety of newspapers, which I think is very important. Competition is always a good thing.”

The first edition of this paper features national and local news in New Zealand, India and Fiji, as well as business, education and entertainment.

Well-rounded
Editor Dev Nadkarni says the paper is trying to give well-rounded content produced for the people who live away from their original home.

“There are columns written by experts on IT needs for businesses, taxation, mortgages and all the valuable information that Indian experts living in NZ need.

“For women, children and young people, we have separate sections. For the first time in the newspaper here, we have two pages dedicated to children only. These talk about Indian values.
“There are also comics and illustrations for children,” he says.

Starting the newspaper during the global economic downturn is a challenge for the group, says Nadkarni.

“A lot of people say it’s probably the worst time to launch the newspaper. Everybody talks about the economic downturn which makes advertising hard to come by.

“But our management saw that it is probably the best time - we are at the bottom and we can only go up.”

Another challenge to compete with is another long–established newspaper, Indian Newslink, which is distributed fortnightly around New Zealand and has a circulation of 65,000, according to its website.

It also has similar objectives, aiming to be a platform for Indian community issues and to raise the profile of the community.

Picture: Director Bhav Dillon and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett launch the Indian Weekender at the Holi Mela festival. Photo: Violet Cho.

Violet Cho, from Burma, is the 2009 Asian Journalism Fellow and on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

Violet Cho on the Karen website Kwekalu.net

Hard-hitting publisher optimistic for Tonga's future

By Kacey Maher: Pacific Media Centre

Journalist and publisher Kalafi Moala has declared an optimistic vision for Tonga, saying: “My dream is that we will have a nation with freedom without domination, order without tyranny.”

“We're searching, we are seeking together as a people, for those solutions.”

It was a startling message contrasting sharply with a widespread image of white beaches, delicious food, and melodic singing that many people hold of the “friendly islands”.

Moala himself is softly-spoken, jovial and perpetually smiling.

Yet Moala is a hard-hitting journalist who has spent more than his fair share of time imprisoned or banned from his home country due to his paper Taimi ‘o Tonga’s past efforts to promote democratic reform.

Kalafi Moala was launching his new book, In Search of the Friendly Islands, at the Onehunga Community Centre and Library at the weekend.

His book is an attempt to educate both Tongans and non-Tongans about hidden truths behind the country’s peaceful demeanor - truths that, according to many who attended the launching, are mostly forgotten.

“There's a certain denial in Tonga that anything bad ever happens,” said American Hilary Scothorn, who, as an art historian has visited the country with her Tongan husband, artist Philip Tohi, on many occasions.

The book is “re-reporting” incidents that Tongans may have felt more comfortable forgetting, she said.

'Courageous book'
“I think it’s a very courageous book,” said New Zealand journalist Dr David Robie, who is director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre, in his speech at the book release.

“It is something of a reality check.”

Moala wastes no time getting to the point in his book.

“For me, the innocence for which my country of birth has been known was truly broken with the killing of ‘Ova and Ngauamo’s suicide,” writes Moala.

The first chapter, entitled “This is not the friendly way,” describes this and other brutal murders committed by Tongans, both on the islands and abroad in an attempt to highlight the growing trend of violence within Tongan communities.

The next chapter is no more forgiving, explaining how even the term “Friendly Islands”, given to Tonga by Captain James Cook, was an ironic misnomer.

Cook came up with the nickname after being welcomed and feasted by the chiefs of the island but, Moala corrects, the feast was organised in order to murder Cook and steal his ships.

Cook was saved only by the disorganisation of the chiefs and the subsequent failure of the plan, Moala writes.

Eye for the truth
And it is this unapologetic eye for the truth that has landed Moala in conflict with the Tongan authorities at times.

In 2004, his then Auckland-based Taimi was denied a licence by the Tongan government because of its criticism and “outsider’s” view.

Moala’s first book, Island Kingdom Strikes Back (2002), gives an account of both the newspaper’s struggle and that of his family for an open forum of information.

Broadcaster Sefita Hao’uli, and longtime friend of Moala, said: “I have never seen the floor of Tonga’s prison and I never would want to - even if you paid me.”

