Paul Goldsmith said he was “surprised” to learn last month that he would be the new Minister for Pacific Peoples.
The veteran MP assumed the role in an early April Cabinet reshuffle from Dr Shane Reti, who has announced his retirement.
A multi-faceted portfolio, the Minister governs the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP), and advises ministers on the impacts that their actions have on Pasifika.
Goldsmith said he was committed to engaging with Pasifika communities directly.
“One of the things I enjoy about politics is … your work takes you into groups of New Zealanders that you wouldn’t, in your ordinary life, have a deep engagement with,” he said.
“That’s endlessly stimulating, and a huge privilege.”
Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
A rising tide lifts all boats
The Minister entered at a time when Pasifika unemployment stands at 12 percent, while nearly a fifth of Pasifika children are estimated to be living in poverty.
Meanwhile, there were 5000 more Pacific crime victims in October 2025 compared to October 2023, despite a 37 percent drop for the whole population. The year 2025 also saw a record number of Pasifika incarcerated for acts intended to cause injury.
Goldsmith does not see any point in targeting Pasifika when it comes to policy and decision making. Rather, his vision is that Pasifika people ultimately benefit just like any other ethnic group from the government’s broad improvements to the economy and cost of living.
Where Pasifika disproportionately suffer, Goldsmith said there was also space for them to disproportionately benefit.
“Pacific people are more likely to be victims of crime, and so they’re more likely to benefit from this overall approach, which is to reduce the number of victims of crime,” he said.
“In most instances, they’ve got the most to gain from us actually making progress on a stronger economy, safer communities, a better education system that works, a health system that works effectively.”
Goldsmith pointed to greater rate of immunity among Pasifika, which HealthNZ noted in December had jumped by 9.8 percent over last year.
“I’m not one of the ones who says our solution for Pacific people is to have this little thing out to the side that we focus on. It’s integral to everything we do in government.”
Is the Pacific Ministry redundant?
Goldsmith reiterated that the government will not consider scrapping his Ministry for the remainder of the term.
Rather, he saw it as a “centre of expertise” that should be “helping the rest of government deal with those with this community as effectively as possible.”
“If you have a proposal in the government… my expectation is that as part of the discussions that lead to a government policy, the ministry will be very much engaged, having something useful to add to that discussion,” he said.
Asked whether a memo from MPP would be taken seriously by Ministers amongst piles of other papers on their desk, Goldsmith said he would make MPP “as respected and strong as it can be.”
The future of MPP has been widely scrutinised after Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche, in August, refused to rule out absorbing it into a larger department.
Though there has been no serious proposal by any coalition party, ACT has previously advocated for abolishing all “demographic-based ministries.” ACT leader David Seymour quipped in 2023 about blowing it up.
Business-backed think tank the New Zealand Initiative proposed a state-wide shake up in an August research paper, positing a “Ministry for Communities” that would combine MPP with the Ministries for Ethnic Communities and Women.
Chairman Roger Partridge, co-author of the report and an ACT Party donor in 2023, said at the time he believed a merger of population-based ministries would not compromise their function.
“What you’d hope to see is divisions within the Ministry, dealing with specific needs of particular communities, and some common features – policy expertise and back-office functions,” Partridge told a public forum.
“That’s not too different from many other organisations where there are specific functions within one organisation.”
As for Goldsmith, he said he cared less about where a base of Pacific expertise sat in the system, so long as it existed.
“Exactly where it sits is something that you can debate and discuss, but it definitely needs to be there.”
Pasifika post-BSA
Goldsmith is also the Minister for Media and Communications.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA), which Goldsmith has previously said he is “leaning towards” scrapping altogether, includes protections for rhetoric against marginalised communities.
Former BSA board member Pulotu Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i told PMN last week that could leave Pasifika communities without protection.
“It’s not enough to say, ‘we just don’t have to listen to it’, because the mainstream or the majority of people are listening to those harmful representations of us,” she said.
“So having somewhere independent to raise concerns is important for the Pacific community and for all of us.”
Goldsmith admitted there would be “a difficulty” in maintaining protections for Pasifika in a post-BSA media landscape.
“We just don’t have the capability to monitor every Facebook post that somebody sticks up.
“But there’s no particular logic why this discussion that we’re having should be covered by a Standards Authority, but if we were having this discussion on a podcast, it wouldn’t be.”
