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Compulsory helmet law
in Cook Islands to be reviewed
10 April 2008 -
Source:
Radio New Zealand International
The Cook Islands Cabinet is to look again at its
transport act of 2007 which includes the
controversial compulsory helmet law.
The law would have made it compulsory for all
motorcyclists to wear a safety approved helmet at
all times on the road from the 12th of April.
A government official, Trevor Pitt, says Cabinet was
impressed with a presentation from the "No to
compulsory helmets" lobby group.
“They were impressed to the point that they actually
agreed with many of the issues raised by the group
so the Prime Minister has agreed now to recall
Parliament for the 11th of April which is the day
before the compulsory helmet was due to take
effect.”
Trevor Pitt says the Crown Law office has also been
instructed to draft an amendment of the act which
will be considered by Cabinet earlier this week.
He says once Cabinet signs off on the proposed
amendment it will go back to Parliament.
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Cook Islands set
targets high for Chile
06 April 2008 -
Source:
IRB
We continue our build up to the IRB Junior World
Rugby Trophy in Chile later this month by turning
our attentions to the final team in Pool A – the
Cook Islands and the thoughts of their Under 20
captain Alexander Woonton.
Alexander Woonton is not alone in counting down the
days until the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy kicks
off in the Chilean capital of Santiago, the Cook
Islands captain hoping to enjoy a tournament to
remember if his team-mates can realise the potential
he sees in the squad.
The experience of playing in an international
age-grade tournament will be a new one for Woonton,
who is not one of the 13 members of the Cook Islands
squad bound for Chile who played in their debut at
the IRB Under 19 World Championship last year.
However the prop has heard all about the experiences
from those that were in Belfast for the Cook
Islands’ historic debut – when they lost four and
drew one of their matches – and is honoured to have
been named captain by coach Nooroa Maui.
“The players from last year have said it was a great
learning experience as it was the first time a
Cook’s team had qualified for the competition,”
explained Woonton, who turned 20 a month after his
side beat Papua New Guinea in January to secure the
Oceania region’s berth in Chile.
“From that we realise we need to perform closer to
our potential and have a belief that we can achieve
the goals we have set. I feel extremely positive as
we get closer to the event, as a result of the
determination and belief shown by the boys during
the past few months.
“It gives me great pride to lead a team filled with
players that I respect on and off the field and I
think we have a very good group of leaders
throughout the team which makes being the captain an
honouring experience.”
Rising to the challenge
The Cook Islands have been drawn in Pool A with
Chile, Romania and Namibia – the host nation
providing their first opponents, just as they did 12
months ago when the South Americans ran out 29-14
winners in their Division B encounter at the IRB
Under 19 World Championship.
“We expect the competition in Chile to be very
fierce and well trained, so we have been training
hard and smart to be able to be competitive,”
explained Woonton, who plays his rugby with the
Papatoetoe Club in Auckland, New Zealand.
“I expect all three teams to be very well prepared
and determined to win each game. Chile being the
host nation will be a big challenge because of their
home support. Romania, who are consistent top
performers, will be no easy task.
"Possibly the most determined team will be Namibia
after the tragic loss of one of their players late
last year.”
That said though, what does Woonton believe this
Cook Islands Under 20 squad if capable of achieving
once they kick off their campaign at the Stade
Francais Club on Tuesday 15 April?
“We would obviously like an improvement on last
year’s result which could be called a success, but I
believe that this team has the ability to make the
finals, so the final is our goal.”
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Aitutaki – this is
why we study!
02 April 2008 -
Source:
Varsity.co.nz
There are times, often cold winter afternoons in a
dingy flat revisiting tedious lecture notes, that
the merits of completing year after year of tertiary
education appear questionable to say the least.
However, unless you study something really obscure
AND have no personality or get up and go, it is
almost certain you will end up earning an above
average income.
“So what,” you might say, “money isn’t everything”.
No, it certainly isn’t, but used well it is a very
nice thing (note I don’t say wisely because the
meanings of well and wisely differ when I discuss my
spending with my father so I assume others may take
issue with my priorities too). Now my priorities
aren’t particularly complicated, in fact after a
recent holiday my key objective for the short to
medium term (pardon the financial advisor speak) is
to repeat said holiday as often as possible, and
certainly more often than the average person – hence
the renewed motivation to secure that above average
income.
Okay, enough with the long-winded intro, this is a
travel article after all. Well actually a
self-congratulatory and slightly gloating diary
entry might be a more valid description – you be the
judge.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit Aitutaki several
times and recently came back from another awesome
visit. Aitutaki is the second best known island in
the Cook Islands, and I can honestly say I will keep
going back and that it will forever remain one of my
favourite places in the world. For those of you who
saw Survivor Cook Islands and thought the publicity
might spoil it and lead to a plague of tourists more
suited to Caribbean cruise liners, don’t worry, you
wouldn’t know Survivor had been there and there are
still only 4 little planes a day from Raro (see pic)
and one of those is full of day trippers so crowds
there are not.
