New Zealand, former Prime Minister Rober Woonton, was sacked for his involvement in the plot. The resulting deadlock in Parliament was broken when Environment Minister Teina Bishop resigned and joined the opposition and the Cook Islands Party won the 2006 Matavera by-election. To avoid a confidence vote, Marurai dissolved Parliament and called a snap election. The Democratic Party won the resulting 2006 election and agreed to back Marurai as Prime Minister again. Shortly after the election his government pushed a controversial Media Standards Bill to regulate the media. In May 2007 Marurai attended the 8th Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders in Washington, D.C., and expressed disappointment with the lack of commitments by the United States. In August 2007 he hosted New Zealand Governor-General Anand Satyanand, and in October he made a state visit to China. Marurai's coalition came under strain in early 2008, with an outbreak of bickering and calls for Ministers to be sacked. In late 2008 Foreign Minister Wilkie Rasmussen publicly called for both Marurai and his deputy Maoate to step down. In July 2009 Rasmussen was sacked for plotting with the opposition. In December, a million dollar legal settlement from a failed bid to buy the Toa fuel tank farm led to the sacking of Maoate and a walkout of Democrats from Cabinet. Marurai was subsequently expelled from the Democratic Party. In January 2010, with both the Democrats and the Cook Islands Party opposed to his premiership, Marurai announced that he would not be "calling parliament for at least several months" as no sitting was required until it was necessary to pass a budget. He later announced that he had no intention of calling Parliament until September. Marurai was readmitted to the Democratic party at a party conference in June 2010. He subsequently announced that he would not continue as Prime Minister if the Democratic Party won the 2010 election. Marurai was re-elected to his Ivirua seat in the 2010 elections, but his party was ousted. He resigned as Prime Minister on 29 November 2010, but continued to serve as a backbench MP. Despite saying that the 2010 term would be his last, Marurai stood again for Ivirua in the 2014 election and was elected unopposed. He resigned for health reasons in 2017. The subsequent 2017 Ivirua by-election was won by Tony Armstrong. References Cook Island Māori people Members of the Parliament of the Cook Islands Prime