On 26 August 2015, at Government House, Auckland, the investiture ceremony was held to confer the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit on Latoa. Here is the formal citation:
HALATAU, MR LATOATAMA (LATOA)
For services to the blind and the Pacific community
Mr Latoa Halatau has spent more than 30 years working in the disability support sector, providing support for blind people and Pacific people and extending beyond New Zealand to the Pacific Region in the past 10 years.
Mr Halatau was a social worker for the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind for 20 years. He currently manages Vision Pacific in partnership with his wife, who is also blind. Vision Pacific Charitable Trust is a not-for-profit provider contracted by the Ministry of Health to work with individuals to help them achieve their independent living goals. He is a member of a number of bodies that support the disability sector and is the co-Chair of the National Enabling Good Lives National Leadership Group. In 2003 through Vision Pacific he helped establish the Pacific Disability Forum, which aims to improve the lives of people with disabilities in the Pacific countries and territories. 20 countries to date have received assistance to form National Disabled Peoples Organisations and unite under a regional body. He was elected co-Chair of the Forum in 2011 and in 2012 he was elected Vice Chair of the Asia Pacific Disability Forum. Mr Halatau has delivered presentations at United Nations conventions on issues concerning disabled peoples.
End of Citation