Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters did not consult Cabinet before making a commitment to host the Pacific Islands Forum in 2027, according to the Treasury.
Budget 2026 committed $20 million for this year and the next to host the annual PIF summit in New Zealand, with Peters making the offer at a Forum Foreign Ministers meeting in August of last year.
But advice to Finance Minister Nicola Willis in March, which recommended excluding a NZ$30m funding proposal to cover the hosting costs in September 2027, said that The “Cabinet approval was not sought before announcement of the hosting arrangement.”
“The value for money of the bid is not clear.”
A lack of consultation, the Treasury said, made it said made it harder to assess that value.
“New Zealand has publicly committed to hosting the [Pacific Islands] Forum, creating unavoidable costs,” Treasury said.
“We consider that it is valuable to host the Forum, but that there is significant scope to manage down the cost in line with the obligations of hosting.”
In a separate aid memoire, Willis was advised to cut it down to $10m after asking for a funding package adjusted for inflation, more in line with the cost of hosting PIF in 2011.
“The original initiative included components that are either discretionary or could be scaled, including $6.4m for policy work.”
The final amount was agreed on “to reflect that the Forum has increased in scope and importance since 2011.”
Peters’ office told RNZ Pacific that he and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon decided to make an offer “in mid-2025”.
“The Pacific Islands Forum has expanded significantly in scope over the past 15 years,” a statement read.
“It is a much bigger and more complicated event than it was in 2011 when New Zealand last hosted it.”
The prime ministers’ office has been approached for comment.
