The promises
- No sign yet
Return unused government land to communities
10,000 acres of STEC land moved between government bodies in 2026; nothing verified as returned to villages or families by 20 October 2026.
Good for aigaRead more
- Promised
- Return unused land held by government to the communities it came from, including land claimed by the Faleata district. The Faleata 1 MP said on 22 October 2025 that returning such lands is in FAST's 2021 and 2025 manifestos. No acreage, SAT$ amount or deadline was published 1. A separate election report credits a pledge of land restitution to villages to the Sāmoa United Party; the two should not be confused 2.
- What happened
- Cabinet reallocated 10,000 acres of former Samoa Trust Estates Corporation (STEC) land: 7,000 acres at Faleolo to the Ministry of Lands and Survey and 3,000 acres to the Samoa Export Authority for agricultural business, with STEC's Vaitele headquarters also going to the Authority; the release values the land and assets moved at about $45.7 million 3. The release was posted on 10 July 2026 but carries a 10 January 2026 dateline and says transition work finished in June, so the exact date is unclear 3. The Law Reform Commission's November 2025 report had already listed STEC as under structural realignment, with its functions moving to the Ministry of Lands and Survey under a Cabinet directive 7. This is a transfer within government. No transfer, survey or Cabinet decision returning land to customary owners, villages or the Faleata claimants had been reported by 20 October 2026 31.
- Impact on families
- No measured impact published yet. The government release gives no count of families receiving land, hectares returned to customary tenure, jobs created or household income gained; its export and employment benefits are stated aims 3. A Cabinet decision or land-registry change naming the parcels returned, to whom and when, would show delivery 1.
- Cost
- Not costed. The only figure is the government's own valuation of the 10,000 acres of STEC land and assets it moved within government in 2026, about $45.7 million in the release, which gives no currency 3; that is about 4% of FY2025/26 government revenue of SAT$1,056.4 million 4. No figure exists for what returning land would forgo.
- Verdict for families
- Good for aiga
- Can it be done?
- A stretch
- Long term
- Mixed long term
- Who gains
- Faleata claimant families and other villages whose land became STEC estate would gain land to live on and farm; the 10,000 acres Cabinet moved in 2026, valued at about $45.7 million, shows the scale of land available, though none of it has gone to them 31.
- Who pays
- So far the state keeps the asset: the Ministry of Lands and Survey and the Samoa Export Authority got the land, so communities wait while a government agency and whatever businesses it contracts get the use of it; if land is returned, the budget forgoes an asset and the export-farm plan loses ground 3.
- Assessment
- Government holds the land, and STEC may not dispose of it except by lease unless Cabinet approves, so Cabinet can reassign it by decision, as the 2026 move shows 63. But no list of parcels, claimants or process for passing public land into customary ownership has been published, and what Cabinet actually did kept all 10,000 acres with state bodies, with 3,000 acres earmarked for export farming, so delivery within the term is a stretch 31. Returning land to the villages it came from spreads a public asset to ordinary families rather than to a state agency or private operators, which is why the promise lands well; the one-off cost to government is small against revenue 34. Over the longer term the picture is mixed: customary land cannot be sold or mortgaged under Article 102, so families cannot borrow against it, and the government forgoes the export-farm use; this is our reasoning, as no independent body has assessed the pledge 53.
Sources (7)
- Faleata 1 MP supports plans for a new hospital at Tuanaimato
- Gearing up for the 2025 Samoan general election
- 10,000 Acres of STEC Land Reallocated to Ministry of Lands and Samoa Export Authority
- Government Finance Statistics, June 2026 Quarter
- Samoa's Constitution of 1962 with Amendments through 2025
- Samoa Trust Estates Corporation Act 1977
- Review of the Fabric of Laws No. 2: Final Report 28/25
What FAST did in 2021 to 2025
- August 2022Kept
FAST's 2020 platform and its 2021 campaign promised to end the income tax on church ministers 21. The government stopped enforcing the tax after taking office in 2021 3. The Income Tax Amendment Bill 2021 was tabled on 14 December 2021 5, went to a parliamentary committee in February 2022 6, and Parliament enacted it in August 2022 3. The Income Tax Amendment Act 2022 repealed the ministers' tax provisions and exempted a minister's congregational contributions, backdated to 12 November 2021 4. The Revenue minister said in February 2022 that SAT$476,000 had been collected in the four years since 2018; no figure for tax forgone since the repeal has been published 6.
