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December 7, 2025

Conjoined twin dies after separation surgery

Papua New Guinea conjoined twins. Photo: Supplied

Rare conjoined twins from Papua New Guinea had a seven-hour operation in Australia to surgically separate them on Sunday, but only one of the boys survived.

Tom and Sawong were rushed into emergency surgery at Sydney Children’s Hospital after Tom began to rapidly deteriorate.

The two-month-olds were medivacced from Port Moresby to Sydney on Thursday following medical advice that they undergo surgery as soon as possible.

A spokesperson for the family, Jurgen Ruh, said Sawong was in a stable condition and the parents were grieving the loss of his brother Tom.

“One body with two souls went into the operating theatre, and after seven hours of procedures we had two bodies and two souls,” Ruh said.

“Sadly we lost Tom but are happy to report that we still have two souls and Sawong has survived the operation.”

Ruh previously told RNZ Pacific the boys’ parents had been through a “rollercoaster” of emotions since the twins were born in a remote village in Morobe province on 9 October.

“They have accepted that they will lose Tom (the weaker twin) and there’s been many tears shed along the way,” he said previously.

The twins were fused at the lower abdomen but have their own limbs and genitals, however they share a single liver, bladder and parts of their gastrointestinal tract.

They also had spina bifida – a neural tube defect that affects the development of a newborn’s spine and spinal cord.

Tom had a congenital heart defect, only one kidney and malformed lungs.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 7, 2025

Firefighter killed by falling tree during bushfire prevention work in New South Wales

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Bulahdelah fire has burnt through 3,400 hectares of the Myall Lakes National Park. Photo: ABC News: Ross McLoughlin

A firefighter from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has died after being crushed by a tree during bushfire prevention work north of Newcastle.

The Bulahdelah fire, which has destroyed four homes and is burning on both sides of the Pacific Highway between Crawford River and Nerong, has scorched more than 3,400 hectares of the Myall Lakes National Park.

Emergency service crews were called to a property on Little Nugra Road at Nerong, about 90 kilometres north of Newcastle, at about 10:45pm on Sunday after reports a man had been struck by a tree.

NSW Ambulance paramedics treated him, but he died at the scene.

NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed the man who died was a NPWS firefighter.

Authorities have established a crime scene and WorkSafe has been notified.

– ABC

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 7, 2025

The sound effects that make horror films so scary

Source: Radio New Zealand

I was recently watching a scene from the 2025 film Weapons for a monograph I’m writing and noticed a familiar sound: a low, unsettling drone as a character walks down a hallway.

It’s the same kind of sound used in recent horror films such as Together. You can also hear it throughout the trailer forShelby Oaks (2025), where sound throbs like an invisible threat.

We never see what’s making this sound or where it comes from within the film’s world, which only makes it more disturbing.

Stephen Boyd, a young white man with wavy dark hair and a Roman tunic, stars as Messala in the 1959 film Ben-Hur. — In the 1959 film Ben-Hur, when Judah (Charlton Heston) declares to his friend Messala (Stephen Boyd), “I am against you,” a sharp orchestral shock of brass and strings announces their discord.

YouTube screenshot

.goodreads.com/book/show/147158272-the-filmmaker-s-book-of-the-dead?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=oZWLjBB30Z&rank=1″ class=”visited:text-foreground-secondary visited:decoration-stroke-link underline-brand-hover hover:visited:text-foreground-primary”>The Filmmaker’s Guide to Horror, Danny Draven advises aspiring directors that if a terrified character is creeping through, for example, a dingy basement, they can create atmosphere with “a low drone or rumble”, and so on.

“You can be very creative with these situations”, he writes.

This approach is now so embedded in the genre that film scholar William Whittington argues horror uses music and sound effects “far more aggressively and conceptually” than any other genre.

So why do horror films sound like this?

From silence to sound

Horror existed well before synchronised sound arrived in the late 1920s.

Films such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922), made during the German Expressionist period, unsettled audiences through distorted sets, eerie lighting and stylised acting.

Once Hollywood transitioned to sound, the horror genre as we know it took shape.

Dracula (1930) and Frankenstein (1931) marked the true beginning of modern horror. Both were cheaply made and contained no musical score. They relied entirely on diegetic sound – the creak of a door, a scream, a character’s footsteps.

As sound technology improved and budgets increased, non-diegetic music (sound not originating in the story world) began to be used more often. This introduced an ongoing tension in horror sound: objective realism versus subjective emotional perspective.

