The New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal has
allowed a Tongan family of four to remain in the country.
The family includes two children aged nine and six years, who
were born in New Zealand.
The husband,35, and the wife, 29, have been living in New Zealand for 11 and 12
years respectively.
In its report on the case, the Tribunal said the main issue
was whether the wife’s strong family ties to New Zealand and the emotional
support she provided for her mother and
teenaged sister gave rise to exceptional humanitarian circumstances that
would make it unjust or unduly harsh for her to be deported from New Zealand.
The wife came to New Zealand in December 2006, aged 17, along
with her mother, younger sister and two younger brothers. She had a two-month visitor visa and when that expired she remained here
unlawfully.
The husband first entered New Zealand for three weeks during
November 2005. When he re-entered in December 2007 he held a three-month
visitor visa, subsequently renewed until September 2008.
Thereafter, he remained here unlawfully.
The husband and wife married in New Zealand in June 2008. Their first child, a son, was born in May 2009. The couple’s
second child, another
son, was born
in New Zealand
in January 2013.
The Tribunal said that the woman’s mother left a marriage marred by domestic violence and the
suicide of one of her children.
The wife experienced
traumatic events in
her home environment when living in Tonga. Her father and two older brothers were
given to extreme violence. Two brothers
had severe mental health conditions which resulted at times in their
incarceration and the wife also discovered the body of her brother who
committed suicide.
The wife has a bond with her mother. Her mother was
traumatised by her son’s death in Tonga in April 2016 and the circumstances of
his death. The wife has a strong family
nexus to New Zealand in that her mother and four of her siblings are New
Zealand residents.
The Tribunal was told that none of the husband’s family in
Tonga was able to provide accommodation or other support as they are living in
overcrowded conditions and still recovering from the damage sustained during
Cyclone Gita in February 2018. It would be extremely difficult
for the appellants
to re-establish themselves in Tonga.
The wife had type 2 diabetes and end-stage kidney disease and
needs renal replacement therapy. This
service is not available in Tonga so that her
survival was uncertain,
and most certainly
measured in months.
“The relationship between the wife and her mother is
exceptionally close and reflects the unfortunate history of an abusive family
environment and the protective role the wife has had to adopt towards her
mother, as well as the shared traumatic experiences of more recent years,” the
Tribunal aid.
“If the wife was deported, this would be a major blow to her
mother and other family members in New Zealand.
“The eldest daughter, in addition to dealing with her own
marriage breakup and looking
after five children,
would presumably have
to take over responsibility
for her mother and
younger sister, both
with fragile mental health.
“Deportation
will permanently separate
her from her
family in New Zealand to the distress and detriment of the wife and her
family members.”
The Tribunal said the wife had established exceptional
humanitarian circumstances. Because the
mother could not be expected to live in
New Zealand without her husband or children, they too were found to have
exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature.
The
main points
The
New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal has allowed a Tongan family of
four to remain in the country.
The
family includes two children aged nine and six years, who were born in New
Zealand.
After nearly three years since the Tupou family farewelled one of the only two brothers in their family after an illness in US, they have lost the remaining brother after a shooting incident in Ōtāhuhu.
As Kaniva news reported, Samiuela Anania Tupou, 21, died in Seaside Park in Ōtāhuhu early on Saturday morning.
Tupou had recently returned from the United States to live with his family, police said.
“Family and friends describe him
as a fun-loving, hard-working young man.”
Police said at this stage, they did not believe the shooter was known to Tupou.
Police also could not confirm whether or nor the incident was gang related.
In July 2016, the Tupous farewelled their youngest son Ma’afu Tu’i ‘O Tonga Tupou who died after an illness, a source very close to the family told Kaniva news.
Ma’afu was buried in Salt Lake city.
The source said the family have three children, the two late brothers and a sister.
The police are appealing for witnesses and in particular any sightings of a light or gold-coloured people mover in the area at the time of the shooting.
Tonga
experienced mixed growth in March, with an increase in agricultural exports.
Exports rose
to 2.7 tonnes, largely due to the harvesting of late yams.
This offset
declines in the export of cassava and taro.
The figures
were released by the Reserve Bank in its latest report on economic activities.
The Bank
said lending to the agriculture sectors rose by 8.3% as farmers prepare for the
squash planting season.
Construction
activities continued to slow, with fewer
loans to the construction and mining & quarrying sectors.
Housing
loans also fell, as did lending to the manufacturing sector.
However, the
number of container registrations rose by 161 registrations.
This was due
to a rise in the number of private containers, which offset a decline in
business container registrations.
