This week’s Cook Islands diaspora consultations in New Zealand have amounted to a shotgun approach to current affairs covering a variety of topics of national importance.
Heads of delegation for about 32 member states met in Glion, Switzerland, to share views and ideas in preparation for the fifth and final session of Intergovernmental Negotiations Committee (INC-5) to establish a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, which will take place in Busan, Republic of Korea this November 2024.
Prime minister Jim Marurai says he will soon release the six-page legal opinion received from NZ constitutional lawyer Dr Alex Frame that will prove that his cabinet is abiding by the Constitution. The legal opinion was prompted by the now rejected petition by 19 MPs to the Queen’s Representative Sir Frederick Goodwin to call parliament […]
Making best use of the available climate data and communicating that information properly will go a long way in assisting growers in the country. A three-day workshop, aimed at improving the communication of climate information to growers during the current weak El Nino cycle, wrapped up at the Kent Hall yesterday. Horticultural scientist Jane Adams […]
Last week’s report on a cyclone in the Cook Islands was wrong, the Fiji Meteorological Service confirms. Director Rajendra Prasad said the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited (FBCL) website misquoted him as saying a tropical cyclone had developed in the southern Cooks. The mistaken report was picked up by internet search engine Google in their alerts […]
The last round of Tutaka inspections show an improvement on last year’s figures, according to the Ministry of Health. The ministry inspected 3966 sites and found a total of 59 problems. The major problems were 23 overgrown vacant sections and 12 overgrown vacant houses. Two of the sections and one of the vacant houses were […]
New mineral and natural resources minister Robert Wigmore says he will now move swiftly to set up the seabed minerals authority but has shot down rumours that he is considering businessman Richard Barton (above) to head the new body. The deputy prime minister said the rumour may be interesting but Barton’s name had not occurred […]
A second joint statement from the Democratic Party and the Cook Islands Party has been put on hold this week as the parties take in the rejection of their request for parliament to be called to sit. It is understood the parties may now hold off on issuing any statement in regards to the recent […]
The Mou Piri group for political reform says the promise of a referendum in no way takes away from the importance of all Cook Islands voters to sign the current petition. The new pledge by prime minister Jim Marurai for a referendum to be held before or on the date of the next election has […]
Punanga Tauturu will hold a family law consultation in mid-February. The NGO established a fund for non-molestation orders late last year and legal representative Kairangi Samuela says the organisation receive a large number of inquiries from women seeking the orders. PTI are holding the consultation as part of the effort to streamline what is happening […]
Last year was the first time visitor numbers exceeded 100,000 – a growth of 7 percent over 2008 arrivals. Cook Islands Tourism chief executive officer John Dean has welcomed the official numbers for the year to December 2009. According to the monthly Statistics office bulletin for December, the 2009 year saw a total of 101,110 […]
The bi-annual Cook Islands tourism industry forum will begin next week on a high note following news of a 7 percent increase in visitor numbers in 2009. The country is bucking the regional trend for recording losses in visitor numbers and the forum will cover marketing plans that aim to help continue the upward growth […]
The nation is in the middle of an unusual and abnormal ‘breakdown’ of government says opposition MP Norman George. He’s calling the new cabinet a five-headed monster that is only surviving through a loophole in the Constitution. Last week the MP publicly revealed the plans by the 19 MPs outside of cabinet to petition the […]
Senior constable Taruia Ringiao will be making sure all is well in his neighbourhood. The Takitumu resident has been appointed the Vaka Ngatangiia constable in a reshuffle of community officers. Ringiao replaces constable Tungane Lockington who will be serving in the Te Au o Tonga area while constable Allan Rua remains with the Puiakura vaka. […]
It was up and away for Hoani Gibson when dad Brett suggested a HeliRaro chopper ride. It was the younger Gibson’s first ride in a helicopter. The 10-year-old Avatea school student said she was a bit nervous at first, but by the end of the ride she couldn’t chose a favourite part. “My favourite thing […]
A proposal to purchase $174,000 worth of new government cars and office computers was turned down by cabinet yesterday in the face of growing concern over finances. Prime minister Jim Marurai said he and cabinet turned down the proposal to spend capital expenditure funds because they have placed a freeze on new spending pending the […]
Cabinet minister Apii Piho was one of the first to move into his new ministerial office yesterday. While other ministers are taking their time to move, amid office asset auditing and renovations, Piho was keen to get down to work in his office behind Public Health. Piho says while he’s kept on CEO Ken Buchanan, […]
Businessman James Beer is coy about commenting on the political situation as it stands now and what impact it may have on the country. But he is quick to point out that the situation has been brought about not entirely but mostly by the events of the proposed TOA fuel farm purchase. “I don’t want […]
Former deputy prime minister Sir Terepai Maoate, who was sacked over the $2 million Toagate scandal just before Christmas, had his request for an MP office and car turned down this week. Prime minister Jim Marurai has confirmed that the request was made during his meeting with the Ngatangiia MP and leader of the Democratic […]
Due to public demand and high levels of interest, the ministry of education has begun a Maori language course with the first class held yesterday. The language classes will run every day for the next two weeks between 12 and 1pm. Gail Townsend of the ministry of education says that the department was inundated with […]
Cornelius Tioni (left) from Auckland, New Zealand, and Joneth Elisaia from Sydney, Australia, sell pineapples from the back of a pick-up at Vaima’anga. The boys said they are enjoying their stay on Rarotonga and they have been tasked with selling the pineapples from the family plantation this week. 10011123
Former Cook Islands resident Ruth Harnish (pictured) will be laid to rest this week in Perth after passing away peacefully in her sleep on January 6 at the age of 90. Ruth and her late husband Bob lived in Rarotonga in the 60s and 70s where they started the United Island Traders and Tradewinds retail […]
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