[This letter first appeared in The Norfolk Islander and on Norfolk Online News, 26 November 2016]

In a letter in The Norfolk Islander (TNI) of 15 October 2016 the Minister for Local Government and Territories, Senator the Hon Fiona Nash, listed monies that the Australian Government was spending, or intending to spend, on Norfolk Island. Introducing the list the Minister said: “I‟d like to let you know that your way of life will continue as it always has”. This is an extraordinarily benighted statement to come from the Minister responsible for the island. And this was not a slip of the pen as the Minister repeated the claim in a letter to TNI on 29 October. Perhaps on the other hand it is merely a final confirmation that post-truth politics has become endemic in the Australian Government.

Here I will enumerate for the Minister, and anyone else who is in doubt, what aspects of life on Norfolk Island have been changed for the worse by the recent Australian intervention. This is not to say that aspects of the intervention have not provided benefits to the island, not at all. However the list below should provide an initial step towards a more grounded reality than that provided by the biased and inflated claims of the Australian Government.

Due to space limitations, the following provides only a summary of main points. I have tried to avoid double counting, however it needs to be recognised that one policy intervention may affect more than one aspect of Norfolk Island life. If anyone would like to discuss further any of the points raised, or bring to my attention errors or appropriate additions, they are invited to contact me directly.

A List of Losses

1. Democracy and Representation
As a result of the Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Act 2015 passed in the Australian Parliament, Norfolk Island has been:
 Stripped of its Legislative Assembly and limited form of self-government;
 Denied special mention of the island‟s Pitcairn heritage in the replacing Act;
 Disenfranchised non-Australians from participating in Norfolk Island elections;
 Subjected to a process in which all legislative reference to Norfolk Island residents and Norfolk Islanders as legal persons, has been deleted;
 Denied voting franchise in New South Wales, the laws of which are applied on Norfolk Island;
 Restricted in access to Australian democratic representation to parliamentary members 1,900km distant in Canberra;
 Subjected to unrestricted immigration which undermines the integrity of the island‟s society;
 And these changes have been complemented by the Commonwealth‟s gagging of free speech on the local radio (1).
Comment: The democratic deficit is now such that representation is in the Canberra electorate, 1,900km away, in which enrolled Norfolk Islanders number less than 0.5 per cent of the electorate.

2. Governance
The disbanding of the Island‟s Legislative Assembly and imposing in its place a Norfolk Island Regional Council (NIRC) based on a New South Wales model has:
 Emasculated the areas of responsibility accorded to the island‟s decision making processes;
 Removed the ability of the NIRC to raise general revenues by taxation (including the ability to impose a GST which was the mainstay of the previous system);
 Financially burdened the NIRC with extravagant salaries for a new level of managers imposed by the Commonwealth (costing well over $1m per year);
 Further financially burdened the NIRC with the loss of revenues from registry functions, licence fees from the Norfolk Island Gaming Authority, and the non-application of the tobacco levy (over $1m per year);
 Forced the NIRC into a heavy reliance on land rates revenue with the consequential breaking up and dispossession of traditional land holdings and the island‟s cultural tradition;
 Reduced some pension payments from those available under the former Norfolk Island pensions scheme, and made their access more difficult (2);
 Wasted Commonwealth money in unnecessary and/or poorly supervised consultancies, exacerbated by a failure to recognise that accumulated island experience represents a valuable input to decision-making for the island (3);
 And in channelling all Commonwealth provision to Norfolk Island through the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Services (DIRD), has exposed the island to an arrogant and systemically deaf interlocutor. (The similar experiences of the Indian Ocean Territories with this Department are well-documented.)
Comment: As a result of the Australian Government‟s undermining of the NIRC‟s abilities to raise revenues, and other impositions, the projected annual deficit of the NIRC since July 1 has already blown out by over $1.0m to $5.35m (4). The NIRC is being driven into becoming a mere supplicant at Canberra‟s begging bowl.

3. Economy
The Australian Government has enforced an economic regime based on the operations of the free market, within an Australian-imposed doctrinaire regulatory framework, both of which are highly inappropriate for an isolated small island economy in the twenty-first century. Furthermore the model is associated throughout the world with increased inequality and social injustice. This regime has:
 Undermined the ability of the island to respond to economic fluctuations and other destabilising factors by removing the power to accumulate general revenues;
 Increased direct and indirect costs as a result of inappropriate regulatory requirements;
 Decreased the convenience of medical patients by privatising the island‟s pharmacy and removing it from the island‟s hospital;
 Notified Norfolk Island commercial fishers that their traditional and current practices are illegal;
 Lowered biosecurity standards for primary producers in key areas because prohibitions formerly considered appropriate have been replaced by a „balance of risks‟ approach;
 Forced people from the part-time workforce by fear of losing pension entitlements;
 Abolished the Norfolk Island Tourist Bureau and failed to develop and alternative tourism strategy;
 Under Australia Post, increased the local postage rate by 1,000 (sic) per cent;
 Imposed an economic transition process that has been brutally abrupt (despite several appeals for a slow-down) and characterised by inadequate information provision, both of which have disoriented and inhibited businesses in their ability to plan.

