Dear Editor, here we are trying to survive the worst economic crisis to hit our tourism sector which is basically the country’s GDP producer and we continue to get brutalised by things which we have no control over.

Air New Zealand, who may I remind them only survives due to being owned by the taxpayer of New Zealand and would have been bankrupt years ago, has decided to abandon the two crucially important connections for this country i.e. Sydney direct, Los Angeles or should I say the world direct.

We now, have to go through either Auckland or Tahiti? This is not going to work, it has been fiddled with in the past and after almost 30 years here in the tourism sector we need to get a link twice weekly to the USA – Hawaii is perfect being a link to Alaska, Canada and mainland USA.

Can the Tourism Corporation please outline what they have planned for this issue over the next 12 months other than a trickle through Tahiti?

We have relied far too long on one airline and one country to build our economy.

We had momentum in tourism to the European and North American market pre Covid, unless we can re-establish as a matter of urgency with the vital North American market, it is inevitable that the momentum we had will be lost and may never be restored.

It is interesting to note that the government appears to be devoting a large amount of time and resources snuggling up to the Chinese and paying less attention to our critical air links.

Chinese human rights are appalling, it should offend the morality of every single Cook Islander to be even dealing with this regime.

Chinese projects so far have been disastrous, substandard.

Please educate yourselves about what has happened in Sri Lanka, debt trap diplomacy is very destructive to countries and their future generations.

Surely the focus of this government should be to grow the tourism GDP instead of borrowing money from the Chinese Communist Party who are playing a very long game in the South Pacific.

It is time to wake up people.

Nick Reeves

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Minimum wage and old age pension

The increase in both is just what we need right now. People will have the buying power to spend and probably money to save too. This means what is earned and spent circulates in the country. It is economic sense. I am certain that it will enable our own people to shift into the hospitality industry. Everyone benefits, it an investment in our own people and our loved ones from over the shores.

Let us all be optimistic about it. Tina (Browne’s) announcement will hold no boundaries moving forward and at the same time creating a boundary that we as a nation should not have to go back to.

We are not doing enough for our country and we need to grow our share of the future. That means taking the best from our past and innovating for the future to meet the changing needs of our beautiful people and country. Because right now the world is a scary place, war, geopolitical instability and, therefore, complicating the free flow of the economy of our nation. Meitaki ra.

Ora Paio

(Facebook)