Te Kura O Te Au releases policy details

Simmering Below the Surface
At a recent Te Kura O Te Au Rarotonga branch meeting several problems were highlighted:
1. An observation that simmering below the surface in the paradise of the Cook Islands is much anguish. Anguish that crippling interest rates are forcing Cook Islanders off island. Many were effectively being stripped of their dignity especially when they lost their jobs. And with banks moving to take possession of homes often on Cook Islander’s ancestral lands, it is a dire situation. Some of these homes were built with many personal and family sacrifices over several years. In addition to the job and home losses, there is general resentment that business houses are replacing departing Cook Islanders with immigrant workers. There is anger that Demo, CIP, or CIP/Demo coalition governments (past and present) allowed this situation to happen. Some in the meeting warned of potential racial tension and unrest in the not too distant future if this situation was not remedied!
2. Cook Islanders cannot survive the private sector driven cash economy that has evolved in the Cook Islands, where a very select few get richer and wield power over governments and the middle income and poor gets poorer and leave their homeland to look for opportunities elsewhere.
3. Government economic policies and ineffective advice from private sector advisors has failed Cook Islanders. And the current spate of some politicians making spectacles of themselves: does not help when the economy is teetering on deficit and “recession”.
4. Fundamental to economic recovery is more consumers and tax payers, in other words repopulation, to some 20,000 including tourists. So the country will need the current population to remain and offshore Cook Islanders to return home. There are no current and genuine policies to encourage Cook Islanders to stay home and those overseas to return home. If anything, pursued policies are essentially having the opposite effect.
5. The outer islands in particular need repopulating. As the infrastructure of Rarotonga cannot cope with expansion at this time, inter island trade can occur and domestic economy can expand.
Economic Rescue and Expansion Policy
Te Kura O Te Au believe that the economy can be rescued by sovereign intervention and expansion of private sector activities, which smart governments around the world are unashamedly doing to rescue their economies. We in the bubble of the Cook Islands appear to be fearful of doing it, preferring instead to rely on handouts from New Zealand Aid.
One way forward is to reinvigorate the economy and shift emphasis from the current unsustainable “cash” economy carried by Rarotonga and Aitutaki tourism to what Kura O Te Au calls “sovereign partnership” economy. It will involve all islands, thus expanding the domestic economy.
Implementation is as follows;
1. Government seriously considers intervention where appropriate, in key infrastructure operations. These include fuel supply which may involve aggressive development of alternative energy sources, inter island air service assistance and inter island shipping support. It forges passive sovereign ownership in partnership with private sector operators, possibly using the established Telecom model. Telecom model involves 60% ownership by Telecom for bringing the skill required to the table and 40% ownership by government to “sit back and collect profit to service national debt.”
2. Government develops hotels on outer islands in partnership with private sector operators to kick start their economy and allow their people to return home, again using the established Telecom model of 60/40% ownership by operators and government respectively, thus expanding the domestic economy and viability of key infrastructure investments.
Funding; Government can access soft funding that private sector operators can’t and inject cash for its share to give key asset operators a “hand up”, who generally have the talent to make profit for government but in general struggle to service debt under the current regime of crippling interest rates.
Finance Sector Regulation
Kura O Te Au leadership believe the finance sector has to be regulated to deliver affordable interest rates and stimulate the economy, as interest rates twice that of New Zealand disadvantages Cook Islanders while the country employs New Zealand’s currency. A Te Kura O Te Au governance approach will aggressively seek creative and effective alternatives. It may require intervention in the finance sector as follows;
1. Government, carefully evaluate and where warranted, buy toxic debts from banks to improve their balance sheets. As a result banks can raise cheaper money and offer affordable interest to stimulate the economy, which is nothing new as President Obama did it to save the US finance sector.
2. Toxic debts to be acquired from banks in the first instance will be those which threaten the loss of ancestral land and homes of Cook Islanders via bank mortgagee sales. Creative ways will be developed to offer the return of these properties to the original owners without government losing their capital investment.
