Pavihi, who won one of the six common role seats in last month’s elections, said she turned down the position because there was no provision for associate ministers in the nation’s constitution.
“It would be against my better judgment to discard my principles to take up a position that I feel has no legal basis,” she said.
Pavihi said the constitution needs to be amended to allow for associate ministers and possibly even an increase in the size of cabinet — currently limited to just four ministers.
She said an offer by Niue’s new premier, Toki Talagi, to take a $15,000 pay cut to fund the associate minister positions was extremely generous but failed to address the issue of whether the positions were allowed for under the constitution.
“I think by declining the position would start the ball rolling on actually amending the constitution so that these functions of cabinet are made legal,” she said.
Pavihi said the size of Niue’s assembly also needs to be reviewed. Twenty assembly members for a population of under 2,000 may be too many. She said Niueans have responded positively to her stand.
In other news, Niue’s new minister in charge of the power corporation, O’Love Jacobsen, said there needs to be a campaign to educate people on how to conserve electricity.
Jacobsen said she supported a continuation of the current government subsidy for electricity in the short-term at least.
“I agree in the subsidy but I also agree that it needs to be monitored and worked through as to how we would educate our people to save power where we can and I think there is still many families who leave lights on turn all the lights on,” she said.
Jacobsen said people need to know which appliances use a lot of power and the best ways to cut their power bills.
Niue’s bulk fuel department has an operating deficit of $600,000 due to subsidies to the electricity supplier, land clearing contractors and the island’s designated airline, Air New Zealand.
Jacobsen said once people have cut their power bills, the government may look at reducing the electricity subsidy.
