The full story
The Village Fono Amendment Act 2017, in force from 26 January 2017 under HRPP, gave village councils express power to make bylaws, impose curfews, and banish or ostracise, subject to notice, a chance to respond and an appeal to the Land and Titles Court. 134 Neither FAST government has amended those powers. The District Development Act 2026, passed on 12 March 2026, governs district funding, not village councils. 56
Banishment is still used and still contested. In 2023 the Land and Titles Court reinstated a Sasina matai who had been banished in April that year, and the village council said it would appeal. 7 In July 2026 Talamua reported that a broadcaster awaiting a defamation trial had been banned by her village; she denied it and said she would take legal action. 89 No national count of bylaws, banishments or appeals is published. 6
The 2023 Household Income and Expenditure Survey recorded SAT$275.1m a year in household cash transfers, an average of SAT$8,586 per household, and church donations were 47% of that value. 2 The transfer figure also covers gifts to other households, villages and schools, and regular church contributions are counted separately as consumption spending, so it is neither a church-only figure nor the full cost of church life. 2
HRPP's Income Tax Amendment Act 2017 taxed church ministers' income from 2018. 10 FAST promised repeal for the 2021 election, stopped enforcing the tax after taking office, and Parliament repealed it in August 2022. 111220 The 2026/27 budget gives SAT$20,000 to the Samoa Council of Churches. 13
The 2021 census counted 1,444 women among 16,082 resident matai, 8.9%. 1415 The 2017 amendment did not give women seats on village councils. 1 The National Policy on Inclusive Government 2021–31 says 17 villages do not confer titles on women and proposes amending the Village Fono Act to bar sex discrimination against women matai; that proposal has not been enacted. 16
The Samoa Observer described the disputed April 2021 election and the months before power changed hands as dividing families and villages. 17 FAST split in January 2025 and the government's budget was rejected, leading to the 29 August 2025 election and Laʻauli's government on 16 September 2025. 18 No survey measures social cohesion across the three periods. The basic-needs poverty rate was 15.2% in 2023 against 21.9% in 2018, but the Statistics Bureau says method changes limit the comparison, and the figure says nothing about cohesion. 19
No measured impact published yet on what families pay towards church and faʻalavelave after 2023; the next household survey would show it. 2