Te-Hani Brown

Te-Hani Brown was born in 1996 in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.^[1] Brown is the daughter of MP Rose Toki-Brown.^[2] She was first elected to parliament as a candidate for the Cook Islands Democratic Party in the 2018 election,^[3] defeating her predecessor Nandi Glassie. At age 22, she was the youngest MP in the Pacific region.^[4][5]

In January 2019 Brown resigned from the Democratic party to support the government of Henry Puna.^[6] Anti-party hopping laws forced her to resign from parliament. She contested the subsequent by-election as an independent, and was re-elected,^[7] but resigned the seat again just two weeks later when an electoral petition was filed.^[8] She contested a second by-election in November 2019 and was re-elected for a third time.^[9]

Following the election of Mark Brown as Prime Minister she was appointed Associate Minister of Internal Affairs and Health.^[10]

She was re-elected at the 2022 Cook Islands general election^[11] and continued her support for Mark Brown.^[12]