He praised Moala’s courageous attempts to tell the truth in the face of government censorship—attempts that saw him both imprisoned and banned from Tonga.

“But for someone to stick to a principle…that takes some courage.”

Moala’s paper suffered most during the constitutional monarchy of King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. For nearly 40 years until he died, the king ruled with near absolute power.

However, King George Tupou V has brushed aside the authoritarian-type rule of his father and has begun to introduce a dialogue of democratic reform for the island nation that has been a constitutional monarchy for 160 years.

Mood for change
Now, in 2009, with a more relaxed government under King Tupou V and a growing feeling among Tongans that they want things to change, Moala is back living in Tonga and has absorbed the government-run paper the Chronicle into his publishing business.

“Twenty years ago we were told by the Chronicle that we wouldn’t last two months,” said Moala in his speech. Now, 20 years later Taimi ‘o Tonga owns the Chronicle.

However, despite the changes and the pathways towards reform, Moala’s optimism is cautious.

“No one has come up with any reliable assurances either of whether the system we are changing into is going to be better than what we now have,” Moala writes in his book.

The real change of reform, he says, is coming from the Tongans living abroad - those who, with a greater world view, can see Tonga’s place in the global society.

Once solutions are found, they will help not just Tonga but the entire Pacific region, according to Ana Currie, who heads the Pasifika Foundation Press.

“The whole region right now is in a fight for self-determination,” said Currie, “Tonga has the potential to be a shining beacon for all of the Pacific Islands.”

Photo of Kalafi Moala at the book launch by Alan Koon.

Katherine Maher is an American student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course as part of her Study Abroad programme at AUT University.

Falun Gong disciples tell of harassment

By Christopher Adams: Pacific Media Centre

The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China is well documented. But less well known is how followers of the spiritual discipline face harassment in many Western democracies from the Chinese Communist Party through consulates and embassies.

Auckland practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement founded by Li Hongzi in China in 1992, claim they still face many pressures from the Chinese government in New Zealand.

Practitioners say the CCP’s atheist ideologies leave no room for spirituality, which is why the government fears the Falun Gong movement. It has been outlawed in China since 1999.

Charmaine Deng, a practitioner who came to New Zealand 15 years ago from China, says Chinese Falun Gong adherents in Auckland find themselves isolated from the Chinese community.

“We try to talk to them but they close their doors,” she says.

Deng believes the CCP has caused much of the community to become anti-Falun Gong, claiming the Chinese Consulate-General in Auckland feeds misinformation to people in order to turn them against the movement.

Propaganda
The consulate’s website contains a large amount of anti-Falun Gong propaganda, describing the movement as a “cult” that is “anti-mankind, anti-anti-science and anti-society”.

“The CCP has extended the persecution of Falun Gong from China to New Zealand,” says Deng.
She says the consulate is not sticking to “New Zealand rules”.

“In New Zealand everything is supposed to be free.”

Daisy Lee began practising Falun Gong in China before moving to New Zealand several years ago. She says the Chinese state media, with its anti-Falun Gong rhetoric, has a big impact on how Chinese people view the movement - especially international students studying in Auckland.

“Chinese international students are the biggest problem for Falun Gong in Auckland,” she says. “They don’t read the Herald or watch New Zealand news, only Chinese media.”

Lee also says a website for Chinese students in New Zealand, skykiwi.com, is a problem for the movement in Auckland because of the many anti-Falun Gong messages posted on the site, often inciting hatred against the movement.

Exposure to Chinese media has turned many international students against the movement, sometimes leading them to turn up at Falun Gong events.

‘Disrupting’ events
The Chinese consulate is organising students to disrupt events and protests held by both the Falun Gong and Free Tibet movements in Auckland, claims Lee.

Lee tells of meeting a Chinese student recently at the University of Auckland, who was putting up posters around the campus for a Chinese Students Association event.

Unaware of Lee being a Falun Gong practitioner, the student boasted he had been “organised” by the Chinese consulate to counter-protest against Free Tibet activists last year.

