“It is time to stop treating our Pacific family as cheap hired help” said Hannah Tamaki of Vision New Zealand.

She went on to say, “Many of our Pacific people enter New Zealand on an Essential Skills Work Visa and are in jobs which do not provide a clear pathway to permanent residency and even less access to upskilling. This traps our Pacific cousins on a vicious cycle of visa renewal which is demoralising and costly both financially and personally.

 They either end up overstaying or having to return to their home country for one year’s stand down. That’s not good enough. The majority of these people are working in jobs that other New Zealanders often won’t do i.e. hospitality and aged care. So as I said at the launch of our Manurewa Candidate on Thursday 25th June, if elected this will be a high priority for us’, Vision New Zealand will declare Amnesty for Pacific Overstayers based on criteria of need, established employment and training pathways and family and community support”.

“Twenty-two years ago on the 4th July 1998 when we came to Auckland, this was our kaupapa and hasn’t changed”.

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