Sir Collin Tukuitonga says the Pasifika community is in for a rough ride. Photo: File.
A prominent Pacific academic has predicted that New Zealand’s Pasifika community will be the biggest losers in the new government with one partner in the Coalition, ACT, wanting to get rid of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples.
Associate Dean, Health and Medical Sciences Faculty, University of Auckland, Sir Collin Tukuitonga, said Pasifika communities were in for a rough ride over the next three years.
None of the three parties expected to make up the Coalition — National, ACT and New Zealand First — have Pasifika MPs in their ranks after Angee Nicholas, National’s only Pasifika MP-elect, lost her Te Atatū seat to Labour’s Phil Twyford.
“We’re going to have a rough ride — and that’s why it’s extremely important for our community leaders to speak up because I suspect that the dedicated programs targeting Pacific education or health or jobs or housing will be difficult to achieve,” Sir Collin said.
“No one is in Cabinet to represent our interests, so credible Pacific leaders and community groups need to speak up. If they see something unacceptable, they need to speak up, and they need to lobby their local MPs.”
He said this would be difficult as the National and ACT parties had specifically campaigned on there being no place for ethnic-based government programs.
“This is even though we know in healthcare, for example, where you have ethnic-based services, you tend to have better outcomes,” Sir Collin said.
“New Zealand also has a big part to play in the development of, and aid assistance to, the Pacific Islands, so it is important the country’s leaders have a good understanding of the region.”
Sir Collin said the lack of representation on the right would continue to be a trend because the values of National, ACT and NZ First did not align with traditional community values that were common in the Pacific.
“The policies, the ideology that drives those parties — it doesn’t align with the community-orientated thinking, you know [Pasifika communities] are always thinking about others, about the greater good rather than the individual.”
Niuean-born Sir Collin has advocated for reducing health inequalities of Māori and Pasifika people. He has held several public health and government positions in New Zealand and internationally.
Wellington, 5 November 2023
