Pacific prosperity is Aotearoa’s prosperity

The challenges facing Pacific people are persistently framed as niche or marginal, rather than critical to Aotearoa’s national wellbeing. In this chapter from the new book Facing Up to Our Future: Challenges and Choices for New Zealand, Fonoiā Jemaima Tiatia-Siau and Seiuli Angel Timali Tiatia-Siau argue that under-investing in Pacific peoples limits the country’s long-term prosperity. 

 

As Aotearoa New Zealand approaches the 2026 general election, the country is standing at a junction. The decisions made over the next electoral cycle will shape whether we continue to manage diversity at the margins, or whether we harness it as a pivotal strength of our nation.

Pacific peoples sit squarely at the heart of this moment. We’re one of the youngest and fastest-growing populations in our country. And we’re deeply invested in Aotearoa’s future — socially, economically and culturally.

Nevertheless, Pacific communities continue to face deep-rooted inequities that limit not only our own wellbeing but the long-term prosperity and social cohesion of the nation as a whole.

It’s a straightforward but often overlooked point that Pacific futures are not a “Pacific issue” but, rather, a national one — the wellbeing, capability and leadership of Pacific peoples are inseparable from the future of Aotearoa New Zealand itself.

We’re not newcomers  

Who are Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand? Pacific peoples are not newcomers to Aotearoa. Our presence is grounded in deep ancestral, genealogical and cultural ties across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, our blue Pacific continent. Our histories here are closely interwoven with those of Māori as tangata whenua under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Pacific migration during the 20th century supplied labour for industrial expansion, manufacturing, and public infrastructure. This labour was often exploited, poorly paid, and offered few pathways to accumulate assets. Those conditions still echo today.

Pacific peoples are now predominantly urban, and our youthful age profile positions us as a critical part of the future workforce, tax base, and leadership pipeline. However, policy settings haven’t kept pace with this reality.

Pacific peoples occupy a relational space in Aotearoa’s constitutional and cultural landscape. We are not tangata whenua and we don’t claim that status. At the same time, we’re not simply another migrant group to be folded into a generic multicultural scaffold. Respecting this position requires nuanced, relational thinking and grounding in genuine partnership with Māori.

Pacific contributions don’t fit neatly into GDP statistics

Despite persistent deficit narratives, Pacific peoples make substantial contributions to Aotearoa’s economy and society. A recent analysis by Treasury, Pacific contribution to the economy, highlights this, despite enduring structural inequities in health, education, housing, justice and employment. Fundamentally, Treasury claims that GDP tells only part of the story.

Pacific contributions also include:

• unpaid and informal care work.
• church and community leadership.
• cultural and creative production.
• volunteering and social cohesion.
• transnational family and economic networks.

These forms of labour hold communities together and reduce long-term social costs. However, they remain largely invisible in mainstream economic metrics.

The Pacific Aotearoa Status Report led by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples estimates Pacific peoples contribute around NZ$8 billion per year to GDP alone. When unpaid and cultural labour are considered, the real contribution is far greater.

Inequities are real and compounded by harmful narratives   

Simultaneously, inequities remain bleak. Data from Stats NZ demonstrate that Pacific peoples are over-represented in low-paid, insecure employment and under-represented in senior leadership and decision-making roles. Furthermore, home ownership rates and median incomes remain below national averages.

Public discourse has too often reinforced harmful narratives, portraying Pacific peoples as economic “bludgers” and “leeches”. These claims ignore evidence and history. Criticism by commentators and talkback hosts has exposed these harmful racially-driven and divisive assumptions. Their persistence reflects a deeper unwillingness to recognise Pacific peoples as shared stewards of Aotearoa’s national future, rather than marginal participants within it.

