Diplomatic dancing with Oceania: Ken Ross discusses New Zealand prime ministers' involvement in Pacific Islands affairs.

• Author: Ross, Ken
• Position: Essay

The global diplomacy performance of New Zealand prime ministers can best be measured by their interaction with the South Pacific. Wellington needs our closest family--our South Pacific neighbours--on our team willingly when we do high-quality global diplomacy. Since 1945 there have been four important instances of New Zealand prime ministers mingling with Oceania's leaders beyond their home shores. They throw light on how New Zealand connects with Oceania and how they work together on the wider global stage. Since the South Pacific (now Pacific Islands) Forum's creation in 1971 Oceania has become a regular playing field for trans-Tasman prime ministerial rivalry.

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Apart from a dash of more or less benevolent colonialism, of interest to only a small number of people, New Zealand and New Zealanders virtually ignored their South Pacific neighbours.' (Merwyn Norrish, 1993) (1)

'New Zealanders in general, they sometimes talk the talk about being a Pacific nation, but it is not clear that they walk the walk.' (James Belich, 2001) (2)

The South Pacific provides the foremost measure for how well New Zealand prime ministers do global diplomacy. Wellington needs our closest family--our South Pacific neighbours--on our team willingly when we do high-quality global diplomacy.

How willingly each of our fifteen prime ministers since 1945 has been to diplomatically dance on the global stage with the leaders of the South Pacific Islands states is the story-line here.

There are two parts to New Zealand's relationship with Oceania, the region that New Zealanders more usually call the South Pacific. The first is how Wellington and the region connect. The second is how Wellington and the region work together pursuing mutual goals beyond the South Pacific. In this article, I am looking only at the latter.

I acknowledge completely the importance of the former - for me story telling on that topic is for another occasion. Thus, I am not here shining light on important developments in the region, such as Bougainville's secession, the Fiji coups or the democracy debates in Tonga and Samoa; nor on the global warming/climate change scenarios for Oceania or French colonialism or the formation of the South Pacific Forum in 1971 (and its becoming the Pacific Islands Forum in 1999).

I draw on my experience--having been one of Norrish's 'small number of people' and done some of Belich's 'walking'--as a New Zealander who shared much time with our South Pacific neighbours, particularly with Melanesians (Papua New Guineans, Solomon Islanders, ni-Vanuatu and New Caledonia's Kanaks).

Here, I illustrate, only with quick brush strokes, the four best instances of the mingling New Zealand prime ministers have undertaken with Oceania's leaders beyond their home shores.

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Fraser's endeavours

Peter Fraser's long-esteemed endeavours at the United Nation's creation begin this story. When the Second World War was grinding to its conclusion, Fraser was instrumental in the establishment of the organisation's Trusteeship Council. But by the time the war ended, on 2 September 1945, Fraser was already fading from further global diplomacy. Fifteen years later Fraser's endeavours bore ripe 'home grown' fruit--it was to be Walter Nash who, in Gerald Hensley's words, 'steered Samoa out of UN trusteeship into full independence at a time when this was regarded as a rather radical step'. (3) Hensley, Mary Boyd and Jim Davidson have given us the best accounts of Western Samoa gaining independence, including spotlighting Nash's contribution that it must be 'unqualified independence'--that is, no half measure, such as the Tongan solution. (4)

Independence for Samoa was in itself important enough. In making it possible New Zealand faced off the other Pacific colonial administrations, which were more than piqued by Wellington's going solo. The credit due Nash has been scarcely acknowledged--even his biographer Keith Sinclair is quiet on this one. Nash's striding out on behalf of the Samoans was the influential trend-setter for the near-peaceful decolonisation of Oceania. The leaders of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and the former United...