ABSTRACT
The intention of this chapter is to look at some perspectives on the Pacific Plan, that being the course on which the governments of the region have said that they are agreed. What changes do the region's leaders intend and how do they hope to bring them about? At the Pacific Islands Forum Special Leaders' Retreat held in Auckland on 6 April 2004 the Leaders adopted The Auckland Declaration and a series of Leaders' Decisions regarding the region's future. There was a great deal of discussion and debate reported, about the bilateral relationship and its future but there was nothing at all reported about the relevance of the proposed Pacific Plan or the forum's Auckland Declaration. Many observers recognise that the issue of the free movement of peoples within the region will be one of the most sensitive and difficult of all the challenges needing to be overcome if significantly increased political and economic cooperation, including integration, to be achieved.
