Tonga Prime Minister

At a meeting at Ha'apai High School in Pangai last night, the Prime Minister extended gratitude for all they had done to assist the Government.

Hu’akavameiliku said they are the bridge to government in connecting its services to the community.

“Without your assistance nothing would be done,” he told them.

A statement said Hu’akavameiliku said he was grateful for the meeting where frank discussions took place.

District and Town Officers come under the Prime Minister’s Office.

Photo file 

The motion was submitted by nine members of the Democratic Party founded by the late Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva, plus a member of the current government who crossed the floor to join the opposition.

The motion detailed several allegations at Mr Tu'i'onetoa, mostly around government spending.

Our correspondent said key to determining the result of the vote of no confidence motion were the noble members of Parliament as well as independent members.

Mr Pohiva said he was not happy with how the Tonga Broadcasting Commission operated and a review would be carried out over the next month.

The prime minister said the services may be better carried out by a different provider.

Mr Pohiva, who has long been at loggerheads with the management of the TBC, said the broadcaster was an obstacle and a real constraint on the work of government.

 Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva has launched a crusade against people involved in the illegal sale of Tongan passports, which he claims have been used to smuggle drugs to New Zealand and elsewhere.

A police taskforce was established last year to investigate and is receiving help from New Zealand's Serious Fraud Office.

About a dozen lower-level Government officials have been arrested but Pohiva wants his predecessor, current Speaker of Parliament Lord Tu'ivakano, to be charged. 

The emails show that the dispute over who was responsible for organising and contracting the Magana-O’Callaghan interview with Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva for a Forbes advertorial, will drag on for a while.

Kalafi stated, “…how easy to squeeze a quarter of a million pa’anga out of a poor country for a useless piece of cut and paste journalism.” He called it, “a case of envelope journalism in which the interview subject pays the journalists who did the interview.”