Foreign Affairs
As New Zealand continues its diplomatic push in the Pacific, some are questioning why the government is not taking a friendly approach to visitors to the islands who currently require visas – as two Pacific prime ministers push for better access
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has joined the chorus of voices calling for New Zealand to grant visa waivers to visitors to the Pacific Islands.
Sogavare made the request to MPs from the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, defense and trade, who visited the country last week to assess the impact of the controversial security deal with China.
Pacific countries are currently excluded from a list of 60 countries and territories whose residents or citizens can visit New Zealand without a formal visitor visa, to the frustration of some.
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Last year, 1News revealed more than half of 1,446 visitor visa applications rejected by officials in a three-month period came from just nine Pacific countries.
Now Sogavare has raised the issue directly with Kiwi politicians, with the Solomon star newspaper report that the Prime Minister had visited New Zealand to answer the visa waiver scheme his country has offered to Kiwis.
“As NZ seeks to improve its Pacific Reset policy, the reciprocal visa waiver arrangement would be necessary to be incorporated into the policy as it will improve engagement, partnerships and cooperation with the Pacific,” Sogavare reportedly said.
National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee, who was one of the MPs who met with Sogavare, told the Newsroom that his party would be willing to review the current approach to visa waiver.
However, visitors from the Pacific would have to “fulfill any other conditions and concerns that any other country with New Zealand visa waiver status may have.”
Brownlee said it might make more sense to expand Pacific access to the Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, which issued work visas to up to 19,000 farm workers from nine Pacific countries.
The visa access debate comes as Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa has called for a European Union-style bloc for free movement and labor rights in the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand.
Fiamē, speaking at a Lowy Institute event in Australia earlier this week, said she discussed the idea with Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni last month at a retreat at the Pacific Islands Forum, to which she received a lukewarm response.
“[Sepuloni]who is part Samoan and part Tongan said, ‘Oh, but all the other people on the islands will want to come and live in New Zealand and Australia’.”
“Auckland has the largest Polynesian population in the world, so there’s no point in restricting people’s entry and exit based on what they give us.”
– Teanau Tuiono, Green Party
However, Fiamē believed that easier travel conditions would make it easier for people to live in smaller Pacific countries, while still visiting relatives and doing business in the larger countries as needed.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s office referred the Newsroom’s visa waiver questions to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with a ministry spokeswoman saying New Zealand “has a deep and longstanding partnership with the Solomon Islands and we are determined for this”.
“We are taking a consistent approach to immigration policy across the region. All Pacific countries currently require a visa to enter Aotearoa, New Zealand.”
The government had no plans to change the visa waiver settings, focusing instead on the RSE scheme and expanding opportunities for labor mobility.
The visitor visa process for holders of official and diplomatic passports had already been “streamlined”, with those from Pacific countries going through a priority process and receiving multiple entry visas.
Green Party MP and Pacific spokesman Teanau Tuiono told the Newsroom that Sogavare’s comments provided further evidence for the need for action on Pacific visa waivers.
“Auckland has the largest Polynesian population in the world, so there’s no point in restricting the entry and exit of people based on the fact that they’re us…
“We talk about this relationship with the Pacific, [but] we have to show what that relationship means to us, and so to me it’s about that, and it’s about whanaungatanga [close connections]and it’s about that reciprocity.”
Tuiono believed the government could review its visa waiver policy while still pushing ahead with changes to the RSE scheme and addressing concerns about labor exploitation and poor working conditions.
“Now we may have questions about the wisdom or otherwise of who they associate with, but at the end of the day, they live by it and have expectations of them — like all politicians everywhere — to improve the quality of life that people have.”
— Gerry Brownlee, National Party
The Kiwi MPs’ visit to Honiara preceded a stream of dignitarieswith Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, US President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell, and a delegation from the China International Development Agency who visited the Solomon Islands last week.
The country has attracted a lot of attention since the controversial decision last year sign a security agreement with the Chinese government.
Brownlee said the foreign affairs committee’s trip was planned in part to better understand the implications of the deal and the situation on the ground in the Solomon Islands.
With much of the country’s population living at or below the poverty line and with unemployment high, it was easy to understand why they would “do anything to try and promote the well-being of their people”.
“Now we may have questions about the wisdom or otherwise of who they associate with, but at the end of the day, they live by it and have expectations of them — like all politicians everywhere — to improve the quality of life that people have.”
With a significant number of Solomon Islands residents already heading to New Zealand for their studies, Brownlee said he was keen to explore the possibility of grants to bring Kiwi academics to the country and maintain strong ties.
The MFAT spokeswoman said New Zealand still viewed the security deal between the Solomon Islands and China as an “unwelcome and unnecessary” deal that had broader implications for the Pacific region.