Kia Orana kotou katoatoa i teia mataiti ou, As the Leader of the Opposition I would like to share a few thoughts with you all.

If there has ever been a time as a country when we desperately needed transparent and accountable leadership it is now. Leadership that listens, leadership that knows what is happening in the villages and homes of our country and leadership that struggles not with values like empathy, and care.

Yes, we need to know that our leaders feel what we are feeling and that care beyond their privilege and entitlements. Leaders that understand the value of wellbeing and see that it lives well beyond a person’s cheque book and is measured more by their connection and sense of purpose, alongside a wage that is fit for purpose and can provide more than just their basic needs. And yes, I believe it is a government’s responsibility to provide all that is necessary for the wellbeing of its people.

Yes, we needed to close our borders to protect our people, but like the tide that leaves the reef, it exposed what lay below all these years and the small cohort of business interests that benefited greatly from our single minded economic focus rather than diversify our economy. A diversity if in place that would have ensured us that when a global disaster happened, which we knew it would, the Cook Islands would stand on solid ground.

This next twelve months will be as challenging as the last two years have been as we open our borders, and tourists flood back in again. When Covid-19 hits our shores, we will understand better the work done by Government and Te Marae Ora to prepare our people.

I know the strength and resilience of our people is strong and willing as it has always been and together we can navigate and get through this year.

Let us therefore not have to make the mistakes of the past but instead learn from them so the generation behind us inherits good fortune and not a country broken by debt and where our people are forced to leave.

Our people are our greatest asset and resource and it is time they became our first and singular priority. Our people are our nation, our people are the Cook Islands.

Kia manuia,

Leader of the Opposition Tina Browne.