The ABC would get $8 million a year to deliver Australian content to Pacific nations under a Labor plan to lift engagement and challenge China's expansionism.
Sending the Pacific minister instead of the foreign minister to the Solomon Islands amid security negotiations with China was the right course of action, the prime minister maintains.Â
Australia's Pacific Minister Zed Seselja has flown to Honiara to strengthen Australia's relationship with Solomon Islands after a leaked Chinese request to import arms was made public.
The first indigenous female from the Pacific to become a professor at The Australian National University, Katerina Teaiwa has been named the 2021 Australian University Teacher of the Year for her visionary approach to teaching and mentoring students in Pacific studies.
New Zealand has moved to make good from sins of the past, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern issuing a formal state apology for historic racist policing of Pacific people.
French President Emmanuel Macron has reasserted his nation's presence in the Pacific on a visit to French Polynesia, a trip aimed at countering growing Chinese dominance in the region.
Tokyo is bracing for a storm that has begun to disrupt Olympic competition schedules this week, though the surfers have taken the predicted rougher weather in their stride.
