The New Zealand/Cooks Islands

Opinion

The New Zealand/Cooks Islands love-hate relationship continues

THE relationship between New Zealand and the Cook Islands goes back “into the mists of his tory”, as islands’ prime minister Sir Geoffrey Henry puts it.

“We populated New Zealand,” he says, referring to the oral tra ditions of the Cook Islands and New Zealand Maori people who agree New Zealand was settled about 1350 from Rarotonga.

Strange then, given this mutual background, that when Sir Geoffrey came to Wellington in late July, it was his first official visit since becoming prime minister nine years ago.

The reason, of course, was the tabling of a wine box of docu ments in parliament in 1994 showing that some New Zealand companies had used the Cooks’ offshore centre in the 80s to reduce tax liabilities at home. The “wine box affair” soured bilat eral relations for a long time.

With that behind them. Sir Geoffrey and New Zealand minis ters were able to concentrate on other matters during their talks.

Not that financial affairs were totally off the agenda; the Cook Islands $l2O million public debt - roughly equal to its entire GDP - remains a serious concern for both countries.

This largely unserviced debt places a huge burden on the Cooks’ economy, negating much of the benefit gained by the badly needed radical reforms Sir Geoffrey launched in 1996 and

holding back economic development.

Bulk of the debt is a $9O million loan from Italy’s export cred it agency SACE for the unfinished Vaimaanga Hotel on Rarotonga, but it includes loans from France and Nauru and money owed New Zealand’s Government Superannuation Fund.

The latter ranges from $5.8 million to nearly $9 million if interest is included.

Sir Geoffrey was told a cash-strapped New Zealand would not resume direct budgetary handouts - which were discontinued in 1996 - to bail him out. But the New Zealanders were delighted to get his assurance the Cooks would not default and intended to set tle their debts. With the Asian Development Bank acting as honest broker, talks on settlement terms and a repayment schedule will be held this month. Sir Geoffrey hopes for an agreement in time for the end of year Budget.

But looking forward, the most intriguing aspect of the Wellington talks was Sir Geoffrey’s push to develop the islands’ constitutional relationship with New Zealand.

Having had self-government in free association with New

Zealand since 1965, sir Geoffrey believes there is still room for the Cooks’ “to mature as a nation” while stopping short of full independence that would assuredly be opposed by the majority of islanders at home and in New Zealand.

He told me he was keen to find a formula that would give the Cooks de facto independence in international eyes while its peo ple retained New Zealand citizenship. This would allow member ship of the United Nations, for instance, and give the Cooks access to bilateral and multilateral aid programmes that donors restrict to

sovereign states.

“We are talking about redefining the meaning of indepen dence,” he said, acknowledging this was a problem for interna tional lawyers who relied on precedents. He suggested a formula that would extend sovereignty and allow Cook Islanders to hold dual nationality with Cl and New Zealand passports.

This could pose problems for the new Zealand government, which has looked askance at moves by other island states such as Tonga and Tuvalu to sell passports to non-nationals. New Zealand is critically concerned to preserve its international reputation and would need convincing that the integrity of its own passport was not put at risk.

What Sir Geoffrey wants is to develop a distinctive Cook Islands personality internationally. He talks about extending the ties with New Zealand to the point short of where they snap.

From a Wellington perspective, it is hard to see how the exist ing constitutional relationship could be extended short of full independence. The Cook Islands government has full executive and legislative powers and although New Zealand has responsi bility for the external affairs and defence of the Cooks (in consul tation), in practice Rarotonga looks after its own interests.

Sir Geoffrey says New Zealand and the Cook Islands under stand the relationship perfectly - the issue is how others perceive the Cooks and that perception falls short of it being an indepen dent sovereign nation.

The New Zealand government has agreed to look at any formal proposals on the question the Rarotonga government presents and Sir Geoffrey foresees what he describes as exploratory talks before the end of the year.

His ministry of foreign affairs and immigration has produced a booklet entitled, “The Cook Islands - a Voyage to Statehood” set ting out the background and issues.

He would like an agreement with New Zealand, updating the 1965 constitution - which was “clarified” in an exchange of letters between former Premier Albert Henry and ex-prime minister Norman Kirk in 1973 - finalised by the year 2000 as a fresh start to the new millennium.

His biggest obstacle is likely to be the 50,000-odd Cook Islanders living in New Zealand who easily outnumber the 18,000 still at home and who are perfectly happy with the status quo.

They fear that any tinkering,with the relationship can only disad vantage them. ■

David Barber

Sydney