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Friday 1 August 2014

News and Comments Thursday 31 July

WOMEN CHIEFS TO BE RECOGNIZED. ITAUKEI women who hold chiefly titles in iTaukei communities will be publicly recognised at the first ever Fijian women's expo.

Minister for Women Dr Jiko Luveni said a seminar called the Marama Ni Yavusa seminar would be held to allow them to understand their roles and empower women in their communities upon the completion of the expo.

"This is the first time we will bring together traditional leaders and we want to make them feel important by meeting and sharing experiences and provide them training for better communication skills so they can be effective so when they go back they will be able to take control of the traditional position they have inherited."

The expo, to be held at the Vodafone Arena from August 6-8, is expected to attract about 3000 women and is going to be the first and the biggest of its kind in Fiji.

Women who produce handicraft items made from Fijian raw materials will have a chance to showcase their talents at the three-day event.

FIJI LEAKS is very definitely anti-Bainimarama and tends to suffer at times from incontinence but it  provides some useful background papers on a number of election-related issues. http://www.fijileaks.com/index.html

NFP MAY NOT WANT GCC REINSTATED. The Leader of the National Federation Party, Professor Biman Prasad said they have not said anywhere in their manifesto that they want the Great Council of Chiefs to be reinstated.

Prasad said they have only said that within the first 100 days in
government, they will be calling a meeting of the Chiefs and the head of Yavusa’s to discuss issues in relation to the itaukei administration and discuss issues about other provisions in the constitution within the parliamentary process.

PDP WILL REVIEW TAX STRUCTURES. The People’s Democratic Party says it will review the tax structure if it forms Government.

PDP Leader Felix Anthony says the party will relook at Government budgets, as well as tax structures to reduce poverty levels.

“We need to know what we need as a Government to run efficiently to carry out the programmes we stated in our manifesto and that would be the determining factor as to how we review taxes and which areas that we need to address,” he said.

The PDP also expressing its concern at senior public servants getting involved in politics.

“Well we all know that these people are standing in elections, all of them, almost all the entire cabinet is going to stand for elections, yet they continue to be in office. No one is talking about resigning from the Government before standing for elections,” he adds.

Fiji One News has however verified that according to Section 24 (1) of the Electoral Decree, a person who holds public office, as defined by section 57 of the constitution, is deemed to have vacated that office at the time at which he or she has signed a nomination as a candidate for the elections.

The former trade unionist also cautioning authorities on the review of compensation law.

“The Fiji Trades Union Congress under my leadership over the past years have been urging the Government to repeal the workmen’s compensation act to increase compensation claims and not only that but to make compensation payable to workers much more and make the process efficient,” Anthony added.

2 comments:

Well done Meg Taylor said...

Dame Meg Taylor's appointment as the next Secretary General of the prestigious Pacific Islands Forum is a great step forward for the women of the Pacific. This organisation is going forward in leaps and bounds. Fiji MAY be allowed to rejoin if it can show that it has held free and fair elections despite the ongoing military junta stuff ups. Let us all hope the whinging bleating illegal regime can get its goats in a circle and demonstrate some credible elections?

Anonymous said...

NFP MAY NOT WANT GCC REINSTATED......Native Fijians should expect it because the Party is an Indian dominated Party and of cause the GCC is of no value but a hindrance to them. It is not a surprise because the GCC has the ultimate say in the issue in regards to Native Land. In a community/villages/Clan/Province, the Chiefly title is of the highest value and the GCC is the highest forum in this Land of the Native Fijians.