Neu: 2002-04-12 Contents of this issue:
1. Court Orders Payment 2. Teachers Extend Break 3. Quick G'Day 4. Games Village 5. Tradition Abandoned 6. Turtle Mail ======================================================================== April 12th, 2002 1. Court Orders Payment: The almost insolvent Solomon Islands government has been hit with a court order directing it to make a payment that amounts to about one-fifth of the country's total national budget. The instruction was issued by the Solomon Islands High Court. It ordered the government to pay the equivalent of about US$ 2.5 million to three banks handling the country's National Provident Fund. The money is for defaulting on Treasury bonds.(Radio Australia). 3. Teachers Extend Break: As Niue students prepare to head back to school next week after a two week term break, thousands of Auckland NZ year 10 students are getting an extended holiday. The region's secondary teachers are continuing to apply pressure to try to push the Minister into giving them bigger pay packets. As part of their campaign they're refusing to teach students , on a rotating basis. PPTA Regional Secretary Chris Bangs says they will begin with Year 10s on Monday. Year 11 students will be rostered home on Tuesday, Year 12s on Wednesday, Year13s on Thursday and the Year 9s on Friday. In the third week of the term, secondary teachers throughout the country will stage one day strikes, rolling from region to region. 4. Quick G'Day: New Zealand's Foreign Minister Phil Goff, a party of politicians from both sides of the Parliament and ngo respresentatives will stopover on Niue Saturday (Niue time) as their air force 727 touches down before the flight back to Wellington. The group is on its way back from a familiarisation tour of the Cook Islands and Samoa.During the short noon stopover Mr Goff will meet with Premier Sani Lakatani and NZ High Commissioner John Bryan. 5. Games Village: Niue athletes participating in next year's South Pacific Games will be housed at the University of the South Pacific's 73-hectare Laucala campus in Suva. It is the official village for next year's South Pacific Games, 28 June-12 July. During this period USP students will be on semester break. The confirmation of the use of the campus was reached after discussions between the South Pacific Games Organising Committee and university administrators. The campus is beside the main games venues, and participants and officials will be able to walk to them. The games organising committee will be responsible for upgrading existing campus facilities to ensure the village meets the needs of an estimated 4000 athletes and officials. Registrar Walter Fraser said as well as short term benefits the university would benefit long term, such as through enhanced water and power supplies. ( PINA Nius Online). 6. Tradition Abandoned: The Government will reveal the details of a new Supreme Court on Monday, ending New Zealand's 160-year link to the Privy Council in London.The NZ Herald understands that the NZ Attorney-General Margaret Wilson will announce the establishment of a new top tier on the country's judicial system at a press conference, after Cabinet approves recommendations made by an advisory group. The Supreme Court will sit above the Court of Appeal - which, in turn is above the High Court and District Courts - and will be headed by five judges. They are not expected to be named in the announcement. It is understood that the idea of having judges from overseas sit on cases has been rejected. The advisory group report was commissioned after three other options contained in an earlier discussion document were rejected. It is understood legislation to set up the new court will be introduced before this year's election, but it is not expected to be passed until next year. The court is not expected to be active before 2004. The Government has stated its intention to abolish links to the London Law Lords for several years. It is not yet known how much extra the new court will add to the cost of running the Judiciary, or what its judges will be paid. Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias makes about $305,200 a year and Court of Appeal president Sir Ivor Richardson $295,600. The Business Roundtable has said that it would be damaging to New Zealand business if access to the Privy Council was cut without an internationally acceptable replacement court system being in place. Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr said yesterday that he did not believe it was possible to come up with a New Zealand arrangement better than the Privy Council system. Maori have also expressed concern about the loss of the Privy Council, saying it provided direct access to the Sovereign, as guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi. (NZ Herald) 7. Turtle Mail: Those residents on Niue who often express concern at the time it takes to get a par avion letter from New Zealand to the island via Tonga take note. New Zealand Post has begun investigating why it took a parcel more than six months to travel from Petone to Wellington. Publisher Matt Bird posted a package containing three copies of AgBrief - an agricultural business weekly - to the legal deposit section of the National Library on October 4, 2001. It didn't arrive at its destination till Thursday, six months after it left his office. "I've got clients in Paris and Geneva who I can get parcels to in two days, but it's taken six months for this to get across Wellington," he said. Mr Bird said he was mystified when National Library contacted him to advise that the magazines had not been received in October. "I couldn't understand it - but in the end I gave up and re-sent them." He was even more surprised to receive another call last week, telling him the original parcel had turned up. New Zealand Post spokeswoman Tanya Henderson said investigations had begun. "It's obviously one of those very rare incidents where something has gone wrong somewhere. We will need to talk to the people involved and will help any way we can," she said. __END__
