![\"NZ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HKDZ3G2GS5FM7BC572CGXKPKOU.jpg\")
NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Cabinet approval wasn\u2019t sought before Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters offered New Zealand to host next year\u2019s Pacific Islands Forum.<\/p>\n
According to a Treasury document released this week, that made it \u201cdifficult to assess the strategic alignment of this initiative\u201d and the \u201cvalue for money\u201d of allocating Budget money was \u201cnot clear\u201d.<\/p>\n
The original Budget bid was for $30 million to cover the organisation and hosting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in 2027; an event expected to bring together about 1500 delegates from the region and beyond, including 17 Pacific leaders.<\/p>\n
Treasury only wanted to give $10m, the inflation-adjusted cost of New Zealand hosting in 2011.<\/p>\n
The event was ultimately allocated $20m through Budget 2026, but Treasury documents released this week reveal officials flagged that Cabinet approval hadn\u2019t been sought before New Zealand publicly committed to hosting PIF.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the Herald, a spokesperson for Peters said the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister made the decision to offer to host the 2027 PIF in mid-2025.<\/p>\n
That offer was accepted by the PIF membership at last year\u2019s forum.<\/p>\n
A Beehive press release last August said Peters made the offer at a foreign ministers\u2019 meeting in Fiji.<\/p>\n
\u201cCabinet has responsibility for approving funding in order to enable hosting, which was done through the 2026 Budget process,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pacific Islands Forum has expanded significantly in scope over the past 15 years. It is a much bigger and more complicated event than it was in 2011 when New Zealand last hosted it.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
In a briefing to Finance Minister Nicola Willis in March, Treasury recommended against the original funding bid, saying \u201cCabinet approval was not sought before announcement of the hosting arrangement\u201d.<\/p>\n
This made it \u201cmore difficult to assess the strategic alignment of this initiative\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe value for money of the bid is not clear, and we consider that there is significant scope to manage down the cost in line with the obligations of hosting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treasury officials said public commitment to host PIF had created \u201cunavoidable costs\u201d, though it did \u201cconsider that it is valuable to host the Forum\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was recommended that if Willis wished to fund the initiative, she provide $10m, described as the inflation-adjusted cost of New Zealand hosting in 2011.<\/p>\n
Later, at the end of March, the Budget bid had fallen to $23m, with MFAT saying the \u201cinitiative has been reduced in size, at the request of the Minister of Finance\u201d.<\/p>\n
Treasury officials still recommended $10m, noting that Willis had \u201crequested that the figure more closely aligns with the inflation adjusted cost of hosting the Forum in 2011 ($10m)\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, officials said Willis could consider another $5m \u2013 taking it to $15m \u2013 to \u201creflect that the Forum has increased in scope and importance since 2011\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not recommend the requested $23m, noting that the original initiative included components that are either discretionary or could be scaled, including $6.4m for policy work,\u201d the document said, with the rest of the paragraph redacted.<\/p>\n
The Budget documents show $20m was ultimately allocated.<\/p>\n
After this year\u2019s PIF meeting in Palau, Peters said meeting with leaders had been beneficial as New Zealand prepared for hosting responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been listening intently throughout the discussions. We are committed to ensuring the 2027 Leaders Meeting and our Troika membership delivers concrete benefits to our region.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we take on this responsibility, we are showing that New Zealand steps up when it matters, working with Pacific partners to tackle shared challenges and build a stronger, more secure Pacific region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cabinet approval wasn\u2019t sought before Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters offered New Zealand to host next year\u2019s Pacific…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69,294176,135,131078],"class_list":["post-596788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pacificislandsforum","tag-politics","tag-winstonpeters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}