While the House spent the week debating under urgency, the Governance and Administration Committee found moments around the extended sittings to hear submissions on a member’s bill about Samoan citizenship.
The Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill is in the name of Green MP Teanau Tuiono. It seeks to correct what all parties seem to agree is an historical wrong – committed by the Muldoon government in 1982.
Former MP Aupito William Sio makes a submission to Parliament's Governance and Administration Committee about New Zealand's brutal history regarding Samoa and Samoans. Photo: NZ Parliament
In 1982, Robert Muldoon’s National government passed a bill expressly to ignore and outflank a finding of the Privy Council (then New Zealand’s highest court). The Privy Council had ruled that a generation of Samoans, born when Samoa was under New Zealand control, were in fact New Zealand citizens (Falema'i Lesa v Attorney General NZ).
The 1982 law stripped them of that right. There are only an estimated 5,000 of that generation still alive. They were born between early 1924 and the end of 1948.
The current bill would create a means for them to gain that citizenship. It doesn’t include any reparations, or an automatic right for their descendants to acquire the same right.
Submissions on the Bill have ranged from the personal story to the historical or constitutional treatise. Many are on behalf of extended families, churches or professional organisations.
- In the audio above you can hear moments from a few of the submissions.
- Video of the oral submissions can be watched here.
- Written submissions can be read here.
Ultimate success for this bill seems possible. At the first reading it received support from every party in Parliament except for National. A second reading of the bill might be expected in October or November.
