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A New Zealand politician says it is unfair for Pacific Island nations to be excluded from New Zealand's visa waiver.
Pacific leaders have, in recent times, scaled up their calls for freer movement of people within the region.
New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters shelved a request from the Fijian Prime Minister to consider visa-free travel in December 2023.
However, Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono wants to make visa waiver access for Pacific countries a reality.
Tuiono is credited with submitting the Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill, which then became law in late November.
Tuiono told Pacific Waves that there's still a lot of work to be done to strengthen New Zealand's relationship with the Pacific, although Peters would disagree.
"When we again took on the role of New Zealand Foreign Minister in November 2023, we were determined to put the Pacific at the forefront of an energetic, engaged and active New Zealand foreign policy once more," he said at a conference in Wellington last month.
"This lay behind our decision to undertake the most ambitious, intensive year of Pacific diplomacy in New Zealand history.
"Never before has a New Zealand political leader tried to spend time in all 18 member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum in a single year. But try we did: meeting the many diverse peoples scattered across this vast, beautiful blue continent."
Photo: VNP/Louis Collins
Tuiono believes it is unfair for distant countries to be granted visa waivers, which is not possible for Pacific Island nations.
"The last Parliament, we had where Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa pushing for visa waiver access, and also the Prime Minister from the Solomon Islands also pushing for visa waiver access," he said.
There are also calls for Australia to implement a visa-waiver programme as well.
University of Adelaide's security studies professor Joanne Wallis, in August 2023, wrote that if Canberra "genuinely sees itself as part of the 'Pacific family', why do we throw open our door to Europeans and Americans, but not to Pacific people?"
Tuiono said those are the things that the Greens support and "will continue to support".
"The other thing that I'm mindful of is the geopolitical tension that's playing out of the Pacific. It's important for for us as people living here in Aotearoa to actually consider what is our relationship with the Pacific.
"What is the best way that we can show people that we are part of this family Pacific nations? Visa waiver access is one way to do that."