International
air arrivals also rose by 8.9% and four cruise ships arrived during March.
The banking
system remained sound, as banks continued to maintain a strong capital position
backed by adequate profits.
However, foreign
reserves fell by $8.5 million over the month of March, equivalent to 7.8 months
of imports. This was mainly because of higher import payments and loans.
During March
the price of tobacco, restaurants and hotels, house equipment services, and
local food rose.
In contrast,
the cost of imported food such as chicken legs, fruits and flour fell.
The
main points
Tonga
experienced mixed growth in March, with an increase in agricultural exports.
Exports
rose to 2.7 tonnes, largely due to the harvesting of late yams.
The British
embassy in Nuku’alofa has reopened, nearly 13 years after it was closed.
Mr Robin Ord-Smith MVO has been appointed High Commissioner to the Kingdom of Tonga, a statement said.
He will
succeed the current, non-resident High Commissioner, Ms Melanie Hopkins, who
will remain High Commissioner to the Republic of Fiji.
Mr Ord-Smith will take up his appointment during summer 2019.
The British
consulate was closed in Tonga in 2006.
Tonga’s
diplomatic relationship with Britain could be traced back to 1880 after the
Treaty of Friendship between Great Britain and Tonga was signed in 1879.
The law which allows the Speaker of Parliament to have the final say in interpreting the law of the House must be changed, Police Minster Māteni Tapueluelu has said.
Hon.
Tapueluelu said Parliamentary rules had given the Opposition and the Speaker the
opportunity to make their own interpretation of what they thought the House
rules should say about any submission to the House by the government.
He said that
when there was an argument over the interpretation of the rules, Clause 31 of
the Parliamentary procedures said the Speaker must deliver his own
interpretation and the House must follow.
This was no
matter whether the Speaker’s interpretation was legally correct or not.
Hon.
Tapueluelu said the government’s lawyer has advised that the wording of the Parliament’s laws and rules
book must be “clear cut.”
He said this
kind of political playing must be stopped and this was why he declared in the
House recently that the government would impeach Acting Speaker Lord Tu’ilakepa
after he exercised the clause.
He confirmed
to Television Tonga last week the government would also take court action
against the king’s noble.
Lord Tu’ilakepa’s controversial
decision
In March the
government submitted to the House the Bills which were due to be returned to Parliament
after they had been discussed in a two-week public consultations.
The
government submitted the Bills under the law of urgency according to the law clause
131 which says:
“The
Legislative Assembly shall not proceed upon a Bill after its first reading for
a period of two weeks or such longer time that the Assembly decides is needed
to allow members to scrutinise the Bill, and for the public to make
submissions, but this shall not apply to –
(a)
Appropriation Bills; and
(b) Bills
certified by the Prime Minister to be urgent.”
However, Lord
Tu’ilakepa, disregarded the way in which the government benches interpreted
clause 131, which requires the Prime Minister to certify the urgency of the
Bills.
The Acting
Speaker said that when the Prime
Minister certified that the six new Bills were urgent, he should have also explained
why were they urgent.
The
government disputed this, saying the law did not require the Prime Minister to
give the reasons why the Bills were urgent.
Lord
Tu’ilakepa then used Clause 31 of Parliamentary rules to justify his
interpretation and ordered the government’s new Bills be passed to the
Parliament’s Standing Committee, from which they were later taken for more
public consultation.
The
main points
The
law which allows the Speaker of Parliament to have the final say in
interpreting the law of the House must be changed, Policer Minster Māteni
Tapueluelu has said.
Hon.
Tapueluelu said Parliamentary rules had given the Opposition and the Speaker
the opportunity to make their own interpretation of what they thought the House
rules should say about any submission to the House by the government.
For
more information
Tonga police minister threatens to
impeach Acting Speaker
Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva believes the public
confusion surfaced during consultations about six government’s new Bills has
been due to misinformation and his opponents’ hatred for him.
There have been complaints on social media that the public were confused about the Bills.
Lord Fusitu’a, one of the Public Consultation committee leaders, claimed during an interview with Television Tonga while the meetings were conducted in Vava’u, the Bills were unconstitutional but he did not give any reasons to support his claim.
Some leaders in villages and towns, especially noble estates and districts which did not vote for the Pōhiva government in the last snap election, have urged their people to attend the meetings and vote against the new Bills.
According to reports, attendances at most of the meeting places did not even reach a tenth of the numbers of people who voted in the last snap election.
Hon. Pōhiva said he believed the confusion among the public during and after the public consultation could not be easily resolved because it was conducted with wrong spirit (“laumālie hala”).
