New Cook Is MPs bring back lessons from NZ parliament

Transcript

A group of first-term Cook Island MPs are hoping to take back some of the lessons from a trip to New Zealand to improve their parliament.

The four MPs spent the week observing their New Zealand counterparts in action.

Koro Vaka'uta reports.

Toka Hagai, Wesley Kareroa, Willie John and Tamaiva Tuavera visited New Zealand to raise awareness of the constitutional relationship between the two countries and also to gain exposure to parliamentary practices. Mr John, who is leader of the House, says he will return to the Cook Islands better equipped after meeting government ministers and Maori and Pasifika MPs.

WILLIE JOHN: It gives me more confidence with the kind of work that I do back home from this experience.  Watching New Zealand parliament sit, that's experience I can take back home and share it with our own parliamentary colleagues.

Tamaiva Tuavera, who is deputy leader of the opposition, says meeting MPs with a Pacific heritage has inspired him.

TAMAIVA TUAVERA: I'm so happy to see that Pasifika is represented well in parliament in New Zealand.  Us, people of the Pacific, Moana-nui-a-kiwa.  To see all these MPs, you know, I was going wow!  It's an eye-opener and I hope we can network with them and they can help us improve our parliament.   

Mr Tuavera says one way parliament could be improved would be to emulate some procedures from New Zealand, particularly when it comes to question time.

TAMAIVA TUAVERA: We've seen how questions are written and at question time everybody knows what the question is and some of them already then may have the answer to the question.  It cuts out all the wastefulness of time.

Mr Tuavera says time is also taken up by having questions translated.

TAMAIVA TUAVERA: If you speak Maori, it's translated into English.  If you speak in English, it's translated back to Maori.  Each MP has ten minutes to talk but realistically if you look at it you only got five minutes because the translator got the other five.  

New Zealand MP Poto Williams, who hosted the MPs one evening, says she feels obligated to assist her Pasifika family.

POTO WILLIAMS: Being a Cook Islander myself, I have a sense of wanting to ensure that I can provide what I can in terms of knowledge or resource back to those MPs and also learn about the issues at a really basic, real life experience level, so it's an opportunity to do that exchange.

Ms Williams says New Zealand has a role to not just speak for the Pacific, but to speak to the Pacific.  

POTO WILLIAMS: Sometimes we have access to audiences that our cousins from the far-flung areas cannot get to and if you can't get your people to various places your messages aren't getting out as well.  So when the issue around climate change which is very real to people in the Pacific is occurring, they should be able to look to us to help them get that message out onto the world stage.

The delegation also spent time with Auckland-based Cook Islanders to get their feedback on how to address depopulation of the islands.