It's taken Radio Australia more than 60 hours to broadcast a landmark speech given on Monday night to the Australia Fiji Business Forum by the Deputy Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop. (see previous posting) In that speech, Ms Bishop signaled a radical overhaul of Australia's policy towards Fiji if the … [Read more...] about # 60 HOURS LATE. THE ABC OF NEWS
# THE ABC OF PROPAGANDA
Compelling evidence has emerged that Radio Australia - the overseas service of Australia's public broadcaster, the ABC - has suppressed public comments in which the country's alternative foreign minister outlined a radical change of Australian policy towards Fiji. Grubsheet can reveal that when Julie Bishop, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and … [Read more...] about # THE ABC OF PROPAGANDA
# FINALLY, THE TIDE TURNS
For the first time in nearly seven years - since the Bainimarama takeover of 2006 - there's been a change in the official Australian attitude to Fiji. It's outlined in a remarkable speech by Julie Bishop, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, to this week's Australia Fiji Business Forum in Brisbane. … [Read more...] about # FINALLY, THE TIDE TURNS
# FIJI LEADS PACIFIC REVOLT
Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation SPEECH 20th Australia Fiji Business Forum, July 28-30, 2013. The Honourable Matt Thistlethwaite, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs The Honourable Julie Bishop, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and … [Read more...] about # FIJI LEADS PACIFIC REVOLT
# A TALE OF TWO NATIONS
Trawling through the Papua New Guinea media in search of local reaction to the asylum seeker deal with Australia, Grubsheet stumbled upon an article written a few months back by one of the country's best journalists, Frank Sege Kolma, that pretty neatly sums up the difference between the two countries. It has particular resonance as the Fijian … [Read more...] about # A TALE OF TWO NATIONS
# AUSTRALIAN PROBLEM, MELANESIAN SOLUTION
"Imagine what the South Pacific would be like in five or six years’ time if there were 50,000 resettled refugees in PNG, and perhaps 10,000 in Vanuatu, 5000 in Solomon Islands and a few thousands elsewhere in the Pacific. These refugees would be Iranians, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Palestinians, perhaps some Sudanese and Somalis, and most of them … [Read more...] about # AUSTRALIAN PROBLEM, MELANESIAN SOLUTION