History could be made as the ruling New Zealand political party, the National Party has confirmed it will support the Samoa Citizenship Bill.

The bill that would restore the right to citizenship for a cohort of Samoans who lost their citizenship to a racist law passed in 1982.

The Bill has been endorsed with some changes by the Parliamentary Select Committee in New Zealand and will be up for its second reading next week.

Prime Minister and National leader, Christopher Luxon told media in New Zealand of the party’s support but wants to monitor the bill as it progresses through Parliament.

“I mean our big concerns were that we wanted to limit the granting of citizenship to those 3,500 people that were born between that period of 1924 and 1948, and actually that's been the view of all the political parties ultimately here in the Parliament through the select committee process,” he told Pacific Media Network.

Last week the Select Committee gave the green light for a second reading.

The MP behind the bill said it was a great thing it will enter its second reading following strong support at the select committee stage.

The Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill, which passed its first reading in April, aims to restore the right to NZ citizenship for Samoans stripped of it by the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982.

This is for a group of people born in then-Western Samoa between 1924 and 1949.

In 1982 the Privy Council ruled that all Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 were British subjects and, because of that, from 1949 onwards, they were New Zealand citizens.

The Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act of 1982 was then passed by the then New Zealand government cancelling the decision of the Privy Council. Many believe the 1982 law to be racist and therefore should be removed.

The select committee process received almost 25,000 submissions, with around half coming from Samoa, with the bill now moving to the next stage. Sadly, the government failed to make submissions.

Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa said the government had stayed away from making submissions because the matter was New Zealand’s sovereign matter.

The government had been urged to change its stand because the bill was to correct the wrongs done to Samoans.

Last week Green MP Teanau Tuiono said the amendments made on his member’s bill were agreed on by the majority of the select committee.

"There are a couple of other things where ourselves and the Labour Party wanted that the rest of the committee didn't want," he said.

"But there was enough support to move it to the second reading and that's a great thing.”

If passed, the bill would repeal the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982. It would also enable people whose New Zealand citizenship was removed by the 1982 Act to receive, on application, New Zealand citizenship as of right.