- Students at the University of Papua New Guinea continue to hold peaceful protests against government interference in ongoing corruption cases. If the protests do not end soon, the full semester will be suspended.
- The Ombudsman Commission has built on the students protests by also calling for leaders facing charges to step down. This was echoed in an editorial from the Post Courier, one of Papua New Guinea’s two leading newspapers, yesterday.
- The PNG fraud squad has also been reopened after three weeks of closure, but with extra measures of oversight over which cases they can pursue.
- Meanwhile, the Manus Island detention centre continues to make headlines. There is still no timeline for closure of the facility after the Supreme Court decision.
- The Pacific was largely spared from this year’s Australian aid cuts.
- Five reef islands in Solomon Islands have reportedly been completely washed away. The author of the original report has pushed back at ‘exaggerated’ reports that have overstated the climate change link.
- Solomon Islands will host the 2023 Pacific games, after Tonga hosts in 2019.
- The state of Vanuatu’s airport continues to have an impact on tourism in the country, despite completed repairs.
- Finally, the Lowy Institute’s Melanesia Program was in Port Moresby this week to co-host a roundtable of 50 young entrepreneurs. We’ll have more to say about it in the coming weeks. A picture of the participants below:
