It’s a sign of the intense dilemma that the People’s Alliance faces over the future of the “Minister for Bonking and Weed” that its legal sub-committee is still locked in deliberations over the drug and sex scandal that threatens her political career.
The Committee is supposed to have already reported its recommendations on what action, if any, should be taken but the deliberations are reported to be so “intense” that it will take “several more days” for an outcome.
Lynda Tabuya herself appears supremely confident in her latest posting on social media depicting her resplendent and making references to being “victorious” at a women’s power conference in New Zealand. Does she already know that she is going to be cleared? Not so, according to some insiders.
On Monday, the General Secretary of the People’s Alliance, Pita Waqatairewa, told Radio New Zealand that the process had been “delayed” and that it would eventually be up to the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, to decide whether the Great Temptress should be dismissed as Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection.
So what is Sitiveni Rabuka’s attitude to what happened in Room 233 of the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne between Lynda Tabuya and Aseri Rarodro, her fellow minister who has now been removed from the education portfolio and sent to the back bench?
It turns out that the Prime Minister has been wrestling with what to do for as long ago as last October when the “intimate” photos of Tabuya first came to his attention, having been accessed from Radrodro’s phone and leaked. According to a high level government source, the photos prompted him to remove the Minister as leader of government business in the Parliament. He couldn’t say so at the time and was forced to concoct the story that she had been removed because of tensions with the Speaker, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu. But it was the photos that were evidently the real reason for Tabuya’s removal. The Prime Minister knew it was only a matter of time before they surfaced and so it has proved to be.
However much Sitiveni Rabuka might prefer to exonerate the Minister, and especially if he is planning an early election, he knows that this issue isn’t going to go away. Public sentiment has turned on Lynda Tabuya, judging from the reaction on social media and in the comments sections of Grubsheet, and it is women who are leading the charge. So the political risk to the government is acute and if she is cleared, it could dog the Coalition all the way to an election and severely damage the credibility of the PAP.
Lynda Tabuya’s lack of judgment since the incriminating images and texts first emerged on Fijileaks has been astounding. She fouled her patch even further by releasing video of a child being beaten and refused to remove it from her Facebook account for several days after the Online Safety Commission requested that she do so. And she presided over a raffle for the Kadavu Rugby Club in which all but one of the prizes were bottles of hard liquor, including a Jack Daniels whiskey that appears in one of the leaked images from Room 233.
The government has faced strong criticism for not standing Lynda Tabuya down as minister while the investigation against her continues. And the Committee’s delay in being able to reach a consensus tells us one thing – that even her diehard supporters in the PAP realise that a whitewash that clears her is no longer an option. Because the evidence against her is just too overwhelming.
One of the most decisive factors has been the hard evidence from the Australian government’s Online Safety Commissioner, with which she filed formal complaints about Grubsheet publishing the leaked “intimate images” of her and obtained orders for me to remove them. Those complaints weren’t that the leaked images were fake – which is what she has claimed publicly – but that I didn’t have her consent to use them.
So that while the Minister is putting on a brave face with her latest appearance in Auckland – which gives the appearance of confidence that she will be cleared – the reality is that the PAP knows that if it does, it will be sipping from a poisoned chalice of public anger all the way to the next election.
The spectre of Lynda Tabuya striding cockily into the parliament at its next sitting having been exonerated with her lover, Aseri Radrodro, glowering from the backbench is an image that is exercising a great many minds as the PAP legal sub-committee continues to wrestle with this scandal. Because even her strongest supporters know this issue will remain a damaging distraction when the Coalition is already facing a range of political challenges and its honeymoon with the electorate is now a distant memory.
She needs to go if PAP wants to have any credibility left however you cannot expect any better from this racist and law breaking govt. Rabuka will fear Lynda will expose him for their adultery if he takes action against her.
Rabuka has nothing to fear.
He is well known for his adultery.
Sack her now.
Who will believe anything she says anyway.
People need to speak up peacefully now and let the govt know what we expect and demand swift action.
If Mr Rabuka does not remove her for whatever reason would only show his weakness. And the delay is already showing he has so much personally to lose that he has not put ethics and integrity above all else.
This should be such an easy one. Hard for decent people to understand how this could be delayed. Losing all respect.
Lynda has also been very selective in terms of a sympathy towards victims of abuse and violence. Like other fanatics she treads heavily along racial lines. She is the Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection yet there is not a single statement from her regarding the recent bullying case in a prominent school in Nadi
Lynda is racist. Period.
