Vainetutai Rose Toki-Brown (born 7 December 1976) is a

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

politician, and

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘ prime minister� ...

. In July 2016 she became the Cook Islands' first female

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

Career

Toki-Brown was born in

Areora Areora is one of four traditional districts on the island of Mauke in the Cook Islands. It is in the south of the island, and is subdivided into three tapere A Tapere or Sub-District is a low level of traditional land subdivision on five of the S ...

Atiu Atiu, also known as Enuamanu (meaning ''land of the birds''), is an island of the Cook Islands archipelago, lying in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. Part of the Nga-pu-Toru, it is northeast of Rarotonga. The island's population has dropped b ...

. She was a businesswoman and ran the 24 hours Super Brown Mega Store with her husband. She is the mother of fellow MP Te-Hani Brown. Toki-Brown ran in the 2014 election as a candidate for the

Cook Islands Party The Cook Islands Party is a nationalist political party in the Cook Islands. It was the first political party founded in the Cook Islands, and one of the two major parties of the islands' politics since 1965. From 1999 until 2005 it sometimes ...

, defeating her uncle

Norman George Norman George (born 2 July 1946) is a Cook Islands politician and former Speaker of the Cook Islands Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister, and Cabinet Minister. George was first elected to the Parliament of the Cook Islands in 1983. He represented ...

to win the Teenui–Mapumai seat. An election petition by George was subsequently dismissed. She was appointed Deputy Speaker in October 2014, following then-opposition leader Teina Bishop's conviction for corruption in September 2016 (she resigned as Deputy Speaker after she was unanimously elected leader of the Opposition). Toki-Brown was replaced as Deputy Speaker by Mona Ioane. In June 2017 Toki-Brown rejoined the Cook Islands Party after being replaced by William (Smiley) Heather as leader of the opposition. While originally planning to run for the CIP in the 2018 election, she became an independent after pressure was put on her over her daughter running for the rival Cook Islands Democratic Party. She was elected, defeating both Democratic and Cook Islands Party candidates. Following the election she backed the Cook Islands Party government and was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Health, Justice, Parliamentary Services and Agriculture. In July 2019 she briefly served as Acting Prime Minister, the first woman to do so. In the Cabinet reshuffle following the appointment of Mark Brown as Prime Minister she retained all of her Cabinet portfolios. A second reshuffle in June 2021 saw her switch her Justice portfolio for Internal Affairs. She was re-elected at the

2022 Cook Islands general election General elections were held in the Cook Islands on 1 August 2022. A referendum on legalising medical cannabis was held on the same day. Background In the 2018 general election, the Democratic Party won a plurality with 11 seats but fell sho ...

and continued her support for Mark Brown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toki-Brown, Rose Living people Members of the Parliament of the Cook Islands Cook Islands Party politicians Cook Island women in politics 21st-century New Zealand women politicians 21st-century New Zealand politicians Government ministers of the Cook Islands Women government ministers of the Cook Islands People from Atiu 1976 births