Richard McGreggor

Jun 24, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | Richard McGreggor |Danielle Watson |Floyd K. Takeuchi |Esala Nayasi

In 2011, thousands of delegates from over a hundred countries flocked to Busan, South Korea, for the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. Addressing delegates at the event, former Tuvaluan finance minister Lotoala Metia spoke of the heavy burden poorly coordinated aid was putting on his administration. The small island government’s planning office, made up of only seven staff, had a single official devoted to managing the country’s relationships with 58 aid partners.

Jun 23, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | William Robinson |Stephen Howes |Richard McGreggor |Danielle Watson

I am very supportive of the intention of the ‘Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982’ Bill which seeks to redress the injustice of the 1982 legislation that came on the back of one of the darkest periods in New Zealand history of the 1970s, where government-sanctioned raids were held at dawn to arrest and deport ‘overstayers’, particularly Pacific people.

Jun 21, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | Terence Wood |William Robinson |Richard McGreggor |David Morris

In the last few weeks, sadly more than 100 people have died from oppressive heat in India. In Africa, while some countries are experiencing torrential rains, others are suffering from terrible droughts. At the recent Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting in Geneva, collectively we considered how climate change is increasing the incidence of vector-borne diseases – not only spreading malaria but other dangerous diseases, like the recent dengue outbreak in Samoa.

Jun 18, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | Terence Wood |Stephen Howes |Richard McGreggor |Cameron Hill

The visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Australia this week signals a new normal in the Australia-China relationship. With trade disputes of recent years largely resolved, can Australia and China find new opportunities to cooperate, despite being pulled in the opposite direction by the U.S.-China geopolitical competition? Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has spent a lifetime working with rivals to deliver practical outcomes in the national interest.

Jun 18, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | Terence Wood |Stephen Howes |Richard McGreggor |Cameron Hill

Every year on 16 June, we celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty which officially established the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) as an independent intergovernmental organisation, also known as the SPREP Treaty. This year marks 31 years since the Treaty was signed. As we celebrate another SPREP Day, I want to take this time to reflect on our journey over the past years, and the many achievements and milestones along the way.