Cabinet approval wasn’t sought before Winston Peters offered for New Zealand to host Pacific Islands Forum

Cabinet approval wasn’t sought before Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters offered New Zealand to host next year’s Pacific Islands Forum.

According to a Treasury document released this week, that made it “difficult to assess the strategic alignment of this initiative” and the “value for money” of allocating Budget money was “not clear”.

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.

Treasury only wanted to give $10m, the inflation-adjusted cost of New Zealand hosting in 2011.

The event was ultimately allocated $20m through Budget 2026, but Treasury documents released this week reveal officials flagged that Cabinet approval hadn’t been sought before New Zealand publicly committed to hosting PIF.

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.

That offer was accepted by the PIF membership at last year’s forum.

A Beehive press release last August said Peters made the offer at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Fiji.

“Cabinet has responsibility for approving funding in order to enable hosting, which was done through the 2026 Budget process,” the spokesperson said.

“The 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.”

NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

In a briefing to Finance Minister Nicola Willis in March, Treasury recommended against the original funding bid, saying “Cabinet approval was not sought before announcement of the hosting arrangement”.

This made it “more difficult to assess the strategic alignment of this initiative”.

“The 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.”

Treasury officials said public commitment to host PIF had created “unavoidable costs”, though it did “consider that it is valuable to host the Forum”.

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.

Later, at the end of March, the Budget bid had fallen to $23m, with MFAT saying the “initiative has been reduced in size, at the request of the Minister of Finance”.

Treasury officials still recommended $10m, noting that Willis had “requested that the figure more closely aligns with the inflation adjusted cost of hosting the Forum in 2011 ($10m)”.

However, officials said Willis could consider another $5m – taking it to $15m – to “reflect that the Forum has increased in scope and importance since 2011”.

“We 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,” the document said, with the rest of the paragraph redacted.

The Budget documents show $20m was ultimately allocated.

After this year’s PIF meeting in Palau, Peters said meeting with leaders had been beneficial as New Zealand prepared for hosting responsibilities.

“I 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.

“As 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.”

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s 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.