Too early!

The origin of horror films is linked to the origin of cinema itself.

According to legend, at the premiere of the Lumière brothers’ 1895 film The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, audiences panicked, ducking and fleeing as the train on screen seemed to surge toward them.

The film isn’t a horror movie, but the reaction resembles the kind of startled fear horror aims to provoke.

Early audiences had not yet learned how to watch films – when the train appeared too suddenly coming at them, their bodies reacted before their minds could catch up.

This “too early” sensation – events occurring before we are ready for them – became a defining feature of horror.

In Cat People (1942), often cited as the first true jump scare, a young woman walks alone at night, hearing what she believes is a stalking presence. When the sound of a bus suddenly hisses into the scene, it startles both her and the audience.

The scare works not because of what we see, but because the sound arrives too soon, breaking the tension in a shock of noise – a modern echo of that onrushing Lumière train.

Film theorist Linda Williams describes horror as structured around the anxiety of not being ready, the problem of things happening “too early”.

Where melodrama deals in tragic lateness – arriving too late to save someone – horror delivers the opposite: the terror of being unprepared.

Music that stings

Sounds that arrive too early are not limited to horror. Classical Hollywood frequently used the “stinger”: a sudden burst of music to underline a dramatic moment.

In Ben-Hur (1959), when Judah declares to Messala, “I am against you,” a sharp orchestral shock of brass and strings announces the rupture between the two friends.

In 1960, Psycho changed the function of the musical stinger forever.

In the famous shower scene, Bernard Herrmann’s shrieking violins don’t highlight a plot point – they stab. The music becomes the attack. Audiences were stunned, not only because of the brutal sound but because the protagonist was killed so early in the film.

From that moment, horror split into classical and modern eras. Stingers in films like Halloween (1978) signal the killer’s sudden, unexpected entry from an offscreen space. The shock is now the point.

By the late 20th century, sound had become horror’s most powerful tool.

The power of the off-screen

After Psycho, stronger sound technology allowed horror to exploit the off-screen space more fully. The boundary between sound and music blurred: a low drone or rumble might be musical, or it might be part of the film world.

Draven gives another tip to aspiring horror filmmakers:

[It is] often what is happening off-screen that can be the scariest – and great, well-planned sound design can take us there.

The first half of Jaws (1975) remains so terrifying because, though we hardly see the shark, its presence is rendered through music – we feel what we cannot locate.

Jump scares increased dramatically in the post-Psycho era.

Paul Schrader’s remake of Cat People in 1982 contains eight jump scares compared to only two in the 1942 original. On the website Where’s The Jump?, the vast majority of films listed in the “High Jump Scare Movies” category are from the 21st century. None were released before the 1980s.

This reflects the “hypersensationalisation” of post-Psycho horror – a genre now driven by sound as much as image.

Contemporary horror still relies on the same principles: anxiety thrives not in what we can see, but in what we can’t.

Low drones, off-screen noises and sudden stingers all work by activating our imagination before we’re ready – inviting us to anticipate the moment when we’ll inevitably think, once again, “Too early!”

Will Jeffery is a Sessional Academic in Film Studies at the University of Sydney.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 7, 2025

For better brain health, it’s never too late to get active

Source: Radio New Zealand

Scientists have hailed the benefits of exercising early in life to lower the risk of your brain degenerating later. But new research suggests that even when you’re 45 or older, it’s not too late to try.

Having the highest levels of physical activity in midlife (45 to 64) and late life (65 to 88) was associated with a 41 percent and 45 percent lower risk of dementia, respectively, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open on 19 November.

“This study shifts the conversation from ‘exercise is good for the brain’ to ‘there may be key windows when exercise matters most for brain health,'” says Dr Sanjula Singh, an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School.

A grey haired man is helped on an exercise machine. — Strength training a couple of times per week is recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Getty Images / Unsplash +

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With an estimated 57 million people worldwide having dementia and nearly triple that number expected by 2050, the authors “wanted to investigate whether the impact of physical activity on dementia risk differed or stayed consistent across the adult life course,” says Phillip Hwang, lead study author and assistant professor in the department of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.

A downside of this study is that it can’t suggest how much exercise to do due to the measurement the researchers used, Hwang says.

It was “a composite measure based on the number of hours a person spends sleeping, in sedentary behaviour, and doing light, moderate and heavy activities in a day,” he added. “However, finding ways to be more active and moving around is important.”

