New Zealand and its Small Island Neighbours: A Review of New Zealand Policy Toward the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Kiribati and Tuvalu

Abstract

In 1984 the Ministry of Foreign affairs and trade commissioned the Institute of Policy Studies to conduct a wide-ranging review of New Zealand policy in the South Pacific. Five cases were selected for study: three sub-national jurisdictions linked to New Zealand (Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau) and two sovereign independent nations (Kiribati and Tuvalu). The report draws together the results of extensive field research, a major literature review, long-run data analysis, and over 150 interviews with key informants. Its analysis of economic development and aid led to the original formulation of the now-familiar and widely-cited “MIRAB” (migration-remittances-aid-bureaucracy) model of economic development in small islands. After analysing the issues surrounding constitutional evolution of New Zealand’s former island territories in the Pacific, the report proposed a revival of the concept of sub-national jurisdictions in the small-island context, and identified the risks associated with emergence of an opportunistic political elite in the process of “decolonisation”.

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