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HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 429 : 15 October 2008

A motion of confidence in the future

The population of our Sister Islands is dwindling at an alarming rate. The nation is bleeding and losing the bloodline of our future – our people, our most important resource – to distant places in the world. In the meantime we standby watch it all happen before our very own eyes, wring our hands and wonder why this is happening!!
In the meantime government is more concerned abut the creeping rot within the Democratic Party, the ineffective leadership of Cabinet, the drifting economy and to smokescreen all this the proposed axing of the CIP seat on Mangaia as if that would solve a smidgen of the many and variegated problems of the country!!
Any one of you could come up with a reason or two as to why our people are leaving their homeland. I could come up with a few as well. However, because government has not taken the issue seriously for the last six years and has not commissioned a professionally conducted survey we are all left pretty much guessing why our people are leaving and whether or not they are leaving for good.
Some tell us they are leaving because they want to acquire better education opportunities for their children. I am always sceptical of such a reason unless the children are seeking tertiary education but, even then, there is proof galore that one can obtain a degree without leaving the island and thirty five of our own young men and women are about to shortly prove that with their MBA degrees.
Some say they are leaving in order to qualify for the welfare benefits of NZ or Australia particularly the old age pension all of which are superior to anything we have.
Some say they do not want to leave but they can no longer make ends meet. Electricity is about ten times more than in NZ and fuels nearly twice as much. The prices of basic commodities have gone up and for all of our Sister Islands the cost of living is absolutely brutal. The pay is low or non-existent and the private sector is fundamental and limited. Job opportunities are rare and up to 90% of the population of almost all of the islands are dependent upon welfare benefits.
In such a situation a man of pride and leadership qualities would refit the vaka purua, load it with appropriate ocean travelling food, gather his family and tribe and leave in search of a new land. That is precisely what they did in days of old. That is precisely what is happening now except the vaka purua is Air New Zealand and Pacific Blue who are doing their very best to empty this nation of its people.
A wise government would immediately stop thinking of its political survival at the expense of the economic growth and well being of the people of this country especially that of our brothers and sisters on the Outer Islands whose sad plight demands urgent attention. Government should immediately arrange a meeting of the Mayors and Island Secretaries to extract from them what they see as the priorities for the path forward. This should then be followed by an economic summit comprising the major players in the interconnected economics of the Outer lands in order to evaluate the “path forward” determined by the Mayors and the Island Secretaries and then determine the most businesslike and practical way of implementing a staged programme of action to resuscitate the economies of our Sister Islands.
It is my view that a major problem which, being psychological, may well prove to be the most difficult to resolve is the loss of pride, the loss of self-respect and dignity of those who are supposed to be the bread winners of the family but are not providing! In our culture, which in several respects is much more alive in the outer islands than in Rarotonga, a man is required to provide for the family. Nothing breaks a man more than being unable to put food on the table on a daily basis. I believe that this is what is happening to our brothers in the outer islands – broken with nowhere to turn to except New Zealand or Australia.
Towards some resolution of this, the proposed economic summit together with government should look at all the ways of encouraging the development of local entrepreneurs throughout the whole nation with specific emphasis on the plight of outer islanders. DITB has chosen well to lend support for local producers. It should also lend its resources to the development of small businesses in the outer islands with incentives specifically attuned towards that direction.
There should be less hesitation in utilising to a greater extent the Outer Islands Grant Fund established by the CIP government specifically to promote entrepreneurial development in the outer islands. There should be no hesitation on the part of anyone to support import substitution of a wide range of products and if this calls for supportive incentives so be it.
There will always be a place for foreign investment in our country. That is undeniable. However, it is high time we spent more attention on our own who want to start out, have just started out or are struggling to keep the bottom line in black. If it is protection against imported products that they need give it. If it is tax breaks they need give it. Let’s move a motion of confidence in them now. They will be the movers and the shakers of tomorrow. They will make a difference. They will restore the dignity of our people, as well as their self respect and pride in themselves.
Let’s move a motion of confidence in them and let’s vote for them with action, not talk.

Herald Issue 429 15 October
- Report hints of worse to come
- Impartiality of Queen’s Representative Questioned
- Climate change - No longer just a theory
- Crimminal case of the century begins
-The case for the prosecution
- Workshop shows depth of creativity