“Chinese mix up country, nation and government,” she says. “In China, the government is your mother, so some Chinese students believe the Falun Gong and Free Tibet movements are against their motherland.

“When I was a child in China we were told that communism would liberate the world, but after I came to New Zealand I realised communism was there to control us, not to liberate us.”

Another practitioner, Margo Macvicar, came to New Zealand from Scotland 26 years ago.

Macvicar got involved in Falun Gong in Motueka before moving to Auckland recently.

She finds the meditation routines of Falun Gong have given her a “quietness inside”, and changed her life.

Macvicar says Chinese students are one of the main problems the movement faces in Auckland, and also suspects the Chinese consulate of feeding them misinformation about Falun Gong.

“A lot of Chinese have been swayed by the consulate,” she says.

During a protest rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Penrose last year, an unknown vandal smashed Macvicar’s car window. She believes “there is a link” between the protest and the damage done to her car.

She was also spat at once when handing out Falun Gong flyers in Queen St.

Despite being isolated from the Chinese community, Falun Gong practitioners say it is not a lonely existence being part of the movement.

“We don’t feel lonely,” says Macvicar. “It’s not only through our belief; through our practice we learn to be tolerant and compassionate.”

Amos Chen, a practitioner originally from Shanghai, left China on the same day the CCP began cracking down on the movement in 1999.

Chen takes part in the silent protests the Falun Gong regularly hold outside the Chinese Consulate in Penrose.

Passport block
He says the consulate makes life difficult for Falun Gong adherents living in Auckland in many different ways, such as not renewing Chinese passports when practitioners want to go to China to visit sick or dying relatives.

Chen recalls running a Falun Gong stall at an Auckland Chinese festival a few years ago, when a member of the Chinese community in charge of the event asked him if the stall was linked to the Falun Gong.

When he replied yes, the man said: “I want to close your stall because the consulate doesn’t like you.”

David Jiang, president of the Chinese Students Association based at the University of Auckland, denies any link between the Chinese consulate and the association.

A second year engineering student, Jiang says the association with more than 3000 members never acts as an information channel for the consulate.

“We support the Chinese government, but we are not a political group.”

The association’s main focus is on organising entertainment for Chinese students, and services such as free tutorials, he says.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Consulate-General in Auckland said there was no knowledge of claimed incidents such as Falun Gong practitioners’ cars being damaged near the consulate.

Picture: Falun Gong practitioner Amos Chen outside the Chinese consulate in Penrose. Photo: Christopher Adams.

Christopher Adams is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course, AUT University.

Healthy eating message in for next Polyfest

By Pippa Brown: Pacific Media Centre

Health messages are in for next year’s Polyfest after more than 90,000 people enjoyed the latest event here over the weekend at the Manukau Sportsbowl. School teams from more than 15 Asia-Pacific cultures contested the annual event - the world's largest Maori and Pasifika cultural event.

Event manager Tania Karauria says subtle changes are made to the successful formula each year – “another reason for the calm mood”.

The festival, now far too big for the host schools to handle as a venue, is a smoke free event - and a real effort is put into stamping out smoking.

This year free water was on offer with no fizzy drinks.

The aim for 2010 is to further encourage a healthy eating message around festival type foods and the different cultural stages, says Karauria.

The festival evolved from humble beginnings in 1976 when it was first hosted by Otara’s Hillary College.

Dean Wilson, media manager, has been with the Polyfest for three years. He describes this year as “brilliant”.

“It’s a bit of a slice of the islands – every stage has a bit of a presence.”

Wesley College hosted this year’s four-day event. More than 9000 students from 60 schools performed under the slogan of “Many cultures, one world”

Five stages included Maori, Cook Island, Niue, Samoan, Tongan performers along with a diversity stage.

More relaxed
“The presentation of the festival has got better. Using professionals makes it more relaxed and the quality of the performance is bigger. The students go out and work really hard to be competitive,” says Wilson.

Manukau City had assisted the 34-year-old festival with the infrastructure at the Sports Bowl.

