Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters addressing a Pacific crowd on the steps of Parliament on Tuesday after he received a petition calling for visas on arrival for Pacific nationals. RNZ Pacific / Moera Tuilaepa
Political parties are largely sympathetic to a petition for easier access to New Zealand for Pacific nationals – but it’s unclear if it will see progress before the election.
Some are also raising concerns about overstayers.
NZ First leader Winston Peters at midday on Wednesday received the petition with 48,367 signatures calling for Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu to get the same travel rights as more than 60 other countries.
Delivered by former MP Arthur Anae – National’s first Pacific MP – the petition now goes to the Petitions Select Committee.
An Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) grants travel to New Zealand without a visa for up to three months at a time, and enables multiple entries for up to two years. The petition says this is a cheaper, more straightforward way to enter Aotearoa.
Peters said New Zealand First supported the petition and would “do our best” to get it over the line with coalition partners before the election.
Having just received the petition, he had not yet discussed it with National and ACT at Cabinet, he said – but had already lobbied Immigration Minister Erica Stanford on it.
“We let her know that we’re not happy and want to work with her on it, but we also sympathise with her inheriting a very difficult department,” he said.
“I hope common sense for it and fairness prevails … we support the parts that can be produced. I mean, we’ve got problems here because you’ve got distance, time and all those things, but all the Pacific people want is a fair go, equivalent to what other nations are getting, and they’re not getting it.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government would accept the petition, and it would be further thought through after going through the select committee.
Stanford said the matter was on her agenda to consider once the petitions committee had looked into it.
“We’ve had a huge work programme with a number of things we’ve had to tackle, like migrant exploitation and numbers of people in the country coming into the country was, like, 135,000 net.”
She said there were already some measures in place for fast access to visas for Pacific countries.
“Currently our visitor visa processing time is eight days for the Pacific, and if they have an emergency, then there is an escalation process, and we do those far more quickly.
“There’s anecdotal stories, but overall we do an exceptionally good job for our Pacific neighbours.”
But Anae had previously told RNZ’s Checkpoint people from the Pacific had to pay a fee and fill in an application no matter what, and it amounted to discrimination.
“It is the New Zealand Immigration Office and the minister responsible who doesn’t give a damn about us,” he said.
ACT leader David Seymour said it would be up to Stanford but he “some sympathy” for the idea – but was also concerned about the potential for overstayers.
“I’ve had people in the Pacific community approach me and say ‘look, why are we different, why can’t we come’ – on the other hand, you need to be sure that people who get these privileges are going to return.
“If a country has much lower incomes than New Zealand, there’s a big incentive for people to come and not go home. That’s why we check them with visas.”
Asked why those concerns didn’t apply to US citizens – estimated as the third-largest population of overstayers in New Zealand – he said it may need looking at.
“On the other hand, you might ask yourself what’s the rate? They’re the fourth most populous country on Earth, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there was high absolute number – but they’re actually, as I understand it, one of the greatest sources of tourists in New Zealand.”
Peters said those concerns were shared by the Pacific countries who “do not want depopulation if we’re careless”, but could be solved by applying “the Pacific cousins approach”.
“It’s a new psychological approach – we’re going to ensure that before they leave the countries of the origin in the Pacific their elders will be telling them ‘you foul up, you ruin it for the rest of us’.”
He was confident he could secure support from his partners, and if not “the public surge in poll support – or lack of support – might just change their mind for them to think in a much more reasonable way”.
“It’ll take a while, but we’ll not let up until we’ve been successful.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party was still working on its immigration policy but was “very sympathetic” to the petition. If Peters was unable to get support he said Labour would back a member’s bill “at least to first reading”.
“This is certainly something we need to look at as a country,” he said, but also noted “we want to work through the detail of making sure that we could actually deliver on that commitment”.
He said concerns about overstayers were “a hangover from the Dawn Raids period – and I think it’s well and truly time New Zealand moved on from that”.
Green co-leader Marama Davidson cast doubt on Peters’ commitment to the matter.
“We, I think, are the only political party who are actually going to support more access across our nations and Pacific cousins. I’d like to see all the other parties step up,” she said, and New Zealand First “need to be held to account to actually support it”.
Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said it was an “interesting” commitment from Peters ahead of the election.
“When it comes to actually walking the talk, yeah, where’s Winston?”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand