The promises
- No sign yet
A diaspora office inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
No office, appropriation or opening decision found by 19 October 2026.
Cuts both waysRead more
- Promised
- Open an office within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate partnerships with Samoans overseas and their investment ventures in Samoa 1. The manifesto, unveiled in July 2025, gave no budget and no opening date for the office 1.
- What happened
- No opening decision, enabling law or line item has been found. The 2026/27 budget address gave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade SAT$33,924,278 but named no diaspora-office allocation 2. The finance minister framed the 2026/27 budget as an invitation to the diaspora to 'remain connected, to invest in shared progress', with no specific scheme 3. In April 2026 she described a proposed $500 investment share for the diaspora in a five-year aircraft plan still being assessed by task force committees; that is a proposal, not money collected or an office in operation 4.
- Impact on families
- No measured impact published yet. No count of families, partnerships or investments reached by the office exists, because the office has not been shown to exist 2. For context, private remittances rose from SAT$902.77 million in the year to June 2025 to SAT$952.75 million in the year to June 2026, up 5.5%; transfers to individuals, families and households rose from SAT$745.58 million to SAT$788.99 million 5. The Central Bank does not attribute that rise to any policy and gives no per-household figure 5. What would show delivery: a Cabinet decision or budget line opening the office, and a published count of diaspora partnerships it handles.
- Cost
- Not costed. The manifesto and the 2026/27 budget give no figure; the whole Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade got SAT$33,924,278 for 2026/27, about 2.3% of SAT$1,500.6m spending 2.
- Verdict for families
- Cuts both ways
- Can it be done?
- Doable
- Long term
- Too early to tell
- Who gains
- Diaspora investors, and schemes such as the aircraft plan asking them for $500 shares; no family in Samoa has gained yet 4.
- Who pays
- Taxpayers would carry a small staffing cost inside the ministry's SAT$33.9m; so far nobody pays because nothing has opened 2.
- Assessment
- A desk inside an existing ministry is cheap to open, so the promise is doable; the obstacle is that nothing has been done 2. Remittances were SAT$952.75m in 2025/26 and 30.6% of GDP in 2025, which the World Bank calls a critical stabiliser of household spending, so an office that helped diaspora money reach saving and investment at home could matter; no design has been published, so the long-term effect is unclear 56. Its stated purpose is investment ventures, which serves Samoans abroad with capital to invest; ordinary sending families would gain only if it also cut transfer costs, which the IMF put at 9.1% from New Zealand and 8.3% from Australia in June 2024, above the G20 target of 5% 17. Reasoning: as promised, the gain goes to those abroad with money to invest and to the ventures they back, while sending families keep paying transfer fees, so it cuts both ways.
Sources (7)
- FAST Party Manifesto Centres on the Family Unit
- Minister of Finance Hon Mulipola Anarosa Budget Address 2026/2027
- Public to have say on $1.5 billion budget
- Aircraft part of five-year plan: Mulipola
- Visitor Earnings & Remittances Report June 2026
- Pacific Economic Update, May 2026: Pacific Jobs Pathway
- Remittances to Samoa: A Safe Payment Corridor
- No sign yet
More overseas consulates
No new consulate found; the Prime Minister ordered preparations for a Jerusalem embassy in January 2026 with no funding line found.
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- Promised
- Expand Samoa's consulates overseas 1. The election comparison that records the pledge gives no number of new posts, no cost and no deadline 1.
- What happened
- No new consulate attributable to this promise has been found. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's overseas-missions listing shows the existing posts, including consulates-general in Sydney, Auckland and Pago Pago, with no opening dates and no newly opened post 2. On 8 January 2026 the Prime Minister said he had instructed the ministry to prepare to open an office of Samoa in Jerusalem that year; it would be an embassy, not a consulate, and the 2025/26 budget made no mention of funding for it 6. On 10 September 2026 RNZ reported Israel's foreign minister still expected Samoa to open its Jerusalem embassy during 2026, so no opening had been reported by then 7. Samoa Global News reported on 25 August 2026, citing unnamed sources, that the head-of-mission posts in Canberra, Fiji and Japan were vacant and that Cabinet wanted to appoint diaspora members to posts in Canberra and Sydney 8. The 2026/27 budget address identified no consular-expansion appropriation within the ministry's SAT$33,924,278 allocation 3.
