Transcript
VAINE WICHMAN: The Cook Islands Party believes that one of the most important things is locking in the economic empowerment and prosperity agenda throughout, not just here today in the Cook Islands but particularly in the outreach to the Pa Enua.
DON WISEMAN: When we talk about economic empowerment what does that mean for the average Cook Islander?
VW: Opportunities to be able to access basic and improved services and goods throughout the whole of the Cook Islands.
DW: You believe that that's been happening over the past eight years?
VW: It you look at the growth rates you will find that it's consistent with growth throughout, but we have to lock it in now. We have to look at the various policies which have not been dealt with, for instance the social cohesiveness. The distribution and re-allocation of the Budget. The opportunity to invest a little bit more and a little more smarter in the education and health sectors, and in those special areas - we say like vulnerable areas, that type of population needs to be highlighted more.
DW: Going back years there have been calls for political reform and there was this document produced about 20 years ago that laid out a whole series of things , and I know just in recent days you have had some forthright comments on that document and the amount of reform your party has undertaken. So do you believe there are still reforms that need to be done?
VW: Seriously Don, every election that has come through since the political reform document was printed in 1999 has picked it up as a football and then left it aside. If you understand that context then you understand what the Cook Islands Party really needs to do, going forward. It's easy for the other parties to say 'Oh we are going to take it' but I have seen it over and over again. I was part of the team back in 1995 to 1996 that set the economic reform package here in the Cook Islands, and back then we were the ones who mounted the commission for this particular report with the three distinguished characters of Short, Hermann and Crocombe, the later Crocombe. Back then ;you would say we hadn't had a run then with how the economic package would hit back into our system, our economic system, as it has done today. So with all due respect to the honourableness of the report, it is well overdue for - not so much another commission, but let's give it back to the people now because, over the years, over the last four elections, you can just see it is used as a political football by everyone. The Cook Islands Party is clear that we need to be serious with what the people really want today. it's easy to say just cut back on seats or to increase representation in these areas but we are getting a lot of young voters coming through and special sections of our population are coming through. Their views may not have been heard back 30 years ago. So that is the statement we are saying but in saying this the Cook Islands Party is also clear that we pulled out three very important recommendations from that report because they were well overdue. They are probably things you can do do very quickly and have implemented it. And one of the most significant ones is the Pa Enua Island Local Government Act of 2013 which transfers back more say in the resource budgets on island by our Pa Enua. These are the first steps in the long term vision of the Cook Islands Party to ensure the economic prosperity is enjoyed right throughout the Cook Islands, And you have to be aware too that capacity building doesn't just pick up overnight in the Pa Enua and come along with the delegation of authority and so forth, and this is the area where any good parent they still carry or hold the child as they make sure they know what they are doing with these legislation, with these budgets.
DW: In terms of protecting the outer islands, because they continue to suffer so may problems that have been going on for many, many, years - what particularly has the Cook Islands Party got in mind?
VW: I have lived two years out in the northern islands, Penrhyn. I would say the vital issue, once it's addressed everything else falls into place, is the issue of isolation. Isolation not just in the access to services but isolation in terms of those services being delivered to the islands. We need to address the internal shipping of our islands, particularly in the north and the government, our Cook Islands Party government already, in the past two years, has begun to develop the partnership with the private sector shipping companies through to these northern Cooks, to the extent where management contracts with the ships will be able to at least on a regular basis provide that opportunity to reduce the gap.
DW: So for instance in terms of shipping you believe that's going to steadily improve.
VW: It has to. Without the vital connections to these islands, no goods can get out there, nor can we develop those islands' main good to bring to the main market here on Rarotonga and also overseas. We have also got to be more innovative in the way we work with our Pa Enua in terms of the current technologies in marketing and e-commerce, in terms of trading some of the authentic women's crafts, raw materials and so forth in the Pa Enua and making sure they are integrated and engaged in our major income earner sector, which is tourism.