Points of Difference between KOA, CIP and Demo
In a recent community based Te Kura O Te Au gathering, it was generally accepted that Te Kura O Te Au Movement (KOA) supporters share some quality of life improvement policy visions of both the Demo and CIP parties. However there were nevertheless some distinct and important points of difference between the three groups. These being;
1. Candidate Selection: Te Kura O Te Au supporters have watched as CIP or Demo disputes on candidacy for the upcoming election rage between central committee and the electorates and resolved that electorates know best who should represent them. So a central committee ought to stay out of candidate selection. However, a central organization’s role is critical in identifying, a universal criteria for selection. A criteria which must be in line with the law of the nation. Yet ability and capacity to serve based and not age discriminatory or length of residency based. This would ensure that candidate selections are based on informed electorate decisions that are more reflective of quality type candidates who will be more effective national policy makers.
2. Candidate Conduct: Te Kura O Te Au has watched as some politicians make spectacles of themselves often suffering some media assassination fallout. In such instances there is usually little or no consideration of the shame and hurt inflicted on families. Te Kura O Te Au therefore expects that any political candidate that it supports will refrain from personal attacks, and may comment only on policy issues. To establish a better platform for civility and respect, KOA will rely on the existing court system to deal with any perceived damages inflicted on its own candidates and families.
3. Public Sector: Te Kura O Te Au movement has noted as incoming cabinet ministers replace staff government workers with their own supporters to buy loyalty. Their actions disrupt administration and often add unnecessary cost to the nation by such short sighted actions. Te Kura O Te Au considers that the Public Service must be better empowered to stop such practices.
4. Private Sector: Te Kura O Te Au will seek government intervention in the private sector and forge sovereign partnerships with private sector operators to rescue and expand the nation’s economy. An approach which other political parties appear reluctant to do after years of indoctrination by some private sector interests that government should stay out of private enterprise.
5. Finance Sector: Te Kura O Te Au will seek government intervention and regulation of the finance sector to deliver affordable interest rates and stimulate the economy. Another critical action which other political parties appear reluctant to do after years of indoctrination by finance sector interests that the sector should remain deregulated.
6. Sovereign Funding: Te Kura O Te Au will support government borrowing from whomever gives soft funding, an decrease reliance on New Zealand Aid as practiced by the other parties. Their approach is a recipe for delays to recovery, as New Zealand too has its own financial problems.
7. House of Ariki: Te Kura O Te Au will seek to elevate the status of the House of Ariki to that of the House of Lords in England and correct the declaration of allegiance to the Queen of England to reflect an allegiance of consent rather than allegiance of conquest, as the Cook Islands was never conquered by the British.
8. Sunday Flights: Te Kura O Te Au will seek to immediately suspend all Sunday flights to Aitutaki and after a cooling off period of at least 24 months, conduct a referendum with the people of Aitutaki regarding Sunday flights. Such a basic democratic right was never offered to the people of Aitutaki. If it is indeed the desire of the people of Aitutaki, Te Kura O Te Au will make permanent the suspension, and eliminate Sunday flights to Aitutaki, save for emergency flights. At this juncture, Te Kura O Te Au views Sunday flights as unnecessary and against the average Aitutaki people’s wishes. It is also a simple observation that most flights to Aitutaki carry day trippers. And if instead they stayed overnight in Aitutaki covering the cancelled Sunday flight period, those visitors would contribute much more to the economy of the island.
9. Minimum Wages: Te Kura O Te Au will seek to increase minimum wages to match that of New Zealand to arrest the current depopulation that threatens the demise of Cook Islanders, so that Cook Islanders can return home and repopulate the land willed to them by their ancestors.
Te Kura O Te Au recognizes that some of the current economic failures in the country, as the phenomenon of private sector driven economies failing, is worldwide and not unique to the Cook Islands. But former CIP, Demo or their coalition governments nevertheless directly deteriorated the situation with poor decisions, lack of effective futures oriented policies and self serving activities that further burdened taxpayers. Te Kura O Te Au wants to quickly rescue and rebuild the economy and nation and will objectively seek the cooperation of all parties: political, economic, social, cultural, internal or external.
Te Kura O Te Au regards foreigners who invested in developing the nation’s economy and gained permanent residency for their efforts as potential valuable partners, and will actively seek their support in rescuing the economy and nation.
Te Kura O Te Au welcomes legally recruited immigrant workers who are not displacing Cook Islanders. Te Kura O Te Au wants to ensure that while they are in this island nation, they are fairly treated in accordance to all international treaty labor practices to which the Cook Islands is a signatory to.
- Te Kura O Te Au Party Media Release

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