Indian-origin Fiji minister Agni Deo Singh died in Brisbane during an Australian visit on September 12, the country’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka announced the death on the official Fiji Government Facebook page.Singh served as Fiji’s Minister for Employment, Productivity and Workplace Relations from 2023 to 2026.Singh had been in Australia as part of a delegation working under the Fiji-Australia Vuvale Partnership. The group included representatives from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and was visiting Fijian workers employed under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme.During the Brisbane visit, Singh met Fijian PALM workers at Australian Country Choice and held discussions with company and labour-hire representatives. He acknowledged the company for employing Fijian workers and heard feedback from them, according to Australia Today.He also visited JBS Australia, where he commended the company’s focus on worker welfare and wellbeing. Singh welcomed its commitment to transparency around wages and deductions.Fiji’s Minister for Fisheries and Forestry Alitia Bainivalu also paid tribute to Singh, highlighting his work on employment and workers’ rights during his time in government.Under Singh’s tenure, Fiji’s national minimum wage rose from $4 to $4.50 an hour in 2024 and then to $5 an hour in 2025. The full 18% Fiji National Provident Fund contribution was also restored in 2024, strengthening workers’ retirement savings.Bainivalu also credited Singh’s ministry with helping resolve a decades-long dispute involving 368 Vatukoula mine workers. A $9.2 million settlement awarded $25,000 to each worker, ending a dispute that had remained unresolved for more than 30 years.She said Singh’s tenure also saw the restoration of freedom of association, greater engagement between the government, employers and unions, and increased attention to workplace grievances, wages and employment conditions.“His legacy will not only be remembered in Parliament or in Government records. It will be remembered in the lives of ordinary working people,” Bainivalu said.
