{"id":602340,"date":"2026-09-16T17:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602340\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:16:20","slug":"sir-michael-jones-sought-funding-for-moana-pasifika-in-letter-to-winston-peters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602340\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Michael Jones sought funding for Moana Pasifika in letter to Winston Peters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYour officials have already received the business plan and the economic impact assessments for Tonga and Samoa. I am available at any time to answer any questions you may have,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 letter was sent in early June.<\/p>\n

\"SirSir Michael Jones said it was lovely to catch up with Peters in Samoa, and thanked him for the opportunity to speak about Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n

In late June, less than two weeks after a briefing was sent to Government ministers on \u201cresurrecting\u201d the team, NZR confirmed it would not approve transferring Moana Pasifika\u2019s licence to a new party.<\/p>\n

Peters wrote back in July.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Minister\u2019s response acknowledged the Moana Pasifika Steering Committee\u2019s proposal to establish a new ownership structure for the rugby franchise, and thanked Jones for \u201cefforts to find a positive outcome for Moana Pasifika\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise that rugby fosters important connections between New Zealand and Pacific Island countries, particularly in Samoa and Tonga,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike you, we were seriously disappointed that no solution was able to be reached to enable Moana Pasifika to participate in Super Rugby Pacific next season,\u201d the Foreign Minister added.<\/p>\n

Peters finished his response stating his view there is a \u201cstrong case\u201d for a sustainable, commercially sound, Pacific-based Super Rugby franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is conveying to New Zealand Rugby the Government\u2019s interest in seeing the Moana Pasifika franchise continue in future years on those terms. Should a commercially sound proposition emerge in the future, the Government may consider whether limited support could be made available, should it be required,\u201d Peters added.<\/p>\n

\"WinstonWinston Peters responded saying he was “seriously disappointed” no solution could keep Moana Pasifika in the Super Rugby Pacific season.<\/p>\n

Winston Peters has previously not ruled out looking at a potential lifeline for the team<\/a>, but has said it would be dependent on Super Rugby entertaining such a possibility. When asked for an update on where he stands on this issue, Peters said there wasn\u2019t one.<\/p>\n

NZR chief financial officer Chris Kinraid has previously said \u201cthe door remains open beyond 2027<\/a>\u2033 including potentially for a team based in the Pacific Islands.<\/p>\n

Jones was unable to comment further on the story, when approached by Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n

Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYour officials have already received the business plan and the economic impact assessments for Tonga and Samoa. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4496,19342,2082,4756,738,3273,16773,12065,78,2176,40571,5494,6722,41654,111,139,69,31445,6729,137608,6327,24352,8485,13911,213,7187,61,6728,30812],"class_list":["post-602340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-attempt","tag-discussed","tag-for","tag-foreign","tag-funding","tag-future","tag-great","tag-immediate","tag-in","tag-jones","tag-letter","tag-michael","tag-minister","tag-moana","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pasifika","tag-peters","tag-priority","tag-rugby","tag-secure","tag-sir","tag-sought","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-to","tag-winston","tag-wrote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602340","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=602340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}