Source: New Zealand Government
Speech for Constitution Day Celebrations of the Cook Islands hosted by the Upokina Taoro (East Cook Island Community Group) and Cook Islands Development Agency New Zealand (CIDANZ)
Kia Orana
We’d like to begin by acknowledging Reverend Charles Pange, our hosts the East Cook Islands Community Group, with support from the Cook Islands Development Agency New Zealand, CIDANZ, and thanks to Auckland Council for bringing everyone together on this great occasion.
We’d like to further acknowledge the Cook Islands Consul-General and Cook Islands Elders, Mama Tupou Manapori & Mama Mi’i Tarapu.
And acknowledgement also to parliamentary colleagues. There are things on which we don’t agree, but bipartisan support for the Cook Islands-New Zealand relationship is not one of them. Supporting the Cook Islands people transcends politics on all sides of our Parliament.
Introduction
Today we are gathered here at the Te Oro Music and Arts Centre, 60 years after the Cook Islands Constitution came into being. We are here to celebrate the uniqueness of that creation moment in 1965, because when the Cook Islands entered into ‘Free Association’ with New Zealand it created a global precedent, the first of its type, and one which other countries would follow.
It is an association, freely entered into, that has served Cook Islanders and New Zealanders well, and one that has fostered ever deeper links between us.
We are close family, because our links, as we know, are intertwined, and ancient. Our first settlers share the same DNA, having left – or been kicked out of – the Cooks over 800 years ago. Our shared DNA was sheeted home some decades ago when, upon arriving in Rarotonga, Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Tom Davis greeting was, simply, ‘Welcome home.’
And home it feels like, whenever travelling to the Cooks, a true paradise on earth that we’ve enjoyed for the many decades we’ve been visiting. The spectacular natural features of the Cook Islands are world class and enhanced by an always welcoming people.
They’ve had practice, because for hundreds of years the great seafarers who populated the Southwest Pacific frequently passed through the Cooks, New Zealand’s first settlers among them.
Now, Pacific navigation has often been compared to space travel given the vast distances travelled to unknown and uncertain lands. But it was arguably more impressive. In travelling to the moon NASA knew where it was going and the maths determined everything else. The real uncertainty of space travel was whether the technology would hold up to get the astronauts safely to the moon and back.
The great seaward journeys of our ancestors needed not just their technology to hold up but also, as they sailed and rowed across the Pacific, they relied upon the stars, on wave motions, and the migratory path of birds. It is thought the long-tailed cuckoo, the Koekoeã, may well have helped New Zealand’s first settlers find these islands.
The links initially forged between the Cook Islands and New Zealand people have grown stronger. According to the last census, there are over 94,000 Cook Islands Māori living in New Zealand.
You have enriched New Zealand through your work, your enterprise, and your character, as communities in South Auckland, Tokoroa, and Porirua can attest.
As we celebrate our close family bonds today we say ‘Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa – ‘Let us keep close together, not wide apart’ – which speaks to our daily obligation to move forward together respectfully.
The Cook Islands and New Zealand are family, underpinned by our now 60-year free association relationship. That relationship is strong because of our deep and enduring connections. They are bonds we value highly and ones that underscore the success of free association.
The Creation of the Free Association Model
But 60 years ago, none of this success was assured. This was a time when decolonisation was sweeping the globe. Former colonies across the world sought and gained independence, some through evolution, others by revolution.
There was also a prevailing view in the United Nations that independence was the only way forward for former colonies. Its 1960 Declaration on Colonialism strongly urged colonial powers to bring a speedy and unconditional end to colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.
Lost in the mists of time is the fact that New Zealand was the only colonial power who voted for the Declaration. That was our stake in the ground.
A General Assembly Resolution the following day set out three means by which a non-self-governing territory could exercise its right of self-determination. They were:
- Emergence as a sovereign independent state,
- Free association with an independent state, or
- Integration with an independent state.