Hwang’s findings are also affirmed by other studies that suggest more specific guidance.

A 2022 study found that people who walked just 3,800 steps per day lowered their risk of dementia by 25 percent, and, generally, the more steps participants walked, the greater the benefits were. Using a bike instead of a car, bus or train for transportation has been linked with a 19 percent lower risk of dementia and a 22 percent reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Given what is already known about the benefits of physical activity on other conditions — such as the heart, mood, stress, etc., which are also related to the brain and cognition — there are lots of other reasons as well to be more active,” Hwang says.

Adults need at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week, according to the World Health Organisation.

Such exercise could be, for example, 150 minutes of brisk walking, 75 minutes of vigorous running or cycling, and strength training a couple of times per week, Singh says.

She is part of the team that developed the Brain Care Score, a 21-point assessment of how a person fares on physical, lifestyle, social and emotional factors that they can change to protect their brain health.

If you’re new to exercise, begin with slower or shorter workouts, then gradually increase intensity, said Dr Raphael Wald, a neuropsychologist with Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Baptist Health South Florida.

“Starting too aggressively can lead to orthopaedic injuries, which may then limit your ability to exercise at all,” Wald adds.

Build consistent habits that can help ensure you stay active daily, Wald said, such as walking for 20 minutes before work or taking a short movement break during lunch.

Tracking activity and dementia risk

The new study’s findings are based on 1,526 participants in early adult life — ages 26 to 44 — nearly 2,000 middle-aged adults, and nearly 900 (mostly white) older adults who were part of the long-term Framingham Heart Study.

Physical activity levels in early adult life weren’t associated with dementia risk in either direction, the authors found.

They also discovered that even for older adults who had the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease — the APOE ε4 gene — high physical activity was still linked with a 66 percent lower risk of dementia.

The study has important limitations, according to the experts.

“People who are more active may also engage in other healthy behaviours, have better baseline health, or differ in ways the researchers couldn’t fully measure,” Singh says.

The team acknowledged that it didn’t have details on middle- and older-age adults’ physical activity levels in their early adult lives or how habits changed over time, which could also influence risk for dementia.

Participants may also misjudge their levels, so studies with tracker wearables would be a more objective way to measure exercise, Singh said.

Midlife and late life, possibly being extra critical for brain health, may be explained by a few factors, according to the experts.

“Exercise plays a major role in maintaining vascular health,” Wald says.

“The most common vascular risk factors — high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, thyroid disease and high cholesterol — tend to emerge in midlife and later adulthood. It makes sense that exercise during these periods would have the greatest impact on reducing dementia risk.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 7, 2025

Ukraine peace talks in Miami end with lingering questions over security guarantees and territory

Source: Radio New Zealand

By Max Saltman, Jennifer Hansler and Billy Stockwell, CNN

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a joint press conference with Turkey’s President following their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on November 19, 2025 Photo: AFP

Talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators over a proposed peace deal with Russia ended in Miami this weekend, with few new developments and lingering questions over security guarantees and territorial issues, according to Ukrainian officials.

As the talks concluded, the Kremlin welcomed US President Donald Trump’s new security strategy, saying it dropped the language of past US administrations describing Russia as a threat.

The marathon Miami meeting began on Thursday between US special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Ukrainian officials Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov.

After three days of talks, “difficult issues remain,” Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Olga Stefanishyna said Saturday, “but both sides continue working to shape realistic and acceptable solutions.”

“The main challenges at this stage concern questions of territory and guarantees, and we are actively seeking optimal formats for addressing them,” Stefanishyna said. “More details will be provided once all information is compiled.”

Territory and security guarantees are long-standing sticking points for any possible deal. Ukraine maintains that a just end to the war would include reliable security guarantees and would not force it to surrender more territory to Russia.

As the meetings kicked off earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters in India that his country intends to seize Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region by any means.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, meets with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 2, 2025. (Photo by Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP)

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev and aide Yuri Ushakov, meets with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin on December 2, 2025 Photo: AFP

The Miami talks had been preceded by a visit to Moscow by Kushner and Witkoff. Trump said Wednesday the US delegation had a “very good meeting” with Putin, and that they believed the Russian president “would like to see the war ended” – though the talks failed to yield a breakthrough.

In a social media post on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had a “long” and “constructive” phone conversation with Witkoff and Kushner, as well as his Ukrainian delegation in Miami.

