Labour mobility

Tongan Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni said the funding arrangement is to support Tonga's economic recovery from compounding shocks, including Covid-19, the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcanic disaster, and more recent global inflationary pressures.

A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed renewing the commitment to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme.

A third arrangement will see the Tonga Civil Aviation Division work more closely with Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Photo PM Press 

Using the results of the first batch of data, the recently completed Tongan household survey, which sampled 1,160 households and 7,359 individuals, researchers Ryan Edwards and Toan Nguyen (ANU) and economists Matthew Dornan and Dung Doan (WB) looked at who received remittances from whom, how much is received and what the funds are used for. 

After more than six years of negotiations 12 Pacific Island Forum countries are expected to sign Pacer Plus this month..

Initially, the countries had pushed for legally binding arrangements on labour mobility but Australia and New Zealand convinced them otherwise, supposedly to protect the schemes' exclusivity to Pacific countries.

But the Solomon Islands foreign minister Milner Tozaka said it was still one of the main reasons they wanted to sign on.

Kiribati, with help from the Prince Albert of Monaco Foundation, is hosting a conference to consider how to prepare for climate migrants to move in a dignified way.

The Kiribati Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Akka Rimon, says it is part of the gradual process of preparation for something that will become inevitable.

She says one thing they will want to look at will be extensions to existing labour mobility arrangements with countries like Australia and New Zealand.