‘Be more productive’

As laws of economics go, it’s pretty fundamental: ”If you want more money you’ve got to be more productive“.

Internal affairs minister Mark Brown invoked this simple truth at a meeting of Pacific journalists on Saturday, as he spoke of a waning work ethic in the Cook Islands.

He spoke of years past, years predating the evolution of a cash economy, when the hills were covered with crops and Takitumu was ferrying its produce to Tahiti and Fiji.

”That’s the sort of work ethic and drive that’s needed within the workforce now,“ Brown said. ”Unfortunately there’s still very much (an) expectation of handout.“

Brown relayed a story, penned in 1925, about a man who went searching for diamonds, never found them, and died penniless. A neighbour of his, though, stumbled upon acres of diamonds in his backyard. The moral behind the story, Brown said, is that sometimes opportunities and wealth are ”at our own backdoor“ if we are willing to look and work hard at mining them.

”If we want to lift ourselves up we have to have a work ethic that can pay for that,“ he said.

He noted that a diligent work ethic, coupled with a good education, is the recipe to success, and expressed regret that less than six percent of school leavers pursue further education.

Brown was joined at the meeting by Cook Islands Workers Association president Anthony Turua, who added that government should continue to focus on providing trades training for the Cook Islands people.

He said government should invest in trades training so when Cook Islanders ”go to New Zealand and Australia they’re not dole bludgers“.

”We need to skill them here before they go into the world of big opportunities,“ he said.

Turua said he gets negative feedback from overseas trade unions about the work ethic of Cook Islands employees.

”They say (our) workers are being mistreated because of (their poor) work ethic.“

He said he supports government’s vision to upskill electricians, drainlayers and builders in particular.

Asked why government would invest in training to prepare Cook Islanders for overseas work rather than invest in incentives to keep them at home, Turua said the payoff is ”longer-term“.

”We (Cook Islanders) are known to travel and we have no objections to people leaving our country – to me it’s a benefit for us because they’re going across and at the end of the tunnel we hope that they will come back and contribute to our country.“

He said even if they come back ”when they’re retired“, what matters is that they come back.

Brown added: ”There’s no lack of desire (from people) wanting to come back home but (we have) to provide employment opportunities (for them) to do that.“