Michael Field Apia An entrepreneurial family who lost 14 members in the Samoan tsunami got to thank New Zealand for their aid yesterday - and asked for a bit more. Ben Taufua's family ran a beach fale operation on
Samoa's south coast which was hit by the tsunami a year ago. It completely destroyed the resort, but when Foreign Minister Murray McCully pulled in yesterday, the bar and restaurant was open for business and tourists have started flocking back. The family, like others, have benefitted strongly from New Zealand aid to a "build if back better Samoa" campaign. "I am so proud of New Zealand, even if I am an Australian," he said. Mr McCully spent yesterday visiting sites along the coast, mostly managing to avoid the Samoan cultural rituals that go with everything here. But as he rolled into the new Lalomanu school, built in the hills back from the coast, the village matai or chiefs raced to greet him. Mr Taufua joked with the minister. "They're grateful for the money to build the school and now they'd like a fence," he said. Mr McCully was then treated to 'ava and a series of speeches in Samoan. Earlier Mr McCully attacked Pacific aid organisation officials, saying they are not meeting the practical needs of the region. Labour's associate foreign affairs spokesperson Phil Twyford had condemned what he said were recent cuts to Pacific aid funds. Mr McCully said Mr Twyford had been invited on the inter-party three nation mission around the Pacific underway. It was a pity he did not come. "I am unapologetic about the fact that we are reshaping our policies to better meet the needs," Mr McCully said. "There is a view held by some of the desk jockeys from aid bureaucracies, of which (Mr Twyford) used to be one, that it is all about them, about funding large aid organisations and having large numbers of aid bureaucrats. "In fact we have got to get more focussed about getting more practical things on the ground." Mr Twyford said the latest casualty of Mr McCully's operation was a programme helping villagers in four Pacific countries reduce the impact of disasters such as tsunamis, cyclones and floods through disaster preparedness training and working with local government. The Suva-based Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific reports NZ funding was cut a year before the contract was due to expire and without any assessment of the programme's impact. The programme was initiated two years ago in collaboration with NZAID, the government aid agency disestablished soon after the National-ACT Government came to office, Mr Twyford said. New Zealand pledged to commit $500,000 a year for three years but now funding has been cut after only one year. "Mr McCully is taking an axe to NGO-based programmes that he doesn't like the look of. The cuts seem to be made on the Minister's whim, not on the basis of any evidence or assessment by officials." Mr McCully said the Foundation tsunami relief programme had been inadequate and its work on tsunami warnings had been piecemeal and ad hoc, New Zealand was to shortly announce a new programme, worth nearly $4 million, that will offer a more comprehensive tsunami warning system that would meet the needs of the people of the Pacific. New Zealand was not criticising the Honolulu based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center but was seeking a system better integrated regional. It would be led by New Zealand officials. 2 September 2010
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