Vanessa McMullen, 21

Fijian woman wins epic Australian case

Who qualifies to be defined as a “parent”? In Australian law, the term parent had no definition until a Fiji-born woman challenged the meaning of the word in that country’s courts. Vanessa McMullen, 21, had always known Fred McMullen as dad, but it was only established years later when she tried to apply for Australian citizenship that he was not her biological father. Ms McMullen’s landmark legal battle came to an epic end in November last year when three Australian Federal Court judges ruled that legal interpretations of the word “parent” had to move with the times and include non-biological parents.

Ms McMullen’s mother Akisi “Rachel” Dilagi had told her Fred McMullen, of Melbourne, was her father. But when Ms McMullen applied for Australian citizenship in December 2008, Dilagi revealed that another Australian man Bill Davidson, who died in 1990, was her biological father. Mr McMullen has loved and cared for Vanessa as he has for his other three children. But the Citizenship Department refused Ms McMullen’s citizenship saying there was no evidence that the late Davidson was her father apart from Dilagi’s word. By law, a person applying for citizenship by descent must have at least one Australian citizen parent at birth. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal then said Ms McMullen should be granted citizenship as it would be “restrictive, unfair and unreasonable” to administratively decide Mr McMullen was not her father. In an unsuccessful appeal against this decision, the Immigration and Citizenship Minister cited a dictionary definition to support the claim that the word “parent” meant “biological parent”.
Lawyers for McMullen and Chinese-born boy Neo Wang Hudson – who successfully appealed against the tribunal’s decision to refuse him Fijian woman wins epic Australian case citizenship by descent – said its meaning was broader and signified a socially defined status held by the parent in relation to their child.

Justices Michael Moore, Susan Kenny and Richard Tracey said “being a parent within the ordinary meaning of the word may depend on various factors, including social, legal and biological”. “Typically, parentage is not just a matter of biology, but of intense commitment to another, expressed by acknowledging that other person as one's own and treating him as one's own,'' they said. They ordered the department to pay Ms McMullen's costs of $16,250 in a case believed to have cost the taxpayer about $500,000. Mr McMullen said he was “over the moon” that the judges had recognised the need for Australian law to follow social changes here and overseas. “Those who take on responsibility to bring up children ought to be recognised as the ones that are truly acting as proper parents,” he said. “Sometimes the biological parent may not be worthy of being called a parent.”
The judges said it must be concluded that “there is little, if anything” in the Citizenship Act to support the proposition that the word “parent” could only mean “biological parent”, irrespective of its ordinary meaning.
They said that contrary to the minister’s argument, their ruling would not open the floodgates for numerous citizenship applications, as claimants had to show they had a citizen parent at birth. In the Hudson case, the court heard Neo, aged two, was born to Chinese mother Wang Xianhua, who, while married to Australian man Stephen Hudson, conceived the boy with another man. Mr Hudson knew this but accepted the boy as his son.
The court allowed Neo’s appeal and sent the case back to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Lavenia Waqa, Makuita Tikoimalea and Salote Tavuki beat empty drums to signify an end to the dependence on fossil fuel use in Buca Village.

Power to the people of Buca

The people of Buca Village, Natewa in Cakaudrove celebrated in style on January 14 when a long-awaited micro-hydro project was finally commissioned. Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama commissioned the 30-megawatt project that was built with joint funding by Fiji and Turkey amounting to nearly $1m.

Turkish engineers with the help of villagers worked on constructing a micro-hydro dam above the Koronikaivesi waterfall and a powerhouse at the waterfall base. A 4.5km powerline links the generator at the dam to the village, located some 80km from Savusavu Town.
The village project had been in the pipeline for 15 years, before the government stepped in to complete it six months ago.
It was the first time Turkey has been involved in any bilateral project in Fiji, providing engineers and a project manager.

Project manager Murat Gounen said: “I hope that this project will serve as a springboard for future interactions between the two countries, not only in energy but in other important areas or sectors of both our economies.”
Women marched around the village beating empty drums signifying an end to the use of fossil fuel as the main source of power in the community.
Kama Development Committee chairman Iowane Naiveli said the project took 15 years to complete.
“This will benefit our children and will ensure a decent standard of living for the villagers,” Naiveli said. He added students would no longer have to struggle completing their homework at night.
n Minfo/WWF

Tugan Young, right, who provided these photos helps wash away the mud brought by the flood.

Fijians caught up in massive flooding

QUEENSLAND - Some of the estimated 6000 Fijians living in the Australian state of Queensland had to flee their homes alogn with thousands of other as a drawn-out series of floods that began in December intensified in January. The flooding also hit the state capital Brisbane, with at least 70 towns and more than 200,000 people affected.

