Vase Pasefika. It unites us all. I've lived in Samoa since I was a young girl. The Pacific Union claims to be a union of the Pasefika, of all the people of the islands, but it isn't.

Establishment palagi politicians have spent their time in Australia or New Zealand. They speak to other palagi about how so good the Pacific Union will be. They're trying to explain the benefits of a Pacific Union to peoples that do not need it. Ethnically, both the Indigenous people of Australia and the predominantly white population have nothing in common with us. Down in Aotearoa, where there is a larger minority of ethnic Maori and, which is, after all, part of Polynesia, they do have more of a claim to be in our union, but still, ethnically, they are majority white.

Politicians are not spending time speaking about who the Pacific Union will effect, and that is the people of Apia, it is the people of Upolu, of Savai'i, it is the nations which are economically poorer, which are Polynesian, and who desperately need what the Pacific Union aims to provide- brotherhood and unity.

Tautua Samoa, a party which I support and have dedicated much of my political career to, has worked with like minded political parties in the Pacific Union to contest under a joint banner, the Pacific Grouping. We will fight for Christian values and for us brother nations in the Pacific Union to work towards economic prosperity.

This is why I am humbly asking for your vote. Some of you, I know very well. I'm from here, from our community. Some of you are my family, some of you are my friends. And Pacific brotherhood and close communities is what this union will be all about.

On our logo, we have a va'a. Some palagi in Australia and Aotearoa will not understand what it means. But it represents our movement- a broad va'a for all Pasefika to get on board. United we shall stand, and united we will rise, as there is less dividing us, the islands of the Pacific, than we have in common.

Thank you."