Pacific links: Australia’s budget, shortwave services, the Pacific test, and more

• The Australian Budget has been released and the foreign aid budget has been cut again, but funding for Papua New Guinea and the Pacific remains largely unchanged. Here is the detailed breakdown of the numbers for the Pacific region.
  
• The ABC has opposed a bill that would restore its shortwave radio service to the Pacific, introduced by Senator Nick Xenophon.
  
• Cyclone Donna has battered Vanuatu, with experts noting how unusual it is to see a storm so powerful this long after summer.
  
• New Caledonia was mostly undamaged by Cyclone Donna, with meteorologists now watching the less powerful Cyclone Ella as it heads to Fiji.
  
• On Saturday, PNG’s rugby league team the Kumuls beat the Cook Islands at this year’s Pacific Test. Jonathan Pryke and Joanna Lester wrote about the potential of rugby league to enhance the Australia-PNG relationship off the back of a workshop the Lowy Institute’s Aus-PNG Network hosted on the subject last month.
  
• Kurdish journalist and Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani has written about a local family who welcome refugees through visits to their home.
  
• The Solomon Islands police force has been rearmed after nearly 14 years, as RAMSI prepares to withdraw next month.
  
• The Pacific Test, held in Sydney last weekend, saw Papua New Guinea play the Cook Islands, Tonga play Fiji, and England play Samoa.

Harriet Smith