- Impact on families
- No measured impact published yet. No new passport or consular service outcome attributable to expansion has been found 2. What would show delivery: a new mission on the ministry's listing, with an opening date and budget line.
- Cost
- Not costed: no number of posts was given. Each post is a permanent running cost against the ministry's SAT$33,924,278 for 2026/27, inside a SAT$1,500.6m budget with a SAT$215.9m cash deficit 3.
- Verdict for families
- Cuts both ways
- Can it be done?
- A stretch
- Long term
- Mixed long term
- Who gains
- Samoans living abroad who need passports or help, including the senders behind SAT$952.75m of remittances a year 5.
- Who pays
- Taxpayers in Samoa, through a permanent addition to a ministry budget of SAT$33.9m, with no figure given 3.
- Assessment
- Samoa already runs high commissions in Wellington and Canberra, embassies in Brussels, Beijing and Tokyo, a mission to the United Nations in New York, consulates-general in Sydney, Auckland and Pago Pago and a student counsellor office in Suva; a new post needs premises, staff and a budget line, none of which has appeared, so delivery within the term is a stretch 23. Consulates serve Samoans abroad with passports, documents and help, and the Electoral Commissioner's preliminary findings put embassy and consular voting first as the primary overseas-voting channel, so more posts would also support that promise 4. Reasoning: the cost is permanent and falls on a budget already in deficit, while the gain goes to citizens abroad rather than households in Samoa, so long term it is mixed and for families it cuts both ways.
Sources (8)
- What the three major parties are promising Samoa
- Overseas Missions - Samoa Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Minister of Finance Hon Mulipola Anarosa Budget Address 2026/2027
- Preliminary findings: Samoa not ready for diaspora voting
- Visitor Earnings & Remittances Report June 2026
- PM instructs to set up embassy in Israel
- 'Easy decision': Naoero becomes third Pacific Islands Forum member with Jerusalem embassy
- Peseta Noumea Simi Steps Down after 47 Years of Service to Samoa
- No sign yet
Negotiate better visas for Samoans
No agreement negotiated by this government found; every visa change in force was decided by New Zealand or Australia, two of them before it took office.
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- Promised
- Negotiate better visa arrangements for Samoans travelling or living abroad 1. The pledge names no country, no visa change, no cost and no deadline 1. An unconditional New Zealand visa waiver was not part of the recorded pledge 1.
- What happened
- No visa agreement negotiated by the FAST government since 16 September 2025 has been found. New Zealand announced on 11 April 2025, before the election, a 12-month trial from November 2025 that lets Pacific Islands Forum passport holders with a valid Australian visitor, work, student or family visa travel to New Zealand from Australia for up to three months on an NZeTA; it is not visa-free entry for all Samoan passport holders 2. On 12 March 2026 New Zealand announced that from 1 June 2026 the visitor-visa fee for Pacific nationals, including Samoans, would drop from NZD$216 to NZD$161 for 12 months, and confirmed the trial for travellers from Australia had started on 3 November 2025; the release presents these as New Zealand's decisions and names no Samoan negotiation 3. Australia announced on 28 July 2025, before the government formed, that Samoa would join the Pacific Engagement Visa in 2025-26 13; Samoa has 150 places for 2026-27, and applicants can include a partner and dependent children 4. The Samoan ballot ran 1 to 29 July 2026, with selection scheduled from 5 August 2026 to 26 February 2027 5. New Zealand's 2026 Samoan Quota draw on 20 May 2026 selected enough registrations for up to 1,100 Samoans to be granted residence, the same scheme as before; those drawn are invited to apply, not granted visas 6.
- Impact on families
- No measured impact published yet, and none of the changes above is attributable to this promise 2313. Places offered, ballot selections and visas granted are different numbers, and no figure for Samoans actually granted visas under the 2026 rounds has been published 56. What would show delivery: a signed arrangement with New Zealand or Australia announced by Samoa's government, and a change in places or visa conditions dated after 16 September 2025.