“We covered many aspects and went through key points that could ensure an end to the bloodshed and eliminate the threat of a new Russian full-scale invasion,” Zelensky said. “We agreed on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States.”

Also discussed on the call was “the risk of Russia failing to honour its promises, as has happened repeatedly in the past,” he said.

Zelensky said that Hnatov and Umerov are expected to deliver him a “detailed in person report” on the negotiations.

“Not everything can be discussed over the phone,” Zelensky said. “So we need to work closely with our teams on ideas and proposals.”

Peace and its conditions will also be the subject of a meeting on Monday between Zelensky and French, British and German leaders in London.

The discussion will cover “the situation and the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the American mediation,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday.

Kremlin welcomes removal of ‘threat’ label

Separately, the Kremlin has welcomed the new US national security strategy, released on Friday, which sets out the Trump administration’s realignment of US foreign policy and takes an an unprecedentedly confrontational posture toward Europe.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Trump administration’s document has dropped language describing Russia as a threat, state-owned news agency TASS reported.

“We considered this a positive step,” Peskov told the news agency.

“Overall, these messages are certainly in contrast with approaches of previous administrations.”

The strategy document says European nations regard Russia as “an existential threat,” but paints the US as having a significant role in diplomacy to re-establish “conditions of stability within Europe and strategic stability with Russia.”

A 2022 Biden-era national security strategy said Russia posed “an immediate threat to the free and open international system, recklessly flouting the basic laws of the international order today, as its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has shown.”

The Trump administration’s new document also reiterates its push for “ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.”

-CNN

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 7, 2025

Two people injured after jet boats crash in Wairarapa

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Free Ambulance vehicle attended the scene of the incident.

Wellington Free Ambulance says two patients are in a moderate condition. Photo: Photo / Supplied

Two people have been taken to hospital after two jet boats crashed in the Wairarapa.

Wellington Free Ambulance said two patients were transported to Wairarapa Hospital in a moderate condition following the collision in the Tauwharenīkau River on Sunday morning.

The Jetsprint Association confirmed the crash happened during the round one of the New Zealand Jetsprint Championship in Featherston.

Police said they received reports of the crash at the river, near Tauherenikau Racecourse Road, at about 10.45am on Sunday.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 6, 2025

Review: Jennifer Lawrence ‘spectacularly, fearlessly, uncompromisingly brilliant’ in Die My Love

Source: Radio New Zealand

Die My Love is a film by Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, whose reputation rests on just a handful of films over 25 years.

She’s probably best known for the chilling We Need to Talk About Kevin, though I was introduced to her in the mesmerizing Morvern Callar, which this film shares some DNA with.

Ramsay’s ace in the hole is her great ear for the absolutely appropriate music. This is far rarer skill than many directors think.

.

Grace and Jackson are young and in love. She’s actually a writer, though right now that’s on hold while she looks after the baby

He works in town, leaving her with plenty of room and time in their new home out in the country. Too much time maybe.

Because what Jackson doesn’t know – maybe Grace isn’t aware either yet – is she’s slowly going crazy out there on her own. And adding to the menace of Die My Love, we’re seeing it all from Grace’s increasingly twisted point of view.

Grace is played by Jennifer Lawrence.Jackson is Robert Pattinson.

I’ve never seen either of them better, and this is definitely not an easy story to sell. The original novel is by Alice Birch, who wrote two more demanding, female-driven stories – Lady Macbeth and The Wonder.

Die My Love was bought by producer Martin Scorsese, who made sure Ramsay came on board.

I know I’ve suggested that Ramsay was the film’s most valuable player, but I’m not sure.

Lawrence is spectacularly, fearlessly, uncompromisingly brilliant. And Robert Pattinson matches her every step.

For those who only associate Lawrence with deadpan comedy, and Pattinson as the pretty- boy lead of the Twilight movies, this may come as a shock.

But I think the rest of us are well aware that Jen and Rob are good. Perhaps we didn’t realise quite how good.

It’s not just that, particularly, Lawrence hits her beats so strongly. These include lashing out at both Jackson and his worried, sympathetic mother Pam, played by Sissy Spacek, eying up the glamorous next door neighbour, antagonizing the dog she never wanted.

It’s that she still keeps us on her side, in spite of ourselves.

Her world starts falling apart, but Jackson refuses to give up on her.And we keep hoping that will be enough, that somehow Grace will pull through.Instead of literally climbing the walls.

And the tragedy of it is that what’s going wrong seems out of Grace and Jackson’s hands and good intentions.

