Labour promises visa-free travel for Pacific Forum countries

Labour has promised visa-free travel to New Zealand for Pacific Islanders.

Deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said nationals of Pacific Island Forum countries would be allowed to enter on an NZeTA for three months at a time if the government changes. Labour said the access would match that available to nationals of 61 other countries RNZ.

Sepuloni, who holds the Pacific Peoples spokesperson role, said expanding waiver travel would make it more affordable for Pacific families to reunite with loved ones in New Zealand.

The proposal would restore a form of access not available for more than two decades. No Pacific Island countries have been able to enter visa-free since 2003, when the waiver for Tuvaluan, i-Kiribati and Nauruan nationals was removed. Tongans, Samoans and Fijians were removed from the waiver in 1987 less than three months after being added.

Immigration New Zealand figures put the current overstayer population at an estimated 19,153 people, down 8.7 percent over the year. About 26 percent were from Pacific Island countries, up from 25 percent last year RNZ.

Within that total, 2541 overstayers are Tongan and 1462 are Samoan, according to Immigration New Zealand. Among temporary visa arrivals from June 2023 to 2026, 2.14 percent of Tongans and 1.25 percent of Samoans overstayed. The average for all arrivals was 0.13 percent.

The previous estimate, as at 1 July 2025, was 20,980 overstayers. That figure was published by Immigration New Zealand in September 2025 and has since been superseded by the lower 19,153 estimate.

Labour's proposal sits alongside existing facilitation. New Zealand introduced a 24-month multi-entry visa for visitors from Pacific Island nations. From 1 June 2026, travel became easier and more affordable for Pacific visitors, with visitor visa fees for eligible Pacific nationals applying from Pacific countries reduced for 12 months.

Other residence pathways remain capped and ballot-based. The 2026 Pacific Access Category Resident Visa ballot made 650 visas available.

Other parties have staked out Pacific immigration positions. New Zealand First promised a two-year clemency period for Pacific overstayers. The Green Party has signalled support for a Pacific visa waiver. New Zealand First's wider platform includes citizenship changes, deportation measures, and a referendum on a resident visa cap.

The broader context here is how a waiver would operate in practice, and where it would sit in coalition negotiations. An NZeTA is not uncontrolled entry. It still requires advance authorisation, carrier checks and decisions at the border. For practitioners, the questions will be compliance settings, data sharing, overstay management and resourcing for Immigration New Zealand, rather than the headline entitlement alone.

In my view, the politics will turn on two competing pressures. Labour is offering lower cost and simpler whānau travel, and a point of difference with the current facilitation approach based on multi-entry visas and temporary fee relief. At the same time, the overstay breakdown gives opponents specific compliance figures to test the proposal against. How Labour prices enforcement risk, and whether the Greens and New Zealand First hold their stated positions through a campaign, will shape whether this remains a campaign pledge or becomes a negotiable item after the election.