He said there was hatred (“taaufehi’a”), aggression (“loto ‘ita”) and revenge (“loto sāuni”) by some of those who conducted and organised the public consultations against him.
Hon. Pōhiva said the six new Bills should have been clearly
emphasised to the public in its entirety and not only parts of them.
He believed the Parliamentary committee gave the public the wrong impressions that the laws were meant to remove the king’s powers when they dealt with the Judiciary Panel and the appointments of the Attorney General and Police Commissioner.
The Prime Minister said in an interview with
Television Tonga last week that he questioned the criticism of the new Bills by
some government critics after it had been made clear they had been drafted by
the Acting Attorney General ‘Aminiasi Kefu.
He told Kaniva news in a previous intervew that all the accussations and strong critisms made against his government by the nobles and their supporters was because they still held a grudge against him.
Acting AG
invlovements
Hon. Pōhiva said the Acting Attorney General was a
member of the king’s Privy Council and was appointed by the king.
“Do you think that ‘Aminiasi would come from the Privy
Council and tell the government to create laws to remove the king’s powers?
That’s the question these critics should ask.”
“If that was the case, then we should question ‘Aminiasi and the Privy Council.
“Why would you choose someone to tell us to create
laws to remove the king’s powers.
“It was ‘Aminiasi who drafted the Bills and he was the one who knew everything and the details of the Bills.”
Hon. Pōhiva called on those who claimed that his
government was attempting to remove the king’s powers to take their queries to
the Privy Council.
The six new
Bills
As Kaniva news previously reported, Acting Attorney General Kefu said during a public consultation about the Bills on radios, that claims by some critics that the government was attempting to remove the king’s powers were misleading because the Bills would end up with the king for his signature. He said the king would have the final say.
Hon. Pōhiva said these six new Bills were first created by the Lord Tu’ivakanō’s government and was engineered by some including the former Minister of Justice Clive Edwards.
“There may be some slight differences in the wording made by the Tu’ivakanō government and the ones we have submitted, but they were still the same,” Pōhiva told Television Tonga in Tongan.
It is understood the Tu’ivakanō government made the
move after it received a report by Commonwealth constitutional law expert Peter
Pursglove in 2014 that Tonga’s constitution was the worst in the Commonwealth
countries.
In 2014 Lord Tu’ivakanō’s government moved to remove the powers of Judicial Appointments and Discipline Panel to make elections in the king’s Privy Council.
The Nobles-led government also planned to put an end
to the Panel.
Lord Tu’ivakanō’s government also moved to remove the king’s constitutional powers to appoint a commissioner for the Anti-Corruption Commission, which was being planned at the time, according to the Parliament’s record (minutes) numbers 21, 22 and 23 on August, 2014.
The former government also submitted to the House a
Bill to remove the Attorney General from the king’s Privy Council and bring the
position into the cabinet.
The main points
Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva
believes the public confusion surfaced during consultations about six
government’s new Bills has been due to misinformation and his opponents’ hatred.
There have been complaints on social
media that the public were confused about the Bills.
Some leaders in villages and towns,
including noble estates and districts which did not vote for the Pōhiva
government, have urged people to attend the meetings and vote against the new
Bills.
For more information
Political problems could have been avoided if
Electoral Commission’s recommendations had been followed, say former Attorney
General
The Minister of Health Hon. Saia Piukala has been elected to become a member of the World Health Organisation executive board for the next three years.
Piukala was appointed during
the 72nd Session of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Health Assembly
(WHA) which took place in Geneva, Switzerland from 20 – 28 May 2019
“This opportunity provides a chance for Tonga to ensure our health issues, and those we share with other Pacific island countries, are heard and addressed,” said Hon. Piukala.
“The health challenges we
face are real and action is needed. Working with the WHO in this way will
ensure healthier lives for those in the Pacific.”
The appointment will build
on regional health leadership by Tonga, including the role of the Minister as a
commissioner on the WHO’s Independent Global High level Commission on
Non-communicable Diseases, and his advocacy efforts for safe and affordable
surgery.
After his appointment Tonga will join other members from WHO’s Western Pacific region: Australia, China, Japan and Singapore.
The World Health Assembly is
the decision-making body of WHO, attended by senior health leaders from all WHO
Member States and focused on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive
Board. The Executive Board is composed of 34 individuals technically qualified
in the field of health, each one designated by a WHO Member State. Each board
member’s term is 3 years.
The main functions of the
World Health Assembly are to determine the policies and priorities of WHO,
appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and
approve the proposed budget.
With the Tongan Minister of
Health, Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala, joining the 34-strong board, the Pacific will
retain a strong voice in WHO’s work, and ensure on-going advocacy on critical
Pacific health issues like non-communicable diseases and the health impacts of
climate change.
Following the World Health Assembly, Hon
Minister Dr Saia Piukala will remain in Geneva for the 145th session of the
Executive Board from 29th to 30th of May 2019.
Advice from former Chief Justice in 2009 should have been heeded
Former Tongan Attorney General John Cauchi has told Kaniva news the kingdom’s main political
problems are caused by its constitution.
The current constitution, believed to have been drafted
largely by Lord Dalgety, was produced by Lord Sevele’s government in 2010.
It has been described as the worst in the Commonwealth.
Cauchi’s comments come amidst political uproar in Tonga over
the public consultation on the government’s six new Bills. The opposition and
their supporters continue to claim the government is attempting to remove some
of the king’s powers, a claim, the Acting Attorney General has denied.
Cauchi said the government’s current attempts to change laws and modify the constitution would not have been necessary if the kingdom’s democratic reforms had been based on the recommendations of the Constitutional and Electoral Commission chaired by former Chief Justice Gordon Ward.
The CEC recommended, among other things, a three year Parliamentary term, the removal of the king and Privy Council from executive government, public consultation on all government bills and full access to records of public meeting of Parliament by the public and the media. The CEC also considered submissions to either abolish Noble’s seats or to have Nobles elected by all voters.
CEC
The CEC was set up at the beginning of 2009.
In February 2009, a month after the appointment of the Commission, the Prime Minister, himself a former member of the pro-democracy movement, stated publicly that he did not support the push by the pro-democracy movement for the King to be stripped of his involvement in the selection of Parliament as well as other executive powers.
The Nobles opposed the setting up of the Constitutional and
Electoral Commission.
Even before the CEC’s final report was submitted, Commissioners
were concerned that they would be ignored and that Lord Sevele’s government
would go its own way.
“The lengthy debate on the interim report in the Assembly
with its frequent references to already
entrenched views in the
minds of
many representatives does not bode well,” the Commission noted at the
time.
“Coupled with the all too apparent lack of understanding of
the aims or even of the actual contents
of the interim report by some of the members of the House, it gives cause for
some pessimism about the passage of this report and any consequent legislation
through the House.”
Indications that the Government might pre-empt debate caused
the Commission to comment:
“The recent statement by the Government only a few weeks
before our report is due suggests an intention to press ahead with previously
held opinions before they have seen the recommendations of the very Commission
they established to make them. Regrettably, it is hard to view that
intervention as anything but an intention to pre-empt any possibility our
recommendations may be contrary to their chosen view.”
The Commission said it had evaluated the government’s written submission in the same way it evaluated every submission.
“If we do not support them, it is because, on an overall
consideration of the issues, we have decided they are not the best course for
Tonga. Presumably the Government’s submissions were put to us for such an
evaluation. Now, it appears the Government may not be willing to have them measured
by any other yardstick than its conviction that other opinions have little
value or, perhaps, to have them measured at all.”
The recommendations of the CEC were not adopted and Lord
Sevele’s government adopted its own submission.
Recommendations
The main recommendations of the 2009 Constitutional and
Electoral Commission were:
That
the King and Privy Council should no longer be part of the Executive Government and
the
Executive Government should be the Cabinet
answerable to the Legislative Assembly .
Government
was to be a Constitutional Monarchy rather than a Constitutional Government.
The
Government of this Kingdom was to be divided into three bodies: Cabinet, the
Legislative Assembly and the judiciary.
The
Monarch would appoint as Prime Minister the elected member of the Assembly
recommended by the Assembly under a selection procedure provided in the
Constitution and the Monarch would appoint as Ministers those individuals
nominated by the Prime Minister.
The
Privy Council, of which Cabinet used to be part, would be an advisory body.
Cabinet was
now limited to the
Prime Minister and 11
Ministers nominated by him.
There
would be no unelected ministers or cabinet members.
The
Parliamentary term should be three years. The Commission observed that
“the longer the term, the less effective will be the power of voters”
to control an ineffective or poor
government.
The
right of every representative to introduce a Bill should be enshrined in the Constitution.
There
should be provision to secure sufficient time for proper consideration of all Bills of public interest by the members
of the general public.
All
members of the public, including the media, should have full access to the
Journal of the proceedings of the Assembly and to all the records of
the public meetings of the Assembly.
The Commission received several submissions to remove the
Nobles from Parliament or to have them elected by all eligible voter, not just
other Nobles.
“Measured against current perceptions of democracy in much of
today’s world, there can be no justification for the presence of the Nobles in
the Assembly,” the Commission noted.
