The latest World Obesity Atlas 2023 yes, there is such a thing has three important findings for countries globally, including those in the Asia-Pacific region. First, the prevalence of obesity is rising rapidly, especially in middle income countries and among the young. Second, obesity has very significant but often avoidable financial and economic impacts, as well as health impacts. Third, few low and middle income countries are adequately prepared to respond: for example, Papua New Guinea is ranked 182 out of 183 countries in the world in terms of global preparedness.

The Atlas reports significant increases in the prevalence of obesity at the global level. It notes, for example, that every country is affected by obesity (body mass index or BMI of 30 kg per metre of height squared) and that no country has reported a decline in obesity prevalence across their entire population, and none are on track to meet the World Health Organizations (WHO) target of no increase on 2010 levels by 2025.

The report goes on to say that 51%, or more than 4 billion people, will be living with either overweight (BMI 25 kg/m²) or obesity by 2035 if current trends prevail; 1 in 4 people (nearly 2 billion) will have obesity. Figure 1 shows the projected increase in numbers, and increased proportion, of the population globally being overweight or obese between 2020 and 2035.

Figure 1: Global overweight and obesity, 2020-35

Source: World Obesity Atlas 2023, p. 11

The Atlas emphasises that the largest proportion of obesity globally already occurs in middle income countries. It estimates that, globally, just on 60% of men and women with obesity lived in middle income countries in 2020, with this share projected to rise to 70% by 2035. The share living in high income countries falls accordingly.

The Atlas also includes projections for the rise in obesity for different geographical regions. For example, it estimates the total number of adults living with obesity will more than double between 2020 and 2035 in both the WHO Western Pacific region which includes China but also the Pacific Island countries as well as the WHO South-East Asia region. Importantly, the prevalence of obesity (that is, the proportion of the population at a given point in time) is expected to double, on average, for....

Air Niugini has proudly supported the attendance of the head of PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) Air Transport Wing Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col), Nancy Wii at a Women in Aviation rally in Hamilton, New Zealand as this prestigious events guest speaker.

The national airline has provided Port Moresby/Brisbane return tickets for Lt. Col Wii. 

Lt. Col Wii climbed the ranks of the PNGDF and was promoted to Commanding Officer in February 2022, and is the first female PNGDF commanding officer, heading the forces Air Transport Wing, as well as being a pilot. 

Air Niuginis Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr Gary Seddon in presenting the tickets said As the national airline, Air Niugini is pleased to support the Lt. Cols opportunity to represent Papua New Guinea, the PNGDF and PNG women pilots at this event. "

Lt. Col Wiis story is one that should be widely told, as a shining example of how PNG women can reach and break a glass ceiling in not only aviation, but also leadership in the defence force.  Mr Seddon said 

Lt. Col Wii also acknowledged Air Niugini for the support in ensuring she attended the women aviators event where she was invited to share her personal experience of becoming PNGs first female commercial pilot at 21 and to where she is now, first female PNG Defence Force Commanding Officer. 

In 1992, while one of us (Collett) was at school in Jakarta, the other arrived to take up a position as school principal in Kalimantan. A young parent and fresh from a career teaching early childhood in Australia, one of the first priorities was to buy some local childrens books for the classroom and for home. This was a disappointment. Outside Jakarta and the big cities there were few bookstores. Books for children were limited to school textbooks or folk tales with dense text and sparse black and white illustrations.

Over the last ten years the situation has begun to change. Bookstores in regional centres now stock Indonesian childrens books and young adult fiction, but much of it is translated from English and there is still a dearth of content for beginning readers. The cost of quality childrens books is prohibitive for all but the upper middle classes, and the few books that do make it into the hands of children in schools and homes are typically dry texts or religious instruction. Why spend limited funds on entertainment for children? The priority is academic and moral instruction. Until recently, this attitude was reflected in government policy. Illustrated storybooks were approved for purchase in early childhood centres, but not for primary schools.

Meanwhile, childrens literacy levels in the general population are alarmingly low. The Innovation for Indonesias School Children (INOVASI) program has been working with the Indonesian government and non-government partners to address this issue since 2016. INOVASI is funded by the Australian government and implemented by Palladium. The program is due to end in December 2023.

In 2016, a ministry survey found that 47% of grade 4 students were unable to read. INOVASIs 2017-18 baseline study found that 43% of grade 2 students failed a basic letter and word recognition test, while INOVASIs book study found that 68% of available books were textbooks dry, boring, and too difficult for beginning readers. Children cannot learn to read without reading material, and the most effective reading material is levelled and engaging childrens books.

Throughout the Jokowi period, commencing 2014, government efforts to build a reading culture have aligned with grassroots efforts. International an...

The recent two-part ABC Background Briefing series Dead Mans Secrets makes for compelling listening. It is the story of two men, Fego Kiniafa, former PNG Ports CEO, and Don Matheson, Australian businessman and associate of Kiniafa. But it is also a story that raises profound questions not only for PNG Ports but also for its financial backers, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian government, through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP).

Kiniafas death in September 2022 was a tragedy. Its cause would appear to be a drunken, local fight; Background Briefings attempts to suggest there might be deeper forces behind the death are not convincing. But, while not related to his death, it is also not in dispute that Kiniafa received a series of unexplained and expensive gifts in the forms of cars, free accommodation in Australia, a racehorse, and dental chairs for his wife (a dentist), all allegedly facilitated by Matheson.

Don Mathesons company received $4.3 million from the Filipino multinational ports operator ICTSI, as professional fees and consultancy fees, in the second half of 2017. This was around the time that ICTSI won a tender from PNG Ports to operate its Port Moresby and Lae port facilities for the next 25 years. ICTSI denies any link between the payments and the tender. But Matheson made a number of payments to both Kiniafa and his predecessor as PNG Ports CEO. We know this because Mathesons banking details were leaked as part of the Panama Papers, and because of the terse bank account descriptions he helpfully used to describe his payments and purchases: FEGOLANDCRUISER, and so on.

Since the report was aired, the PNG PM has announced that PNG Ports will be investigated by the new Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Matheson is surely now being investigated by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) under foreign bribery legislation.

What about the AIFFP and the ADB?

PNG Ports is the biggest beneficiary of the AIFFP to date, being the recipient of a $521 million loan and a $100 million grant. After the Background Briefing program, DFAT promptly distanced itself from the scandal by saying that the allegations do not involve Australian public finance and are historical. This is true, but disingenuous. Few details of the AIFFP PNG ports project have been made public, but the AIFFP website highlights the upgrading of the Lae port, PNGs largest, and one of the ports tendered out to ICTSI. Far from the claims being only of historical interest, they raise the risk that Australian-....