No question LT’s bigotry is hard to beat. Demanding minority women for proof of sexual abuse during SLR coups is beyond the pale. And don’t celebrate Diwali on Sunday yet dress up in ethnic clothes to “celebrate “ with the same abused, marginalized ethnic community? Yeah, brutal racist emulating her coup leader fuddy daddy.
If PAP and Rabuka had an ounce of moral standing left, they would remove this embarrassing, egotistical nutcase who has done nothing but enjoy the limelight and abuse the law, thus exposing herself in the process. She is not leadership material rather an utter shame for the Fiji Government and for Fiji as a whole.
In early Jan, A New Zealand MP -Golriz Ghahraman, resigned following multiple allegations of shoplifting, which police investigated. She was alleged to have stolen three times from two clothing stores – in Auckland and Wellington. If that’s how seriously the NZ Government hold their own Ministers to account, Lynda would not have lasted a day with the her conduct. A terrible role model for all.
Covering up her misconduct is an abuse of law and order and only cheapens everything about this Government’s reputation, which is decaying rapidly. It would do well to remove her from Government once and for all. She has lost a huge part of her support base and that says a lot!
MP Golriz is a decent human who is going through mental health concerns.
There is no comparison between Golriz and Tabuya. Let’s not even go there.
Golriz has a long history of an outstanding leader.
She recently made news for holding the embassador for Iran to account in NZ.
On that topic, NZ women leaders will soon be holding Ratu Inoke Kubuabola accountable. He was part of the 1987 coup and he doesn’t get the right to be an embassador to New Zealand. He must stand down from his position now before this all blows up in Wellington soon.
No its not the PM’s call fellow Peoples Party Members .
It is a decision made by regulations provided by the Constitution of the Party.
Men and women who fill the positions that are Constitutional allowed to deal with this situation need only consider the following facts;
That a party member who is a Minister of State conducted in the following manner
1. Committed adultery as she is a married women
2. Committed adultery with a man who was also married
3. The man she committed adultery with was with his wife and she was only meters away.
4. This was all done whilst on State business in a foreign country that was hosting both her and her fellow State Minster
5 She was in a drunk and drug fuelled state.
6. She lied to her PM , lied to the Party and lied to the people of Fiji.
The Party can not send this back to the PM for a decision – he is an infamous philanderer and adulterer. He has great courage but the weakest morality proven over and over again, but most critically when he allowed the man who for all intent and purpose murdered his daughter if he had not intervened and saved her life, but then decided to let the man off against a well founded government regulation because of his power and prestige as a politician.
Now ask yourself how God acts in mysterious ways?
Please Party members, do not lay this decision at the feet of the PM.
He will decide to keep her and this will outrage half the women.
He will decide to send her to the back bench which will enrage half the women who will scream hypocrite.
It’s simple. These two Ministers DECIDED to engage in highly risky business and they lost and must pay the price. One has, the other must also.
Don’t lay this on the people, the Party or the PM. Lay it on yourselves.
The ONLY question is why are they still in Parliament ?
In my opinion they have no right to be in Parliament and all Parties and Parliamentarians must take action to remove them. We are fortunate in this respect that the Constitution and the Electoral system makes this a very simple process without the need for a by-election.
In a religious country like Fiji – Christians, Hindus, Muslims, why is this decision taking longer than 10 minutes.
Get them out of Parliament !
Get rid of the festering pain from the body politic and the people of Fiji and good riddance to it.
Her lack of empathy and zero humility, pretending (mask will fall off eventually) not to be affected by the public exposure on her criminal drug habits during a taxpayer funded government trip are red flags of a brutally desperate politician who still doesn’t realize even at this stage that her pie-in-the-sky dream of becoming Fiji’s 1st woman PM went to the dogs with her criminal drug habits now exposed for the world to see.
Get your drug-fuelled head out of the sand and humble yourself Dishonorable MP, admit your criminal deeds, apologize to Fiji and resign.
Message to PM SL Rabuka: Do the right thing, even if it means exiting the political stage and not bowing down to this immoral and shameless woman’s string pulling behind the scene. We can only imagine 🙁 Disregard this advice at the party’s own peril. PAP will be bootstrapped back to the Opposition benches with her 15k (and rapidly falling) voters in tow, come GE2026.
