Sharp talking: PNG politicians take notice of social media

Some maintain that PNG’s upwardly mobile ‘twitterati’ is too small and too middle-class to make a significant impact on PNG politics. However the ABC’s Liam Fox reports that the role of social media in the recent scandal involving the Department of Finance shows why PNG politicians, at least, are starting to take it seriously.

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‘The bottom line for PNG is that…[resources sector] revenues can dwindle almost overnight,’ warns Rowan Callick in Islands Business magazine, as he analyses the tricky decisions facing the O’Neill Government, as it seeks to sustain the momentum of its key mining and petroleum sector.

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The success of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is illustrated by the fact that its military contingent will start to withdraw in July. Radio Australia interviews RAMSI’s Special Coordinator Nicholas Coppel.

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The positive noises emanating from Canberra and Wellington about Fiji’s progress towards democratic elections are being increasingly challenged by the international union movement.

Ged Kearney, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, tells Radio Australia that, unless Fiji’s coup installed military government can prove the 2014 elections will be free and fair by September, unions in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and United States will pressure their governments not to help fund the polls on the grounds they would be ‘a farce’.

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PNG could soon experience an export boom – in the form of its Rugby League players, according to Kumuls coach Adrian Lam.

‘Once the Super League clubs see these young kids, they’ll be all over them,’ he told rleague.com ahead of PNG’s October tour to England.

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Bill shock? The Melbourne Age provides an insight into the ‘blatant and brutal’ rip-off that is international data roaming.