By Louis Collins
Photo: VNP/Louis Collins
Parliament hosts all sorts of diplomatic conferences, meetings, seminars, workshops, and soirees. Many attendees are government officials, or MPs meeting with their overseas counterparts, or diplomats from various countries.
One way to gauge which dignitaries are in Wellington is by looking at the flags displayed on Parliament's forecourt.
Twelve flags were recently raised for the Tāhuna a Tara: Pacific Speakers, Presiding Officers, and Clerks Conference. As the name suggests, many of Oceania's speakers and clerks (and several deputies) made their way to Wellington to network and workshop with their regional counterparts.
All of the parliaments represented at Tāhuna a Tara have fewer than 55 seats and some of them are, relatively speaking, newly-founded. New Caledonia's congress for example, has only existed for a quarter of a century; and the Tongan legislature's speaker was not elected, but appointed by their King, until as recently as 2010.
Presiding over a parliament as a speaker or clerk is a challenging job in any context, and for Small Island Developing States, the added challenges of limited human and financial resources make it even more demanding.
Enter New Zealand Parliament's Tai a Kiwa: Stronger Pacific Parliaments Programme (a joint venture between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) and the Office of the Clerk's Inter Parliamentary Relations division), set up in 2019 to deliver technical assistance and support to Pacific parliaments.
This support can include helping Pacific lawmakers craft more effective bills, working with Hansard counterparts to enhance their work, or, as in November, offer professional development to presiding officers.
November's conference was themed 'Niu (new) beginnings and navigating the waves,' with an emphasis on embracing and adapting to change.
One of the presiding officers in attendance at Tāhuna a Tara was Veylma Falaeo, the newly elected President (speaker) of New Caledonia's congress.
Falaeo's jurisdiction has certainly had waves to navigate. Social unrest and violence in the French territory sui generis reached levels unseen in decades in May this year. Even before becoming President of Congress, Falaeo marketed herself as personifying a middle ground in what has been a staunchly divided electorate. Being the first female in the role, she says, gives her an edge in pursuing this.
Veylma Falaéo is the new President of New Caledonia’s Congress, the first woman to hold this position. Photo: RRB
She told RNZ's The House she enjoyed hearing from other parliaments around the Pacific at November's conference.
"I particularly appreciated some of the presentations, the one from Tuvalu, first and foremost, because they're clearly trying to work on diversity and equality between men and women. So I hope that Pacific countries will continue to work towards this [increased female representation], because I firmly believe that women can bring a new perspective, and a more benevolent take on politics."
Fromrom talking to other attendees at the conference it was clear to Falaeo that one of the recurring problems Pacific parliaments are seeing is the need to "improve the cooperation between the legislative body and the executive."
Tailor made support
After a brief but intense trip to Wellington, Faleao and her counterparts will more than likely return to their jurisdictions armed with further useful learnings to implement in their day-to-day operation of their legislatures.
The Tai a Kiwa programme has the benefit of being run by the Office of the Clerk, which can offer expertise across a whole host of facets of operating a parliament. Inter-Parliamentary Relations team lead Amber Walters explains;
"There's some big providers for Pacific parliamentary support, like UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), [but] we can offer specific technical assistance and expertise in some areas. So whether that's with floating budget offices, or we can send some of our library research people from New Zealand to those places to assist them if they have a floating budget."
Essentially, it's not just the MPs doing diplomacy, it's parliamentary staff as well.
RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk.
