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Entsch, whose far north Queensland electorate takes in the Torres Strait, will today take Health Minister Sussan Ley and Attorney-General George Brandis to one of Australia’s most northerly points, the remote ­Saibai Island, to push his case for a greater government presence on the porous border.

The meetings are being held at the Tanoa International Hotel, Nadi, Fiji. 

Senior officials and representatives from Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu will be in attendance as part of talks towards a new and more comprehensive trade agreement - MSGTA3 – that will now include Trade in Services, and new chapters such as Labour Mobility, Investment, and Telecommunications. 

MSG Leaders have directed that a draft legal text of the trade agreement must be ready by November 2015.

The meetings include: 

Following in the footsteps of the World Club Challenge, long contested by NRL and Super League clubs, the premiers of PNG and Fiji's national leagues will now play off for a regional title. 

The match will take place at Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby on Saturday 10 October 2015 at 7pm. 

Papua New Guinea is closest to having deep water mining begin in the Bismarck Sea, while the Cook Islands last week opened up bidding for exploratory licences.

But a principal scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Malcolm Clark, says scientists working with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community are pushing for more collaboration among Pacific Island countries.

The  biennial forum will be staged from 22-25 September in Nadi and PNG National Fisheries Authority (NFA) will meet half the bill of the hosting cost with the host nation.

“The contribution (from PNG) has reached over a million kina and it’s what NFA has budgeted for,” said John Kasu, NFA managing director.

He was speaking at a reception organised by the NFA last Friday to give an update on the progress to the media and also acknowledge individual business houses and statutory organizations who had financially  supported the forum.

A Fiji Government delegation attended the Forum's Officials Committee meeting which has been setting the agenda for the leaders' summit next month in Papua New Guinea.

Fiji was suspended from the Forum in 2009 for refusing to return to democracy.

Last year it was re-admitted after the elections but the Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been stressing he will not attend the summit in Port Moresby.

FBC News reports the roving Pacific Ambassador Litia Mawi saying the re-engagement is strategic to ensure Fiji's position on regional issues is heard.

The mixed 4 x 100m freestyle relay relay team of Ryan Pini, Tegan McCarthy, Barbara Vali-Skelton and Sam Seghers was  disqualified on the final day of the championships after Seghers broke early in the mixed 4 x 100m freestyle relay race.

But this did little to dampen PNG’s spirits as they had their say about the championships and what it has given them.

“It was a bit of a disappointing finish, but I guess that’s what happens from time to time. The good part about it was that we were all together for that final swim," said Pini..

The projected budget deficit in Papua New Guinea's has been revised up, hitting 9.4 per cent, which is more than double last year's deficit and getting close to the 12.3 per cent figure which helped tip Greece into meltdown last year.

The budget implosion will come as a shock to leaders in PNG and also Australia, who have consistently played down the impact of corruption and sliding commodity prices.

The ship was seized on July 27 just off Daru Island, the administrative centre for Western Province on the PNG side of international border in the Torres Strait.

The 80-meter Blissful Reefer is due in the capital Port Moresby today from Daru, where the men will be interviewed with IOM interpreters.

“There were initially eight victims of trafficking that we identified, they are now under IOM care in Port Moresby,” said IOM country director George Gerouriou from Daru. 

In the 100m butterfly heats, Tegan McCarthy finished fourth with a time of 1 minute 08.82 seconds; lowering the national record by two hundredths of a second.

 “I tried to get out there really fast and hold my stroke coming back. It was a long hard race, but it was good to get out there and try to get a personal best,” said McCarthy.

Next was Ryan Pini who swam the 50m butterfly finishing with a time of 24.18 seconds .This was 0.41 seconds outside the national record that he set earlier this year at the Australian Championships.