Norfolk Island will no longer be a semi self-governing territory, after the commonwealth government announced that residents will have to pay tax and their government will be replaced with a local council.
In exchange, islanders will receive Medicare and social security benefits.
“Norfolk Island businesses will pay company tax and be entitled to the same tax deductions as other businesses. The existing Norfolk Island tax system will be abolished. Perhaps most importantly, the reforms will affect governance. The Norfolk Island government act will be amended to transfer to a regional council,” the assistant infrastructure minister, Jamie Briggs, told journalists on Thursday.
An advisory council will be formed to examine reforms and inform residents of changes.
“This will be the first time they have actually had a genuine democracy operate on Norfolk Island. The system that operates at the moment is not one vote one value. There are allocations of votes to certain family groups, which distorts the voting process,” Briggs said.
“So the regional council process will be, as any normal local government voting process would be, it’s one vote, one value, something that we all expect as Australians to have as a right.”
The government will introduce legislation into parliament shortly.
“These reforms are long overdue and they have bipartisan support,” Briggs said.
The small island with a population of 1,800 residents was granted limited self-governance in 1979, but still relies heavily on the commonwealth government.
“The revenue base isn’t there. They are in effect in administration as we speak. The federal government bailed them out this year, to the tune of $12.5m. They don’t have the capacity to deliver the services we have expected through the act in 1979,” Brigg said.
Previous proposals to make Norfolk Island a territory similar to the Northern Territory or Australian Capital Territory were rejected.
The federal government will pay New South Wales to deliver state-based services like health and education. The Australian federal police will continue to control law and order.
The island’s chief minister, Lisle Snell, last year travelled to Canberra to argue against the plan telling ABC radio it amount to “colonial” rule over the territory.
He supported alternative proposals to give the island territory status.
“The regrettable part of this is that the colonial overlord master/servant system will be returned to Norfolk Island,” he said.
“We’ve had the ability to be able to govern ourselves in a manner which is the right of every people to have the right of self-determination.”