“Sponsorship is a big part of the support. The downturn has brought a tougher sponsorship market but many of our sponsors have signed up for three years so will come back,” says Wilson.

“ASB has been a loyal supporter for 24 years and every year continues to add to the event. It’s a good positive youth celebration and a good synergy to be involved with,” he says.

Wilson has not seen violence at the event for some time. Counties Manukau police have a strong presence and there is security on site.

Tania Karauria, ASB Polyfest event manager, says organisers want to see it stay safe and exciting.

“There is a total concerted effort to make the festival what it is today,” she says.

Karauria says there is an increase in the number of large groups from schools attending.

On Friday, Te Atatu Intermediate bused in the whole school of 270 pupils and 30 staff to the event.

Multicultural goal
Inspector Dave Simpson, in charge of operations, says: “The festival started out as a really good intention for a multicultural secondary school extravaganza. Unfortunately, it also provided the opportunity for young people to act inappropriately.

“Going back about six or seven years there were some brawls, ethnic pressure and tension between schools,” he says.

John Sione, a visitor from New Lynn, is concerned about talk that the future of the festival could be at risk.

“It’s stupid. This is what our parents from the islands did,” he says.

“For some of us, learning this is our only escape from gangs. The practice in the weekends and after school keeps us occupied. It’s good the way it is.”

Inspector Simpson believes the event is good for young people committed to training and competing for a trophy with strong parent support.

He took over the policing of the event in 2003 and quickly recognised there were problems and safety issues.

Safety issues
“We started putting a lot more police staff into it, working with the organisers and a security firm and producing a more integrated response to safety issues. More effort is put into this event than other events like an international sports fixture or rock concert,” he says.

“We have a disproportionate number of lower decile schools in our district and an incredible ethnic diversity. This event celebrates that diversity.

“An organisation like ours should be very much involved rather than sitting on the periphery and doing its normal job,” says Inspector Simpson.

“The fact that this event is all about connecting with culture is not really the issue. It’s about providing the opportunity for young people to get together, to commit and train for something, to gain a sense of achievement whether they win or lose.”

“I just think that events like this do so much for our young people. We are really pleased to see the improvements that have occurred and I must stress that this is not just about the police or down to the police. By working closely with the organisers and security we have come up with a type of solution,” says Inspector Simpson.

Top: Cook Islands dancers at the Polyfest; Above: Police keep an eye out for problems. Photos: Pippa Brown.

Pippa Brown is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course, AUT University.

ASB Polyfest

NZ’s aid 'true agenda' faces probe

By Megan Anderson: Pacific Media Centre

As Foreign Minister Murray McCully’s controversial reviews into NZAid are completed over the next month, questions are being raised over the true agenda of New Zealand work in the Pacific.

McCully has ordered two reviews into NZAid – one by the Chief Executive of Foreign Affairs, and another by the State Services Commissioner – in response to what the minister’s spokesman, James Funnell, says was “part of National’s election policy”.

The reviews have been criticised by non-government organisations, development studies academics and political observers as too hasty, too vague, too secret, and lacking the expertise needed for the complicated issues at stake.

Professor Crosbie Walsh, former director of development studies at the University of the South Pacific, says the minister and many advisers “know next to nothing about the countries to which New Zealand gives aid”.

Oxfam executive director Barry Coates says one of the main demands of the NGO-supported “Don’t corrupt aid” campaign is to open up McCully’s decision-making process.

Don’t Corrupt Aid is launching an appeal to the public against McCully’s reviews through their website, blog and Facebook campaign.

In late February, the minister expressed his desire to see NZAid make a policy change from the “old mantra of poverty alleviation” to a “clear focus on sustainable economic development”.

He also hinted at structural changes within NZAid and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aiming for “a much closer alignment between our aid and development activities and our overall foreign policy goals”.

Political agenda
It has been this, alongside McCully’s plans to change NZAid’s OECD-applauded focus of ‘poverty elimination’ to ‘economic development’, which is raising questions about New Zealand’s involvement in the Pacific.

At present, NZAID spends 53 percent of the overall $480 million annual budget they receive from the government in the Pacific.

