1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,759
Speaker 1: Now Winston Peters has cut more funding to the cock Islands.

2
00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:04,760
Speaker 1: At this time he's cut nearly thirty million dollars. Now

3
00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:07,200
Speaker 1: this is on top of the eighteen million dollars he'd

4
00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:10,680
Speaker 1: already cut back in June. And yesterday our Chinese research ship.

5
00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:14,200
Speaker 1: Research ship also arrived in the Raratonga. Tina Brown is

6
00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:16,880
Speaker 1: the leader of the opposition over there and with us hi, Tina,

7
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,400
Speaker 1: oh hi, how's this news gone down with you guys?

8
00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:27,040
Speaker 2: Oh jee? It's a bit of a surprise because the

9
00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:32,240
Speaker 2: public since the news broke out some months ago, the

10
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:39,280
Speaker 2: public has been up in arms and have been saying

11
00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:44,280
Speaker 2: to government, fixed the problem, sought the situation out with

12
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:51,360
Speaker 2: New Zealand. If we wronged, just apologize and let's get

13
00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:56,680
Speaker 2: on with it. So it sounds to me that nothing's

14
00:00:56,720 --> 00:00:58,320
Speaker 2: been done about it.

15
00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:00,800
Speaker 1: Has the eighteen million dollars that was cut back in June?

16
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:01,720
Speaker 1: Has that been noticed?

17
00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,600
Speaker 2: The shortfall, well, the shortfall will be noticed very shortly

18
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,640
Speaker 2: because much of that money is supposed to go into

19
00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:16,000
Speaker 2: education and health. And of course now with New Zealand

20
00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:22,480
Speaker 2: pausing the further assistance, definitely it's going to be felt.

21
00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:25,000
Speaker 1: Right, but it's not making any difference with Mark Brown, though,

22
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:25,400
Speaker 1: why is that?

23
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,559
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I can't figure it. I just can't because,

24
00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,440
Speaker 2: as you may or may not be aware, our Secretary

25
00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:41,560
Speaker 2: of Foreign Affairs resigned a month ago, a month or

26
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:47,920
Speaker 2: so ago, and we can only speculate why. And we've

27
00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:54,400
Speaker 2: got an interim Foreign Affairs secretary and it sounds like

28
00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:03,760
Speaker 2: the supposedly negotiations that was supposed to be happening with

29
00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,560
Speaker 2: New Zealand may not have happened.

30
00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 1: Okay, do you think Tina, that it needs to be

31
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,720
Speaker 1: escalated by New Zealand and also in order to force

32
00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:13,840
Speaker 1: Mark Brown to back down?

33
00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:20,280
Speaker 2: Well, probably part of that. But my comment in parliament

34
00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:23,440
Speaker 2: was I wasn't quite sure why it was being left

35
00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:30,600
Speaker 2: to the officials. The problem was called caused by the politicians,

36
00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:36,800
Speaker 2: so I wasn't understanding why the remedy was being left

37
00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:43,080
Speaker 2: to the officials. It should be Mark Brown and Luxeon

38
00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:49,240
Speaker 2: meeting at that level. It shouldn't be left to the

39
00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:50,680
Speaker 2: officials anymore. Now.

40
00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, fair enough, Tina, thanks very much, really appreciate your time.

41
00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:55,720
Speaker 1: That's Tina Brown, the Cook Islands leader of the Opposition.

42
00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,560
Speaker 1: For more from Hither Duplessy Allan Drive listen live to

43
00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,400
Speaker 1: News to books. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or

44
00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,520
Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio