Fiona Hills
Exclusive Economic Zone – Norfolk Island
The Australian Government gives Indonesia, and East Timor and other international aid bodies, Billions of Australian Tax Payer Dollars every year…
Our same Government withholds ALL the monies derived through the Exclusive Economic Zone of Norfolk Island from that Island’s Government, past and present.
Norfolk Island is a recognised Sovereign Territory, and the Exclusive Economic Zone was established by the Australian Government over gas and fishing economics…
Is it not totally CORRUPT for the Australian Government to withhold this money, that is not lawfully theirs, at the expense of Norfolk Islands own economic needs?
International fishers currently pay royalties to the Australian Government to fish Norfolk Island Exclusive Economic Zone. Norfolk Island Government gets nothing.
Norfolk Islanders are only permitted to catch fish from their Exclusive Economic Zone to supply their Islands needs. Why are they NOT permitted any export rights of their own ‘fishing and other’ resources within the Exclusive Economic Zone?!
Give back to Norfolk Island the money and economic rights they are owed, retrospectively to 1979.
The following is an taken from a copy of public record on Norfolk Island and represents the chronology of the Islands economic repression …
Ric Robinsons Historical Chronology,
Is Canberra acting in Norfolk’s best interests, or Australia’s?
*During the first penal settlements of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, the crops from Norfolk Island kept the Port Jackson going. If it weren’t for the Norfolk settlement Port Jackson would have been abandoned. Amongst those crops was hemp for making rope for the British Navy.
* In 1905 Sir Robert Garran, secretary to the Australian Attorney-General, wrote that Norfolk Island:”would be a Dependency of the Commonwealth, not a part of the Commonwealth itself.”
*In 1914 an Imperial Order-in-Council gave the Commonwealth of Australia the authority to administer Norfolk Island. Australia had asked that Norfolk Island be ceded to the Commonwealth of Australia, but the Norfolk Islanders objected very strenuously and the Crown declined such a transfer.
*1974 the Commonwealth Government extended their Taxation Legislation to include Norfolk Island, thereby closing down the companies registration on Norfolk Island and the subsequent income to Norfolk Island.
*1976 an Australian Royal Commissioner (Sir John Nimmo) was sent to recommend that Norfolk Island be integrated (i.e. annexed) into the Commonwealth of Australia.
*1977 Informed that the Australian Federal Government intended to implement the Nimmo report, the Norfolk Island Council (the only elected representative of the people of Norfolk Island) appealed to the United Nations for protection against Australia’s design. Australia successfully lobbied other U.N. members and prevented the appeal from being heard.
*1978 The United Nations Association of Australia says in its 1978 report on the status of Norfolk Island:-” Australia signed the U.N. Charter as a foundation member on 1 November 1945, and the following year under its obligation of Article 73e, enumerated and began transmitting information on the overseas territories it considered non-self-governing, as distinct from trust territories. The Australian Government of the day saw fit to nominate the obvious territories of the Cocos Islands and Papua. But it excluded Norfolk Island. What combination of moral fervour, political prudence and then-current perceptions of the nature of colonialism motivated this particular choice remains a matter for further research.”
The report then goes on to say:-” The official Australian stance on Norfolk Island is, in short, patently ludicrous………………………”Yet some 30 years later (than1945), the Department of Foreign Affairs clings to the claim that Norfolk Island is not a non-self-governing territory, but rather a part of metropolitan Australia, on the rather specious basis that no other member state of the U.N. has ever proposed otherwise.”
In 34 declarations to the International Labor Organization (under Article 35 of their constitution) made by Australia, it has declared that Norfolk Island is NOT a part of metropolitan Australia.
*1979 Australia claimed Norfolk Islands’ 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone, simply by legislating it. At this time the people of Norfolk Island were debating the Australian “Norfolk Island Act 1979” To this day the people of Norfolk Island do not know how much the Australian Government gleans from our E.E.Z.
* In the 1982/3 Tax Convention with America, Australian citizens who reside in Australia and earn income in America are subject to a withholding tax of 10% by the American authorities. If, however the Australian citizen happens to live on Norfolk Island then they are subject to a withholding tax of 30% by the relevant authority.
*1993-1996 The Commonwealth Government Directories of these years list the Territories Office, Function: – “Enhance Australia’s sovereignty in the external Territories”.
*1996 The president of the Society of Pitcairn Descendants received a letter from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office stating the British Government view on the constitutional status of Norfolk Island :- ” Norfolk Island is legally a dependent territory of the Commonwealth of Australia.”
*1997 Canberra successfully closes down the cigarette export industry from Norfolk Island to Australia.
*1997 Commonwealth Government Directory lists the Territories Office Function: – “Administer Australia’s Indian Ocean Territories and the Jervis Bay Territory, and Protect and enhance the Commonwealth’s interests in Norfolk Island….”
*1998 As soon as the Norfolk Island Government passed what, according to a Las Vegas based International Gambling magazine, was the best world class Internet Gambling Legislation, the Commonwealth Government put a moratorium on Internet Gambling. The Commonwealth Government lifted the moratorium when Tasmania had successfully copied and passed our legislation thereby cutting another source of revenue from Norfolk Island.
*2002 The Australian Government passes legislation that closes down Greenwich University, a Norfolk Island based University. Once more denying Norfolk Island of a source of income.
*2014 The Australian Administrator of Norfolk Island overrides the Norfolk Island Government and cancelled a licence for the Tasman Health Cannabinoids Company to grow and export medicinal cannabis from Norfolk Island.
Does Australia honestly want to help us, or keep us on our knees?
Ric Robinson is a resident of Norfolk Island.
Fiona Hills is a concerned taxpayer with a quasi legal background in both State and Federal Service. Free Thinking Futurist . Now an Algologist, Inventor and Writer with a deep concern for personal health choices and harm free sovereign freedoms, including but not limited to, new wellness industries.
