Teanau Tuiono
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
New Zealand's Green Party is launching a petition asking the government to extend visa-free travel to visitors from Pacific Island nations.
The Greens' Pacific peoples spokesperson Teanau Tuiono said Aotearoa New Zealand was part of the "family of Pacific nations".
"We must remove unfair barriers to entry for our Pacific whānau," he said in a statement on Saturday.
"Despite our country's many bonds with the region, people from Pacific countries have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to get a visitor visa approved, and often see their visas unfairly declined."
Tuiono said this weekend's Pasifika Festival at Western Springs in Auckland would show Aotearoa New Zealand was a Pacific nation "by the rich cultural expression and coming together of peoples".
"Visitors from 60 countries are currently able to access Aotearoa without a visa - not a single one of those countries is a Pacific Island country."
He said the Greens' petition called on the government to start building an immigration system "that values community, connection and fairness".
Pacific leaders have, in recent times, scaled up their calls for freer movement of people within the region.
Last June, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced nearly NZ$27 million for projects in Fiji and removing the need for transit visas for Fijians entering New Zealand.
Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said at the time many Fijian nationals travel through New Zealand to reach other destinations in the Pacific and around the world.
"We expect this will have a positive economic impact for the region."
The work to put the change in place was expected to be completed in the following months.
Fijians would still need to apply for a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority to transit New Zealand, and Fijians intending to visit, study or work in New Zealand would still need to apply for the appropriate visa.
Luxon said the government had also heard about concerns around the cost of visitor visas and had "taken that on board".
Tuiono told Pacific Waves this month it was unfair for distant countries to be granted visa waivers, which was 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.
Tuiono is credited with submitting the Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill, which then became law in late November.
There were also calls for Australia to implement a visa-waiver programme as well.
University of Adelaide 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?"
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