Chief To’oolesavili Key optimistic about future

Small Island Developing States Conference (S.I.D.S.) There is no doubt about it. New Zealand is committed to help Samoa host the S.I.D.S. conference even though it will cost New Zealand millions, according to To’oolesavili.

In an exclusive interview with the Samoa Observer yesterday, To’oolesavili John Key talks to Chief Reporter, Sophie Budvietas, about the Small Island Developing States Conference, Budget Support, Immigration and Tourism and how Samoa and New Zealand can build on the foundations laid for a better future because of the unique history between the two countries.

“We don’t exactly know but it could be as much as $10 million NZ dollars so $20 million tala,” he said. “But it will depend a bit on how much we can recoup and various other issues. It certainly wont be less than five and it probably wont be more than 10 million NZ dollars, 10 to 20 million tala.”

So what is this money being spent on?

“Partly, it is the cost of refurbishing the various facilities that were built for the South Pacific Games, because they have different needs and uses for the S.I.D.S. conference,” he said.

“And the boat is an underwrite from the New Zealand Government. So the issue there is that obviously if people use the boat, there is a form of cost recovery.

“But…of course there is a risk that they wont get maybe exactly the right numbers.

It might be in which case New Zealand just picks up the tab.”

He said it was common for cruise ships to be used at events where the host countries faced accommodation challenges.

“The theory would be is if they use the ship that they’ll pay as if they would pay for a hotel room,” he said.

“So we get some recouping of the costs, but in reality we have to pay quite a lot more to get the ship here because they take it out of circulation and it is for a small number of days.

“So I don’t think we should be crossing our fingers that we will be getting all of our investment back.”

Looking at conference security, according to a New Zealand High Commission spokesperson. New Zealand Police have been working with Samoa to help it deliver a security plan, as well as motorcade training.

“New Zealand is also providing technical assistance across a range of areas including centralised accommodation booking, customs support, aviation security, logistics and policy support, maritime safety and quarantine,” the spokesperson said.

“Up to 100 New Zealand Police and specialist N.Z.D.F. (New Zealand Defence Force) personnel, including 50 New Zealanders of Samoan descent, will also be deployed during the conference to bolster Samoa’s security needs for the conference.

“So we are providing I think about 50 police offices that will come up and provide support to the local police force,” To’oolesavili said.

“They will have the lead but New Zealand is more than happy to work with them. “There is a very close working relationship between the Samoan Police Authority and the NZ police force.” According to the Spokesperson through the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, New Zealand is also helping Samoa develop a S.I.D.S. Village in the Conference Centre, in conjunction with the Samoa Chamber of Commerce. “Which will be used to showcase the products and destinations of Small Island Developing States, with a particular focus on Samoa and the Pacific,” the spokesperson said.

Budget support

Despite the recent discovery that the Ministry of Finance had broken its own law - the Public Finance Management Act 2001, To’oolesavili said New Zealand would not pull its $1 million in budget support to Samoa.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I mean it is ultimately the High Commission along with the NZ authorities in that particular look at how money is spent and how it is accounted.

“I mean we take very seriously our responsibility to the New Zealand taxpayers and make sure that money is spent appropriately and can be accounted for.

“But I think our response would rather be to see greater levels of transparency and disclosure rather than cut funding.”

He said New Zealand and Samoa have a special relationship over the past 100 years and that his Government had a duty of care to our islands.

“Everything from the occupation right through to the Friendship Treaty,” he said. “We feel quite a duty of care when it comes to Samoa.

“And there is nearly 150,000 Samoans living in NZ so there is quite a lot of domestic interest in New Zealand.

“We acknowledge that in many countries that we give aid some of the accounting isn’t absolutely perfect but we are constantly working to improve that.”

Immigration To’oolesavili also revealed that his government is looking at ways to help Samoa meet its immigration quota.

Last year a lack of jobs in New Zealand was blamed for the 1,100 quota not being met, however To’oolesavili says they are taking steps to make the fulfilling of this quota easier.

“Well we have been looking at that issue because I think that numbers are approximately 1,100 people per year,” he said.

“And you are right, in recent times they have struggled to fulfill that quota.”

He said while there were a variety of reasons for this quota not being filled, one of the main ones was that a person needed to have a job before they came to New Zealand to be granted residency.

“So (there’s) the challenge of actually getting a job before they are actually in country,” he said.

“So we have been having a look to whether we might be able to make changes to allow them to fill the quota and make it a little bit easier.

“Obviously we need to manage issues of people being over stayers because we don’t want to send the wrong signals.

“But we think it’s possible to make improvements, which would be beneficial to Samoa.”

