‘Spy film type thing’ – Alarm grows over Cook Islands cryptocurrency bill
Alarm is growing over proposed Cook Islands legislation, drafted by a US-based company, which could validate hacking into any account or system in the world.
In an investigation, 1News has learned that Drumcliffe, a high-value debt collector specialising in international asset seizure, hired at least two Cook Islands-based lawyers to draft the Tainted Cryptocurrency Recovery Bill 2023.
The Cook Islands’ own Crown Law says it was excluded from the drafting process.
The bill, which has been tabled in Parliament, has far-reaching and potentially serious international ramifications.
Yesterday, before a Select Committee meeting, Cook Islands Crown Law’s deputy solicitor general David Greig slammed the bill, calling it “flawed”, adding that some provisions are “clearly unconstitutional”.
He said the legislation essentially validates carrying out criminal activities in any part of the world, which could be considered terrorism in some countries, and the bill should not be progressed.
The Cook Islands is part of the NZ realm, wtf is this crazy law?
I said that Winston had failed us as a foreign minister because the first thing he did when becoming Foreign Minister was to allow America to encroach into our Realm…
US to open embassies in the Cook Islands, Niue
Announcement comes as US President Joe Biden prepares to host a second summit with Pacific Island leaders in Washington DC.
…why are we allowing the Realm of NZ to be encroached upon by the Americans?
Surely our job as an independent voice in the pacific is to protect our Pacific Neighbours in ensuring their agency over the interests of Washington and Beijing, especially when that pacific Neighbour is part of our Realm!
America has encroached into our Realm and neither Winston or Judith will criticise this encroachment because both are thralls of the American Military Industrial Complex!
They are both so keen to show America our subservience and acquiescence to whatever new war they want to drag us into, Judith and Winston will invite us themselves!
Shortly after allowing America to encroach into the Cook Islands, lo and behold this new Tainted Cryptocurrency Recovery Bill is cooked up by American interests that will have far reaching hacking powers.
We are being played by America and no one seems to be prepared to call it out.
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“why are we allowing the Realm of NZ to be encroached upon by the Americans?”
I would have thought that our job as an independent voice in the Pacific means that we have no “realms”. These countries are perfectly entitled to formulate their own foreign policy.
And if you’re going to talk about ramifications it might be an idea to give us a clue as to what the law actually says?
And the skin head gang leader is to dumb to see what is going on as he is too inwards looking and only cares about fucking us over .No doubt these people will have funded his campaign to feather their nests
Martyn – if I had to choose between China, or the USA…and no others…then USA
Had we had a fully functional fourth estate with a spine this would be called out and the public informed to encourage meaningful debate in this liberal free democracy we all believe we live in.
When they do they get lambasted by idiots like Winston Peters FFS – allegations of bias and selective reporting to the fore. Prominent folk like Mr Peters actively undermine democracy when they cry foul – again and again. The crying foul is in relation to allegations against others which appear to be true. The fact that Peter’s is allowed to get away with his rubbish is a negative indictment against good journalism. If he thinks they lie then he should sue – the reality is that he (and others of his ilk) are simply full of bovine excrement – end of story.
“The Realm of New Zealand is the area over which the monarch of New Zealand is head of state. The realm is not a federation but is a collection of states and territories united under its monarch. New Zealand is an independent and sovereign state that has one territorial claim in Antarctica (the Ross Dependency), one dependent territory (Tokelau), and two associated states (the Cook Islands and Niue). The Realm of New Zealand encompasses the three autonomous jurisdictions of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, and Niue”
So the three jurisdictions (New Zealand, Niue and Cook Islands) are autonomous. None of the three has the sovereign power to direct the policies of the other two. However, King Charles as monarch and head of state has the sovereign authority to direct all three. This kind of setup was common among European monarchies. For example the King of Spain was also King of the Netherlands, even though technically speaking Spain had no authority over the Netherlands. Yet in practice, the King permitted the government of Spain to ride roughshod over the interests of the Netherlands. A similar situation pertains in the Realm of New Zealand. The solution? Abolition of the Realm of New Zealand and of British sovereignty in the three jurisdictions which it covers.
@ GF.
Balls.
For example; if AO/NZ tried it alone we’d be fucked in six different ways and all without the kissing by lunchtime Wednesday.
The whole point of humanity is Unity and you’re suggesting, in so many words, that we walk naked into the jungle without a means of defence, charter or alliance. What ever you took to produce that brain fart is probably something you should never take again.
We AO/NZ’ers need to cosset up to the Crown because our lives and lifestyles depend upon it.
40 years of roger the twat douglas’s neo-liberalism has dunked us headfirst into the sewers of U$A’s fascist capitalism and all that got us was 14 multi-billionaires, 3118 multi-millionaires and four now foreign owned banksters stealing our money at a rate of $180.00 a second and Lotto. Oh, and then there’s 200,000 kids living in poverty-like conditions and 600,000 people in even deeper shit than that, and you fucking wait? What’s coming at us is far too terrifying to countenance with a sober mind. The mantra of freedumbs an’ that did us in and the reason why it did is because it’s bullshit. Freedom within a neo-liberal capitalist economy is a logical fallacy. In other words it’s, as I’ve already written, bullshit.
Kia ora countryboy
Your argument is not easy to follow. I can’t work out whether you are supporting the current New Zealand constitutional and political alliance with Britain and the United States, or whether you are proposing some alternative “means of defence, charter or alliance”. If so, with whom would you wish to ally yourself?
