FPR Portrait
The Framework Gordon Left Behind: Sir Arthur Gordon in Fiji, 1875-1880
Sir Arthur Gordon and the framework he left behind. Read the FPR Portrait.
Lanieta Tukana
Lanieta Tukana is the founding editor of the Fiji Political Review. She writes on Fijian politics, constitutional reform and democratic governance.
By the Editor
Fiji’s first referendum: a thin margin and rules still being written
Fiji's first referendum could be held on 9 December. The path there rests on a three-vote margin in Parliament, a counting rule that sits uneasily with the Standing Orders, and campaign rules still to be written.
Vanua
The Māori Queen's quiet lesson in indigenous leadership
On 10 July 2025, the Māori Queen sat in Lakeba for the installation of the Sau ni Vanua o Lau. A year on from her own accession at 27, Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po is building something at the intersection of chiefly authority and modern economic power. Fiji has reasons to study it.
Vanua
iTaukei Land Legislation and Vanua Consent: The Framework the Constitution Delegates
The 2013 Constitution protects iTaukei land ownership. It says nothing about who decides what happens on it. That work sits in the iTaukei Land Trust Act 1940 and the Land Use Decree 2010 — instruments that vest control in state bodies. The vanua owns. The Board decides.
Vanua
Ceremony as Constitution: The Tui Nayau and the Limits of Written Sovereignty
The Tui Nayau's authority is not delegated by the Fijian state. It predates the Fijian state. It has continued through every constitutional order the Fijian state has produced.
Pacific Dispatch
The Vuvale Union's labour history problem
Australia's 32nd Recognition Day arrives seven weeks after the Vuvale Union treaty was signed in Suva. Both share a labour history neither Canberra nor Suva has fully reckoned with.
Constitutional History
The Agreement that Built the 1997 Constitution
In September 1987, a political settlement was signed. It lasted 48 hours. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has not yet asked why.
Long Read
What the Republic Requires and Deserves
A republic is the most demanding form of government. It requires its citizens and its rulers to want something beyond their own immediate interest. FPR examines what that means for Fiji right now.
Mapping Fiji's Drug Trade: An Interactive Network
Who connects to whom, where the money goes and where the system breaks down. A timeline tells you what happened and when, but a network map tells you how it works. FPR has built an interactive constellation of Fiji's documented drug trade, 35 entities, 87 connections, every node
Analysis
The Drug Trade as Governance Failure: Why Maritime Fiji Bears the Cost of State Absence
The persistence of the drug trade in Fiji is not primarily a consequence of weak policing. Rather, it reflects the absence of sustained state presence; at sea, within village governance, and in fiscal priorities. Transnational traffickers have been quick to identify and exploit these gaps. Fiji’s maritime communities span
Analysis
When the Quad Comes Calling: Multilateral Architecture and Fiji’s Embedded Alignment
On 25 May, the Vuvale union appeared on the Fiji Parliament's order paper. The next day, the Quad named Fiji pilot for its first joint infrastructure project. The timing was coincidental; the architecture it exposed was not. They reveal how Fiji's strategic position is being shaped, and by whom.
FPR Portrait
From the Hospital at Lyon: Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna
In 1914, the British Army refused him. So he crossed the Channel and joined the French Foreign Legion instead.
Constitution
Introducing the FPR Constitutional Reference
An independent annotated reference to the 2013 Constitution — plain language explanations, FPR analysis, and CRC Watch notes. Free and publicly accessible.
Policy Watch
How Did We Get Here? The Vuda Incinerator and the Governance Questions Nobody Is Asking
A FJD $1.4 billion waste-to-energy facility proposed for sacred iTaukei land at Vuda Point reached formal EIA stage without secured land consent, without addressing its Australian rejection history, and without a Waigani Convention compliance analysis. The Fiji Political Review asks how.
Policy Watch
Fiji's National Referendum Bill: what it says, what it restricts, and why it matters
A plain-language breakdown of Bill No. 46 of 2025 — the legislation that will govern how Fijians vote on constitutional change, and why civil society, lawyers and opposition parties say it threatens to make that process hollow.