This was the political and intellectual climate in which New Zealand officials and the Cook Islands’ Legislative Assembly engaged over the Cooks’ future political status during the early part of the 1960s.
New Zealand’s commitment to support the Cook Islands’ evolution to self-government never wavered. And as the Good Book says, ‘Where there is no vision the people perish.’
That vision emerged in the Cook Islands Legislative Assembly. After consulting expert and independent constitutional advisors, it passed a motion which declared that full independence, as Samoa gained in 1962, was not their aim.
Instead, they sought the fullest possible self-government while preserving for the Cook Islands people their New Zealand citizenship.
There were some Cook Islanders who preferred integration with New Zealand, a small number who sought independence, but there is no doubt the overwhelming majority of the Cook Islands people wanted to preserve their link with New Zealand, but with self-government.
United Nations representative Oma Adeel confirmed this when he reported that while in the Cooks he did not encounter ‘a single member of the present generation of people who want independence’. Instead, he said, the voice in favour of change nonetheless did not want to break with New Zealand.
Thus the ‘Free Association’ model was born. Driven, developed and shaped by the Cook Islands Legislative Assembly, it then came into force, after the passage of the Cook Islands Constitution Act (1964), on 4 August 1965.
Crucially, Cook Islanders retained their New Zealand citizenship as that was their overwhelming desire. New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk, in his 1973 Exchange of Letters with Cook Islands Prime Minister Albert Henry, wrote:
‘It is therefore unusual for a state to extend its citizenship to people
living in areas beyond the reach of its own laws. That New Zealand
has taken this step in relation to the Cook Islands is the strongest
proof of its regard for, and confidence in, the people of your country’.
In this way, along with other features, the ‘Free Association’ model was novel. At the time, it was described to the United Nations by New Zealand’s Permanent Representative, Frank Corner, as ‘neither fish nor fowl, neither sovereign government nor dependence’.
The ‘Free Association’ model contained within it a fruitful ambiguity, one that would require both New Zealand and the Cook Islands to, over time, mutually accommodate each other’s interests.
The Exchange of Letters between Prime Ministers Norman Kirk and Albert Henry in 1973, and the Joint Centenary Declaration signed between Prime Ministers Helen Clark and Terepai Maoate in 2001, are two examples where refinements were made through mutual accommodation.
Importantly, nothing in the ‘Free Association’ model would prevent the Cook Islands from unilaterally seeking full independence should they wish to. That was the case in 1965. It remains the case today.
If independence is ever sought by the Cook Islands people under Article 41 of the Constitution, as is their right, we will support it. That is, fundamentally, what the word ‘free’ means in the concept of ‘free association’, noting that any move to full independence can only ever be the sovereign choice of the Cook Islands people.
Among New Zealand’s responsibilities, codified in the ‘Free Association’ model, was a commitment to the Cook Islands people. Like any close family member, we’re there when you need us most.
We’re also close because we share a Head of State. We’re also close because our bond of citizenship does entail a degree of New Zealand involvement in Cook Islands affairs.
So if the Cook Islands Government passed laws or took actions that were offensive to New Zealand’s governing norms, or were injurious to Cook Islanders, then New Zealand had a duty to act on behalf of its citizens in the Cook Islands.
But let’s return to celebrating the novel idea of a ‘Free Association’. One proof is that the unique constitutional arrangement has withstood the test of time. Another is its use in other countries, in the Compact States of Micronesia and in the Realm countries of Polynesia, and elsewhere.
Importantly, the three structural pillars of the Cook Islands’ political and cultural foundations – the government, the church, and the Ariki – have remained undisturbed by free association. Leadership flowing in both directions, reciprocal service and loyalty now, as always, underpin the strength of Te tira rangatiratanga.
We have together forged a rich, unique, and enduring relationship that has provided opportunity for Cook Islanders and New Zealanders, and one that recognises the close personal ties that have grown between us.
It has in every respect been a success.
