Government eases access for Islanders

By ANGELA GREGORY

The Government will not repeal legislation preventing many Samoans from gaining automatic New Zealand citizenship, but new measures will help Samoans and other Pacific Islanders gain residency for work.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Phil Goff said yesterday the Government supported a select committee's recommendation that repeal of the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 was inappropriate.

The act was rushed through Parliament by former Prime Minister Rob Muldoon to derail a Privy Council decision that Samoans born between 1924 and 1948, and their children, were New Zealand citizens.

Mr Goff said the Government planned to strengthen the 1962 Treaty of Friendship between New Zealand and Samoa as recommended by the committee.

A range of measures was discussed last week between Prime Minister Helen Clark and Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

Mr Goff said they included sharing Samoan language educational resources and a sports development fund to train referees and coaches.

Immigration Minister Paul Swain said improvements to the Samoan quota system and the Pacific Access Category (PAC) aimed to make it easier for Pacific Island immigration quotas to be filled.

The changes included allowing Islanders already lawfully in New Zealand to apply for permanent residency.

The Samoan quota of 1100 places a year began in 1972 and the PAC quota was set up in 2001 to allow 650 places from countries including Tonga, Fiji, Tuvalu and Kiribati. Just over half the Samoan places were filled in the past two financial years, and the PAC places also fell away.

Critics said the Immigration Service had cracked down too hard on the need to prove genuine job offers, and the required income levels were set too high.

Mr Swain said the changes would benefit Pacific nations and help New Zealand by providing workers at a time of low unemployment.

They included lowering the minimum income threshold and speeding up the verification of job offers.

The unfilled places from the 2002/03 and 2003/04 quotas would be kept and spread over the next three years.

QUOTA CHANGES

* Speeding up verification of job offers to 14 days after getting information from employers.

* Quota places released throughout the year.

* Pacific Island citizens already lawfully here able to apply without needing to return to home countries. They can also apply for unfilled quotas at the end of each financial quarter.

* Minimum income requirement lowered from $31,566 to $25,585 a year, counting income of both main applicant and spouse.

* Relationship managers to help prospective migrants to find work.

* Investigation into developing private-sector partnerships to get migrants into work.