It’s something easier to sing than it is to say, maybe – and director Ramsay’s impeccable taste culminates in an extraordinary version of Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.

Who’s that singing? Turns out it’s Ramsay herself – perfect.

The word is out on Die My Love already as awards season approaches, but I wonder if an Oscar does a film like this any favours?

It’s both better than that, and deserves to be discovered with a minimum of hype. But it’s definitely a knockout.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 6, 2025

Two in moderate condition after jet boat crash in Wairarapa

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington Free Ambulance says two patients are in a moderate condition. Photo: Photo / Supplied

Two people have been taken to hospital after a jet boat crash in the Wairarapa.

Wellington Free Ambulance said two patients were transported to Wairarapa Hospital in a moderate condition following the collision in the Tauwharenīkau River on Sunday morning.

Police said they received reports of the crash at the river, near Tauherenikau Racecourse Road, at about 10.45am on Sunday.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 6, 2025

What to watch: Succession star shines in tense psychological thriller All Her Fault

Source: Radio New Zealand

Set in Chicago – though filmed mostly in Melbourne (more on that later) – All Her Fault immediately pulls us into the tension.

Sarah Snook (Shiv in Succession), stars as Melissa Irving, a successful wealth manager whose life unravels in the opening minutes when she discovers her 5-year-old son Milo has been taken. Snook is brilliant as always – you can feel her panic and simmering rage.

We follow the police investigation and Melissa’s own discoveries, suspecting various family members and friends across eight tightly-wound episodes. Her husband Peter is played by Jake Lacy (Shane from season one of The White Lotus), who nails his portrayal of another entitled man.

There are three main threads that will keep you hooked. The spine of the series is the missing child mystery, complete with steady revelations and clever misdirection which keeps us guessing until the very end.

The second thread is the upper middle-class affluence. The characters inhabit stunning, large, minimalist homes and employ nannies. This privilege doesn’t shield them from judgment or tragedy, which brings us to the third theme of the story: the weight of motherhood.

This is where the title comes in. Melissa is vilified by the media, accused of complicity in her son’s disappearance, mainly because she’s a working mother. Another key player, Jenny (Dakota Fanning), a publishing executive and fellow mum, becomes entangled after discovering her nanny is involved in Milo’s disappearance. All Her Fault doesn’t fall into the trope of pitting these women against each other, instead it’s a welcome relief that they have each other’s backs.

If you know Chicago or Melbourne, here’s where the illusion falters. Lake Michigan’s shores don’t resemble St Kilda’s yellow sand, and the waves look more ocean than lake.

Some scenes were shot in Chicago, but it feels like they added filters to the brighter Australian environment. If I was from Chicago, I’d be pretty unhappy having my city faked in this way.

Then there’s the array of Australian actors (all nailing their American accents). It makes the series feel slightly dislocated – but definitely not enough to derail the drama.

Don’t watch if … location trickery triggers you.

The Beast in Me: Psychological thriller starring Matthew Rhys (the Americans) and Clare Danes (Netflix).

Playing Nice : Psychological thriller starring James Norton (Happy Valley) and Niamh Algar (Raised by Wolves) about two families whose lives implode after they discover their children were swapped at birth (3 Now).

Dark Winds: A gripping US crime thriller set in the 1970s in Navajo country in the US Southwest (Netflix).

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

December 5, 2025

Bougainville independence process enters ‘final leg’ amid lingering uncertainty

Source: Radio New Zealand

PNG Prime Minister James Marape and Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama at the Joint Supervisory Body meeting in Port Moresby this week. December 2025

PNG Prime Minister James Marape and Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama at the Joint Supervisory Body meeting in Port Moresby this week. Photo: Autonomous Bougainville Government

A crucial, final leg of the process to decide Bougainville’s future political status has begun, but uncertainty remains over how it will play out.

Representatives of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville held talks this week in Port Moresby over the future of the autonomous region’s political status, and agreed that the issue will be taken to the PNG national parliament by June next year for deliberations on a final decision.

This week’s meeting of the Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) was the latest in a series of discussions over implementation of the process following Bougainville’s 2019 independence referendum. The non-binding referendum resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence, but ultimately it is up to PNG’s parliament to decide whether to ratify the result.

Concerns in Bougainville that PNG’s leaders were dragging the chain on whether, and when, to ratify the result were allayed somewhat this week with the JSB’s resolution, as announced by PNG Prime Minister James Marape.

