Cover Story
Why People Are Leaving The Islands
Political uncertainty and high cost of living
Pity the Cook Islands politicians. Tourism is booming. Workers are in hot demand. Job vacancies are advertised for weeks, sometimes months. Deposits are high and bank loans are cheap. Cook Islanders are still leaving.
More good news. Pearls are recovering well from a late 2000 disease outbreak. A brand new fishing industry has got off to a skyrocket start. And the arts industry is possibly the most dynamic in the island region.
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Cook Islanders, however, are still leaving.
Traditional leader, Dorice Reid says some Cook Islanders may be finding it too expensive to live in their own country. Reid's title Te Tika' means The Truth. She is president of the Koutu Nui, a grouping from the orders of mataiapo and rangatira, ranks junior only to Ariki, who are the paramount chiefs.
"They haven't stopped leaving, even now at this time when our economy is completely turning around," says Reid.
Continued migration is possibly the most urgent issue facing political and business leaders today. Criticism of politicians over the lack of action is mounting. Reid says the labour shortage has gone past crisis and into the next stage.
"We've gone way past that point, we're importing workers. Even myself, I'm importing." As a long-time motel owner on Rarotonga's south side, Reid has seen first hand the loss of workers to what many hope is better pay overseas. "I believe one of the reasons is that they can't afford to live here. I don't have any research at hand to support that opinion. But we have plenty of jobs."
Some simple figures show the problem. Cook Islanders have one of the highest minimum wages by law in the region, at US$2 an hour. By comparison, Fiji workers get a minimum of about US$0.50c an hour. But a loaf of bread in Rarotonga costs US$1.50, whereas a similar loaf in Fiji would cost as little as US$0.15c. Four times the pay, in other words, but as much as ten times the price.
Consider that New Zealand offers at least twice the pay and half the costs, and you can understand why most Cook Islanders use their Kiwi passports to leave their homeland and live...anywhere they like, really. An estimated 60,000 plus live in New Zealand and there is a surprisingly large community in Australia, of about 20,000. No one knows how many may be spread around the rest of the world, perhaps as many as a thousand, or even two.
Reid identifies another trigger for migration - political uncertainty. "Four governments in three years does not give our people a sense of real stability in the nation."
Broken promises are another. "Even though each government has said that they are going to do it right, people are a little bit tired of all these deals." Politics in a small island state is, by its very nature, personal rather than philosophical, she says. In the end, what may push people to leave is seeing their favourite leader dumped.
"They have loyalties towards certain leaders and when these leaders are turfed out, people leave the country."
Reid's theory is supported by the fact that the heaviest migration took place not during the economic crisis of the mid-nineties, but when former prime minister, Sir Geoffrey Henry, was dumped at the end of 1999. Today, Henry is back in power, this time as deputy prime minister, after two and a half years on the opposition benches.
During that time, he has seen the resident population shrink from 14,900 to as low as 12,900 before Christmas. Henry admits that is bringing pressure on the labour force.
"It's quite clear that in comparison with other territories in the Pacific, we have a very high employment level, possibly of the kind that classic economists describe as full employment."
Henry goes on to complain that some youths are choosing not to work. He also repeats long-standing comments about the lack of development in the Sister Islands and unemployment there. "We need to work out attractions for visitors to these areas. We've given the matter some thought.
"Government will need to consider proposals being put up in order for these to be declared a government policy by the Cook Islands Development Investment Board."
Sounds promising, but residents in the Sister Islands have heard those promises for decades. They are unlikely to stop. Resident figures in the Sister Islands have dropped by more than 25% in the last 10 years.
Are Cook Islanders really still leaving?
Chamber of Commerce President Ewan Smith, for one, isn't buying the shrinking population argument. He agrees that lots of people have left the outer islands, but doubts whether all of them have left the country. Large increases in income tax collected by government, most of it in Rarotonga, are one hint of hidden residents.
Smith also questions the huge gap between what government claims is the resident population and the total population, including tourists. At the moment, that gap is running at 4300 people, according to Statistics Cook Islands. There aren't that many tourism beds in the country.
"Is the resident figure wrong? Or the top figure right?" he asks. Either way, politicians will have to face the fact that the costs of living are too high for some Cook Islanders to stay.