Talking about Labour's new immigration policy, To’oolesavili dismissed his oppositions claims that any issues with the number of people who migrated to New Zealand.

He says Labour's policy to restrict immigration will essentially impact on family reunification, which he thinks is wrong.

“Because if someone comes to NZ as either a worker under the friendship treaty or a skilled migrant to not be able to bring their family seems very unfair and quite disruptive,” he said.

Recently the Labour Leader David Cunliffe said his party wanted to cut migration numbers, but he did not say by how much.

Labour’s immigration spokesman Trevor Mallard says Samoa is unlikely to be affected by any potential restrictions to migrants under a Labour Government.

To’oolesavili however says for the most part the number of people coming to N.Z. has been very consistent over the last six to 10 years.

“What changes and why the net migration numbers are a little stronger is the number of New Zealanders who are no longer leaving and going to Australia,” he said.

“So under the previous government about 35,000 kiwis a year left to go to Australia, now those numbers are down at about three or four thousand.”

“So our view is these things go in cycles.”

He said net on net New Zealand has increased its population because of migration by about 9,000 people a year.

“So that is hardly challenging for a country of about four and a half million people in as much space as Great Britain.”

Tourism To’oolesavili said New Zealand’s $20 million investment in Samoa’s tourism sector was a worthwhile investment for his government.

New Zealand pledged almost $40 million tala to over a five-year period three years ago.

“There will always be some investment that fails,” he said. “And some of it is microfinance so that very, very small amounts of money that might prove to be unsuccessful.

“Or you have had natural disasters here so anything from cyclones through to obviously the tsunami.

“You will have a natural disaster that will just deter people from coming for a while.

“Cyclones for instance will sometimes have quite long term impacts on tourist flows because people are just a bit nervous.

“But that is about rebuilding confidence and making sure the infrastructure is there to support it.

“I don’t think we would ever claim that every dollar that we spend is going to be successful.

“But on the other side of the coin it is about the long term contribution.” To’oolesavili, who is also New Zealand’s Tourism Minister, says this long term contribution goes towards building long term sustainability for employment.

“So I think if you look at somewhere like Samoa, and its probably true of Tonga and Fiji and Vanuatu other countries in the Pacific we think they broadly have three strands to the economic development,” he said.

“One is food production so fisheries and agriculture obviously the second is without a doubt tourism and third is sort of a form of manufacturing that they can undertake here.

“So our view is if you want to stabilise the populations of the Pacific then there has to be jobs that are created.

He said New Zealand places great importance on the tourism industry, highlighted by the fact that the Prime Minister of the day would take on the portfolio.

To’oolesavili said there was a significant global demand for tourists, but that to cater for them Samoa needs to look at out markets, accommodation and flight connectivity.

“One of the long term things I think is that Samoa itself will need to work out what sort of strategy does it want to have,” he said.

“And there is a lot of different things you need; obviously the infrastructure so places like where we are now To Sua trench is a great example of a unique example you can market.

“ You need accommodation and you need flight connectivity, that's really the big issue.

“One of the things I think with Air New Zealand at the moment is that the flights, and I think that it is true of Virgin as well, but the flights are not at the most convenient time “A lot of the departure flights are at 2 o’clock in the morning and very unsociable hours like that.

“So one of the things we are going to continue to work on is to see whether Air New Zealand will have better times and better services.

“ They have also announced yesterday that Air NZ is buying 16 new airbus aircraft, which they will take delivery of between 2017 and 2019 and it costs 1.6 billion but they intend to use those on the pacific including Samoa.”

When asked if he thought the 2011 Rugby World Cup was a contributor to the decline in Samoa’s visitor numbers, he said no.

“Look it depends, my guess is actually in terms of the rugby world cup it was quite a specific audience that came to NZ for that and it was from really only places like the UK and Australia that actually had big numbers.

“I mean there may be people who say I will go to NZ for the rugby world cup and not come to Samoa on a holiday there may be a degree of that.”

He suspects that given it was in 2011 the bigger impact would have been the post-tsunami here.

“So it takes some time to regroup and rebuild,” To’oolesavili said.

“I mean the tourism development here has been slower than for instance a place like Fiji.

“But I think deliberately so, that is not a criticism it is just they have taken a more cautious view and probably a slightly more authentic view of what they want tourism to look like.

“If you go to Fiji its typically more dominated by big international chains that run resorts; people go to the resorts and their experience of Fiji is that they use a bit of the local Fijian language and maybe have a cultural show.

“Samoa has taken a more authentic view to that and actually there is a lot of credibility in that strategy.”