Māori are first partners

Any genuine discussion of Pacific futures must begin with clarity about the Māori–Pacific relationship. Te Tiriti o Waitangi establishes the constitutional foundation of Aotearoa New Zealand. Māori rights, authority, and aspirations as tangata whenua are non-negotiable. Pacific futures do not sit alongside Te Tiriti commitments, they depend on them. Our place in Aotearoa sits in a relational space — one defined by whakapapa across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, shared genealogies, histories of mobility, and longstanding political, cultural, and deep spiritual connections.

A Tiriti-honouring nation understands partnership, power-sharing, and relational accountability as living practices, not historical obligations. For Pacific peoples, advancing our futures strengthens rather than weakens these foundations.

Pacific worldviews place deep emphasis on respect for place. Belonging is not claimed through dominance, but earned through relationship, service, and reciprocity. This ethos has shaped Pacific engagement in Aotearoa through building churches and community institutions, contributing labour and care, and raising generations who see their futures as bound to this land while remaining connected to ancestral homelands. It’s also important to acknowledge the growing population of Pacific peoples who whakapapa Māori, further deepening the relational complexity of this space.

Policy frameworks struggle to recognise this complexity. Pacific peoples are frequently positioned “in the middle” — expected to thrive without adequate resourcing, and to assimilate without acknowledgement of cultural contrast.

Māori and Pacific peoples are both over-represented in low-paid work, yet structural causes are often reframed as individual failure. This framing obscures shared experiences of sidelining, while deflating significant distinctions between Māori sovereignty and Pacific belonging.

A more grounded policy approach, coupled with care, responsibility and foresight, recognises that:

• Māori rights flow from indigeneity and Te Tiriti.
• Pacific belonging is grounded in relationships and contribution, shaped alongside Māori and oriented towards shared, intergenerational futures.

Both are undermined when systems privilege equality over equity. Strengthening Māori–Pacific relationships is not symbolic. It is strategic and honours our shared histories and genealogies. When communities are positioned as partners rather than competitors, outcomes improve, legitimacy deepens, and social cohesion strengthens. Community-led solutions become more durable and sustainable.

The success of Pacific peoples is not separate from the success of Māori, nor from the success of the nation as a whole. Aotearoa’s future depends on its ability to practise relational justice — recognising that equity, belonging, and prosperity are collective responsibilities, shaped by history but designed for the generations yet to come.

What we think will drive change

Equity and inclusion

Pacific communities are disproportionately affected by intergenerational poverty, housing precarity, climate vulnerability, and inequitable access to health and education. These challenges are interconnected and reinforcing. Overcrowded housing contributes to poor health outcomes. Insecure employment undermines educational attainment. And climate change impacts in the Pacific region resound across diaspora communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Equity is not about special treatment. It’s about fair investment that reflects need, contribution and future impact. Under-investing in a young and growing population simply shifts costs into the future.

Representation and voice

Pacific leadership is under-represented in parliament, local government, public-sector governance, and research and innovation policy. Persistently, decisions affecting Pacific communities are made without Pacific peoples at the table. Representation matters because it shapes which challenges are prioritised, which knowledge systems count, and which solutions are pursued.

Knowledge and recognition

Pacific ways of knowing, doing and being continue to be undervalued within mainstream institutions. Western frameworks dominate definitions of success, marginalising collective, relational, and intergenerational approaches to wellbeing. This curbs innovation and weakens our national response to complex social challenges.

A youthful population is an asset — but only if it gains thoughtful investment  

Pacific young people represent the demographic future of Aotearoa. Their youthfulness is a strength — but only if supported and resourced. Without deliberate intervention, existing inequities risk being replicated and exacerbated, as technology, automation, and artificial intelligence reconfigure labour markets.

Preparing Pacific communities to participate in emerging industries is critical to prevent the deepening of digital and economic divides.

Why has progress been so slow?

Pacific initiatives are often siloed within specific portfolios rather than embedded across housing, education, economic development, innovation, and climate policy. Short electoral cycles favour visible, short-term interventions over sustained investment in prevention and capability-building.

