Nine countries, including the US, Australia and New Zealand and smaller countries like Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam, are trying to hammer out a trade blue print.

In the past, the talks have stalled over US demands on greater patent and intellectual property rights.

Civil society groups are warning against allowing corporate influence, to drive the talks… with outcomes that may disadvantage the poor and vulnerable in those nations.

Asia Pacific

Presenter: Sen Lam

Speaker: Dr Patricia Ranald, convenor, Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, AFTINET

David Haynes, Director of Waste Management and Pollution Control at SPREP, hopes the information will help raise awareness about the issue.

Presenter: Isabelle Genoux

Guest: David Haynes, Director of Waste Management and Pollution Control at SPREP ( Apia, Samoa)

In 2009, the Fiji Ministry of Information shut down Radio Australia’s two transmitters, one in Nadi, the other in Suva.

Ministry officials and soldiers escorted local technicians to the transmitters and ordered them to be switched off.

At the time, the director of the ABC’s international operations, Murray Green, said the shutdown removed one of the few remaining uncensored sources of information in Fiji.

But now the government has agreed that the services can resume and they’ll be on new frequencies, which are still to be announced.

Pacific Beat

Presenter: Joanna McCarthy

Speaker: Mike McCluskey, Radio Australia’s CEO

Vidya Lakhan says during a recent visit to Papua New Guinea, he was disturbed to find that the country has yet to appoint an organising committee. He also told Clement Paligaru he was surprised that the estimated cost of hosting the Games now exceeds one billion dollars.

Presenter: Clement Paligaru

Speaker: Vidya Lakhan, President, Pacific Games Council

The Yakuza are an organised crime network that makes billions each year form crimes in Japan and abroad, including drug and human trafficking, prostitution, money laundering and fraud, according to the US Treasury.

The Yamaguchi-gumi is the biggest faction of Japan’s notorious Yamakuzi and the recent US crackdown has singled out the group’s godfather, Kenichi Shinoda and his deputy, Kiyoshi Takayama.

They’re the first targets of an executive order issued by President Obama last year “to target transnational criminal organizations and isolate them from the global financial system”.

Connect Asia>

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Jake Adelstein, journalist and author of ‘Tokyo Vice’

Deputy Prime Minister, Belden Namah says the government’s considering delaying the election because the electoral roll is not complete.

While former-Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare is urging elections to go ahead, Arnold Amet, the Attorney-General in Somare’s team says he’d support defering the election if it would ensure that voting was then free and fair.

Transparency says PNG’s electoral rolls are ready.

It says any claims of PNG not being prepared for an election can be used as an excuse to stay in power longer.

Pacific Beat>

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts

Speaker:Lawrence Stephens, Chairman of Transparency International PNG

Five thousand supporters of the Himpunan Hijau or Green Assembly of environmentalists and NGOs, on Sunday protested in the state capital of Kuantan, on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.

The group is also seeking a High Court order to stop the plant.

 Presenter: Sen Lam

Speaker: Clement Chin, businessman and organiser, Himpunan Hijau or Green Assembly, Malaysia

CHIN: Our concerns are mainly health concerns and the eco-system concerns. We believe that no level of radiation is safe. The pollutants from the plant will affect the whole eco-system nearby because Lynas is situated on a reclaimed swamp, and the water level is very high. In fact, it is just one metre. When you hit dig less than a metre, you will hit the water level, and this area is prone to monsoon flooding. And that is why we’re very concerned. All these contaminants, these heavy metals, will flow into the underground water, and will spread all over the country.

LAM: A conditional two-year licence was recently granted to Lynas, and in fact, it’s over three years, since the initial development was given the green light. There’ve been two reviews, both internationally and by Malaysian atomic energy authorities. What will it take to persuade Himpunan Hijau and indeed, people living in Kuantan, that the proposed Lynas plant is safe?

CHIN: The IAEA’s eleven conditions, they proposed eleven conditions, which our atomic energy licensing board, the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board, did not adhere to, for granting the temporary operating licence. So that means, they’re going through the back door, which we cannot accept.

LAM: Is that why your group is planning a challenge in the High Court? Can you tell us about that?

CHIN: Yes, there are no proper detailed environmental impact assessments, there are no proper waste management plans, risk management plans, nothing! And how well can we handle any catastrophe or any disaster? And we cannot take that sort of risk, because once the area is affected by this pollution, it is irreversible.

LAM: So what’s the legal advice you’ve been receiving, given that the government has already granted Lynas a two-year licence. On what grounds will you be fighting this in the High Court?

CHIN: We’re fighting the way the licence was approved. The agencies they’ve not done their work, their job. It was more or less bulldozed, there was no proper accountability, transparency in the whole approval process. Malaysia does not have proper environmental legislative laws, these laws on these sorts of industries, these sorts of rare earths, or radioactive industry. Alot of loophole in the legal system, with regard to these environmental issues. Even with proper safeguards, or due process, we will not take the risk, because Fukushima was supposed to be very safe. When the tsunami and the earthquake hit at the same time, that is something they did not even expect to happen. The east coast of Malaysia, where Kuantan is located, is facing the Philippines, facing the South China sea, and the Philippines is within the ‘ring of fire’ the volcanic activity. We may not know when it will happen, but it can happen.

LAM: The prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak says (and I’m paraphrasing here), that you’re the pawns of the opposition, that this issue has been hijacked as a political issue?

CHIN: These allegations are totally untrue and uncalled for. We have invited him and all the ruling parties, component parties to come forward to join us in these environmental issues, this fight.

LAM: Isn’t it a fact that the sitting member for Kuantan is an opposition member, and indeed, most of your supporters are also supporters of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat?

CHIN: Yes, because we’re the people who felt that this issue is related to the feelings of the people, the concerned citizens of Kuantan and Malaysia. And we’ve been trying to talk to the government, we’ve been asking them for a debate, community engagement – a proper community engagement – in which they have turned us down, they have refused!

We are not against rare earths industry. We are against Lynas, because they sneaked in through the back door and they turned Malaysia into their dump site. And Australia is such a big country, alot of desert land, they could’ve get it over with, in Australia. If that country wants to do it, whichever country feels that they can control the waste and manage it well, so be it! What we are against is, the way Lynas sneaked in, bypassing or using the loopholes in our environmental laws and getting away with a twelve-year tax exemption, and without a fixed proper permanent waste disposal site, without a proper waste management plan. This is unacceptable.

Ms Gillard secured more than two-thirds of her Government MP’s votes – in a decisive blow to the leadership aspirations of the former PM Kevin Rudd…. who used his concession speech to throw his support behind the Leader.. so is this really the end of the leadership tensions at the top of the Australian Government.

Tracee Hutchison spoke to Natasha Stott-Despoja, a former leader of the now defunct Australian Democrats – who watched a leadership tussle ultimately tear her party down.

Presenter: Tracee Hutchison

Speaker: Natasha Stott-Despoja, former leader of the Australian Democrats

Presenter: Isabelle Genoux

Guest : Dr Binoy Kampmark , Lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science &Planning at RMIT University

Tony Whitton says the Rosie Group, which runs luxury resorts and tour operations in Fiji, began with a humble family concept of caring for visitors to Fiji.

He explains to Clement Paligaru, why moving into the innovative, high end of the tourism market has strengthened the family’s resolve to stick to their basic philosophy.

Presenter: Clement Paligaru

Speaker: Tony Whitton, Rosie Group Managing Director, Fiji