Tina Browne: Cook Islands opposition leader on New Zealand extending funding pause after China deal

A Cook Islands politician says public pressure is mounting for its Government to mend its rift with New Zealand. 

The Foreign Minister has paused almost $30 million dollars in funding. 

Winston Peters says Prime Minister Mark Brown didn't properly consult New Zealand before signing a strategic deal with China in February.

Cook Islands opposition leader Tina Browne says she can't understand why Brown isn't listening.

"We've got an interim Foreign Affairs Secretary, and it sounds like, supposedly, negotiations that were supposed to be happening with New Zealand may not have happened."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Winston Peters has cut more funding to the cock Islands.
At this time he's cut nearly thirty million dollars. Now
this is on top of the eighteen million dollars he'd
already cut back in June. And yesterday our Chinese research ship.
Research ship also arrived in the Raratonga. Tina Brown is
the leader of the opposition over there and with us hi, Tina,
oh hi, how's this news gone down with you guys?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh jee? It's a bit of a surprise because the
public since the news broke out some months ago, the
public has been up in arms and have been saying
to government, fixed the problem, sought the situation out with

(00:44):
New Zealand. If we wronged, just apologize and let's get
on with it. So it sounds to me that nothing's
been done about it.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Has the eighteen million dollars that was cut back in June?
Has that been noticed?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
The shortfall, well, the shortfall will be noticed very shortly
because much of that money is supposed to go into
education and health. And of course now with New Zealand
pausing the further assistance, definitely it's going to be felt.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Right, but it's not making any difference with Mark Brown, though,
why is that?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, you know, I can't figure it. I just can't because,
as you may or may not be aware, our Secretary
of Foreign Affairs resigned a month ago, a month or
so ago, and we can only speculate why. And we've

(01:47):
got an interim Foreign Affairs secretary and it sounds like
the supposedly negotiations that was supposed to be happening with
New Zealand may not have happened.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Okay, do you think Tina, that it needs to be
escalated by New Zealand and also in order to force
Mark Brown to back down?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, probably part of that. But my comment in parliament
was I wasn't quite sure why it was being left
to the officials. The problem was called caused by the politicians,
so I wasn't understanding why the remedy was being left

(02:37):
to the officials. It should be Mark Brown and Luxeon
meeting at that level. It shouldn't be left to the
officials anymore. Now.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, fair enough, Tina, thanks very much, really appreciate your time.
That's Tina Brown, the Cook Islands leader of the Opposition.
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