By Harriet Smith, an intern with the Lowy Institute's Melanesia Program
- Rebuilding and recovery continues in Fiji a year after Cyclone Winston, the category five cyclone that devastated the nation and killed 44 people.
- Five political parties in Fiji have called for the removal of the elections supervisor, claiming the current Prime Minister’s party exerts too much control over the election process.
- This comes as a poll shows Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama remains the most popular choice.
- Some 200 charges against Samoa’s suspended police commissioner have been dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
- The outgoing Governor General of Papua New Guinea Sir Michael Ogio has died. His successor is Bob Dadae.
- In PNG, landowners angered by the non-payment of royalties from the LNG project have blockaded the plant's main gate.
- New Zealand has extended an offer of help to Bougainville in the period leading to the referendum.
- New Zealand will also maintain police presence in Solomon Islands after RAMSI departs.
- The Kingdom of Tonga’s Queen Mother has died in Auckland at the age of 90.
- A motion of no confidence has been tabled against Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva.
- Tonga has adopted a new geolocation technology to give the nation its first formal postal system. Instead of using street names or numbers, the What3Words system allocates three random words to a location – the address of Tonga Post will be 'international.bashfully.placidity'.
- Australian filmmaker Bob Connolly returned to PNG 25 years after making the documentary Black Harvest, which followed a violent conflict in Mount Hagen, and reconnected with the people in the film and their descendants.