The floods killed 35 people in Queensland, and as this edition went to press nine people were missing.
The Fiji High Commission in Canberra said a number of Fiji citizens who live in Ipswich area of Queensland had to shelter at either government evacuation centres, homes of Fiji community members and the Fiji Church hall in Annerley.
Aminiasi Laveta told The Fiji Times he was living in the West End of Brisbane during the 1974 floods but was not affected. This time, that area went under water.

Goodna, a surburb on the east of Ipswich, where many Fijians live, was inundated by flood waters. Laveta said he knew of at least three families whose houses were flooded and who had to find shelter elsewhere.
After the waters had receded, Fijians pitched in to help clean each others’ homes, compounds and streets in true Fijian style. The clean-up efforts ended with gallons of yaqona, according to some reports.
Damage from the flooding was estimated at A$1 billion, with the estimated reduction in Australia’s GDP about A$30 billion. Three-quarters of Queensland was declared a disaster zone. Victoria was later also affected with more than 50 communities in western and central Victoria grappling with significant flooding.

A Tonga Communications Company worker surveys damage following Cyclone Wilma.

Homes damaged as cyclone batters Ha’apai islands

TONGA - CYCLONE WILMA hit Tonga’s central Ha’apai group on January 25, tearing off dozens of rooftops, with reports of houses collapsing and power poles falling, as the centre of the Category 3 cyclone passed over the group.
Ha’apai police was quoted by the news website Matangi Tonga as saying about 19 houses had been wrecked from Pangai to Foa. Up to 27 houses had rooftops torn off, including the Governor’s residence at Pangai.

A police officer said the electricity remained cut on Lifuka island after about nine electricity poles collapsed and many power lines broke. Telephone communications to Lifuka are working and they have water supply.
There was one report of a minor injury sustained by a 22-year-old male but no one else was hurt during the cyclone. The police officer said the cyclone started battering Ha’apai at around 10am on January 25.
They had received no reports from Noumuka as yet, because of problems with the telephone lines to that island.
Many cash crops, such as taro, breadfruit, and bananas were severely damaged by storm surges and strong winds. The acting director of Tonga’s Ministry of Works and Disaster Relief, Leveni ’Aho, says the people there are mostly self sufficient, but it’s estimated there’s not much local food left.
“These islands are so vulnerable. What’s not been damaged by the wind (has been affected by) ... sea spray. Right now, (its) breadfruit season, so a lot of that, probably 95 per cent of that, is down. And other fruit trees as well. So the remaining root crops would probably last the people in the islands there about two to three weeks from now. And after that they’ll be looking for some support in terms of food security.”
n Matangi Tonga/RNZI

Nukufetau community protests on Funafuti on January 12 the day before the ban.

Arson threats lead to ban on gatherings

TUVALU - The prime minister of Tuvalu says his government activated the Public Order Ordinance for the first time in the country’s history on January 13 because of fears that houses belonging members of parliament would be burnt down.

Under the ordinance, gatherings of more than 10 people were banned on the main island of Funafuti for 14 days.
Willie Telavi says his government acted because of threats made in a letter sent to finance minister Lotoala Metia by his constituents in Nukufetau. The prime minister says the constituents had issued Metia an ultimatum he resign immediately and said they’d do everything within their power to remove him if he didn’t comply.
Telavi, a former police commissioner in Tuvalu, says there were rumours circulating that the group planned to burn down buildings. “Rumours that came about that they would burn down the Speaker’s house and the MP’s (Metia) house.”

The government was considering whether or not to roll over the regulations but no decision was yet been made public when this issue went to press. The regional media freedom monitoring network, the Pacific Freedom Forum says Tuvalu’s first-ever invocation of its Public Order Ordinance on January 13 banning public gatherings or meetings on the capital island of Funafuti will have trickle-down impacts on free speech and free expression in the small island nation. The 1973 ordinance has never been used - until now. It was applied in the wake of a public protest march demanding the resignation from government of the finance minister Metia.
It’s been reported such a move would topple the government’s one-seat majority in Tuvalu’s Parliament and allow opposition MP Enele Sopoaga to take up the leadership.
Metia and Sopoaga live in Funafuti, as MPs for the outlying island constituency of Nukufetau. Sopoaga, responding to the refusal by the Senior Magistrates Court in Tuvalu to rule on an application from the protestors on the Public Order, says the ban amounted to a gagging of the people of Tuvalu by the government.
n RNZI/PFF