“We are in the final leg in which the referendum result will go to parliament. We put a clear roadmap for the first six months of next year,” Marape explained.

Speakers and clerks from both the PNG and Bougainville parliaments will establish a secessional order to map out the formal process ahead.

“The technical specifications of the secessional order as well as what happens on the floor of parliament will be defined properly in the next three months. We anticipate that before the first half of 2026 has lapsed, parliament – possibly in the second sitting – would receive and deliberate on the result,” Marape said.

PNG's Minister for Bougainville Affairs, Sir Puka Temu.

Sir Puka Temu Photo: RNZ Pacific / Johnny Blades

Nationwide consultations

This week’s JSB meeting was the first since a PNG Parliamentary Bipartisan Committee concluded nationwide consultations on Bougainville’s political future. The committee’s findings will assist with the MPs’ deliberations.

One of the Committee members, Sir Puka Temu, said there was a range of views on the issue, but noted people in other parts of PNG were open to the idea of Bougainvilleans becoming independent.

“When we went to Morobe, one of the biggest provinces in the country, the leaders came out and said ‘give them independence’. When we went to East New Britain, they said ‘give them independence but give us autonomy’,” he said, while adding that national leaders in PNG are sensitive about setting a precedent for other parts of the country wishing to break away.

Sir Puka said the two governments have been adhering the Melanesian Agreement reached between PNG and Bougainville in New Zealand in June this year, in which both governments resolved “to craft and pursue a clear political pathway forward” on the referendum result as part of the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

However, he admitted that questions remain about the exact method by which PNG’s parliament will decide on the ratification.

“And that’s where the secessional order designed by the two speakers may clarify whether we vote or not, and if we vote is it a simple majority or a two-thirds absolute majority like we do with constitutional amendments.”

Sir Puka also said questions remain about what follows the vote.

“If parliament says yes, how do we manage the process towards independence? Because Bougainville hasnt got the institutional capacity or economy capacity to be given independence straight away.”

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, on the left, attended the swearing-in of the fifth Bougainville House of Representatives in October 2025. Photo: NBC Bougainville – Maus Blong Sankamap

Lingering tensions

The latest talks took place amid lingering tensions between the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and PNG’s national government, with President Ishmael Toroama telling Marape and others at the meeting about his concern that JSB resolutions were being rendered irrelevant.

He cited the example of the channelling of Restoration and Development Funds intended for Bougainville – around 100 million kina a year (approx. NZ$40m) – through the MP representing the region in the PNG national parliament, rather than directly to the ABG.

“It is therefore deeply concerning that in this matter, though initiated by the ABG through the courts, the Regional Member for Bougainville and your state Minister has chosen to actively defend against the implementation of JSB-endorsed decisions on this funding,” Toroama said.

“His public statements that the JSB Resolutions does not change the law, reflects a total disregard for the sanctity and constitutionality of the JSB as the legitimate body from which the Prime Minister’s Commitment funds originate. Such actions risk undermining the JSB’s authority. This is very dangerous and has the potential to be perilous to the peace process and to the constitutionality of the JSB itself.”

Toroama even warned that if the JSB continued to be sidelined, it could imperil PNG national elections elections taking place in Bougainville in 2027.

“I will state here that whilst national MPs from Bougainville may want to use any and all state resources at their disposal in preparation for the 2027 elections, let me go on record here and plainly state that there may not be national elections on Bougainville in 2027.”

But the JSB talks this week resolved this funding issue, Sir Puka said, with Marape assuring that the funds would now be freed up to go direct to the ABG as agreed.

Sources close to the ABG also confirmed to RNZ Pacific that the leadership was satisfied with PNG’s response to the president’s concerns and the outcome of the JSB meeting, that PNG’s parliament will be ready to the ratification decision by June next year.

However, the question of whether PNG approves of Bougainville’s independence remains very much open. But for Bougainvilleans, the question shouldn’t be delayed any more.

The need for a decision to happen before the end of the current parliament was underlined by Sir Puka who admitted that as new, younger MPs enter parliament there will be less institutional memory of the Bougainville crisis, its civil war and all the relevant history leading up to the peace process. Even among the current batch of MPs, there are gaps in knowledge of the unique context of Bougainville.

Sir Puka said a booklet was being prepared as an educational tool to raise awareness among the MPs about Bougvinaille’s history, in order to ensure there is informed decision-making on the major question that the national parliament is to address.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand