Tongan parliamentary staff have picked up tips for record keeping and helping upset constituents following a visit to their New Zealand counterparts.
Tonga parliamentary staff meet with staff in Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa's electorate office in Manukau East. From left to right: Raymond Lafu Sika, Christine O’Brien, Salote Vakasiuola Finau, Sione Fungalei Maka and Michael Clatworthy Photo: VNP / Irra Lee
A delegation of nine split up to visit the Auckland electorate offices of MPs Denise Lee, Jenny Salesa, Carmel Sepuloni, and Aupito William Sio to learn how their office staff support an MP’s community work.
The creation of electorate offices, known as constituency offices in Tonga, was only approved by the Tongan Parliament last year.
Tips were shared on topics as wide-ranging as how to recruit electorate office staff, how to make their MPs visible in their electorates, and how to best support constituents who visit the MPs’ offices seeking help.
Among the topics discussed were housing, immigration and ACC; which are common issues for those visiting MPs’ offices.
Raymond Lafu Sika, visited Ms Salesa’s Ōtara office in the Manukau East electorate and said he learnt more about how to run an electorate office. Mr Sika is the senior officer in a constituency office on Tonga’s main island Tongatapu.
“As we came in today we have [found] new stuff that we can take home on how to run an office and how to help protect the MPs, that we didn’t really know [before],” he said.
“It’s going to help us a lot in our constituency office back in Tonga.”
The learning went both ways. Christine O’Brien, communications, research and policy advisor to Ms Salesa, said discussing differences between the parliamentary systems of New Zealand and Tonga was helpful to her as Ms Salesa’s electorate is home to a large Pacific community.
“Now that I understand how the offices in Tonga work and what the expectations would be at home, that really sheds a whole new light on what people say when they come to the door here,” she said.
“That allows me to start thinking more quickly where I might support them and how I can connect them with the help they need.”
Tongan parliamentary staffer Veisinia Latu performs with Tāmaki Regeneration Company staff in Auckland Photo: VNP / Irra Lee
Veisinia Latu works as a secretary answering phone calls and writing letters for MPs on Tongatapu. She visited Ms Lee’s Ellerslie office in the Maungakiekie electorate, and said the trip will help her better interact with irate constituents.
“I learnt so much from [the Ellerslie office staff]. How they work together, how they can deal with problems, especially angry people, and how to calm down that person who comes to the office,” she said.
Communications, research and policy advisor to Ms Lee, Alex Saywell, said she chose to take the delegation to the Panmure branch of the Tāmaki Regeneration Company and the Onehunga branch of the Citizens Advice Bureau to give them ideas about the different ways to engage with their communities.
“I’m hoping they learn a little more about what we do in a constituency office here in terms of New Zealand’s Parliament, but also a bit more about how other organisations work in the community,” she said.
“Tonga’s a lot smaller, so they don’t have Citizens Advice Bureaus and they don’t have necessarily these big entities that we do.
MP for Maungakiekie Denise Lee talks with Tongan parliamentary staff in her Auckland office Photo: VNP / Irra Lee
“I imagine they [the Tongan constituency offices] will sort of become a hub for their communities. So, they’ll be all of us individuals here rolled into one.”
Prior to the creation of constituency offices mid last year the Office of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga provided only one set of secretariat and support staff for all of Tonga’s MPs.
It is hoped the creation of constituency offices will allow staff to focus their work in a particular community. In the past, the Office worked with MPs on a first-come-first-serve basis, which often caused MPs frustration as work could not be prioritised.
The idea for the delegation’s trip came in 2019 after a New Zealand delegation of MPs, led by Speaker Trevor Mallard, visited Tonga and Fiji.
The trip is part of the Tai a Kiwa programme which aims to strengthen Pacific democracies by supporting its parliaments. The programme is funded by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Tonga underwent constitutional reform in 2010, increasing the number of MPs elected by voters to 17, while the monarch appoints nine nobles. Previously, the monarch appointed half of Tonga’s Parliament and selected the cabinet and Prime Minister.
The delegation traveled to Wellington as well to take part in training alongside new MP support staff from the New Zealand Parliamentary Service.
