We Say 4

'A regional airline is not a new idea. Australia and the Asia Development Bank are each doing regional airline feasibility studies. How many other such studies gather dust on various shelves? The Australian study will pop up as a report at the Forum meeting in Apia in August'

Mr Peter Costello is Australia's very astute finance minister. He'd like to be a prime minister one day, but so far Mr John Howard has had other ideas about that possibility.

Mr Costello attended the Pacific Islands Forum finance ministers' meeting in New Zealand in June. At that meeting and at previous meetings the impression has been that he takes the Pacific Islands quite seriously, which is more than what can be said for a lot of other Australians.

In New Zealand, one of the things he said was that it is about time the Pacific Islands states had one regional airline‹run at a profit‹instead of a lot of little one-plane or half-plane national airlines not only going bust all by themselves but busting their government owners too.

A regional airline is not a new idea. Australia and the Asia Development Bank are each doing regional airline feasibility studies. How many other such studies gather dust on various shelves? The Australian study will pop up as a report at the Forum meeting in Apia in August.

Let's turn to another subject. Tongans, Samoans and Fijians have teamed up as the Pacific Islanders regional rugby team in the hope of thrashing Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and any overbearing tykes that come their way. They are scheduled to play Australia on July 3, then New Zealand on July 10, and then South Africa on July 17.

Dominic Fonoti, a dancer, has choreographed a war dance for Pacific Islanders to frighten their enemies with. It is a concoction of bits of the Samoan Tau, the Tongan Ilikai Tau and the Fijian cibi.

In one way or another Samoans, Fijians and Tongans have been at each other's throat for years, and not just playing rugby.

There is cruel speculation that the Pacific Islanders team will flop because players will be at each other's throat and that the team will fall apart with accusations from each component that one or both of the others are trying to dominate, or are engaged in stab-in-the-back, or are just cultural snobs, etcetera, etcetera.

Mr Costello, if the foretellers of doom for the team have got it wrong, then there might just be a slight chance for the success of a regional airline run the way it should be run. But don't count on that, though.