Advisory Panel

PLP is guided by an Advisory Panel of eminent Pacific Islanders, who provide strategic oversight and advice on Program activities. The current Chair of the Advisory Panel is Sir Rabbie Namaliu of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The Advisory Panel meets on an annual basis to provide feedback and guidance on Program development, planning and implementation issues. Our Advisory Panel members have also played an integral role in the development of initiatives in each focus country, by enabling access to ‘on the ground’ advice, knowledge and networks.

Sir Rabbie Langanai Namaliu (Chair)

Sir Rabbie Langanai Namaliu served as Prime Minister of PNG from 1988 and 1992, and was Speaker of PNG’s National Parliament from 1994 and 1997. As PNG’s Foreign Minister, Sir Rabbie was President of the African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) Council of Ministers and Co- President of the ACP –EU Council of Ministers with the Foreign Minister for Ireland. He also chaired the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Ministerial Committee on the proposed amalgamation of the Forum and the Pacific Community in 1984.

Sir Rabbie holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from the University of PNG, a Masters of Arts (MA) degree and an honorary Doctorate of Laws (Hon.LLD) from the University of Victoria, Canada. He was Senior Tutor and later Lecturer in History at the University of PNG and was the first Papua New Guinean graduate to be appointed to the university’s academic staff in 1973. In 2005, Sir Rabbie received the highly prestigious Honorary Award in International Relations on behalf of the Paris Base Center for Diplomacy and Strategy Studies, an affiliate of the Sorbonne University’s Institute of International Relations. He is currently Chancellor of the University of Vudal, an appointment he has held since 2007.

In early 2010 Sir Rabbie was appointed as Non-Executive Director of Marengo Mining Limited, and in 2008 as Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the newly formed investment firm, Kina Asset Management Limited. He was also appointed by AusAID to be on the Agricultural Research and Development Support Facility Committee (ARDSF) in February 2008 and selected by the Committee to be its Chairman.

Hon Fiame Naomi Mata’afa

Fiame entered politics in Samoa in 1985 as the member for Lotofaga for the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP). In her second term (1988 – 1991) she was the Parliamentary Under- Secretary for Finance, working mainly in the development of strategies to implement VAGST (Value Added Goods and Services Tax) in Samoa. Fiame has been a Cabinet Minister since 1991 and has held the Education, Youth, Sports and Culture, and Labour portfolios. After the March 2006 General Elections, she continued in cabinet with a new set of portfolios; Women, Community and Social Development; Public Service Commission, Salaries Tribunal; and Office of the Ombudsman.

Internationally, Fiame has represented Samoa and the Pacific Islands on the Executive Board of UNESCO and the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning. She currently is the Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the University of the South Pacific (USP) and is also the Pacific Regional representative on the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Steering Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentarians’ Association.

Fiame is a keen advocate of women’s development especially in the area of women in politics. She maintains strong ties with the Samoa National Council of Women (NCW) and the Inailau Women’s Leadership Network, both of which she has been a longstanding member. “Fiame” is a chiefly title and is the ranking title of the Lotofaga district. Naomi was conferred the title Fiame in 1977.

Tuiloma Neroni Slade

Tuiloma Neroni Slade is the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS). He was elected to this position for a three year term in August 2008. Prior to this, Mr. Slade was appointed to the International Criminal Court in 2003 for a three-year term, and served as Presiding Judge of Pre-Trial Chamber II at The Hague in the Netherlands. He then went on to practice as an international legal consultant between 2007 and 2008.

Mr Slade’s extensive diplomatic career from 1993 to 2003 saw him serve as Samoan Ambassador/ Permanent Representative to the United Nations; concurrently Ambassador to the United States of America and High Commissioner to Canada. Preceding this he worked as Assistant Director of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Legal Division in London.

From 1976 to 1982, Mr. Slade served as the Attorney-General of Samoa, following his roles as Parliamentary Counsel to the Government of Samoa and Principal/Legal Counsel and Senior Prosecutor for the Attorney-General’s Office of Samoa.
Mr Slade is a recipient of Order of Samoa – Poloaiga Sili a Samoa (2005), Global Oceans Leadership Award (2003), Elisabeth Mann Borgese Medal for Services to Small Island Developing States and the Oceans (2003) and Laureate, Elizabeth Haub Award for Environmental Diplomacy (2001). He has also been the Chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States (1997-2003).

Professor Mick Dodson 

Professor Mick Dodson is a member of the Yawuru peoples, the traditional Aboriginal owners of land and waters in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is currently Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University and a Professor of law at the ANU College of Law.

