Pacific’s family ties place Luxon in visa bind

2026-03-16 - 16:07

“We are no longer friends – we are family, and families are for ever.” Samoan prime minister La’aulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt’s declaration to Christopher Luxon, as his New Zealand counterpart received a matai (or chiefly) title in scorching heat under Apia’s blue skies, seemed on face value a simple acknowledgement of the close ties between the two countries. Yet the fraught if fleeting drama around how exactly Luxon came to receive the honour, as well as lingering questions about what he should do to live up to it, is a reminder that familial ties can sometimes bring greater complications than mere friendship. The Prime Minister would hardly have been delighted when, mere days out from his three-day, two-country Pacific mission, La’auli’s claim that Luxon had in fact asked to receive a matai title resulted in a wave of headlines across New Zealand and Samoa. The claim, made by the Samoan leader on a weekly news show, was swiftly denied by Luxon and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade – but many of Luxon’s critics seemed eager to believe it, playing into the stereotype of an arrogant leader who believed he was “entitled to my entitlements”. Ultimate vindication came on the morning of Luxon’s matai ceremony, when the Samoan government released a statement confirming that “neither the New Zealand Prime Minister nor any of his representatives requested that a matai title be bestowed”. Exactly how the two leaders ended up on different pages was left unexplained; La’aulialemalietoa stayed silent when asked to expand on his initial remarks at a press conference held by the pair, with Luxon taking the lead in seeking to brush it to one side. “We’ve worked our way through that issue ... our conversation has been about how we take our relationship forward, and so I appreciate there was some miscommunication and all of that, but we’ve got ourselves to the right place where we are wanting to build our relationship in a deeper way.” Indeed, it was hard to overshadow the day’s pomp and ceremony, which started with a guard of honour in crisp white uniforms and was followed by an array of speeches paying tribute to the health of Samoa-New Zealand relations. The bilateral meeting between the two prime ministers also had some real-world outcomes, with the pair signing memorandums of understanding for police and Customs cooperation to put roadblocks on what Luxon labelled the Pacific “super-highway for drugs, particularly out of South America”. “Those criminal gangs will not give up: they are very innovative, they keep pushing their product onto our people, and we don’t like it.” There is one issue where Luxon is so far less willing to help Samoa – improving freedom of movement between Pacific nations and New Zealand. In his remarks at Luxon’s matai ceremony, Apia village mayor and high chief Tuiletufuga Fritz Tuiavi’i alluded to the push for six Pacific nations to be given visa waiver access, saying: “May the bond between our nations continue to grow in trust, cooperation and enduring relationship. We trust our visa request for all the Pacific Islands is granted upon faith from your administration ... this is your time.” The New Zealand and Samoan leaders inked cooperation agreements on Customs and policing. Photo: Sam Sachdeva La’aulialemalietoa had himself joked in the lead-up to Luxon’s visit that his new title would bring with it a duty to provide visa-free access to Samoans; it was another statement his government walked back on Monday morning, saying “it was never intended that the bestowal of a matai title would place an obligation on PM Luxon with respect to New Zealand Government decisions, including on immigration policy”. Yet there is clearly a sense that some Samoans see Luxon and New Zealand as speaking out of both sides of their mouth. As one local journalist pointedly put it to him: “When you said that we are no longer friends, but rather we are family, why not give us free visa [access]?” The Prime Minister defended his record, pointing to recent efforts to improve visa access for Pacific peoples (such as recognising Australian visitor visas in New Zealand, and cutting costs) but suggesting a more laissez-faire approach was untenable in the immediate future. “The challenge that we have is ... to make sure that you’ve got legal migration and that you’ve actually got good risk management around your immigration system, because otherwise what happens is you get an anti-immigrant feeling that builds up inside a country, and we’ve seen that in other countries all around the world.” Luxon later suggested the Government would wait for a select committee report on the Pacific visa waiver petition before forming a final opinion, but his comments about two previous trials of visa-free access leading to “a huge number of overstayers” would suggest more sweeping reform is off the table. There is a further elephant in the room, or nesting on the seabed to be more precise – the wreck of the HMNZS Manawanui, and whether New Zealand has done enough to compensate the Samoan people for the environmental damage done by its disastrous sinking off Samoa’s coast in 2024. Under former Samoan prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, the New Zealand government agreed to pay roughly $6 million in compensation described by Foreign Minister Winston Peters as being made “in full and with good faith”. Some villagers have questioned whether the sum is enough to make amends for the impact on their fishing stocks, and La’aulialemalietoa appeared to open the door to further requests as he spoke of “finalising the first portion of payment”. “At this stage, the continuation of the negotiations is still on, and we need to have time, better time ... to consider what is good for us here and protective and also preserve what’s going to be affected in the future. That’s where the discussion should be – be fair to New Zealand and also be fair to us in the long run.” Speaking to media later in the day, Luxon suggested the Samoan leader was merely referring to an independent review on the future of the shipwreck, with Foreign Minister Winston Peters having previously suggested it could yet become a diving attraction. Could New Zealand kick in further money at that point? He did not want to presuppose, but “suffice to say, my message has been right from day one, we will do the right thing”. Exactly what “the right thing” is when it comes to our Pacific family, and whether they share the same view, is a more complex question.