‘We have to fix it’: Former National MP says the govt has a chance to right past wrongs

Former National MP hopes Samoan retirees will be compensated if a racist law is repealed.

This comes as a member's bill to repeal an act that stripped Western Samoans of their New Zealand citizenship in the 1980s is set to have its first reading in Parliament this month.

Anae Arthur Anae spoke with 531pi's Pacific Mornings on the importance and relevance of the bill.

Anae says about 5000 people will be impacted and they should have free access to New Zealand, along with the privileges they should have received as NZ citizens.

“So what I'm asking for is that every Samoan that's still alive today that has never been to New Zealand and never had residency in New Zealand, still residing in Samoa, should be entitled to receive the New Zealand Superannuation.

“They were denied the rights to earn it through the correct channels. Now we have to fix it and this is the last opportunity we have with a bill that's gone through like this.”

And Anae is not alone in his support for the member's bill.

National's Pacific Blues chair Christian Malietoa-Brown says his group have also given their recommendation to the party to support the bill, with some revisions to its scope.

"Our advice would be for them to do it ... [but] for me, it's not a case of amnesty, it's actually justice," Malietoa-Brown told Levi Matautia-Morgan on 531pi.

"You know, [if] you did something whether it was right or wrong, whatever, but now we've got to rectify the situation. And even the Privy Council said that it is wrong so I think it won't be too hard to get it through."

In 1982, over 200 Samoans gathered to hear Parliament debate the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Bill, at the time people from Samoa, like those from Fiji and Tonga could not freely enter NZ.

During high labour demand, many Samoans stayed in NZ after visa expiration which resulted in a monumental legal case where The Privy Council ruled in favor of Western Samoans' residency rights.

The then National-led government did not accept the decision and quickly passed a law granting New Zealand citizenship solely to Western Samoans residing in NZ on or after September 14, 1982, or those who later acquired permanent residency.

Anae also congratulated Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono who submitted the repeal as a Cook Islander for the Samoan people.

He says the National Party should support the Greens on overturning this citizenship law as it's a chance for them to mend a disjointed relationship with Pacific communities.

“If National are smart, they first of all got to recognise they don't have a Pacific rep in the house. They have played things in the past that never worked out for us and it's come back to haunt them again.

“So the National Party's got to say, hold on, the facts are right, the people were denied. We should give them what they're asking for. Close the book once and for all, and let's move forward into a future New Zealand.”

Watch our 531pi political commentators Latayvia Tualasea Tautai and Christian Malietoa-Brown discuss the latest issues in Parliament, including their views on the Teanau Tuiono's private member's bill: