Letters for Saturday November 13, 2021

Dear Editor,

Most will recall “Toagate” where the then Solicitor General advised government that a Memorandum of Understanding was “not enforceable”.

Some $10 million later (paid for by all of us) we know that was some pretty incompetent advice.

Was any government official involved in that debacle held responsible? Held liable? Forced to pay for the damages? Kare maata, ranuinui and atupaka.

If the present government officials are going to be signing legal documents and granting exploratory licences for deep sea exploration and potentially mining, in the face of international calls for a moratorium, the least they can do is sign a statement on each document that if it all turns pear shaped, if we get sued for millions or billions, if the environment gets damaged, if the economy gets damaged, that each official will be liable severally and jointly.

They are the ones telling us all will be well, so they should have no reservation whatsoever of assuming liability.

(Name and address supplied)

Conflict of interest

Again, it shows the insanity how the consent was granted for the dredging works that are currently underway in the Arutanga harbour. An EIA (environmental impact assessment) consent cannot be given just by a simple show of hands, where the chairman of the Aitutaki Environment Authority, stated, “we agreed to grant consent for dredging works in the harbour”.

A proper EIA requires technical and expert review and assessment by a qualified engineer or similar qualified person, and not by a group of people sitting in a meeting and showing their hands of support. If this is the case then the chairman of the AEA can give consents for any works he supports. Senior Environment officials in Rarotonga should know this but somehow, they willingly allowed this dysfunctional process to proceed.

I read with interest the three companies who CIIC (Cook Islands Investment Corporation) has advertised to proceed with the next stage for exploration licenses. It appears two of the companies will pass the compliance test but not the company called, CIIC Seabed Resources Ltd. This is a private and foreign company. You see under the guise of two Belgium nationals, we have the chairman of CIIC, Michael Henry, himself as a director and shareholder. At the same time, he has managed to haul in, two former CIIC CEO’s in Petero Okotai, a government contractor and Tamarii Tutangata, now the (acting) head at Infrastructure Cook Islands. All of this I presume, with the knowledge and approval of the CIIC Minister, Mark Brown.

Come on, if government or Crown officials want to join the private sector, then resign and do so. Do not try and do both as corporate laws of governance and offences will severely bite you. This must be something that CIIC totally ignored in the launch of their Statement of Corporate Intent. Don’t preach good governance then do the opposite. These are all clear warning signs that deeper undertakings are carefully planned by people in power.

Angry & Disgusted Taxpayer

(Name and address supplied)

Editor: The Cook Islands Investment Corporation was yesterday given the opportunity to respond to this letter but its spokesperson said: “No one will be responding to this anonymous letter.”

Online comments

Cannabis use

Which one would you choose, alcohol that makes the mind silly, losing loved ones? Or number two, marijuana, a plant which comes from the ground also natural, couple of hits you feel so relaxed. – Tairi Miriau

It’s actually only one strain of the cannabis family and hemp is now legal in most countries for health and the THC is almost untraceable. Great for health and pain. You can buy hemp seed for cereal etc. in Raro. About time we made some law changes here. – John Makuru.

Seabed minerals

I bet you Mark Brown when he sent a plan via email to the Glasgow Scotland summit, he didn’t mention the proposed idea to do seabed mining. Cooks Government is just greedy all about $$$, once the area is ruined kiss that tourism goodbye but don’t forget all waters that surround the Cook Islands actually are a part of the largest marine park in the world, it needs to be protected not mined. – Ray Wathall.