a time for green parties in the pacific 

By Michelle Sheather, International Development Coordinator, Australian Greens 

It’s been an exciting time for our neighbouring friends over in the Pacific. The level of commitment and passion for Green party values and community is growing. Over the last 3 months, we’ve seen the successful election campaign for the Greens in the Solomon Islands. 

We also held the first Pacific Greens meeting in Fiji. And we saw the commencement of the Green Party of Papua New Guinea’s local government election campaign.

Pacific parties established in PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu in other countries are still forming. All of the work is voluntary and the level of commitment to keep going, despite adversity, is high. 

The Solomon Islands

In April this year the Solomon Islands held both their national and provincial elections. The Green Party of the Solomon Islands (GPSI) focused on provincial elections winning five seats in the provinces of Isabel, Meloto, and Temotu.

The Speaker of the House of the Solomon Islands National Parliament (elected by the MPs) is also a Green Party member as is the new Governor General - which may be the first Greens Governor General in the Commonwealth.

The Solomon Islands election attracted international attention as the previous government led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare switched allegiances from supporting Taiwan at the United Nations, to  instead supporting China who are setting up telecommunications networks and building sports fields around the country.

A new National Government is now in place under PM Jeremiah Manele who visited Australia last month and China this month.

Following their election result, GPSI held a national convention in the capital, Honiara in early June. This was followed by a national Gender Equity training to build up the party’s women’s membership and network at which they elected their own Executive.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea’s local government elections will be held during August to September this year with the Green Party of Papua New Guinea standing candidates across key electorates in Lau, the Central Highlands, and Vanimo.

It is hoped that the PNG Greens can replicate the effort from the Green Party of the Solomon Islands in building up a local government presence. 

The PNG Greens have previously stood in two national elections and two by-elections, with an elected national MP, this is the first instance with a key focus on local government representation. Key issues for the party are control of their natural resources, climate change, deforestation, and land use.

At least two national Gender Equity trainings, run by the Australian Greens, to help support female candidates in the party and to build the female membership will be held over the next year with the first in August. 

The Green Party in PNG is expanding their base beyond the Highlands and Port Moresby, with a local chapter starting in Vanimo in the North West of PNG where they are standing four local government candidates in the September election including the only woman in a field of 76 candidates for Mayor of Vanimo.

Connecting with Pacific Green parties 

The first meeting face to face of Pacific Green parties was held near Nadi Fiji in June this year, over 7 days.  Green party participants included delegates from: the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Fiji, PNG, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australia. 

The training focused on key issues relating to party building, policy development, and campaigning on climate change and biodiversity protection in the region, in the lead-up to a potential United Nations COP 31 to be hosted by Australia and Pacific Island countries. 

Human rights issues in the Pacific such as in West Papua and Kanaky (New Caledonia) were addressed as were the issues arising in the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement - ongoing issues from the fallout of nuclear weapons testings and now the release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plants into the North West Pacific.

A revitalisation of the Asia Pacific Young Greens Network was a further outcome of the meeting.

A declaration will be made including outcomes from the meeting at the end of August.

For the two days preceding the Pacific Greens meeting a Train the Trainers Gender Equity training was held with 15 participants, including four international trainers. Delegates were from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, PNG, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. 

The Pacific has been identified as a priority area to increase female representation in parliament and in political parties - as it has the lowest representation of women in politics globally at 9%. This is followed by South East Asia at 18% (World Economic Forum figures 2022).

The Australian Greens International Development Committee projects with the Asia Pacific Greens Women’s Network (APGFWN) are now in our 7th consecutive year. This project commenced programs for building capacity through mentoring women from the Asia Pacific Greens Federation to emerge in leadership positions within their party and to stand as candidates, by offering support, skills development, and training. 

This was a Green Party training for women to assist them to advance within the party and in Green politics.  In most APGF member party countries no similar training is offered. 

The sessions cover issues from running an election campaign, to communications strategies, to policies and development of a roadmap for the women’s wing of the national parties. This is the third teacher’s training the Australian Greens International Development Committee has assisted to organise for this program. 

In addition to the Train the Trainers program around 12 Gender Equity trainings have been held nationally in India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Solomon Islands and shortly in PNG. The IDC first developed this program by working with the India Greens Party (then newly formed) in November 2019.

The Australian Greens International Development Committee (IDC) has undertaken projects with the Green Parties of the Solomon Islands, and PNG as well as supported the Pacific Greens inaugural meeting. 

Thank you to all involved in the Pacific parties and to Pefi Kingi and Rachana Shwestha of the Asia Pacific Greens Federation Secretariat for organising the Pacific Greens meeting and to Surita Lau of the Green Party Solomon Islands who is the first international Gender Equity trainer from the Pacific and she has rolled out a national training program. This will soon be followed by Freda Pos of the Green Party of Papua New Guinea.

We look forward to continuing to work alongside the Green Parties that are our closest neighbours.