Despite goodwill, bureaucratic systems often delay bold action. Pacific-led solutions are frequently required to conform to institutional norms rather than being supported on their own terms. Community organisations are expected to deliver outcomes without adequate resourcing or authority. GDP fails to capture unpaid labour, cultural leadership, and community resilience.

Perhaps most damaging is that Pacific challenges are still framed as “niche” rather than core to national wellbeing.

What it will take to shift from rhetoric to delivery

There are some priority areas:

Housing

• Shift from crisis response to prevention and asset building, including collective and multigenerational Pacific household models.
• Support Pacific-led housing providers and community housing organisations.
• Align housing policy with transport and employment hubs to reduce spatial inequity.

Health and wellbeing

• Embed Pacific governance within health-system planning and commissioning.
• Invest in Pacific-led prevention and early intervention models.
• Strengthen Pacific data sovereignty and analytical capability.

Education

• Invest across the full education pipeline, from early childhood through tertiary and vocational education.
• Recognise Pacific languages and knowledge systems as assets.
• Strengthen transitions into high-value sectors, leadership and research careers.

Economic development

• Support Pacific innovation.
• Recognise economic contribution beyond GDP, including unpaid and cultural labour.
• Leverage the Pacific diaspora as a strategic bridge to regional trade and enterprise.

Technology and AI

• Proactively prepare Pacific communities for AI and automation.
• Fund Pacific participation in digital capability-building, research and innovation.
• Ensure ethical, culturally responsive artificial intelligence governance frameworks.

Pacific peoples are already leading and innovating

Pacific peoples aren’t waiting to be invited into Aotearoa New Zealand’s future — we are already shaping it. Across health, education, the arts, the sciences, business, churches, communities and public service, Pacific peoples are leading. They’re innovating. And they’re holding families and communities together, often under immense pressure.

For Pacific peoples, belonging isn’t abstract. It’s lived. It’s consistently filling essential roles that others are unwilling to undertake, despite their economic and social significance, and keeping our country functioning. It’s contributing economically while remaining economically insecure. It’s Pacific families working multiple jobs to keep households afloat, with not uncommon cases of students and younger family members becoming primary wage earners. This reality is undervalued.

Pacific peoples are deeply family-oriented. Keeping families thriving requires balancing work with cultural, community and family obligations — obligations that are often invisible to policy yet central and critical to Pacific lives.

Pacific policy has been vulnerable to political cycles for too long. If Pacific peoples are to thrive, bipartisan commitment is essential. So the real question facing New Zealand is not whether Pacific peoples are ready. It’s whether the nation is ready for us.

Ready to recognise our contribution beyond GDP, to understand belonging as identity, citizenship and responsibility, to pursue genuine accountability rather than symbolic inclusion, to create strength-based policy rather than deficit narratives, to invest equitably rather than merely rhetorically, and to share stewardship of the future.

Pacific peoples are already reshaping Aotearoa. The question is not whether our country can afford to invest in Pacific futures, but whether it can afford not to. The task now is for our institutions and our politics to catch up.

 

Fonoiā Jemaima Tiatia-Siau is pro-vice chancellor (Pacific) at the University of Auckland. Of Sāmoan heritage, she specialises in the study, research, and teaching of suicide prevention and postvention, mental health and wellbeing, youth development, Pacific Studies, health inequities and the impact of climate change on mental wellbeing. 

Angel Timali Tiatia-Siau was born in American Sāmoa and works for Pasifika-led mental health and wellbeing organisation Le Va. She holds a bachelor’s degree in counselling, a postgraduate degree in mental health and addiction, and she has worked in mental health and addiction, youth justice and tertiary education.

• Facing Up To Our Future: Challenges and Choices for New Zealand argues that Aotearoa New Zealand’s traditional “she’ll be right” optimism is no longer adequate to the challenges facing the nation, and brings together 21 leading thinkers to set out practical ways of dealing with them. Published by the Helen Clark Foundation, it’s available here. This chapter, titled Pacific Futures, Equity and Belonging, has been lightly edited.