- Cost
- No cost to Samoa's budget. The decisions and the places, 150 Pacific Engagement Visas and 1,100 Samoan Quota places, belong to Australia and New Zealand 46.
- Verdict for families
- Cuts both ways
- Can it be done?
- A stretch
- Long term
- Mixed long term
- Who gains
- Families with a member abroad: transfers to individuals, families and households rose to SAT$788.99m in 2025/26 8.
- Who pays
- Senders lose 7.34% of every NZD$200 and 7.38% of every AUD$200 to transfer firms, above the G20 target of 5%, and under the rules Cabinet approved in late August 2026 workers pay a SAT$50 registration fee 8910.
- Assessment
- Samoa can ask but cannot decide: every visa change in force was set in Wellington or Canberra, and no change negotiated by this government has appeared, so it is a stretch 2313. More mobility feeds remittances, SAT$952.75m in 2025/26 and 30.6% of GDP in 2025, which the World Bank calls a critical stabiliser of consumption 78. It also cuts the other way: 6,256 Samoans were offshore on seasonal schemes at the end of March 2026 (3,306 on RSE and 2,950 on PALM), 95% of them men and about 8% of residents aged 20 to 49; 47% of surveyed businesses reported staff departures linked to the schemes; and the Prime Minister said too many people were going overseas and that government intended to limit the number sent 101112. Reasoning: families with a member abroad gain, villages losing workers and the women left with the care work pay, and the government itself is pulling the other way, so mixed.
Sources (13)
- What the three major parties are promising Samoa
- Changes to Visitor Visa for Pacific
- Further improvements to Pacific visitor visa settings
- Pacific Engagement Visa | Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Ballot country status
- 2026 Samoan Quota ballot results
- Pacific Economic Update, May 2026: Pacific Jobs Pathway
- Visitor Earnings & Remittances Report June 2026
- Remittances to Samoa: A Safe Payment Corridor
- Samoa's 2026 labour mobility reforms: are they supported by evidence?
- SCCI-MDF Labour Migration Survey Report 2025-2026
- Govt puts a cap on seasonal workers
- Pacific Engagement Visa deepens connections with our region
- No sign yet
Let Samoans overseas vote
Cabinet approved a task force and pilot on 2 September 2026; no law changed and no overseas ballot available.
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- Promised
- Allow eligible Samoans living abroad to vote without returning to Samoa 1. No implementation date or cost was given 1. FAST had made the same promise for 2021, and overseas voters still had to return to Samoa to vote on 29 August 2025 2.
- What happened
- Cabinet approved terms of reference for a task force to oversee an Out-of-Country Voting Pilot Project, announced 31 August to 2 September 2026, to find ways for overseas voters to cast ballots, run the pilot and recommend amendments to the Electoral Act 2019 34. That is a decision to study and pilot, not a law enabling overseas voting, and no dedicated appropriation has been found 3. The Electoral Act 2019, as at 31 December 2024, still says no polling place may be appointed outside Samoa 8. On 8 September 2026 the Electoral Commissioner's preliminary findings, from consultations run with International IDEA, said Samoa was not ready politically, legally or operationally for online voting by the diaspora, that views were mixed with no clear consensus, and that eligibility, registration, voter numbers and voting channels needed clarifying; the findings said embassy and consular voting should be progressed as the primary channel before online voting 5. A 2024 amendment under the previous FAST government let citizens abroad apply online to register but required biometrics to be completed in Samoa and did not allow an overseas ballot 6. The status is stalled under this tracker's rule that reviews and announcements alone do not count as delivery; the government describes the task force as a first formal step and says it does not mean overseas voting is approved for the next election 4.
- Impact on families
- No overseas ballot has been cast under this promise and no family has saved the cost of travelling home to vote 35. No count of eligible overseas voters has been published by the task force 3. What would show delivery: an Electoral Act amendment in force and a published count of overseas votes cast in a pilot or election.