Sources (6)
- Samoa govt keen to repeal controversial law taxing church ministers
- FAST – A Political Party of National Unity
- 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Samoa
- Income Tax Act 2012
- Speaker swears in seven new Members of Parliament
- HRPP MPs Support Removal of Church Minister's Tax
- January 2023Unclear
FAST's 2020 platform said it would review the three 2020 court Bills, and in January 2021 its leaders vowed to revisit and challenge them 78; the Samoa Observer's editorial board wrote that the party campaigned against the laws before the 2021 election 1. In government the Ministry of Justice halted work on the Land and Titles Acts on 17 January 2022 until drafting anomalies were resolved 5, and all Land and Titles Court cases were suspended on 18 February 2022, with at least four versions of the Act in circulation 4. A Supreme Court judgment later recorded that cases set for February and March 2022 were adjourned because the Ministry withdrew support staff, and that the court had ordered the Ministry to resume that support 6. Parliament amended rather than repealed: the Land and Titles Amendment Act 2022, backdated to 15 March 2021, inserted Part 5A and changed how judges are appointed, and the 2020 Act was re-assented on 14 October 2022 3. In January 2023 the justice minister said the government would fix gaps by amendment, not repeal 1. Parliament also lists a Land and Titles Amendment Act 2025; the 2020 Act remains in force as amended 23. The verified promise wording is review and challenge, not repeal, so no term-end measure applies.
Sources (8)
- The L.T.C. Acts: Did the F.A.S.T. Government betray its voters?
- Bills, Acts and Regulations
- Land and Titles Act 2020
- Land & Titles Court cases suspended indefinitely
- Justice Ministry halts all work connected to L.T.C. Acts
- Ropati v Attorney General (CP103/22), Supreme Court of Samoa
- FAST – A Political Party of National Unity
- Making history: Fiame Naomi Mata'afa
- 7 April 2025Unclear
The Constitution Amendment Act 2025, assented on 28 February 2025 and commenced on 7 April 2025, reworked the Land and Titles Courts: it removed the Article 4 exclusion of judicial review arising from Land and Titles proceedings, kept the separate Land and Titles First Court, High Court and Court of Appeal, and put one or more Supreme Court judges on the Court of Appeal 13. Parliament passed it 36 votes to 16 on 26 February 2025 2. HRPP challenged the Speaker's vote; the Supreme Court dismissed the challenge on 9 May 2025 3. The Justice Ministry began implementing the changes in May 2025, with about 100 appeals filed since 2021 waiting for a working appeal court 4. The Court of Appeal gave its first decision in the week before 5 October 2026, quashing a First Court ruling the High Court had upheld 5. This was a reform of the 2020 laws, not a repeal.
Sources (5)
- Constitution Amendment Act 2025 (2025, No. 1)
- Parliament passes Constitutional Amendment by 36-16 votes
- Supreme Court upholds Speakers right to vote on Constitutional Amendment
- Ministry of Justice implements 2025 Constitutional Amendments
- The Lands & Titles Court is of Fundamental Importance to Samoa – Tuilaepa
- 2021 to 2025Unclear
The Samoa Observer reported in November 2021 that FAST's manifesto had highlighted reviewing land legislation, including the Land Titles Registration Act 2008 1. Article 102 of the Constitution bars sale or mortgage of customary land but lets an Act authorise leases or licences of it 2. The 2008 Act sets up a register of title and ownership of interests in land by registration; a 2019 amendment removed customary land from it, and the ministry said customary leases and licences are now registered under the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965 instead 36. The only later change listed is the Land Titles Registration Amendment Act 2021, which commenced on 3 March 2021, before FAST took office 34. The Samoa Solidarity International Group told the UN in March 2021 that leases made between matai and outsiders without villagers' knowledge could keep customary owners off their land for longer than a lifetime; this is an allegation, not a measured count 51.
Sources (6)
- S.S.I.G. takes customary land fight to UN
- Samoa's Constitution of 1962 with Amendments through 2025
- Land Titles Registration Act 2008
- Bills, Acts and Regulations
- Submissions to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Samoa
- Amendments of Samoa land lease laws clear uncertainty