MPs on an Inter-Parliamentary visit to Samoa. Apia, 10 July 2023. From left: National MP Todd Muller, Labour's Tangi Utikere, Parliament's Speaker Adrian Rurawhe, Lemauga Lydia Sosene of Labour and Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
The great value of inter-parliamentary travel abroad is the relationships that are built, not just between countries but among the MPs themselves.
A visit to Samoa this month by five MPs may sound like it was fun in the sun. But those who dismiss such visits as being mere junkets are missing the point.
The Speaker of Parliament leads several of these delegations during a parliamentary term. They are cross-party affairs, and usually involve the MPs engaging in an inter-parliamentary network. This time, the delegation which Speaker Adrian Rurawhe led to Samoa included Labour's Lemauga Lydia Sosene and Tangi Utikere, Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono and Todd Muller of National.
“It’s all about relationships. Politics, trade, engagement between communities, it’s all about the relationships that you build. And you have to build them face to face," Muller said.
"So for us to represent essentially across Parliament - most parties represented - to be over here and meeting the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and Prime Minister, in not only formal environments but also informal where you can really get down to the nuts and bolts around the challenges as they see it and where they think New Zealand could assist. It’s hugely valuable.
“In my nine years as being a politician I’ve always massively supported these trips, because in the private sector that’s how you do business. You get on a plane and go and talk to people that matter. And the South Pacific matters, so we need to be here.”
Counterparts
The Speaker said it was important to have parliament-to-parliament visits, and not just government-to-government. He described the discussions with Samoan counterparts as mutually valuable.
“We had a really good discussion with chairs and deputy chairs of select committees, and it turns out we have similar issues. When we have new MPs we are trying to integrate into perhaps quite different environments as parliaments often are, those challenges of upholding parliamentary process are difficult, and there's no one right way but each Parliament has got to find its own way.”
Following the first change in government for 40 years in Samoa two years ago, the country’s Deputy Speaker Auapaau Mulipola Aloitafua said the current Parliament had lots of new MPs and meeting the New Zealand MPs was a golden opportunity to share notes.
“We shared about standing orders, about electoral issues and also the constitution’s proposed amendments. Nearly all these issues are quite different,” he said.
National MP Todd Muller talks about the operations of select committees with Samoan counterparts in Apia, 11 July 2023 Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
“We shared ideas on how we enhance parliamentarians’ portfolios and upgrade skills about annual reports - talking about how we perform various duties on checking reports from all government ministries and state-owned enterprises. We have a lot of things to do, and it’s good to go thoroughly on those reports.”
Mutual benefit
The visit to Samoa didn't just involve meetings with local counterparts. There was an extensive, informal discussion with Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa which the MPs remarked upon for its openness. There were also discussions with local business, trade and civil society groups who partner with New Zealand in aid or development programmes.
For Lemauga Lydia Sosene, a proud Samoan with extensive links to community and church in the country, the visit was her first overseas as an MP. She said visiting Samoa gave MPs the chance to examine whether New Zealand's programmes involving Samoa were working to expectation.
“A big part of it is aid and development. In my view, New Zealand plays a very special role of leadership, of being the bigger sister or brother of the smaller Pacific nations. So it’s people movement, it’s labour mobility, it’s also trade and exchange, economic development and a number of other things.”
She said that generally the programmes that New Zealand worked on with Samoa were working well but there was always room for improvement. As MPs it was important to be able to spend time on the ground to directly examine how individual programmes were progressing.
“Are they benefiting both countries, are the partners getting equal opportunities? Because now we’ve got these superpowers looking down,” she explained, referring to geopolitical forces focused on the region.
New Zealand's Speaker of Parliament Adrian Rurawhe meets Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, Apia, 11 July 2023. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
Teanau Tuiono said in his view it had to be a two-way relationship between the countries.
“We can’t just take, take, take. We’ve got to be supportive. I think about this in the context of the Treaty of Friendship (between New Zealand and Samoa) but also as a Māori who is also Pasifika. Those whakapapa connections we have right across the Pacific. There are centuries-old interactions going back thousands of years. So it’s that tapestry of connection that is really important for us to uphold but also to see our part in that, and what we can do to support the region.”
MPs’ growth
Three of the five New Zealand MPs on the trip are first-term MPs, still learning about the parliamentary world. The inter-parliamentary experience helps them find their feet in a broader context. Sosene said the inter-parliamentary trip was valuable in growing her own skillset as an MP. This was echoed by Rurawhe:
“The interesting part for me is that I think sometimes people might underestimate their own abilities and the value of what they bring to the process in the first instance, and I think what I have witnessed here in particular is really strong leadership. And with its origins within the Samoan culture and the way that they do things, it does not mean to say that it can't follow on and be part of their parliamentary process as well. I know for myself as being Māori, in our Parliament I tried to do the same thing. I think we know those skills are often transferable.”
An inter-parliamentary cross-party group of New Zealand MPs visit Samoa's Parliament chamber. 11 July 2023. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
Rurawhe pointed out that inter-parliamentary exchanges were usually reciprocal arrangements.
“We enjoy receiving delegations to New Zealand from all over the world. Since becoming Speaker, we’ve had at least half a dozen delegations from around the world, and there are others that we’ve had to turn down.
"The expectation is that they come here and they inevitably invite us to go to them. I think it would be unhelpful for our country if we did not go. There’s nothing like face to face, and having that ability to engage at a more personal level.”
Group harmony
"When we step away from Aotearoa New Zealand and visit other places, we have the interests of our whenua at heart but also the interests of those special relationships with the Pacific. And my feeling is that everybody got that, which is a good thing," Tuiono said.
It was clear in Samoa that this group of MPs themselves got on well together, despite being in different parties, another reminder that the confrontational exchanges in Parliament’s debating chamber back in Wellington are mainly a kind of theatre.
“This is always the thing that amazes people. When you turn off the lights of the parliamentary theatre, the fact is we go backstage, shake each other’s hands and enjoy a drink together. That’s largely the reality,” Muller noted.
“When you leave New Zealand as a parliamentary group, you are very much representing New Zealand. That comes first. Domestic politics quite quickly comes into the rear vision mirror because you’re in a different country and trying to put New Zealand’s best foot forward. But genuinely, all of us get on really well.”
New Zealand and Samoan MPs with their respective Speakers of Parliament, during a visit to Apia by a five-strong cross-party inter-parliamentary delegation from New Zealand, 11 July 2023. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
