Results for Tonga Cabinet

The Prime Minister Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, this afternoon announced his new 12-member Cabinet and the two Governors for Vava‘u and Ha‘apai. The Prime Minister has kept four major portfolios under himself, taking on the Police and the armed forces as well as education.

A reshuffle in the Tongan Cabinet, was approved today by HM King Tupou VI, with the appointment of a new Minister of Justice and Prisons, and a new Minister of Trade and Economic Development.

The proposed changes to the Constitution to take away the King's remaining powers and transfer it to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet is backwards and undemocratic. - 'Ana Tausinga

Tonga's Prime Minister surprised a local press conference last week by leaking a document that he said was a "confidential" Cabinet decision relating to funds allocated for the opening celebration of the new St. George Government Building on September 1.

Tonga's government is embarking on a reform program "to change people’s mind-sets", the Prime Minister, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva told a Press Conference that he called on March 29 at the Fa‘onelua Convention Centre in Nuku'alofa. He also said that government is preparing a bill that will allow district and town officers to appropriate "deserted" properties and clear them for community use.

A new salary structure for civil servants that was approved by the Tongan Cabinet on 13 April, to be implemented on 1 July 2016 in the new budget, has been stopped in its tracks, because the Public Service Association (PSA) claims it is unlawful. Now the pressure group may have succeeded in their demand for Cabinet to change a decision, in return for the PSA withholding a threatened injunction against the Cabinet’s approval of the new salary structure. By Pesi Fonua.

In a marathon press conference lasting nearly four hours yesterday, Tonga’s Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva tried to defend his decision to retain a self-confessed corrupted Cabinet Minister, ‘Etuate Lavulavu, as his Minister of Tourism.

When the Prime Minister told the House this week that the Reserve Bank should tell the commercial banks to reduce their interest rates and to reduce their profit to not more than $2 million pa’anga per annum - one wonders if the Prime Minister had discussed the issue with his Minister of Finance? Editor's Comment by Pesi Fonua.

'Akilisi Pohiva, in his first press conference as Tonga's new Prime Minister, said that realistically his new government would not be able to implement their own working programs until they introduced their national budget for the 2015-16 financial year at the end of June.