You talk of the “sewers of U$A’s fascist capitalism” hard after saying “We AO/NZ’ers need to cosset up to the Crown because our lives and lifestyles depend upon it.” That seems to imply that New Zealand could break free from its vassal state relationship to the US while remaining a loyal servant of the United Kingdom. That is, to put it mildly, rather naive. There is a chain of dominion running from the US through the UK to New Zealand and then on to the Cook Islands. To become a truly independent sovereign state New Zealand would have to entirely remove itself from that chain of dominion.
Your “life and lifestyle” might depend on the Crown (that would certainly be true of every politician in the New Zealand parliament) but mine do not and never have, and in the course of my life I have learned that we tangata motu o Aotearoa are quite capable of providing for our own defence without need of any outside alliance.
By the way, you should not assume that everyone who writes to The Daily Blog shares your enthusiasm for the consumption of mind altering drugs. Some of us prefer to keep a “sober mind”.
Not quite correct.
New Zealand is the only recognised sovereign state of the three. The constitutions of Cook Island and Niue reserve foreign policy to New Zealand. To gain independence the residents of The Cooks and Niue have to vote for it. The residents all currently have New Zealand citizenship. That might be limited if they chose independence.
In short The Cooks and Niue do not have the constitutional right to their own foreign policy, unless they vote for independence.
The Tokelau are still more limited. They are effectively part of New Zealand almost in the same way as the Chathams. Not quite though. The UN has supervised three elections on the question of independence. The residents voted against.
All three places have very small populations. Could they really be independent nations in any meaningful sense?
Not quite correct either Wayne. The relationship between the Cook Islands and New Zealand mirrors the relationship between New Zealand and Britain. There is a sort of cascading sovereignty, with the King of Britain automatically becoming King of New Zealand, and the King of New Zealand automatically becoming King of the Cook Islands. So Britain still has a hold over New Zealand, and New Zealand still has a hold over the Cook Islands. However New Zealand claims the theoretical right to its own foreign policy, and so does the Cook Islands whose constitution states “the exercise by New Zealand of certain responsibilities for the defence and external affairs of the Cook Islands does not give New Zealand any rights of control. The Cook Islands has plenary competence with respect to the conduct of its international relations”. In practice the Cook Islands is very much beholden to New Zealand, and New Zealand in turn is beholden to Britain. The cases of Niue and Tokelau are somewhat different in that they are even more closely tied to and dependent upon New Zealand as the former colonial power.
New Zealand, Cook Islands and Niue have a theoretical independence which is constitutionally negated by the overarching and cascading sovereignty of the British crown and practically negated by their craven subservience to Anglo-American geo-political interests.
Could it be different? Yes, it could be and it will be, and population size has no bearing on the question of the future independence of Aotearoa, the Cook Islands and Niue respectively.
The groveling to america is sickening now after all the a… kissing are we getting better trade deal? In the meantime, baldy is selling our airspace to Singapore using unmanned testing aircrafts this is unethical and immoral, how low can we go, very low under this CoCs government.
I suppose you think the air belongs to Maori otherwise what is unethical about the resting drones by an allied power. who is an example of a well run economy.
At the end of 2023 Singapore government debt was around 170% of GDP, Trevor. Would Luxon and Willis say that’s a disaster? If they did you would believe them.
Winston peters is a Machiavellian Confederate but worse, he’s a lawyer. He’s also a ball-cupper in waiting to roger douglas and now without doubt to david ‘sickly’ seymour.
Peters’ job is in white washing. He’ll fawningly polish any turd for his Grand Masters and he’ll enthusiastically tackle any objections to his Grand Masters hopes, wishes and desires with all the vigour and aggression of a meth-addict stoat latched on to a blind, limping rabbit. Check out the guy’s political history? He’s as dodgy as fuck.
If this goes through we need to sever all ties with the Cooks
If this goes through then every sovereign nation on earth- and any free person- is entirely justified in doing whatever is within their power to destroy any infrastructure such American/zionist puppets may use to advance American/zionist interests.
Spoken like a true Muslim terrorist Mo, glad to see the real you!
Well most the civilized world thinks Winston is doing a great job. Guess they all wrong.
Bring back ANZUS. Jail and deport all traitors supporting the Sino-Russian Axis of Dictatorshit.
Ohakea will become a massive US air base by 2030 and the navy will be taken over by the UA as well and nuclear ships will be based at devon port or Whangarei
Won’t happen as there is no refinery in this part of the world( that includes Aussie) that refines military grade fuel or rather has the ability to. We don’t have a refinery. This will only happen if the USA rebuilds our Refinery.
Lots of sad cunts here today .Looks like the lynch mob mentality is still alive and well
Look in the mirror Gordon
The concept of “the Realm” is used to justify New Zealand dictating foreign policy (and some domestic policies) to the government of the Cook Islands. There is a mistaken idea that because the Cooks and Niue are within “our” realm” (the “Realm of New Zealand”), “we” (being the government of New Zealand) should have some authority over these island states.
New Zealand wants to have its cake and eat it. It wants to be able to say that it has granted independence to the Cooks and Niue while remaining their de facto colonial master.
As I have remarked above, under the system of cascading sovereignty which connects the Cooks to New Zealand and New Zealand to Britain, the British have the same attitude with respect to New Zealand as New Zealand has towards the Cooks. They fully expect and demand that New Zealand stands beside Britain on the international scene, and by and large New Zealand does exactly that.
On the other hand tangata motu reject the entire colonialist concept of the “Realm of New Zealand”. They do not accept the British claim to sovereignty over Aotearoa, and neither do they accept that New Zealand has any right to dictate policy to the peoples of the Cook Islands or Niue.