Successes
The Cook Islands community in New Zealand is a successful one, vibrant and valued, and contributing to all aspects of New Zealand society – across the arts, culture, sport, business and leadership.
Cook Islanders living in the Cook Islands have benefitted economically from their association with New Zealand. The Cooks’ per capita GDP, surpassed only by Palau, offers further evidence that within our region the Cook Islands are viewed as a very successful island economy.
Bouncing back from the COVID disruption, particularly in the tourism sector, the Cook Islands is enjoying strong economic growth, low unemployment, and it has the best labour market participation of anywhere in the Pacific.
The educational opportunities afforded by free association have seen some 40 percent of Cook Island Mãori aged over 15 attain some form of post-school qualification here in New Zealand.
Cook Islanders have succeeded in all walks of life in New Zealand. Dr Tearikiva Moate in Pacific health, poet and playwright Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Annie Crummer in music, the first female Cook Islands Deputy Prime Minister Ngamau Munokoa, Woman International Chess Master Sue Jones, and journalist Barbara Dreaver are just some of the Cook Islanders who have risen to the top of their professions and served their communities.
One of my staff would also find it remiss if their uncle, Paul Koteka, the first All Black of Cook Island descent, wasn’t mentioned, alongside mid-fielder Walter Little and five eight Lima Sopoaga as three of several All Blacks with Cook Islands connections.
Let’s not forget the many Cook Islanders working one, two, or even three jobs here in New Zealand. The labourers, tradies, drivers, community and service workers in our cities and towns are valued every bit as much as those names highlighted in this speech.
They all form part of our strong people-to-people connections and they underpin and give life and meaning to our enduring formal relationship.
For New Zealand’s part, we have strived to live up to our responsibilities inherent in the free association model. One measure of how we can be judged is to pose the question: has New Zealand been there for the Cook Islands people when needed most?
We have. Providing emergency relief and reconstruction after Cyclone Sally devastated parts of the Cook Islands back in 1987, New Zealand has supported the Cooks through any number of natural disasters.
These include after the terrible damage wrought by Cyclone Martin in 1997 across the Northern Group of islands, which killed 19 people on Manihiki. New Zealand was there too in 2005, another terrible year that saw the Cook Islands suffer the devastation of five cyclones that season.
We’ve helped build resilience against natural disasters through tsunami preparedness of necessary infrastructure and installing a network of dart buoys to the Northeast of New Zealand. These dart buoys, which measure changes in wave height, provide early tsunami alerts to island countries across the Southwest Pacific, including the Cook Islands.
We committed over $100 million during the COVID pandemic by providing vaccines, medical supplies and financial aid to support the Cook Islands’ health system and economic recovery.
We’ve been there during tough economic times too, from the Wine Box through periodic economic crises since. We are also proud to have promoted in 2019 the portability of National Superannuation for Cook Islanders in their retirement.
We may not be perfect but we’ve never wavered from our responsibilities, wherever they lay. For six decades we have stood by, ready to support Cook Islands’ economic and social development, while never losing sight of the fact that our financial support comes from the taxes of hard-working New Zealanders.
Final Reflections
The Cook Islands and New Zealand people are close family, so it’s been a pleasure to celebrate Constitution Day’s 60th with you today.
We can celebrate our links, old and new.
We can celebrate that 60 years ago something unique was created.
And we can celebrate that it endures, this strong link between our peoples.
We can reflect, also, that it has been a model that has allowed the Cook Islands to succeed economically.
The beating heart of our ‘Free Association’ is the right to choose. Cook Islanders are free to choose where to live, how to live, and to worship whichever God they wish.
They are also free to choose to leave the relationship should they ever wish to. And like in any close family, we would support them and wish them well.
In our troubled world, we sometimes need to stop, take pause from time to time, to reflect on our successes.
Today marks one of them, because there is much to celebrate in our 60 years joined together in free association as part of the New Zealand realm.
Meitaki ma’ata and God bless.
