NZ Parliamentary Report on the Pacific by Gerald McGhie

 

Gerald McGhie is a former diplomat with substantial experience in the Pacific. His Blog is External40.Blogspot.com  A slightly revised copy of this article was published by the DominionPost on Friday 18 February.

The recently published Parliamentary Inquiry into New Zealand's relationships with South Pacific countries covers a wide range of Pacific issues, many on the always sensitive states of the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.

The initiative for the Inquiry lies with John Hayes, the energetic Chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee of Parliament. The Committee heard a large number of individuals and groups within New Zealand and travelled to the Pacific to get as wide a range of comment as possible. All that took time.

The question is, does the Pacific need a new report? If it devolves into the same old series of committees and earnest seminars, not really. But if the Inquiry provides a new dynamic, the answer must be yes. It is 20 years since relationships with Pacific countries were examined in the Henderson report. In that time much has changed. As the Inquiry notes, political, economic, security and environmental conditions in many Pacific islands have deteriorated. Significant population movements are also a cause for concern. The Committee wanted to take a fresh look.

They give particular attention to New Zealand's constitutional relationships with the "Realm" entities - Tokelau, Niue and the Cook Islands and propose "a fundamental rethink of New Zealand's assistance strategy". In particular the Committee suggests that the New Zealand government delivers basic services such as education and health, policing and justice to the Realm entities through the same agencies as those delivering these services within New Zealand.

As expected there are a range of generalised recommendations - Pacific leaders must take responsibility for their own communities and, particularly, resources. Significant new funding should be applied to education and skills training aimed at promoting economic activity. This would be done not simply through whole-of-Government activity but by a "whole-of-nation" approach designed to improve links between parliamentarians, government agencies, businesses, non-governmental agencies and especially those between the "communities of Pacific islanders living in New Zealand and their counterparts offshore".

Reports on the Pacific have a long history of being ignored. But this Inquiry’s distinctive contribution is to provide a clear incentive to developing the entrepreneurial skills of the Pacific’s private sector. To do this they propose to establish a development fund of up to $100 million to encourage business ventures by using existing banking structures. 

 

There is little doubt that lack of funding has acted as a brake on private-sector development in the Pacific and the proposed fund’s role in underwriting risks and compensating for a lack of local capital would be greatly welcomed. But each Pacific country is different and each is subject to the imperatives of its own culture. Take Samoa. 80% of the land is held under customary tenure and controlled by matai. The Inquiry and many Western analysts tend to see the land tenure system as inhibiting development. From a strictly market led perspective that may be so. But within the matai system, which is at the very core of Samoan identity, there is considerable economic activity. Antony Hooper in his valuable 1998 World Bank study of Samoa comments that "collectively, the extended family, villages, districts, the ... matai system and the churches have retained dominant economic and moral power”. The new national, political and governmental institutions have had to accommodate themselves to the traditional structures. Thus working within the matai system represents the immediate challenge.

There is more. The Inquiry notes that a productive private sector depends on good government. Potential investors must have the confidence to assume that effective legal redress is available, that their reasonable expectations of performance can be met and that long term plans can be implemented. But if Pacific bureaucracies are not stellar performers nor are the political leaders and the private sector itself. Regrettably, Papua New Guinea, the most populous, richest and best performing Pacific state, lies below 150^th on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. On her recent visit, the United States Secretary of State warned of dire consequences if PNG fails to manage the proceeds from its liquefied national gas project properly. Regrettably again, corruption scandals are an almost daily news item in this large and complex society. 

 

New Zealand's overall aid budget amounts to about $700 million of which half is spent on the Pacific. Responsibility for the proper management of this money lies in equal measure with both donor and recipient. For the donor: to ensure that New Zealand taxpayer funds are delivered effectively. For the recipient: to ensure that development projects really do result from responsible community input and are subjected to effective oversight and, particularly, coordination.

Possibly as a hold-over from the colonial past, New Zealand’s leaders have tended to consider that they know what’s best for the Pacific. The performance in Samoa under the League of Nations Mandate and the UN Trusteeship clearly demonstrated New Zealand inadequacies. The Inquiry’s reference to the need to achieve a better understanding of Pacific history, languages and cultures is an encouraging first step in ensuring attitudinal change. It is frequently acknowledged that there can be no “quick fix” solutions for the Pacific. Nor does one size fit all. Equally, what applies to Samoa, will not apply to all Pacific states. Other country studies can be drawn on for guidance. 

 

In providing effective development assistance New Zealand must recognise the complexities of Pacific cultures, harness the structures already available and draw on the best that we have to offer – say, a New Zealand Inc approach that involves the Government using realistic academic research, the knowledge and experience of officials, and the input of the private sector. The need is to establish policies that demonstrate New Zealand’s long term commitment to promoting the prosperity, and thus the cultures, of the Pacific. The Inquiry makes an important start.