Dr Roman Grynberg’s recent controversial comments on the Pacific Islands Forum (which accompanied his resignation as Director of Economic Governance at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat) raised a number of concerns on the political agenda of Australia and New Zealand aid.

He says McCully’s proposal to align NZAid closer to MFAT would mean NZaid would increasingly become a political vehicle for government aims.

Dr Grynberg says: “In the past NZ aid policy was seen as more independent than Australia, but if this shift occurs NZ aid will become the financier of other arms of government as Australian aid has become over time.”

“The move of both Australian aid and NZ aid closer to their respective ministries of foreign affairs has meant that both have increasingly become arms of government and part of the 'whole of government approach' to the Pacific.”

Dr John McKinnon, an honorary research fellow at Victoria University (who set up development studies there several years ago) is critical of McCully’s approach to NZAid.
“McCully seems to have a need to flex his muscles but unfortunately most of his muscles are in his head,” he says.

“Why should he be allowed to arrogantly and so hurriedly demolish an agency that has taken more than a decade through careful deliberation to start up?”

Reputation at stake
Dr McKinnon says McCully’s proposed changes to NZAid would do little for New Zealand’s reputation as a leader in government aid.

“I really think NZAid has done a good job in placing itself, as much as possible, outside a political arena and setting its principal goal as poverty reduction”.

“New Zealanders can feel proud of what the agency has achieved in enhancing our national profile as a nation that cares.”

Professor Walsh is less convinced by NZAid’s efforts in the Pacific.

“Poverty is a structural issue that can only be addressed by each Pacific government,” he says.

Professor Walsh says the complicated flow of aid passing from the taxpayer to Island bureaucracies, large foreign-owned firms, NGOs, and “the backflow of aid through the purchase of NZ goods and services and repatriated salaries and profits” make any real positive impact upon the Pacific difficult to come by.

Statistics suggest New Zealanders share Professor Walsh’s scepticism. A NZAid study from July 2007 found that while 76 percent approved of New Zealand government providing overseas aid, “confidence in the effectiveness of overseas aid, whether provided through NGOs or by government, was again limited” (compared to the 2004 study).

Just 39 percent thought New Zealand’s NGOs are helping the impoverished in poorer countries, while only 29 percent were confident in the effectiveness of government aid.

Coates says the implementation of McCully’s mandates would ultimately mean “New Zealand’s reputation will suffer in the developing world”.

Human rights
While Coates says it is important for NZAid to exert some political influence over the Pacific – such as political intervention on the side of human rights, “good governance”, and “getting substantial services to people” – he questions recent government plans to use NZaid money to subsidise Air New Zealand flights between the United States, Tonga and Samoa.

The subsidies would be provided with the purpose of maintaining and strengthening the Pacific trade and tourist link to the United States.

“We think that might be a good idea, but it probably shouldn’t be done from the aid budget,” says Coates.

“It’s all very well to give that sort of support…but that’s not the kind of aid that should be targeted to the poor.”

McCully’s plans to move NZAid towards what he calls a more “hard-headed” economic focus is also calling into question the direction NZAID is heading.

Dr McKinnon says: “Talk of giving priority to economic issues is just another way of saying we should use aid solely for our political and economic advantage.”

One of the reasons McCully gave for the move is the enormous inequality in trade between New Zealand and the Pacific.

Barry Coates calls it “a travesty”.

“There’s a massive trade imbalance,” he says.

While New Zealand exported $794 million to Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) members (excluding Australia) in the year ending June 2008, imports from PIF members totalled at just $237 million, with a trade imbalance of $546 million.

New Zealand exports to Fiji were $337 million, with imports at just $69 million, 0.2 percent of our total imports.

Pacific imports
McCully said last month: “I believe that over time measurable increases in imports from the Pacific will be an important gauge of the effectiveness of New Zealand's development efforts in the region.”

Coates, however, criticises some of New Zealand’s recent moves towards freeing trade with the Pacific. In particular, he highlights the recent Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) between the Pacific and Australia and New Zealand, which aims to ultimately establish free trade between all three parties.

