Te-Hani Brown

Te-Hani Rose Alexandra Brown (born 16 March 1996) is a Cook Islands politician and member of the Cook Islands Parliament. She is an independent.

Te-Hani Brown
Member of the Cook Islands Parliament for Tengatangi–Areora–Ngatiarua
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 June 2018
Preceded by	Nandi Glassie
Personal details
Born	(1996-03-16) 16 March 1996 (age 29) Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Political party	Independent

Career

Te-Hani Brown was born in 1996 in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.^[1] Brown is the daughter of MP Rose Toki-Brown.^[2] She was first elected to parliament as a candidate for the Cook Islands Democratic Party in the 2018 election,^[3] defeating Nandi Glassie. At age 22, she was the youngest MP in the Pacific region.^[4]

In January 2019 Brown resigned from the Democratic party to support the government of Henry Puna.^[5] Anti-party hopping laws forced her to resign from parliament. She contested the subsequent by-election as an independent, and was re-elected,^[6] but resigned the seat again just two weeks later when an electoral petition was filed.^[7] She contested a second by-election in November 2019 and was re-elected for a third time.^[8]

Following the election of Mark Brown as Prime Minister she was appointed Associate Minister of Internal Affairs and Health.^[9]

She was re-elected at the 2022 Cook Islands general election^[10] and continued her support for Mark Brown.^[11]