No taxation without misrepresentation?

Al ben Henry, Premier of the Cook Islands, had to be kidding in his spirited defence of his government’s record which was attacked by the Opposition United Cook Islands Party in the Legislative Assembly in December. The government was under fire because elections are looming in the Cooks.

Waxing wrathful at an accusation that his Cook Islands Party Government had broken its earlier election promise not to tax people, the Premier declared, “This government has not and never will tax the people”.

And how was the government able to raise the wind without taxing the people? He had the answer. There was a vehicle tax, vehicles weren’t people. There was a dog tax, but the dogs were taxed because they were dogs and not human beings.

Opposition Leader Dr. Pupuke Robati, thought he had the Premier when he asked him: “Who is paying our welfare tax; is it not the people?” Mr. Henry was ready. “If you have a dollar you pay three cents to welfare tax, and if you have no dollar, you don’t pay three cents. So therefore, it is not the people who are being taxed, it is the dollar.” The Opposition remained unimpressed.

Borrowing from the Bible, Mr. Henry castigated his opponents for their attempts to defeat his government. “What God has brought together, let no man put asunder,” he thundered, mixing politics with matrimony, and added that as leader of the CIP it was his duty to establish the rock on which the country was built.

But the most ominous statement came from Director of Health Dr. Joseph Williams. After a reference to a proposed amalgamation between the opposition UCIP and Dr. Tom Davis’ new Democratic Party, Dr. Williams said: “This government knows this country will be polluted in future by unwanted people,” and so is introducing legislation to cure this ailment.” He did not enlarge on this theme and there was no further reference to it in the session, which stretched from November to late December.