Pacific MPs get govt budget ideas while in NZ

Pacific Island MPs say they are learning valuable lessons about how to deal with the challenges of government spending and parliamentary process, while in New Zealand this week for a training exercise. Organised by the UNDP, the two-day programme at Parliament brought together MPs and parliamentary staff from the Cook Islands, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa, to observe and discuss budgeting, and ways of improving financial oversight work in their respective governments.