I am very supportive of the intention of the ‘Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982’ Bill which seeks to redress the injustice of the 1982 legislation that came on the back of one of the darkest periods in New Zealand history of the 1970s, where government-sanctioned raids were held at dawn to arrest and deport ‘overstayers’, particularly Pacific people.

In 1986 an inquiry by Race Relations Conciliator, Walter Hirst, revealed that although Pacific people only represented about a third of overstayers, they represented 86 percent of prosecutions. But even this imbalance did not adequately indicate the distress caused to the Pacific community at the time as raids without warrants in the middle of the night usually resulted in many people called out and detained but only a handful of arrests and deportations. Over-stayers from the United States and Britain also made up roughly a third of over-stayers at the time but only 5% of prosecutions.  

On 1 August 2021 the New Zealand Government gave a formal and unreserved apology for the Dawn Raids which were described as leaving Pacific communities feeling "targeted and terrorised" because of “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws”.  The   situation was described as follows:

"Residents in those homes were woken abruptly, physically removed from their beds and forced into police vans to be taken for questioning. Some were hauled to the police station to appear in court the next day barefoot, in pyjamas or in clothes loaned to them in the holding cells; others were wrongfully detained."  

One of those arrested at the time, Falema’i Lesa, like Rosa Parkes before her, refused to accept that she did not have the right to participate fully as a citizen of the country. She challenged her conviction to the Privy Council in London which in 1982 ruled in her favour by stating that those born in Samoa between 1924 and 1948 were in fact New Zealand citizens.

The Government of the day quickly passed legislation by enacting the 1982 citizenship Act that denied Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 the New Zealand citizenship the Privy Council had determined they had. As the Samoa Observer noted in its editorial today:

‘This is the citizenship that the Muldoon-led government in 1982 did not see fit to offer to Samoans, a country they ruled for almost four decades, made use of its resources and people but when it came to giving back what they deserved, it was denied.’   

The present Bill is an attempt to redress this long-standing injustice. It has wide support internationally and in Samoa itself where memories of New Zealand colonial management of the country continue to rankle. It began with the failure to quarantine a New Zealand passenger ship that resulted in the  devastating 1918 influenza epidemic which killed an estimated 22% of Samoa’s population, and continued with the 1922 Samoan Offenders Ordinance, which gave the New Zealand Administrators the power to abolish the centuries-long matai-system of village governance by removing the titles of matai and banishing them from their own villages.  

The non-violent Mau a Tumua ma Pule resistance movement rose to counter this but was brutally suppressed by the NZ administration with leaders jailed and exiled.

The iconic A. J. Tattersall photo of the thousands and thousands of Samoans of all walks of life peacefully walking down Beach Rd in Apia on Saturday 29 December1929 to support the return of an exiled Mau leader speaks volumes of their desire to settle their differences with the colonial New Zealand administration in a peaceful manner. Unfortunately, they were greeted by a hail of bullets leaving 9 dead including Mau leader Tupua Tamasese Leolofi III.  

The Dawn Raids of the 1970’s and the resulting 1982 Act denying Samoans citizenship rights determined by the Privy Council are seen by many Samoans as a repeat of the New Zealand Government’s mistakes of the past with regard to their responsibilities to Samoan people.

It is perhaps telling that the Government of the day set aside as much funding for the PR event associated with the announcement of the Apology as they did to fund research to properly document the historical events to set the record straight.   New Zealand still has a long way to go to redress such imbalances in the allocation of resources in this regard.

Three years later the redacted Cabinet paper backgrounding the Apology proactively released by the Ministry for Pacific Affairs is still the only readily available resource of the events that left Pacific communities feeling "targeted and terrorised" because of “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws”.  As the saying goes ‘“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  

The 2021 official Government apology only has substance if attempts are made to redress past wrongs by not continuing to repeat them. Though it does not specifically mention the 1982 legislation which flowed from the Dawn Raids, the nature of the Apology implied a commitment to remove “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws”.

Supporting this Bill would at least give some substance to this commitment and give back to Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 the birth-right that was so unjustly taken away from them.

I wish to make an oral submission to this Bill.

Oral Submission to the Governance and Administration Committee on ‘Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill’ 24 June 2024

Talofa. I was very moved by the chant of the previous speaker.

I’m Peter Garrick a New Zealand teacher currently working as a volunteer at St Joseph’s College Alafua Samoa where I also taught as a beginning teacher.

I left some 50 years ago to teach in NZ, Fiji, and Niue as well as working in NZ in curriculum development and social justice advocacy.

I'm enjoying teaching back here. It’s great to see how, in spite of the indifferent legacy NZ left the country in 1962, Samoa has developed into a robust and vibrant democracy.

It has an enviable infrastructure including generally good roads, safe public water supply and reliable electricity that is increasingly using renewable sources of energy.

As I mentioned in my written submission I am very supportive of the intention of this Bill.

It seeks to redress the injustice of the 1982 legislation that came on the back of one of the darkest periods in New Zealand history of the 1970s.

Government-sanctioned raids were held at dawn to arrest and deport Pacific Island ‘overstayers’ even though they were less than a third of known overstayers.  

One of those arrested at the time, Falema’i Lesa, like Rosa Parkes before her, refused to accept that she did not have the right to participate fully as a citizen of the country.

When in 1982 the Privy Council in London ruled in her favour by stating that those born in Samoa between 1924 and 1948 were in fact New Zealand citizens, the NZ Government quickly passed legislation denying them this birthright.

In its August 2021 formal and unreserved apology the New Zealand Government described the Dawn Raids as leaving Pacific communities feeling "targeted and terrorised" because of “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws”.   

I believe the 2021 official Government apology only has substance if attempts are made to redress past wrongs by not continuing to repeat them.

The nature of the Apology implied a commitment to remove “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws”, the most glaring example of which is surely the 1982 Act.

Supporting this Bill would at least give some substance to this commitment and give back to Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 the birth-right that was so unjustly taken away from them.

There are certain times in the history of a nation when it is alerted to the need to remove racially discriminatory law from its statutes. I suggest this is such a moment. As a nation we will stand taller if we support this Bill into law and I call on all MP’s to do so.

 I thank the Committee for the chance to speak on this Bill and for their convenience would be happy to pass on the script of this to the secretariat.

I’m also happy to answer any questions Committee members may have.

Peter Garrick, Alafua, Samoa