Pacific links: RAMSI, Baldwin Lonsdale, PNG voting update and more

• The end of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) is being marked with a week of celebrations. Nick O’Malley reports on the end of RAMSI, and the future of the Solomon Islands.
  
• The 2017 Lowy Institute Poll shows 77% of Australians believe the use of military forces would be justified to restore law and order in a Pacific nation.
  
• The unpredictable Papua New Guinean elections have begun, but are off to a rocky start with polling delays in the Highlands provinces.
  
• Research from Terence Wood shows that the number of female candidates contesting the PNG election has increased.
  
• A State funeral for Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale was held last week after his death a few days earlier from a sudden heart attack. Vanuatu's electoral college will meet on 3 July to select a new president.
  
• A DevPolicy panel explored the ongoing impacts of the 2015 – 2016 drought in PNG.
  
• The 2017 Pacific Update was held last week in Fiji, and explored the themes of enhancing connectivity, the blue-green economy, and labour mobility.
  
• The conference was opened by Papua New Guinean lawyer and diplomat Dame Meg Taylor, who is also the subject of the 1989 documentary My Father, My Country that she discussed at a screening at ANU.

Harriet Smith