Caleb
Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist
An
New Zealand academic says there is a lack of understanding
on the details of Aotearoa’s relationship with the Cook
Islands.
Earlier this year, New Zealand extended
its funding pause to its realm country “reluctantly”,
with the total now nearly $30 million over two
years.
The disagreement between the two governments
stem from several agreements that the Cook Islands signed
with China at the beginning of the year.
The New
Zealand government believed it was not adequately consulted
over the agreements, which Wellington sees as a requirement
under the free association agreement.
Cook Islands
Prime Minister Mark Brown has pushed back at this, saying
the requirement of consultation is mutual, adding New
Zealand would not speak to his government prior to signing
international deals.
The Cook Islands celebrated 60
years of self-governance this year. Brown said the nation
had evolved, having a paternal relationship with New Zealand
to now one of friendship.
However, honorary senior
lecturer academic researcher at the University of Auckland
John McCaffery said it is a sad situation and “neither party
really understands the constitutional basis for the
relationship”.
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He said more recent agreements, like
the 2001 Joint Centenary Declaration signed between New
Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Terepai Maoate, are a
“superficial issue”.
“The real issue lies in what is
the relationship under the provisions of the realm of New
Zealand,” McCaffery said.
“The realm provisions have
remained the same since it was put in place in 1917, when
the Cook Islands and Niue were brought into a relationship
with New Zealand, not as dependent territories, but actually
as an integrated part of the realm of New Zealand, over
which the British monarch has absolute authority, which is
delegated to the New Zealand Governor-General.
“I’m
not saying that I like it or anybody else likes it but that
is the historical situation.”
The 1917 letters patent
established the office of the Governor-General and extended
its powers to the Cook Islands and Niue.
Based on
this, McCaffery said the New Zealand Governor-General holds
the power over both the New Zealand and Cook Islands
government, despite the Cook Islands having its own King’s
Representative.
He said it means the New Zealand
government has the power to advise the Crown to withdraw the
warrant of the current government of the Cook Islands –
effectively toppling Brown.
McCaffery said the Cook
Islands should look for amendments to the letters patent,
instead of asking for clarification over the more recent
self-governing in free association issue, which came into
effect in 1965.
“[The Cook Islands] are actually a
dependent territory of New Zealand and definitely not an
independent country.
“It should have been said a long
time ago, these are the limits to the Cook Islands
constitution and operation and if you want to remain with
New Zealand, you must abide by them.
“If you don’t and
you wish for independence, as has always been said, you’re
welcome to go for it; but there are absolute limits that I
think New Zealand has failed in its friendship and
relationship responsibilities to spell out.”
A
spokesperson for New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters
said they had nothing further to add to their previous
statements on the realm relationship.
Last month,
Peters said New Zealand’s relationship with the Cook Islands
is with its people, not the government.
“It’s the
people who’ve got this, what we might call a pretty sacred
agreement with and we intend to honour it.
“We’ve got
to make sure the Cook Islands people know what’s happening
in their name, because what’s happening at the moment is a
breach of the realm special relationship.”
He said if
the Cook Islands wants to become independent of New Zealand,
they should “have a referendum and tell us”.
“But in
the meantime, we’re not going to let the Cook Islands people
down.”
He also said there had been a series of
constructive discussions between New Zealand and Cook
Islands officials.
But he said Brown was promoting a
vision of the relationship which was “inconsistent with the
free association model”.
In parliament about two weeks
ago, Brown
said the Cook Islands has consistently written to Wellington
since February, reaffirming its commitment to the
relationship while setting out the Cook Islands’ legal and
constitutional position.
He said the government has
tabled several forward-looking proposals, including risk
mitigation measures, a modernised consultation process under
the Joint Centenary Declaration, direct political
engagements, security arrangements that reaffirm New Zealand
as the primary partner, and “a workable set of deliverables
to rebuild mutual trust and confidence across both
government administrations”.
Brown reminded parliament
that the Joint Centenary Declaration is treated “as a formal
codification that is equivalent in status to a
treaty.”
Although the Cook Islands shares a Head of
State and citizenship with New Zealand, he said the islands
remain self-governing and independent in external
affairs.
First and second-class
citizenship
McCaffery said under the current
agreement the Cook Islands also has a right to public
services in line with that of New Zealand.
“Some
people have said that people in New Zealand are first-class
citizens and people in the realm are second-class citizens
because they do not have the same health care, the same
education, the same facilities, the same
transport.
“I’ve always been unsure why the realm
territories and the Cooks in particular, didn’t exercise
that clause of the realm provision saying, ‘if we are New
Zealand citizens, we need to be on the same basis as the
first-class citizens of Aotearoa, New
Zealand’.”
McCaffery has Cook Islands grandchildren
and in 2012 he took a petition to parliament arguing Cook
Islands people in New Zealand should have access to their
own language and culture, because the Cook Islands is part
of the realm of New Zealand.
“The New Zealand
Parliament did fundamentally agree with that provision and
has extended language rights and language instruction rights
in Cook Island Māori to Cook Island students in New
Zealand.”
He said it’s an example of New Zealand
rights also extending to the Cook
Islands.
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