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A Bill to restore citizenship to people whose New Zealand citizenship was removed by law in 1982 has received numerous public submissions.
It was a time that “targeted and terrorised” many immigrant people, including a disproportionate number of Pacific Islands’ people, says Peter Garrick, a New Zealander living in Samoa.
There, the citizenship issue is a sore topic.
That’s because many New Zealand citizens from Western Samoa had their citizenship revoked under the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982.
The “Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill” seeks to right wrongs foisted on those people.
The Bill also seeks to enable people whose New Zealand citizenship was removed by the 1982 Act to receive, on application, New Zealand citizenship as of right.
Here’s what one submission says
Garrick, who is a teacher working as a volunteer at St Joseph’s College Alafua in Samoa, spoke to Parliament’s Governance and Administration Committee about the Bill.
He also presented the Committee with a copy of his written submission.
“I am very supportive of the intention of this Bill” he told the Committee.
“It seeks to redress the injustice of the 1982 legislation that came on the back of one of the darkest periods in New Zealand’s history of the 1970s.
“Government-sanctioned raids were held at dawn to arrest and deport Pacific Island ‘overstayers’ even though they were less than a third of known overstayers.
“One of those arrested at the time, Falema’i Lesa, like Rosa Parkes before her, refused to accept that she did not have the right to participate fully as a citizen of the country.
“When in 1982 the Privy Council in London ruled in her favour by stating that those born in Samoa between 1924 and 1948 were in fact New Zealand citizens, the NZ Government quickly passed legislation denying them this birthright.
Apology needs substance
Garrick noted that in its August 2021 formal and unreserved apology, the New Zealand Government described the Dawn Raids as leaving Pacific communities feeling “targeted and terrorised”.
That is because of “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws,” Garrick told the Parliamentary Committee.
“I believe the 2021 official Government apology only has substance if attempts are made to redress past wrongs by not continuing to repeat them.
“The nature of the Apology implied a commitment to remove “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws”, the most glaring example of which is surely the 1982 Act.
“Supporting this Bill would at least give some substance to this commitment and give back to Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 the birthright that was so unjustly taken away from them.
“There are certain times in the history of a nation when it is alerted to the need to remove racially discriminatory law from its statutes.
“I suggest this is such a moment. As a nation we will stand taller if we support this Bill into law and I call on all MPs to do so.”
Source
- Supplied
- NZ Parliament
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