This is one of the few places I’ve been that well
and truly exceeds the pictures and words in travel
brochures, guidebooks and the like. Every time I go
back I end up taking heaps of the same photos
because it’s so damn stunning but it’s not just the
amazing lagoon, it’s the whole atmosphere. Bugger
all people, genuine laid back Pacific Island feel, a
dozen deserted motu (islands) you can have
completely to yourself, but still plenty of good
food options, reasonably priced cold beer, and it’s
all in NZ dollars.
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Canoe symbol of Cook
Islands mini games moments to come
29 March 2008 -
Source:
ABC Radio Australia
An outrigger canoe paddler will symbolise Cook
Islands 2009 Pacific Mini Games, with promises from
18 nations to attend.
The logo shows a stylised red paddler in a green
canoe on a blue wave with a yellow sun above.
The caption is "share the moments".
Eighteen of the possible 22 eligible countries have
confirmed teams for the games.
Mini games organisers have confirmed all 15 sports
codes have received the minimum required number of
six countries.
The Games chief executive, David Lobb, says
countries to confirm are the Federated States of
Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru,
Palau, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
Golf has the most entries, followed by athletics,
rugby sevens, table tennis, va'a (canoeing) and
weightlifting.
Ten countries are entered in bodybuilding and
boxing.
Sailing has nine countries and lawn bowls, rugby
league, netball, touch and triathlon all have seven
countries entered.
Squash is the only code that has the minimum number
of six countries so far.
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Cook Islands
Financial Secretary not saying if he will force down
price of petrol
25 March 2008 -
Source:
Radio New Zealand International
The Cook Islands Financial Secretary, Sholan Ivaiti,
is refusing to say whether he will try again to
force down the price of petrol after a High Court
order revoking cuts announced last week.
The Cook Islands fuel price review committee had set
new low prices last week of up to 60 cents a litre,
with retailers being forced to cut their margins.
But the retailers threatened to stop selling fuel
before the High Court revoked the new price order on
Wednesday.
One retailer, Don Beer Jr of Beco, says years ago
the Government pushed their margin down from 20 to
15 percent which they had reluctantly accepted.
But he says the latest move, without any
consultation, was very unpopular.
“When they decided unilaterally that it was going to
be 8 and a half percent without any consultation,
people got very angry over that. They just said well
we are not doing it, we are not paying it. So we all
agreed at the meeting of the Rarotonga fuel
retailers that we would stop selling petrol until
government negotiated a fairer price.”
Don Beer Jr
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New luxury beachfront
villas open in Cook Islands
21 March 2008 -
Source:
e-TravelBlackboard
Te Vakaroa Luxury Beachfront Villas open on Monday
in Rarotonga, Cook Islands next to Muri Lagoon.
The gated private property contains six brand new
one-and two-bedroom fully contained villas, all of
which are beachfront.
The villas are owned by Des & Cassey Eggelton and
Nicholas Reeves and were designed by architectural
firm Sumich Architects of New Zealand.
Five cafes and restaurants are within walking
distance however the villas contain mini-bars and
fully equipped kitchens as well. The outdoor area
includes a large pool and spa.
No children under 15 are allowed.
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No more secrets to
cost more money
17 March 2008 -
Source:
Island Business
Media firsts are nothing new to the Cook Islands;
having been the first Pacific nation to bring stereo
broadcasting to the region with FM radio in the late
70’s, and then initiating Pacific-owned broadcast
television in the 90’s. Its latest first, that of
legislation allowing individuals to access
government files in the name of accountability,
could well be its toughest.
The Cook Islands Official Information Act was passed
by parliament in mid-February, and is designed to
put more government information into public hands.
That major tick for accountability will ensure the
Cooks does well on the FEMM report card for 2008,
and as with other firsts, other Pacific nations will
be keen to take what works from it while watching
out for potential problem areas.
Fast on the heels of welcoming the positive response
from regional governments and media organisations,
Cook Islands Ombudsman Janet Maki admits the biggest
problem will be opening up the culture of secrecy
surrounding most government work.
That culture of off-limits information has long been
an every day hurdle for Pacific journalists,
including former PINA Freedom Award-winning
journalist Jason Brown. Currently Auckland-based,
Brown raised niggles over lack of consultation and
transparency issues with a piece of legislation
aimed at promoting access to and clarity of
information from government.
He’s also worried the Cooks legislation derives too
much from the New Zealand version and may face
similar problems with long waits for information.
