Tina Browne
Tina Pupuke-Browne is a member of the Cook Islands Parliament. She is leader of the Democratic Party.
Browne is from the island of Rakahanga and is the daughter of former Cook Islands Prime Minister Pupuke Robati. She was educated at Tereora College and then attended the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1979 - the first woman from Rarotonga to do so. She subsequently worked for New Zealand law firm Russell McVeagh. She returned to the Cook Islands in 1981 to work for the Crown Law Office before entering private practice. She served as president of the Cook Islands Netball Association.
Browne first entered politics in 1996, when she contested the Nikao-Panama by-election as a candidate for the Cook Islands Party. She was defeated by Ngamau Munokoa.
She was elected as leader of the Democratic Party in April 2017, replacing William Heather. In the 2018 election she contested the seat of Rakahanga, losing to the Cook Islands Party's Toka Hagai. Hagai subsequently resigned the seat following allegations of treating, and Browne won it following an electoral petition.
In December 2019 she was part of a protest by women MPs to permit the wearing of ei katu in Parliament.