Comment: The imposed economic regime means loss of the island‟s ability to retain profits on the island and to adequately regulate the island‟s affairs. Uncontrolled immigration has opened up the island to economic exploitation.

4. Social, Community and Cultural

The legislative changes pointed to in section 1 (above) represent a denial of the history and culture of the settlers from Pitcairn Island, who arrived on Norfolk Island not via Australia but from the east, and under British tutelage.

In recent times Norfolk Islanders have been subjected to persistent attacks and humiliations from Commonwealth Ministers, DIRD and the Norfolk Island Administrator, that have undermined Norfolk Islanders‟ dignity, self-worth and pride. These attacks have undermined the community, and falsely polarised understandings between „Islanders‟ and „Australians‟ (5). I give a selection of examples (from a longer list):

 The dismantling and removal of the entire contents of the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly in the Old Military Barracks in the KAVHA site: these things were in place when KAVHA was granted World Heritage status, and their removal may have been illegal under the World Heritage Convention (6). What this action says is that the Australian Government values convict buildings but does not care about Norfolk Islanders‟ heritage;
 The systemic failure of the Minister, DIRD, the transitional Administration and the Administrator to respond to, or even acknowledge, correspondence, sends the message that „We don‟t care what you think or how you may be hurting‟;
 The failure to arrange for Commonwealth consultants to consult widely with island stakeholder groups and individuals sends the message that their accumulated island experience is either irrelevant or worthless;
 Although the KAVHA area is at the centre of community life, Norfolk Island‟s management role and responsibility in regard to it have been reduced to zero;
 Pejoratively worded advertising by the NSW Government for teaching jobs on Norfolk Island denigrates the island‟s standing (7);
 The Administrator, the Queen‟s representative on Norfolk Island, referred publicly to Norfolk Islanders assembled to mourn the passing of the Legislative Assembly as „a mob‟ and as participating in a „school breakout kind of activity‟ when they proceeded to Government House, and implied that they or their friends might steal from Government House (8); complained on public television that the Government House water supply contained faecal material (9); failed to support the Norfolk Island Returned and Services League centenary celebration arrangements after bickering with the RSL over the singing of the Royal Anthem at Anzac Day services (a practice that has been honoured on the island since the first such service in 1916)(10).

Comment. Such acts divide and destroy a peaceful, well-ordered and compassionate community, proud of its heritage, which might otherwise have been a model for twenty-first century living.

5. And Finally
Armed with this list, each person will hopefully be better equipped to decide for themselves about the merits or otherwise of the Australian Government‟s intervention on Norfolk Island. Some however have no doubts. Internationally regarded human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC has called it „a heavy-handed act of regression‟ (11). And world renowned author and long-time resident of Norfolk Island, the late Colleen McCullough, referred to the actions of the Australian Government as „bloodless genocide‟ (12).

– Chris Nobbs
(1) CN, „The gagging of Radio Norfolk‟, TNI & NOL 27/02/2016; (2) See: Bebs, „Pensions‟, letter to TNI 05/11/2016; (3) CN, „Norfolk Island: New Minister, old spin?‟, TNI & NOL, 05/11/2016; (4) NIRC, Quarterly Budget Review Statement, 16/11/2016; (5) CN, „How to dismember a community‟, TNI & NOL, 09/04/2016; (6) CN, „Norfolk Islanders must stand their ground over KAVHA‟, TNI & NOL, 09/01/2016; (7) Dave South, President NICS P&C, letter to TNI 15/10/2016; (8) CN, „Comments on an interview…‟, TNI 27/06/2015; (9) Channel 7, Sunday Night, Norfolk Island: ‘This isn’t Australia’, 26/07/2015. https://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/a/29053437/norfolk-island-this-isnt-australia/; (10) Norfolk Island RSL, „Community Announcement‟, TNI 14/03/2015; (11) Geoffrey Robertson, „The recolonisation of Norfolk Island is a heavy-handed act of regression‟, The Guardian, 23/04/2016; (12) Ric Robinson, personal communication. [Earlier CN letters available at: http://www.norfolkonlinenews.com/chris-nobbs.html, or contact: [email protected]].
Chris Nobbs