However, it did not pursue this line, saying that the Nobles
should stay under the present system. If elected by the whole electorate, it
was likely that the same Nobles would keep being returned to Parliament because
voting would be based on ties of kainga and ha’a.
“The decision to retain them will be seen by many outside our
borders as a failure to grasp a chance to achieve democracy,” the Commission
aid.
“We define democracy by more than the right to elect a representative parliament. Much
that truly defines democracy is already enshrined in traditional Tongan values.
… at this stage, we feel the continued presence of the Nobles in the new and
untried representative parliament will be accepted by most Tongans as a
sensible and, possibly, necessary influence.”
Pursglove review
Four years after Wards’ review, Peter Pursglove, a legal
consultant in Constitutional Law from Trinidad and Tobago, reviewed the 2010
consultation on behalf of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Cauchi said Pursglove’s review largely supported the findings
of the Ward’s constitutional review.
Pursglove said Tonga’s 2010 constitution, which was produced
by Lord Sevele’ government, was poorly
written, promoted secrecy, compromised the role of the judiciary and parts of
it may have been illegal.
His report said the constitution did not uphold democracy, that
the Privy Council was undemocratic and unaccountable and the judiciary lacked
accountability and transparency.
“The present Constitution of Tonga can lay claim to being the
most poorly structured and drafted Constitution of any Country in the
Commonwealth,” Pursglove said.
“The autocratic and unaccountable judicial structure
introduced by the Constitution must not be allowed to frustrate the continued
development of Tonga on its pathway to democracy and risk destroying public
confidence in the new constitutional arrangements introduced in 2010.
“Changes must be made to ensure that the constitutional
provisions relating to the Judiciary comply with Commonwealth principles on
good governance and democracy.”
Chief Justice Gordon Ward
Ward clashed with the Tongan government in 2003 when he ruled
against an attempt by the government to ban Kalafi Moala’s newspaper Taimi ‘o Tonga.
He also declared illegal a subsequent ordinance imposed by
King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, sitting as chairman of the Privy Council.
In 2004 he resigned in protest at attempts to ban the
newspaper.
He then moved to Fiji where he was President of the appeal
Court.
In 2007 He and five other judges resigned in protest at the 2006
coup.
He was the Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands from
2008 to 2012 and was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to the
judiciary.
Kaniva news says:
Speaking at Auckland University Law School in April 2010,
Tongan Solicitor General, ‘Asipeli ‘Aminiasi Kefu said that some Tongans still
did not entirely support the reforms that were eventually made.
The constitutional changes were not medicine which would
provide the answers to all issues, he said.
He predicted it could take two to three elections before the
system stabilised.
Tonga has now elected a democratic government twice – the
second time after a dramatic intervention by the king – but have Tongan
politics stabilised?
All the evidence says that the current constitution is
seriously flawed and needs to be reformed.
Former Tongan Attorney General John Cauchi says the problems
lie in not having adopted the suggestion of the 2009 constitutional review.
Given the current situation, we believe the time has come to
revisit the Constitutional and Electoral Commission’ recommendations.
Perhaps in its final report we will find the key to
constructing a constitution that will not, in Pursglove’s words, “frustrate the
continued development of Tonga on its pathway to democracy.”
The
main points
Former
Tongan Attorney General John Cauchi has told Kaniva news the kingdom’s main political problems are caused by its
constitution.
The
current constitution, believed to have been drafted largely by Lord Dalgety,
was produced by Lord Sevele’s government in 2010.
It
has been described as the worst in the Commonwealth.
For
more information
Tonga’s constitution costly, poorly
written and undemocratic, report says
A Tongan man
was shot dead in Seaside Park, `Ōtāhuhu, Auckland on Saturday morning.
Samiuela
Anania Tupou, 21, was critically injured and died at the scene.
Tupou
recently returned with his family to live in New Zealand from the United
States.
Family and
friends describe him as a fun-loving, hard-working young man who regularly
attended church and enjoyed social occasions with his friends and family.
At this
stage Police believe the offender was not known to him.
“We are
committed to locating the offender or offenders and holding them to account,”
Police said.
“We are
appealing for anyone who witnessed this incident, or anyone who has any
information at all that may help us with our investigation, to come forward and
speak with Police.
“Specifically
we’d like to speak to anyone who may have sighted a light- or gold-coloured
people mover, similar to a Honda Odyssey, in the South Auckland area on Friday
night or early Saturday morning between 2-6am.”
If you can
help, please contact Counties Manukau Police on (09) 261 1300 or provide
information anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111
