Saturday 12 February 2010
Carter envoy to Cooks
By Mike Dinsdale
Northland MP John Carter has been appointed the next New Zealand High Commissioner to the Cook Islands - a position he will take up when his 24 years in Parliament come to an end this year.
Mr Carter announced last year he was stepping down before the November general election and Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced yesterday that Mr Carter would take up the post in the Cooks from August.
Mr Carter will replace Linda Te Puni and he will be the second Northlander ever to hold the post, after the late Brian Donnelly, a former New Zealand First MP and Whangarei principal.
Mr Carter said he was proud to be appointed High Commissioner after first visiting the Cooks in 1975 when he led New Zealand's first rugby tour there as president of the Te Kuiti Rugby Club. His most recent visit was in 2009 as part of the successful Parliamentary Rugby Team tour.
"I feel very proud and honoured to represent our country in this way," he said.
"And Northland has some strong ties with the Cooks, through Mr Donnelly, and a significant number of the Cook Islands' parliamentary leaders were educated here, at Northland College when it had its boarding house."
As High Commissioner to the Cook Islands, Mr Carter will be contributing to New Zealand's responsibilities there, and said after his three-year appointment he intended to come back to Northland to live.
"My interest in the Cook Islands goes back to my first visit 36 years ago and I am pleased to have the opportunity to work with the people there on the variety of shared interests we have," Mr Carter said.
Mr McCully said he was confident Mr Carter would take a strong leadership role in managing the relationship at an important time in its history.
"New Zealand and the Cook Islands enjoy a special relationship based on historical, constitutional and strong people-to-people links.
"The Cooks have been self-governing in free association with New Zealand since 1965 and all Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens," Mr McCully said.
"Accordingly, this underlines the closeness of the bilateral relationship.
"New Zealand development assistance to the Cook Islands has increased significantly over the past two years and has been refocused on sustainable economic development including support for activities such as waste management that maintain the integrity of Cook Islands reputation as a tourism destination."
Mr Carter was first elected as Bay of Islands MP in 1987 and is in his eighth term in Parliament.
Monday 14 February 2011
Carter long time in 'training' for islands diplomatic post
By Claire Trevett
Northland MP John Carter is heading for the Cook Islands to become a diplomat - a job he has been "training" for since 1975 when he first visited the islands on a rugby trip.
Mr Carter said yesterday that trip - before he became an MP - and subsequent holidays set him up with ongoing connections with several Cook Islands politicians.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully announced last week that Mr Carter would become the new High Commissioner to the Cooks - an appointment tipped by the Herald in November.
Mr Carter, who arrived in Parliament in 1987, will leave in July for the Cook Islands. A byelection will not be required for his Northland electorate because he will leave it within six months of the November 26 election.
Mr Carter has often holidayed in the Cook Islands - but despite suspicion that Mr McCully was exercising his sense of humour with a reference to Mr Carter's "long association" with the Cooks, Mr Carter said he had other connections.
In recent years he had visited as part of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. He also recalled being based in Rarotonga in 1995 as a government representative on the HMNZS Tui, which was protecting boats protesting against nuclear testing on Mururoa Atoll.
"I was seasick for four days straight."
Mr Carter's appointment was largely seen as a sweetener offered by Prime Minister John Key before the last election as part of an agreement to stand down.
His Northland electorate is one of the safest National Party seats in the country and has a large party membership.
Tuesday 12 January 2010
A highly honourable effort
JOHN CARTER and Shane Jones play for the Parliamentary rugby team
in Rarotonga last year. Photo: Cook Islands News
Northland MP the Hon John Carter displayed an unsuspected talent when he snared this lineout win for the New Zealand Parliamentary rugby team in Rarotonga in November 2009, much to the (no one is quite sure what) of team mate, the equally Hon Shane Jones, who might well simply be displaying relief that he did not have to take the Minister for Senior Citizens by the shorts and fling him ten feet into the air.
Just what might have been passing through the two politicians' minds, if, indeed, anything, has been the subject of some speculation, but sources who are not especially close to the Beehive (but know where it is) have suggested that it had nothing to do with Mr Carter's apparent decision to abandon the practice of waxing his legs, an indulgence which Mr Jones, it is rumoured, continues to enjoy.
The theory that Mr Carter is actually trying to identify exactly what it is that has been tossed to him has some appeal, but another, that Mr Jones has just worked out what happened to a couple of his election hoardings in 2008, is officially regarded as a long shot. Rumours that Mr Carter is planning to audition for the role of Gollum in a new LOTR movie is possibly even longer, although he was heard to hiss something that sounded very much like 'Preciousss!' Most commentators would say he is too tall.
His expression reminds one of the mixture of joy and horror that flitted over the countenance of one Gerry Brownlee, playing for the same team at Awanui some years ago, when he received the ball just inside the opposition's half with a clear run to the goal line.
Ten metres into his sprint he flung the ball to the ground, however, clutching at his right hamstring and staggering to a halt. He was assisted from the field, but the moment he crossed the touch line he effected a miraculous recovery. Asked what had happened, he said he had had no intention of running that far. Mr Carter, incidentally, could have scored a famous try that day (against Awanui's Men in Black), but for the unfortunate fact that he tripped over just as the ball was about to reach him.