Overall though, the new laws will solve the very
problem he faced in his journalistic work—lack of a
consistent approach to information sharing, with an
often blunt refusal from officials to respond to
probing questions delving beneath a press-release
surface.
For her own part, it is likely to be Maki herself
that preaches the freedom of information
legislation, having gone through her own conversion
on the topic. In her previous role as
Solicitor-General, she didn’t see the reason for
legislating access to official records. It was only
when she made the recent switch to Ombudsman that
she realised the need to legislate for something as
frightening as opening up records for public
scrutiny.
“In carrying out investigations into some of the
complaints received under the Ombudsman Act, it’s
been quite difficult getting the relevant
information from some of the departments which can’t
locate the relevant info—or it’s recorded in such a
way that it would take some time to go through
everything to find it.”
The Cooks shares a common problem with other Pacific
Islands governments where systems and processes for
keeping information filed, stored and archived are
not focused on keeping records retrievable.
“A lot of valuable information is lost because it’s
either buried in the wrong files or no one can
remember who the last person with it was,” says
Maki. She says that information gap doesn’t just
undermine the ability of public officials to work
with reliable data and records. Those records and
information were produced at costs of time, effort
and public money.
The Ombudsman met with her New Zealand counterpart
during an International Information Commissioners’
meeting in New Zealand last November, setting the
context for technical assistance and support from
New Zealand to help steer the implementation of the
Official Information Act.
“It was an eye opener,” says Maki. “It was not, as
some of us had naively imagined, just a question of
bringing the Act into force and away the public goes
in requesting info and the department provides it.
All kinds of issues come up. How are the departments
keeping their records/information at the moment?
What is the quality of the records/information? Are
they able to deal with the requests? Are they able
to provide that information in a timely manner,
given the time limits introduced by the Act?”
Maki has bought some time to answer those
questions—a 12-month grace period will also allow
for public education and awareness amongst
government ministries.
Replacing secrecy with open access to most records
will have a trade off in personal attitudes to work,
says the Ombudsman.
“There are some officials that resent their advice
being leaked to the media but I fail to see why that
should be a concern in terms of the fact that you’re
paid to provide that advice and if you’ve done the
best job you can, then you should be ready and able
to defend it.”
Information management and retrieval will mean
investments in software, hardware, and people to run
it all. But Maki is confident the initial expense
will be justified in the long-term. For government
media consultant Florence Syme-Buchanan, the tabling
of the bill comes after four years of touting the
notion of information being best placed in the hands
of the people, not bureaucrats.
Up until former Prime Minister Sir Terepai Maoate
endorsed the bill, successive Cook Islands leaders
and governments had given lipservice, reluctant to
table the Official Information legislation because
of the sweeping political changes and resources
needed.
The Cooks example will have many Pacific nations
nodding in agreement. Mention freedom and
information in one sentence and politicians and
government officials feel threatened.
Helping people understand transparency is a public
duty rather than a threat to the public good, will
help to create a disclosure regime everyone is
comfortable with, says Syme-Buchanan.
“By that I mean, officials are comfortable with
releasing information and have improved in-house
records systems and the public are happy with the
way they can now seek and access government
information.”
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Cooks cabinet
approves stadium for 2009 mini games
13 March 2008 -
Source:
Radio New Zealand International
The Cook Islands government has now approved the
construction of a multi-million US dollars sports
stadium to host the Pacific Mini Games.
The administration has earlier signed an application
for a 10 million US dollars Chinese loan to cover
the cost of building a stadium for the games to be
held in September next year.
There was concern over a lack of consultation with
sports people and the high maintenance cost of the
stadium.
The Prime Minister, Jim Marurai, says they have
addressed these issues and given the project its
final go-ahead.
“The cabinet has approved the sports people here
that we’re going ahead with the construction of the
sports building. It’s really up to the Chinese
company that’s going to do the construction, but
[it’ll be] possibly in June.”
Jim Marurai says sporting events will cover parts of
the maintenance costs, while the sports ministry
will also contribute towards them.
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PNG thrashes Cook
Islands 7-0
09 March 2008 -
Source:
Fiji Times
Papua New Guinea hammered the inexperienced Cook
Islands team 7-0 in its Oceania Olympic playoffs at
Churchill Park in Lautoka last night.
This was the Cook Islands fourth straight loss in a
row.
Papua New Guinea side led 3-0 in the first spell.
The Papua New Guinea side scored its opening goal in
the 16th minute with David Muta breaching the
offside trap to put the ball beyond Jim Abraham.
Three minutes later Tau Winnie got his name on the
score sheet with a close range shot.
Papua New Guinea made it 3-0 in the 29th minute
Raymond Gunemba.
Cook Islands tightened up its defence to deny the
opposition any more goa,s before half time.
