Tokelau

The year 2019 was rather eventful for Tokelau. Jacinda Ardern was the fourth Aotearoa/New Zealand prime minister to visit Tokelau, making a weeklong visit in August. This was an indication from the Labour-led government of New Zealand’s continued commitment to Tokelau as part of the wider Pacific Reset policy pursued by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kelihiano Kalolo, then ulu of Tokelau, said of Ardern’s visit, “She was also very receptive to revisiting our current Joint Partnership Agreement signed in 2004, with a view to taking the Tokelau-New Zealand relationship to another level. The aim is to provide sustainable benefits [to] Tokelau, its communities, and protecting our unique culture and language” (Government of Tokelau 2019c). He also noted that all visits by sitting prime ministers have been from Labour-led governments.

Shortly following this visit, in November, the New Zealand government announced plans to finance a single airstrip in Tokelau (rnz 2019). The General Fono, in its last sitting before the general elections, agreed to the project and decided that the airstrip would be located on Nukunonu (Government of Tokelau 2019a). These announcements signaled the end of many years of feasibility studies and debate about whether air service could and should be pursued.

In other transportation news, the new waterbus to transport schoolkids from the village of Fale (where many live) to Tai (where the school and more recently established residences have been built) was completed in March 2020, as announced by Ministers Winston Peters and Kris Fa‘afoi (rnz 2020c). Its journey to Tokelau has not yet been made due to Corona-virus Disease 2019 (covid-19) travel restrictions (discussed later in this review). Still, the New Zealand government’s active engagement with Tokelau in discussing its affairs signaled a stronger joint commitment to ensuring that Tokelau is prosperous.

Tokelau continues to be a role model on the global stage in climate change efforts. Shortly after the prime minister’s visit, she, along with the ulu of Tokelau and minister for climate change, attended the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019. Ardern used Tokelau’s climate change story to foreground the importance of global efforts to reduce climate change, which has had an especially severe impact on low-lying atolls such as Tokelau (Government of Tokelau 2019b). In March 2020, the Tokelau government announced the upgrade of its solar energy system, jointly funded by the New Zealand government (rnz 2020b). The previous system was eight years old and had sustained significant wear and tear because of the harsh marine environment. An upgrade of the system aligns with Tokelau’s strategic response to climate change. In other infrastructural developments, Tokelau’s minister of communications announced in December 2019 that the government, jointly with the New Zealand government, would be funding the Southern Cross next sub marine cable, which would enable faster and more reliable Internet access for the people of Tokelau (New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade 2019).

Another important development was the first decision handed down by the Tokelau High Court, which sat in Wellington, New Zealand. The case, Suveinakama v Council for the Ongoing Government of Tokelau (nzhc 1787 [2019]), related to an employment dispute raised by two former employees of the Tokelau Public Service who had been suspended without pay and ultimately dismissed for alleged misconduct involving the purchase of two helicopters and a property in Apia, Sāmoa. The court essentially held that the dismissal of the two former employees was legal but found that the withholding of pay was not. The decision raised important questions about the application of New Zealand employment laws in Tokelau and where the courts of Tokelau should sit for hearing such disputes—matters that fall into the realm of public law. In a previous hearing, the chief justice of New Zealand declined the plaintiffs’ requests to have the matter heard in Tokelau, citing logistical challenges and the fact that neither of the plaintiffs resided there. Justice Peter Churchman’s decision definitively set out the areas of law within which his reasoning stood, the most important being: (1) The High Court of New...