Professor Dodson is a vigorous advocate of the rights and interests of the Indigenous peoples of the world. He was Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1993 – 1998), the Co-Deputy Chair of the Technical Committee for the 1993 International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, Chair of the United Nations Advisory Group for the Voluntary Fund for the Decade of Indigenous Peoples and served for five years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Indigenous Voluntary Fund.

In January 2005 Professor Dodson took up a three year appointment as a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and was recently reappointed for a further three years to December 2010. He was named Australian of the Year in 2009 by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, in recognition of his lifetime commitment to improving the lives of Aboriginal people and in helping to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Professor Mick Dodson has been recently appointed the next Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, he will take up the temporary posting at the US university in 2011, sharing the honour with Dr Chris McAuliffe from the University of Melbourne.

Mrs Suliana Siwatibau 

Mrs Suliana Siwatibau (née Kaloumaira) is a Fijian political activist. She currently serves as Chair of the Pacific Centre for Public Integrity (PCPI) and the Coalition for Democracy and Peace, and is a freelance consultant with the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI) on environment, resource management, community development, organisational management and governance. Internationally she has been a member of the World Council of Churches working group on Climate Change, and served on the Board of the Asia Pacific Planning Network and the International Peace Research Institute.

Mrs Siwatibau attended Auckland University where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Botany in 1962, followed by a Master of Science in Botany Cytogenetics in 1963. She went on to teach secondary school science from 1964 to 1966, then University biology from 1970 to 1974. Since retiring from full time work, Mrs Siwatibau volunteers for several NGOs in Fiji, including Transparency International, Habitat for Humanity, Nature Fiji/ MareqetiViti, Fiji Cancer Society, and Dialogue Fiji. She has four children and four grandchildren scattered throughout New Zealand and Fiji.

 
Mrs Joy Kere

Mrs Joy Kere (née Kiriau) is the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of National Unity Reconciliation and Peace in Solomon Islands, where she brings extensive government and grassroots experience in conflict resolution and peace building. Mrs Kere attended the University of the South Pacific (USP) where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration and Politics in 1984. She then obtained a Master of Science in Health Planning and Financing from the University of London in 1989, and a second Masters degree, in International Studies Peace and Conflict Resolution, from the University of Queensland in 2006.

Between 1985 and 1998, Mrs Kere worked in the Solomon Islands public service in various Ministries including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Economic Planning, Health, and Education. She resigned from the public service in 1998, and – after a stint in the private sector and several short term consultancies in gender and community development – rejoined in her current role in June 2006.

Joy has served on a number of statutory boards in Solomon Islands. She was a member of the International Peace Monitoring Team involved in implementing the Townville Peace Agreement in post-conflict Solomon Islands, and then a council member of the Solomon Islands National Peace Council. In 2009, she oversaw the launch of the Solomon Islands’ Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which aims to bring peace to communities still divided by the ethnic tensions which gripped the country from 1998 to 2003.  

 
Mr. Gordon Shroff

Mr Gordon Shroff, CNZM, graduated in History from Auckland University in 1967 and joined the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He subsequently served in Samoa, New York (UN Mission) and London. In these postings and in his various Wellington -based assignments his main focus was on Pacific politics and development. He headed the NZ Immigration Service for a period in the mid -1980s while a major policy review was undertaken and later spent two years dealing with strategic policy issues in the Deptartment of Conservation.

In 1990 he re-joined MFAT and served as Diretor of the Pacific, and later the Development Division. In that capacity he has visited most Pacific Island states and has attended numerous Pacific Island Forums and other such regional meetings as well as development related UNDP, World Bank, ADB and OECD gatherings.

In 1999 he was appointed Deputy Secretary in MFAT with oversight of relationships with Australia, the Pacific Islands and Cultural Affairs. Since retirement in 2003 he has undertaken various Pacific related assignments including Coordinator of NZ Post-Cyclone Heta aid to Niue and quality assessment of proposals from NZ departments for support to their counterpart agencies in the PICs. He also serves in a voluntary capacity as Vice-President of the Friends of the National Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa.
 

Mrs Mishka Kupu Tu’ifua

Mrs Mishka Kupu Tu'ifua is currently the full-time Chair of the Tonga Public Service Commission. She assumed this role in June 2008 after holding the position of General Manager of the Westpac Bank in Tonga since 2003. Mrs Tu'ifua has 19 years experience in the private sector. Her extensive background is in organisation and change management, business operations and customer relationship management. She joined the Westpac Banking Corporation in 1988. She took up a senior management position with overall responsibility for large business operations in Australia before moving to head the Westpac branch in Tonga. Whilst with the Westpac Bank, she became the first woman, and a Tongan at that, to hold the General Manager position.