Your advisers should be telling you that it’s not her voters (and not even yours) or Sodelpa’s that moved you all from the opposition to the government benches but the voting minority like me that placed our faith and trust in PAP to bring about REAL change for all Fijians. You will move on Sir but Fijians cannot have a druggist and political prostitute wrecking havoc on Fiji’s political landscape now and in the future.
Do the right thing.
Ask her to resign asap.
Save the party/coalition government.
We don’t want to go back to Egypt, if you can catch my drift. FFP is looking much better than your lot (a few rotten potatoes) the way you’re leading the country right now.
First thing first.
Kia ora is made up of two words.
So get that right Lynda and show some respect. This is Aotearoa New Zealand.
It is Kia ora and not kiaora.
Second while in NZ, leave the Fijians here with some respect. Remember you left us last time by claiming that you were Māori when you are not. No one claims another indigenous self but you did for fame on Matariki. It was a low, as expected, but try doing better this time.
Third, the Pacific community here in NZ hold themselves in high regard. So be careful what you say and do. Just don’t tarnish the image of other women leaders here by acting foolish, drunk and high. They all know about your disciplinary proceedings at home. And if you haven’t noticed, they don’t want to be in the same photo with you here. Hope you are getting the subtle message that they don’t entertain your shit here.
Fourth, who sent this woman to NZ? What on actual earth is Fiji Government doing knowing too well how people feel about her right now? She doesn’t get to represent Fiji while facing a committee at home on drugs and sex scandal issues. Fiji Government please do better. Keep this disgraceful woman home. She has also picked up the title of a disgraced child abuser. These are not little things in NZs leadership domain. Don’t send her anywhere to represent women.
Some of us walked out of the event when we saw Lynda there. Because we felt embarrassed as Fijian women being around her.
She is spinning on an axis and so she should.
Who allowed her to travel overseas?
She is a disgrace and should not be representing Fijian women abroad.
A wise leader will show some credibility and dignity even if she is found not guilty.
A wise leader will be careful on how they portray themselves when all eyes are on them.
Not Lynda though. Wise and Lynda don’t appear in the same sentence.
A terrible role model for all.
https://www.undp.org/pacific/press-releases/pacific-women-power-forum-commences-auckland
Lynda Tabuya-
If you want to EMPOWER women in FIJI then lead with honesty, integrity and ethics and courage to admit when you make a mistake and step down already. You have betrayed us.
Why aren’t you empowering the women of Fiji who can really use it IN Fiji instead of another lavish trip. This is really sickening. What are you doing to empower women in Fiji who have ideas and dream but cannot afford to fly to NZ and don’t even have a visa to do so?
Only the privileged with a visa get to get empowered?
Put a moratorium on all trips FIJI GOVT until you get your people out of poverty.
I really don’t know how anyone can drive around in fancy cars, wine and dine and travel all over the world when this country is in shambles and people don’t have food.
There needs to be one Minister just for children. There should be no more excessive spending or travel at all.
I am losing the will to live as I watch with disbelief. This just gets more stupid by the second.
I am thinking about all the poor children in Fiji today that really need help and you are doing what? Who is being neglected as you are over there taking photos of your dress.
Bad timing Tabuya. You are so out of touch.
According to sources within the government, they are in a tight spot because they simply cannot afford to send Lynda to the backbench. Lynda is notorious for party hopping after she stood in three different elections under three different parties. The Coalition is conscious that she will not hesitate to switch sides with FijiFirst should there be a need for snap elections or a vote of no confidence is moved in parliament.
This notion is being spread primarily by Lynda’s supporters to try to save her but these are the facts:
1/ She cannot cross the floor or vote against the government without automatically losing her seat under the terms of the Constitution.
2/ She could conceivably vote against the government in a motion of no confidence with the idea of joining another political party. But who would have her?
3/ She is damaged goods. SODELPA won’t have her back without suffering a huge loss of face. FijiFirst won’t have her because they have expelled members for far less grievous offences. And would the NFP take her? Not a chance.
4/ She has had a spectacular fall from grace and even the comments on this page demonstrate how parlous her personal and political position has become. So for the aforementioned reasons, I think this is a bluff and deserves the be treated as such and faced down.
Spot on, Graham.
No more lies.
Well the answer to her not jumping sides is to ban her from all other govt posts.
How can she qualify after this?
It would take more than Lynda for a vote of no confidence to be successful and would require at least 1 more for a vote to be successful. I don’t see her alleged lover, now a backbencher, wanting to join her. Power is a strong motivator and being in opposition you have no power. Voting against your party would result in expulsion.
As for party hopping, neither Lynda or any other member of Parliament switching sides is possible under the Constitution see s.63. Any attempt would see them expelled from their party and with-it the loss of their seat in Parliament.
As for Lynda joining another party like Fiji First I don’t think so. I would think they would see her as a political liability.
Lynda is notorious for hopping anything and everything.
She is a loser.
No one wants a loser on their side.
All this will be swept under the rug. The so called discplinary committee is just a sham. There’s too much vakavanua in this coalition govt.
Why no one in Linda’s party isn’t simply using this website and FijiLeaks to get a chronological list of articles with the relevant evidence is beyond me.
Both sites have well laid out articles proving Lynda’s guilt and attempts to hoodwink the party as well as the people of Fiji. Anyone who is a supporter of the party needs to sit the committee down in front of a computer and show them the evidence.
Unless she’s planning to sleep with all the party officials to get them on her side, the writing on the digital wall is clear – Lynda has lied to the party, the people of Fiji and to her family about what happened in Australia. The Cyber watchdog has formally CONFIRMED Lynda’s admission that the images are of her.
Victor’s site went super forensic and tied everything with a nice bowtie, showing the carpet matching and other photos clearly showing she was in that room trying the break the bed head with Aseri.
Why is there so much delay in finalizing the decision?
She has 2100 likes and over 300 comments on her recent fashion post on Facebook. Unfortunately, PAP is not going to cut her loose.
2100 likes, 300 + comments out of 760,000 Fijian voters and counting ????????
Even with 15k votes, these weren’t enough to give PAP a clear victory. Sodelpa AND NFP saved the day for the coalition government, not LT’s sheeoples.
So what about the 700,000 voters that didn’t vote for her..do they matter? Of course they do!
And what does that mean? Her followers are the usual uneducated lot. Beautiful madam, nice naita, la la la. If one has 176k dead followers and 2k likes then there goes her fame.
Put her in a room of educated women panel in Fiji so they can put her in her place.
Even a nice looking bitch dog has 10k followers on internet nowadays. Just saying.
Which right minded Govt sends someone as tainted as her to “women in power” conference? She should be suspended pending outcome of the investigation- it’s not a trivial matter that she’s being investigated for – suspension pending investigation is the practise where good governance prevails. But wait this Govt is not in its right mind and neither good governance prevails. Shame!
Throw the whole lot out.
Mark my words PAP, if Lynda is not forced to resign then PAP becomes the biggest hypocritical party there is, and they will fail miserably at the next polls.
In any other sane world, this woman would have been fired and her political career over. Do the right thing PAP and boot her out. Fiji needs leaders who want to serve the people 24/7.
Not someone like LT who bonks another women’s husbands on an official trip overseas while his wife sleeps a few doors down.
Not weed smoking ministers such as LT especially with the drugs situation in Fiji.
Not insensitive and ignorant people sharing child video beatings when told not to.
Not blatant liars like LT who claimed the pictures were fake and then complained to E Safety commissioner that GS did not have consent to share her intimate porn images.
Not hypocritical LT who crusades against porn and child pornography but takes pornographic images of herself to share with her lover.
Not attention seeking leaders like LT who take ANY publicity opportunity to make herself look good.
Finally, to the dishonourable Madam LT, if you have some form of decency left, please do the honourable thing and resign. And maybe just maybe, the Fijian public might forgive you years down the line. But the people aren’t stupid. Please do not offend the Fijian public by assuming that this will be blow over. It wont. Make that mistake at your own peril.
Vinaka
Must be a hard pill to swallow for the Dishonourable MP to read on both the UNDP and Fiji Government FB pages that she’s not even mentioned or spotlighted in their posts on her unnecessary overseas travel junket to NZ to attend a women’s forum.
Sashi is there, why didn’t you just stay and serve the Fijian women and children? Do some tangible good apart from holding ordinary, nothing-to-write-home-about meetings (utterly boring) to lift them out of poverty. Eh Minister of Poverty?? Not even on Fiji Government FB page where the focus was intentionally on Helen Clark. UNDP chose to feature Sashi Kiran instead. There you go, nuff said!