Newly elected Premier works on forming cabinet; financial matters an immediate priority.
The newly elected Premier of Niue Dalton Tagelagi is now looking at selecting the ‘best people that can help push Niue forward.’
Dalton Tagelagi an MP for the village seat of Alofi South and O’love Jacobsen, a Common Roll MP were nominated by members of the Legislative Assembly for the position of Premier during the opening of the 17th Legislative Assembly yesterday – Wednesday, June 10th.
Dalton Tagelagi received 13 votes while Jacobsen received 7 votes.
He was sworn in as Premier following the election.
“Very humbled, very honored. 12 years have been in Parliament working my way up as a normal member learning the system and the process and of course member assisting ministers in the last two terms. Very fortunate to be a minister and now of course Premier. Very honored to be here but put that aside there’s plenty of work to do no doubt what’s left from the last Premier Sir Toke, there are big shoes to fill but I’m up to it I suppose as I am part of that system from 2008 till now. So it is more less progressing it further at the moment and of course, every new captain has their own outlook of where the canoe is heading and I’m banking on the new members especially those who have experienced with outside meetings to contribute in region of the Pacific and also in the world.
I’ll be looking forward to selecting the best people that can help push us forward so to speak.” said Tagelagi
The new Premier spoke to BCN News about his immediate priorities.
During the campaign period, the financial management of the Niue government was highlighted as a major issue of concern by majority of candidates.
“In the immediate term, we’ll be focusing on financial matters. As you all know with COVID 19 we are not in a good situation. One thing that our own people do not realize is that we are an aid dependant country so there will be a few sacrifices, its no doubt about that. That’s why I said to prepare for some of the things that are going to be cut and at the moment that’s the number one priority and then we’ll start looking into other matters such as the village development and all of that.” said Tagelagi
The 52-year-old is Niue’s youngest Premier and has been in Parliament since 2008.
His previous portfolio was the Minister for Natural Resources in Sir Toke Talagi’s government and led Niue’s delegation at the’ Our oceans’ conference in Malta in 2017 where he had announced Niue’s plan to commit 40% of its EEZ as a large scale marine protected area.
He is also a bronze medalist in the 2019 Pacific Games in the sport of bowling.
