The Green Party has welcomed news that MP Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill has moved forward with unanimous support from the select committee.

“This is a significant step forward and a monumental milestone for Pasifika justice in Aotearoa,” says the Green Party’s spokesperson for Pacific Peoples, Teanau Tuiono.

“Today, Parliament’s Governance and Administration Select Committee reported my Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill to the House for its second reading.

“Committee members were unanimous in supporting the primary intent of my Bill to restore citizenship to Samoans who had it taken from them by the New Zealand Government in 1982.

“This endorsement from the select committee is an encouraging sign for the journey that lies ahead in securing justice for our aiga Samoa. I want to acknowledge the community who came to the select committee to share their stories in both powerful and compelling ways.

“My Member’s Bill will restore the right to citizenship for people from Western Samoa who were born between 1924 and 1949, fixing a cruel and targeted law rushed through by the Government in 1982 to deny New Zealand citizenship to Samoans.

“Earlier that year, the Privy Council found that because those born in Western Samoa were treated by New Zealand law as ‘natural-born British subjects’, they were entitled to New Zealand citizenship when it was first created in 1948. But that right was then taken away from them.

“For those people still alive today who were New Zealand citizens and had this right shamefully removed at the whim of a Government forty-two years ago, this is another big step towards justice.

“I’d like to thank members of the select committee for their consideration of my Bill and submitters for their contributions to this important discussion. We can make history by ushering this Bill into law,” says Teanau Tuiono.

Notes:

• New Zealand citizenship wasn’t created until 1948. Before then, New Zealanders were British subjects
• At the time citizenship was created, New Zealand was administering present day Samoa (known until 1997 as Western Samoa)
• In 1982, Falema‘i Lesa, a Samoan citizen living in New Zealand, was prosecuted for overstaying. She argued she wasn’t overstaying, as she said she was a New Zealand citizen
• The Privy Council ruled that, because earlier NZ legislation had treated those born in Western Samoa after 13 May 1924 as “natural-born British subjects” for the purposes of NZ law, that cohort of people received NZ citizenship when NZ established its own citizenship in 1948
• The Muldoon Government acted swiftly and in 1982 passed the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982
• The 1982 Act removed NZ citizenship from those people who, under the earlier NZ legislation, had NZ citizenship because they were born in Western Samoa between 13 May 1924 and 1 January 1949, and those claiming citizenship through those people by descent or marriage
• In March 2003, a petition with over 90,000 signatures calling for the law’s repeal was presented to Parliament – but the Labour Government didn’t act on it.

The Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 would mean that a person whose NZ citizenship was removed by the 1982 Act will be eligible for citizenship as of right, instead of having to go through the standard residency and citizenship application processes

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