Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono speaks during the First Reading of his Member's Bill, the Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill, 10 April 2024. Photo: Johnny Blades
A bill that aims to restore citizenship to a group of Samoans born between 1924 and 1949 has unanimous support from the select committee to procced but will not include the decedents of the cohort.
In 1982, the Privy Council ruled that because those born in Western Samoa were treated by New Zealand law as "natural-born British subjects", they were entitled to New Zealand citizenship when it was first created in 1948.
Samoan citizenship bill makes progress
However, the National Party-led government under Robert Muldoon took that away with the Western Samoa Citizenship Act 1982, effectively overturning the Privy Council ruling.
New Zealand Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono's Bill, Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill, aims to restore the Privy Council decision.
It received support from all parties during the select committee process to proceed - including National which didn't back it in the first reading, citing legal complexities.
The opportunity for citizenship if the Bill passes is expected to apply to no more than 5000 people. However, many during the select committee process asked citizenship to extend to the decedents of the cohort as well.
Tuiono said this was supported by both the Greens and Labour but not by the other parties.
"We wanted to get more things in there particularly after listening to the community who were asking for other things," Tuiono said.
"For example the expansion from just the original cohort to include the immediate children of those people, which would have been about 15,000 to 19,000."
With support from all parties during the select committee Tuiono expects the bill to pass the second reading but didn't want to "count his chickens" for it to become law.
The select committee process received almost 25,000 written submissions, with one including around 7000 signatures. Around half of the submissions came from Samoa.
"There was overwhelming support for the bill moving forward."
Tuiono said there was a lot of support from young people, many who represented their parents and grandparents.
"You want to know that your parents and your grandparents have been treated with respect and integrity here within Aotearoa, New Zealand and that is something that came through strongly."