It’s been true for the decades that this writer has been observing our honourable Members of Parliament and it remains true.

We come home from China with $4m in a bag, totally unaware that if we had insisted on $40m we would have come home with 10 bags. We are such amateurs and the Chinese will still be sniggering.

--------------------------

This tax-payer has no problem with doubling of Parliamentary travel budget just so long as the next time one leaves the country that they do all the travel offshore the budget allows, just so long as that Member does not return for one year. What a bonus for us all to not have to hear from, or see, the bludgers.

-------------

PM Mark Brown’s media release from China states that he has given his approval for China to engage in seabed exploration in the Cook Islands. Well, Mark Brown has no authority to grant China an exploration licence or carry out any seabed exploration work in the Cook Islands, without applying for a licence or to do any exploration work. We have laws and regulations that China must comply with. Again, we see Mark Brown, trying to impress China and doing whatever he wants, with no accountability and transparency.

-------------------------

Has the UN Resident Coordinator, Mr Themba Kalua, even bothered to find out that under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, goal 6 – Clean water and sanitation, the government has failed to deliver on this goal. Spending millions of dollars on Te Mato Vai project has not delivered clean water to households on Rarotonga. Under goal 14 – Life below the water – Our Marae Moana is a joke; it contradicts government’s plans to carry our seabed mining in the near future. Did Mr Kalua discuss the Cook Islands concerns with TIS, Ocean Ancestors and other community NGOs that are concerned with our ocean and the environment. No, he just praised the Cook Islands, after his workshop. Tick the boxes, go home and the Cook Islands gets praised for a century long plan? Honestly Mr Kalua, you have failed too.