e Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (right) sits next to the leader of Cook Islands opposition Tina Browne at the front of Parliament during the protest. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Caleb Fotheringham
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer joined more than 400 people in Rarotonga on Tuesday morning (Monday, Cook Islands time) to protest against Prime Minister Mark Brown's government.
Ngarewa-Packer, who is in the Cook Islands for her 30th wedding anniversary, said she was asked by the local community to join the rally, held a day after Brown returned from China, where he signed a controversial partnership agreement, upsetting the New Zealand government.
"I'm here on a personal visit, and arrived at the airport and got swamped and was asked if I could come and support," she told RNZ Pacific.
She said she has met with the community members in Avarua who have shared "real concerns" with her.
"There's a group that we're really concerned about the change of the passport and the impact, not only what it means politically, but what means is whakapapa.
"Then obviously there's more questions than answers when it came to the Chinese geopolitical discussions."
"It's been really humbling because there's been a lot of rangatahi, as we heard today, who really don't want to see anything that's going to threaten the relationship with Aotearoa."
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (right) talks with Cook Islands Foreign Minister Tingika Elikana and Sonny Williams assistant Minister of the Prime Minister. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Caleb Fotheringham
Ngarewa-Packer said she agreed with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters about the lack of consultation by the Cook Islands government on the controversial China deal.
"What really concerns us is that there was not only a lack of consultation, a lack of communications full stop, there's also a lack of understanding the impact," she said.
"So whenever you have something so large being done like that, the country that Cook Islands are connected to, didn't know anything about. It was clear that New Zealand was caught out."
She said Brown must come forward and listen to the concerns of his community.
"I think that the Prime Minister [Brown] in this situation here in Cook Islands is poorly advised and just needs to come back to the ground, and come back to Aotearoa and to his own citizens and explain what is that he's doing.,
"I don't think in these times it's justifiable to be surprising everybody concerned."
When asked if it was appropriate for a member of the New Zealand Parliament to be protesting against the leadership of the another country, Ngarewa-Packer replied: "I've actually objected to a few things that Mark Brown has done politically."
"His aggression of seabed mining is one of them, so I don't think it'll be a surprise to many here in the citizens of the Cook Islands in Aotearoa.
"The fact of the matter is, we've got a prime minister who's really aggressive on economic agendas that are at the cost of not only his people but his environment, and therefore, I think he should move of caution," she added.
