NZ First leader Winston Peters is promising to make it easier for people to visit New Zealand from the Pacific, but his coalition partner says this isn’t a priority.
With a fiery show outside Parliament, politicians heard how “discriminatory” immigration rules mean Pacific Islanders are being blocked from attending funerals, graduations, and other important events in New Zealand.
Former National MP Arthur Anae arrived at Parliament on Wednesday, with a petition of 48,000 names and bus loads of supporters who had travelled from Auckland. They arrived with fire dancers and flags from across the Pacific, to urge the Government to let their families visit them without waiting weeks for visa processing.
Unlike travellers from more than 60 other nations, who can get online travel authority (NZeTAs), travellers from the Pacific face far more stringent paperwork to enter New Zealand.
These rules have been a long-lasting barrier for families split across New Zealand and other Pacific islands. But it could soon change, with NZ First leader Winston Peters promising to try and change the rules by the end of the year.
That puts Peters at odds with his coalition government. Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said this was “not something that we’ve considered, nor is it on my agenda.”
Asked about this issue in March last year, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told RNZ Pacific this was “not a priority for us in light of other priorities”. On Wednesday, he said he would wait to see what Parliament’s Petitions Committee recommended.
But Peters said he wanted these rules changed by November. He wasn’t worried by his colleagues’ comments indicating the Government wasn’t on board.
“People say a lot of things, and then they have time to reflect,” Peters said.
“All the Pacific people want is a fair go, according to what other nations are getting. And they’re not getting it,” Peters told reporters, outside Parliament on Wednesday.
He said it was “a disgrace” that New Zealand made it so hard for people to visit from the Pacific.
Anae said this was discrimination against Pacific people, following on from stigma in the 1970s targeting Pacific peoples for “overstaying”.
“I believe there is discrimination towards people of the Pacific which must end. I propose that Pacific people from Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu be issued a visitor visa on arrival in NZ,” his petition said.
Stanford said the current settings were not stopping Pacific Islanders from getting to New Zealand to attend events such as funerals.
“Well, of course they can. I mean, currently our visa processing time is eight days for the Pacific. And if they have an emergency, then there is an escalation process do we do those more quickly,” Stanford said.
But outside, at the petition handover, people from Pacific communities and families told a very different story.
Nanai Muaau, a petition organiser who has family in Samoa, said it was a “daily, and weekly issue” for relatives trying to visit their family in New Zealand.
He said he knew, right now, that a 69-year-old woman in Samoa was wanting to visit New Zealand to celebrate her 70th birthday with family.
“She started the visa process six weeks ago, but she is still waiting to know if she can celebrate her 70th birthday with her children,” he said.
For funerals, he said he knew friends who had missed the chance to farewell loved ones.
“I know a lot of families that haven’t been able to come here to attend funerals,” he said, because of applications being declined – or delayed.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party would likely support the bill’s introduction. The Greens and Te Pāti Māori both attended the rally outside Parliament, with NZ First, and promised their support to change these rules.
Hipkins said he was “very sympathetic” to the issue but would need to consider how immigration policy would need to change.
Without one of the major parties, either Labour or National, getting in behind the bill to fast-track its debate in Parliament, it could take months, or years, for anything to change.
