17 Jul 2003

Cooks Opposition leader dismisses budget as wimpish

5:59 pm on 17 July 2003

The leader of the opposition Cook Islands Party, Sir Geoffrey Henry, has labelled the Government's budget tabled in parliament earlier this week as wimpish.

Sir Geoffrey says tourism gets a slight increase, but it makes no firm steps towards developing the fishing industry, as well as severely cutting back on infrastructure development for the outer islands.

And Sir Geoffrey says while the government has called this the bridging budget, he believes it's missed the mark.

"this is a wimpish budget....it is not moving the economy forward.. it has failed to obtain consultation from particularly the private sector and those people who really have a stake hold in the economic development of the country it has failed to secure any real focus so far as the social issues are concerned therefore it is not a good budget at all"

Sir Geoffrey Henry.