Fiji Coalition Government to look at ambassadors’ situation

tHe Coalition Government will consider the personal circumstances of ambassadors and high commissioners in Fijian missions overseas before they are recalled.

Office of the Prime Minister permanent secretary Pita Wise said this during an interview with The Fiji Times in Panama yesterday.

He said because he was in Panama with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka for the Our Oceans Conference, he would begin work on the logistics of how the ambassadors and high commissioners would be repatriated when he arrived back in the country next week.

“We have to be mindful that some of them have children, they are going to school, especially the ones in the Northern Hemisphere because their school term is different from ours so we have to give them time to prepare so that their children are not affected,” Mr Wise said.

“So that’s the process we are going to take, while others can come very quickly – all the positions will be advertised and they can reapply.”

He also said they would relook at the closure of embassies in the United States, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea by the previous government.

“So we have to re-look at that, those are very strategic to us, like the US, we need to reestablish that one, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.” suLiasi Vunivalu is looking to live up to new Wallabies coach Eddie Jones’ expectations after putting an increased focus on speed behind him.

Mr Wise said it was reassuring to note the positive and fruitful talks with PNG to reestablish an embassy there.

He reiterated that all ambassadors who were recalled were free to reapply for positions once they were advertised.

The Queensland Reds winger will play his first game of the Super Rugby Pacific season in Melbourne on Sunday against the Western Force.

It will be just his 15th cap since the two-time NRL champion switched from the Melbourne Storm after the 2020 season, an ankle complaint keeping Vunivalu out of last week’s round one loss to the Hurricanes.

That came after constant hamstring injuries ruled him out of more than half of the Reds’ fixtures over the past two years.

Finally fit again last year, he spent the entire home Test season in Wallabies camp but played just three minutes in his sole appearance.

Former Australian coach Rennie had demanded Vunivalu go “balls out” in training to prove he was ready.

But Vunivalu was eventually dropped for the Wallabies’ tour of Europe and then not included in a 44-men squad that gathered the week before Rennie was replaced in January.

Vunivalu, who signed a one-year deal keeping him on Rugby Australia’s books until after September’s World Cup, detailed how that obsession with his pace had spooked him.

“Every interview (with Rennie) was just based on speed, speed, speed,” he told AAP on Friday.

The 27-year-old was honest when asked if he’d fallen out of love with the sport since the move to Ballymore.

“I was feeling like that in (Wallabies) camp. All I could see was that next week I would be holding pads again (and not playing) and I know some of the other Reds boys felt the same,” he said.

“We felt if we weren’t playing we’d rather come back and play club footy.

“I was being pushed down the line; it gave me head noise and I started thinking, “Am I supposed to be here?”.

Vunivalu enjoyed the Reds’ off-season tour of Japan and is aware of Jones’ praise, the coach telling AAP last week the winger’s “got it” and could jump the selection queue under his watch.

Jones also acknowledged Vunivalu’s concerns about over-training during the week, saying each player’s preparation should be different.

“It’s good to hear him say that and has the same thinking,” Vunivalu said.

“He’s had a history, likes his league players. But I’m not going to stick by that thinking it’ll be spoon fed to me,” Vunivalu said of Jones, who had NRL trio Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri in his 2003 World Cup squad.

“I have to put in work to get him to pick me.”