13 Mar 2004

NZ to offer Niue a co-ordinator for clean-up operation after Cyclone Heta

9:37 am on 13 March 2004

The New Zealand Aid Minister is to visit Niue this weekend to discuss the government's plans for recovering from the devastation caused by Cyclone Heta.

Marion Hobbs says she is also going to reaffirm New Zealand's commitment to maintaining a living community there.

She says the Niue Government has produced a very good recovery plan but now it is a matter of how it is managed.

Ms Hobbs says she will be exploring a request from Niue's Premier Young Vivian for New Zealand to provide a co-ordinator to help implement the plan.

"People are very able and good and hardworking, but if you've got small numbers and a lot of jobs are falling on a few people, and it may be that we might be able to mprovide a co-ordinator to stand alongside the cabinet and actively do the co-ordination with, say, the EU or Australia or the French Polynesians, and I think that is very important."