Tina Browne

Brown was born in 1955^[1] and is from the island of Rakahanga and is the daughter of former Cook Islands Prime Minister Pupuke Robati.^[2] She was educated at Tereora College and then attended the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1979^[2][3] – the first woman from Rarotonga to do so.^[4] She subsequently worked for New Zealand law firm Russell McVeagh. She returned to the Cook Islands in 1981 to work for the Crown Law Office before entering private practice.^[3] She served as president of the Cook Islands Netball Association.^[5]

Browne first entered politics in 1996, when she contested the Nikao-Panama by-election as a candidate for the Cook Islands Party. She was defeated by Ngamau Munokoa.^[5]

She was elected as leader of the Democratic Party in April 2017, replacing William (Smiley) Heather.^[6] In the 2018 election she contested the seat of Rakahanga, losing to the Cook Islands Party's Toka Hagai. Hagai subsequently resigned the seat following allegations of treating,^[7] and Browne won it following an electoral petition.^[8]

In December 2019 she was part of a protest by women MPs to permit the wearing of ei katu (floral crowns) in Parliament.^[9]

In April 2020, she led several MPs in taking a pay cut during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[10][11] During 2020 she supported the government's efforts to prevent the spread of covid to the Cook Islands,^[12] and later opposed the government's lifting of quarantine.^[13]

In March 2021, she joined the government in opposing a 10-year moratorium on seabed mining.^[14]

She was re-elected at the 2022 Cook Islands general election.^[15]