Dear Editor, the Prime Minister and his officials have got it wrong, there will never be a post Covid pandemic.

Living with Covid is the new reality. Global experience of this virus has the ability to evolve and new strains will need new vaccines. It will be the same here at home.

The total cases in Cook Islands stands at 4201 (as of yesterday), the people that are at the frontline of the fight against Covid have been ignored by the government. They have been overworked, they are underpaid, they have been under appreciated. The real casualty is the unknown impact of the stress level and anxiety they have to cope with.

I want to know what is the government’s programme that is in place as a coping mechanism to look after the wellbeing of our overworked and underpaid frontline workers, mentally and physically?

Piltz Napa

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Minimum wage

I had to read this a number of times because it seems that the PM wants to pre-empt any wage increases before the Panel has sat (Minimum wage under review, Cook Islands News, April 19).

Now this is the same PM along with the Demos who voted themselves fat heavy salary increases just a couple of years ago. The same Demos who said that they would take a pay cut during Covid of paltry sums out of their overly inflated salaries whilst also working in their own private businesses taking two bites or more of the cherry, what a joke.

Now there is some merit in having a look at the cost of living, hourly rate reviews, affordability, etc. But we must also look at building economic confidence, investment, motivation and incentivising our people, looking at changing the international dateline to align with NZ just like Samoa in 2011 so that we engage in international business the same days as NZ and of course the tourists will love leaving NZ on Monday and arriving here on a Monday and seriously, we should also be looking at immigration status. These things need to be acting in tandem and not just looking at wage and salary increases.

I hate to say this but I don’t think we are in a position to put the hourly rate up, because it has a snow ball effect on living standards and the prices we pay retail and that is a reality, we are already in debt to the tune of 100s of millions of dollars and that has to be paid back as well as business as usual. The next government of our country has a lot to work through and I don’t envy anyone on the treasury benches.

Te Tuhi Kelly

(Facebook)