Opinion

Donation appreciated

Monday 18 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor May I, through your newspaper, offer my thanks to the people of Aitutaki for their kind donation of many thousands of dollars to our earthquake fund. As someone resident in the middle of the disaster it is comforting and heartening to know that folk far away from our problems are concerned enough about […]

Too much noise for Sunday

Monday 18 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor I am a little peeved off today after losing valuable sleep thanks to party goers during the wee hours of Sunday morning. When I woke up at 2am I heard the thumping of an entertainment system combined with excessive noise from the people themselves. So I decided to call the police to alert […]

Kata - July 18, 2011

Monday 18 July 2011 | Published in Kata

Little hope for energy goals

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, The Prime Ministers plans to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2020, and 50 percent by 2015, make interesting reading (PM wants 100% renewable energy by 2020 published July 7), given that there is apparently very little hope of them being realised. This applies even disregarding all the other energy requirements beside the […]

Puzzled

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, There seems to be some misinformed or inaccurate information coming from the Minister of Finance relating to the newly introduced 15 percent tax on interest Firstly he says he met with the Bankers Association and they seemed supportive of the idea. Then we see a total rebuttal from the bankers. Then the Minister […]

Word of unsafe Rarotonga spreading

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, For years I have been telling anyone interested in a beautiful vacation that is free of beach sellers, traffic lights or hassles to visit the Cook Islands. I have made the trip from Canada several times and will continue to do so. I can tell you that the last 12 couples I mentioned […]

Tourists visit to meet Cook Islanders

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, On Monday, I bought my favourite newspaper and looked at the bottom of the front page after looking at the beautiful ladies in the picture to find a story saying CI workers lazy. Its funny to say in the last elections the man making this claim was running to become prime minister. How […]

Punanga Tauturu frustrated over delays

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Delays to the acceptance by parliament of the Employment Relations Bill is frustrating and disempowering for the workers of this country. While Punanga Tauturu has been focusing on the inclusion of paid maternity leave for private sector workers there are other aspects of the bill that need passing by parliament, such as mechanisms […]

Company tax exchanged for withholding tax

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that this tax is not going to earn $1.3 million dollars of fresh government income. Sure, there will be somewhere between $400,000 and $800,000 of withholding tax from interest (I stress interest and not dividend withholding tax ). But it will be well under […]

Kata - July 16, 2011

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Kata

Budget balancing on a knife edge

Saturday 16 July 2011 | Published in Smoke Signals

Even if the new tax on savings generates the fantasy one million dollars, that must be less than one percent of the government budget, a smoke signaller writes. If I ran my business on the basis that a one percent change in income or expense would be a matter of life or death, then all […]

Sentence a slap on the wrist

Friday 15 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I am writing in regards to an article that was in the paper on Monday July 11 Schoolgirl sentenced for assault. I am the 17-year-old complainant in question and I would like to clarify some errors made in the article and make it clear that I was not at all intoxicated and I […]

Looking for Browns advice

Friday 15 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Mark Brown, for many years I have had little faith in the elected governments and their constant lack of consideration towards overly excessive spending, which to most normal thinking people cannot be justified. We have to pay for it and yet have no say in it. I voted for you Mark, not the […]

Kata - July 15, 2011

Friday 15 July 2011 | Published in Kata

Tax will hit the wealthy, not the poor

Thursday 14 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, May I throw in my pennys worth on the current controversy about Minister Mark Browns 15 percent tax on interest on savings? It seems to me that 15 percent tax on interest on deposits is not much, only 0.75 percent for deposits earning, say, 5 percent interest. It also seems to me that […]

Kata - July 14, 2011

Thursday 14 July 2011 | Published in Kata

Opportunity to make money being ignored

Thursday 14 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, With all this talk about taxing the poor peoples savings in an unthinking bid to get more money, maybe the Government should try looking in another direction. There is work being done at Avatiu harbour that the EIA says is going to produce: 150,000 cub mtrs of dredged coral sand and rubble (with […]

Tourism industry deserves better

Thursday 14 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I write regarding the tourism awards speakers. I will be interested as to what the Rugby World Cup Chief executive might speak on and contribute to Cook Islands Tourism given that his RWC is budgeted to lose around forty million New Zealand taxpayers dollars and growing daily. The International Rugby Board holds total […]

Fiji flight subsidy better

Thursday 14 July 2011 | Published in Smoke Signals

A smoke signaller writes: Fiji, despite being ostracised by Australia and New Zealand politically, is enjoying tourism numbers that Rarotonga would enjoy a part of. Fiji has for the first time ever, recorded over 50,000 visitor arrivals in the month of April, 2011. This was revealed yesterday by the Minister for Tourism, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum at […]

Rarotonga is comparatively safe

Wednesday 13 July 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I am a regular reader of your online edition and enjoy the varied news and events in paradise. I am however concerned about the amount of publicity theft and burglary gets. Theft is a problem in the Cook Islands no doubt and there is no silver bullet to mend that. I suspect the […]