- Cost
- Not costed; no appropriation for the task force or pilot has been found 3. Embassy voting is the channel the Commissioner's advisers put first, ahead of an online system 5.
- Verdict for families
- Good for aiga
- Can it be done?
- A stretch
- Long term
- Too early to tell
- Who gains
- Seasonal workers, scholarship students and mission staff abroad, who the Electoral Commission lists as unable to vote from overseas and would no longer need a return flight to do so 7.
- Who pays
- Taxpayers, for a pilot with no published price; the Commissioner's preliminary findings say online voting needs legal reform, mock elections, limited pilots and security testing first, so a rushed system would cost trust in results 5.
- Assessment
- It needs an Electoral Act amendment, eligibility rules and a voting channel; the Act bars polling places outside Samoa, and the Commissioner's preliminary findings say Samoa is not ready and there is no clear consensus, so delivery within the term is a stretch 58. The 2024 amendment shows FAST can pass electoral law, but it stopped at online registration with biometrics taken in Samoa, and an opposition MP objected that the diaspora could sway Parliament 6. The people shut out are seasonal workers, scholarship students and staff at overseas missions, who the Electoral Commission lists as unable to vote from overseas; the fiscal cost is small and uncosted, and no independent body has assessed the effect, so long term is unclear 27. Reasoning: it spreads a say to working families abroad at little cost, so good for families if it ever arrives.
Sources (8)
- What the three major parties are promising Samoa
- The Absent Voters of the Pacific Islands: Challenges and Prospects for the Enfranchisement of Migrants
- Cabinet initiates process for overseas Samoans to vote in future elections
- Samoa takes first formal step toward overseas voting
- Preliminary findings: Samoa not ready for diaspora voting
- Samoa legislators pass electoral amendments despite concerns
- Samoa Office of the Electoral Commission Corporate Plan 2023-2028
- Electoral Act 2019 (official version as at 31 December 2024)
What FAST did in 2021 to 2025
- 1 November 2021Kept
The 2021/22 budget, delivered 14 September 2021, cut selected fees and charges on specific government services by 20% to assist the country during COVID-19, alongside a 20% cut in electricity and water prices from 1 November 2021 1. Passport fees and charges were on the list of cut items; RSE workers still travelling despite border closures were reported as the first to benefit 13. The address presented these as new policies prioritised 'in line with its manifesto commitments', so this delivered part of FAST's 2021 promise of 20% reductions in specified service charges 1. The government's passport page now lists a standard adult passport at SAT$200 and a standard child passport at SAT$100, with no date for when those fees took effect 2.
Sources (3)
- Budget Address 2021/2022
- Passport – The Government of Samoa
- Public Response to 20% Slash in Government Service Fees
- 2024Not kept
FAST promised overseas voting in 2021 2. The Electoral Amendment Bill 2024, passed on 8 March 2024, let eligible citizens abroad apply online for registration but required biometrics to be completed in Samoa and did not allow a ballot to be cast overseas 1. The Electoral Commissioner confirmed in June 2025 that the bill that would have enabled overseas voting was not passed before Parliament was dissolved on 3 June 2025, so the Electoral Act 2019 stayed in force and votes had to be cast in Samoa 3. Overseas voters still had to return to Samoa to vote on 29 August 2025 2.
Sources (3)
- Samoa legislators pass electoral amendments despite concerns
- The Absent Voters of the Pacific Islands: Challenges and Prospects for the Enfranchisement of Migrants
- July 4 deadline for voters to enrol for Samoa election
- June 2025Unclear
Private remittances reached SAT$902.77 million in the year to June 2025, per the Central Bank's June 2026 report, which gives the previous year for comparison 1. World Bank data cited by the Samoa Chamber put personal remittances at 24.0% of GDP in 2024 2. The average cost of sending NZD$200 to Samoa was 8.62% in June 2025 and AUD$200 was 7.81% 1. These are observed outcomes across many senders, not the result of a FAST promise; no 2021 FAST promise on remittance costs was found 12.
Sources (2)
- Visitor Earnings & Remittances Report June 2026
- SCCI-MDF Labour Migration Survey Report 2025-2026