Contact me: lettertomanukau@manukau.govt.nz

Wednesday, 15 July 2009 - Issue 77

Trip to the Pacific Islands

Last week I enjoyed a whistlestop tour around the Pacific with the Prime Minister and a range of government and opposition MPs - members of the foreign affairs select committee - as well as mayoral colleagues, Bob Harvey from Waitakere and Jenny Brash from Porirua. As Mayor of Manukau, it was hard for me to admit to our hosts that this was the first time that I was visiting their shores.

However, it was an amazing experience, albeit a brief one, to meet, greet and get a sense of the places that I have heard of, talked about and advocated for most of my life. It is not hard to understand, given the natural beauty and sense of well-being in the four island states of Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands and Niue, why my friends and the tens of thousands of the Pacific people in our city feel such a strong attachment, affection, and affiliation to their home countries.

There are many underlying reasons why the members of these Pacific communities have moved in such large numbers to New Zealand and Australia. The significant job and educational opportunities have been foremost amongst them. The home countries continue to be strongly appreciative of the remittances that are sent back by families over the decades.

During the course of our four day visit, much time was spent building on the very strong social and political ties between New Zealand and the four Pacific nations. For me time was spent in discussions with the local business and community leaders talking about the challenges of building the local economies. In particular we discussed establishing a platform of infrastructure upon which to take these small island nations to the next stage of development.

In many ways these nations have populations and communities similar to the size of Auckland's local councils and cities. The development challenges these countries face are not dissimilar to those that we face in our cities such as storm water, wastewater, power, telecommunications, and roading. These have been the most important requirements for maintenance expenditure and investment.

Manukau City Council has a memoranda of understanding with French Polynesia, Cook Islands and Samoa and over the years we have been supportive of the island states.

I will be leading a trade mission with up to 20 of our local businesses to Tonga, Western Samoa and American Samoa next month following up on many of the connections made during this latest visit. The primary purpose is for us to build stronger economic links between the local island economies and our own.

We are intending to generate significant business opportunities during the course of our stay as was the case three years ago. I believe we need to be thankful for the vision and commitment of the chair of the New Zealand Pacific Business Council, Gilbert Ullrich who is also CEO of one of our local businesses, Ullrich Aluminium. He will lead the business delegation next month.

There is, however, a broader work that needs to be done in the years ahead. Much of the Government's support for these countries is directed by NZAID. A number of non-governmental organisations also have significant input into assisting the island states in how they rise to meet their economic and community challenges and also the environmental challenge of global warming. Oxfam has been prominent amongst these organisations.

I have the view that there is a need for strong collaboration between local government, with our knowledge and understanding of infrastructure and community development, and central government, with its political and funding clout. We need to work with aid and humanitarian agencies and bring together a collaborative group, including the business community, to assist these countries in building their social, cultural and business infrastructure to enable them to have a sustainable future.

Having visited the islands and been able to reflect on the wise thoughts of its leaders in the last two years I understand the importance of New Zealand's obligation to the South Pacific. This includes at the very least our moral obligation to be a good neighbour, to care and to help where we can.

Our continuing and burgeoning relationships with Pacific Island nations date back to the arrival from the heart of Polynesia of the eight founding canoes. The Cook Islanders were during the course of the visit always happy to remind those of us, and particularly the Maori delegation, that the Cook Islands were the stopping over point for the migration south to Aotearoa New Zealand. These long traditional, cultural, political and social links make our relationships with the island nations a primary part of our country's destiny into the future.

Have a good week!

Len Brown
Mayor of Manukau

ENDS

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