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Cook Islands Jazz
Festival 2008
05 March 2008 -
Source:
e-TravelBlackboard
Billy TK jnr Ltd in association with Cook Islands
Tourism, Air New Zealand and Pacific Resorts are
proud to announce the 1st Annual 2008 Cook Islands
Jazz and Blues Festival.
The festival is being held on the majestic island of
Rarotonga in the beautiful Cook Islands at Salsa
Café and the wonderful seaside location that is
‘Club Raro’.
Two days of music held Sat 29th and Sun 30th March
2008 features top musicians from New Zealand, The
USA, United Kingdom and local based favourites.
Organizer Billy Te Kahika says: ‘This festival is an
opportunity to have some world class Blues and Jazz
musicians perform in one of the most beautiful
settings in the world’ ‘I couldn’t imagine anything
better than listening to wonderful live music while
enjoying an incredible Cook Islands sunset and
outstanding hospitality’.
The musicians are: Diana Harris, Los Angeles (Blues,
Rock n Roll), Caitlin Smith, New Zealand (Jazz),
Billy TK jnr and Billy TK, New Zealand (Blues, Blues
Rock), Edna Love,San Francisco (Soul, Blues), Ed
Ivey, North Beach, USA (New Orleans style), Rudy
Aquino (Jazz) Hawaii, Mike Garner, New Zealand
(Blues) and locals Garth Young, Julian Young and duo
Kura and Kahiki.
Cook Islands Minister of Tourism, Wilkie Rasmussen
comments: ‘This is wonderful for the Cook Islands
and we look forward to a great event where locals
and tourists alike can share in enjoying the music
and atmosphere in our own version of paradise’.
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Nine Pacific nations
declare cluster ban
01 March 2008 -
Source:
Fiji Times
Nine Pacific Island nations have led the way for the
region in declaring their commitment to banning
cluster munitions.
Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu,
Samoa, Marshall Islands, Niue, Cook Islands and
Palau signed the commitment last weekend joining 73
other countries in the so-called Wellington
Declaration, committing them to conclude a new
treaty in 2008 that will prohibit cluster munitions
that "cause unacceptable harm to civilians".
They were part of a group of 103 countries that met
in Wellington, New Zealand from 18-22 February to
continue work on an international treaty to address
the humanitarian consequences of cluster munitions.
Fiji still has time to sign the Declaration before
the Diplomatic Conference in Dublin, Ireland from
19-30 May 2008, where States supporting this process
will meet to negotiate and adopt the agreement.
Soraj Ghulam Habib, a 16-year-old Afghani national
who lost both legs and a finger to a cluster
submunition addressed the Wellington conference and
urged the delegates to support a strong cluster
munition treaty.
'Cluster munitions prevented me to go to school,
play with the kids, do social activities. Cluster
munitions destroyed my dreams. People laugh at me
and have a negative attitude vis--vis me. They see
me as a beggar. They pity me.'
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PIFS commends Cooks
Government on passage of first Pacific FOI law
26 February 2008 -
Source:
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
The 14th of February 2008 marked a landmark day in
the Pacific, with the passage of the first Pacific
Island Country Freedom of Information law by the
Government of the Cook Islands.
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat commends the
Government of Cook Islands for taking the lead in
the region in passing legislation to enshrine this
essential democratic right, says Feleti Teo, Acting
Forum Secretariat Secretary General.
The Pacific Plan recognises freedom of information
as a key milestone under the Good Governance pillar
of the Plan. The right to information is a key
mechanism for promoting transparent and accountable
governance, and participatory development. With a
right to access government information, the
people of the Pacific can more effectively engage
with their governments, says Mr Teo
The Cook Islands Official Information Act will come
into force on 11th February 2009, one year after its
enactment.
The Government will use this time to prepare
government departments and officials to get their
records in order and develop systems and processes
to facilitate access to information.
The Government will also need to focus resources on
promoting routine disclosure of useful government
information, as a means of streamlining access and
supporting officials to efficiently implement their
disclosure duties. It is essential that when the Act
comes into force, the public can
effectively exercise their right to request
information from the government, says Dr Henry
Ivarature, the Forum Regional Governance Adviser.
Throughout the world more than 70 countries have
passed FOI laws. In the Pacific region, Australia
and New Zealand passed FOI laws more than 25 years
ago. Papua New Guinea
Constitution recognises the right to information,
but until now no Pacific Island Country
had passed a national FOI law to provide a framework
for accessing information.
It is a great step forward for the Pacific that one
of the members of the region has joined the growing
group of nations recognising the right of their
people to access information that will enable them
to more effectively participate in their own
governance and development. PIFS will continue to
support other PIC Governments to move forwards in
developing information disclosure
policies or legislation, says Dr Ivarature.
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