“There’s a hard push from New Zealand and Australia for negotiations to start before the Pacific are ready,” says Coates.

Trade Aid general manager Geoff White points to the general murkiness surrounding having economic development as a goal for NZAid.

“While economic development will always be a big part of poverty elimination, unless you have poverty elimination as the focus, economic development can mean anything.”

“We think that aid has to benefit the recipient and not the donor”.

Spokesman James Funnell says people are reading too much into the comments the minister has made concerning NZaid.

On Friday, the Labour Party is due to co-host a summit in Wellington with the Progressives, the Greens, other parties yet to be announced, and NGOs, to discuss the future of NZAid as McCully’s reviews proceed.

Picture: Oxfam's Barry Coates ... trying to open up the decision-making process.

Megan Anderson is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course, AUT University.

Don't Corrupt Aid
Anzac stranglehold on the 'free' Forum
Crosbie Walsh's Fiji blog

School 'unfairness' led to Moala’s media success

By Lucy Mullinger: Pacific Media Centre

Publisher Kalafi Moala’s civil rights streak began early – as a high school student. His friend and broadcaster Sefita Hao’uli told at the weekend how Moala had already brushed against government authority in school.

Teachers at the state-run Tonga High School, where Moala was head prefect, would “cane us if we tried to speak Tongan,” said Hao’uli.

Speaking at the launching of Moala’s second book, In Search of the Friendly Islands, Hao’uli described the clothes they had to wear at school – “thick blazers, socks up to our knees and caps in sweltering tropical heat”.

The boys were confused about why they needed to dress this way. But they knew one thing: “The moment you were in uniform you couldn’t speak Tongan.”

“We all thought what a silly uniform and why do we have to speak English, a language we don't understand?”

The unfair high school treatment propelled both men towards a media career.

Hao’uli later launched the 531pi Pacific community radio in Auckland and Moala now runs the government newspaper Kalonikali – the Chronicle. Twenty years ago when he sought help from the state paper, Moala was told his newspaper Taimi ‘o Tonga would not last three months.

New era
But the Taimi group has now taken over, marking a new era in government and press relations.

During the two decades he has owned the Taimi ‘o Tonga - a newspaper which according to Pacific Media Centre director Dr David Robie “aimed to bring alternative perspectives and voices into Tonga's public sphere” - government laws often curbed freedom of the press.

During October 1996, Moala was jailed for alleged contempt of Parliament and banned from his own country for more than four years, the newspaper was raided 12 times during a period of three years and he received death threats

His Auckland-based newspaper suffered because it practised “freedom of the press”.

Moala has won many different awards, including the Pacific Media Freedom Award for his fight for democratic reforms.

“I believe that without Taimi being in place, things wouldn't have changed as much as they have. Kalafi has made a real contribution to Tonga,” said Sefita Hao’uli.

“Any journalist worth his salt will learn how to write, spell and use proper syntax –
but without courage, the stories will be empty,” Hao’uli added.

“Kalafi is much more courageous than many of us.”

Finding solutions
Moala’s earlier book, Island Kingdom Strikes, published in 2002, was written mainly about the scandals and injustices that were carried out by the government and royal authorities. In Search of the Friendly Islands deals with Tonga’s problems and finding solutions.

According to his publisher, Ana Currie, Pasifika Foundation Press, a Hawai’i- based group, was keen to publish this book with the help of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre because of the “great work Kalafi has done for Tonga and the Pacific Islands”.

Currie met Moala back in 2003 and having lived in Hawai’i and travelled all over the Pacific, she appreciated “what Kalafi was fighting about”.

Innes Logan, publisher of Spasifik, the only mainstream media Pacific magazine in New Zealand, said: “There must be a new way we can confront the problems that we face”.

Moala said: “My dream and hope for Tonga is that we will have a nation with freedom and without anarchy”.

Picture: Kalafi Moala being interviewed by CBA's John Cameron and Shona Caughey at the book launching. Photo: Lucy Mullinger.

Lucy Mullinger is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course, AUT University.

Pasifika Foundation Press
Book launching photo gallery
In Search of the Friendly Islands