Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the honourable member for Hinkler for his speech on the advisory report of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories on the Territories Law Reform Bill 2010. I know his long-ranging commitment to Norfolk Island. He has done a lot of work on the external territories committee for a long period of time. I know his concern about making sure that we do not change things on the island. I differ with him slightly about the taxation side of it, but I agree with him that we do not want to take away the assembly. I do not think that is the correct direction.

The Minister for Home Affairs has done a good job in working through and discussing matters with the Chief Minister and others. Our committee has been there and has produced this report. Our committee has, over the years, brought down many reports that seek change. Some of them are addressed in this bill, which deals with transparency, right to appeal and administrative law issues which are costly if you have to set them up in a small community. It still leaves the assembly there to deal with its own affairs, while making it into a more Westminster-type system. There will now be one member of a political party elected to the assembly who can claim to be the Leader of the Opposition there. So there is a movement in that direction.

But Norfolk is sort of governed by committee. I do not think that is a council process; I think the executive should make decisions and stand by and sell its decisions, as we do in this parliament, and oppositions or others can say why they do not think that is right. I see that situation emerging and I see it as a good process. Accountability and transparency in small decision-making areas with small councils—the member for Hinkler represents some and I do too—is always difficult. Sometimes you have to be brave to make decisions in some of those areas if you think something is particularly right.

So this is a good direction and I commend the minister and the people in the Attorney-General’s Department who have done some work in the area. Our committee worked pretty hard to make sure that the islanders and government had their opportunity to put submissions to us, and we have dealt with several of their issues within our report. I think we are really getting there. During the term of the last government there was a recommendation and a cabinet submission to wipe them out as an authority. That did not pass and we have now got to this stage. I think we are going in the right direction.

The report before the parliament also deals with the Christmas Island Act 1958 and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955 to provide some vesting mechanisms for functions under the Western Australian law and how they apply to the Indian Ocean territories, leading to greater efficiency in the administration of service delivery arrangements. This goes to the point that the member for Hinkler made about having three territories. We would have to have a couple more if Christmas Islanders sought to come to a parliamentary arrangement over the years as well; and, of course, we have got Antarctica. I do not know if the leader of the Antarctic mission down there who has the responsibility of governing, with the laws and employment issues of the Antarctic division, wants it to be called—although we do call it such—a territory, but it throws up other issues to do so.

The report is certainly an accumulation of many visits and lots of discussion, and some of those discussions helped move it forward. The islanders do, I think, sometimes get a little locked into their ways. Being a Tasmanian, I know that this is the way of islanders—that you can go inward and not outward. However, it is often important to look outward on an island to find solutions and also to make sure that you are keeping up with the rest of the world. Speaking broadly, I think they might need to do that more in regard to some of their views.

There are some good jobs in this parliament, and I am sure that the member for Hinkler would agree that there are sometimes bad ones. Enduring hostile public meetings as a member of parliament is not all that good, but visiting Norfolk Island is always one of the pleasures of being on the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories. It is a magnificent island and a beautiful place with delightful people. It is also, of course, enormously important in the history of our nation, and those of us who have had ancestors there feel some connection to it. After the first settlement of Norfolk Island closed in 1813 all the people on Norfolk Island were moved to New Norfolk, which is in the electorate of Lyons, or Norfolk Plains, which is my home now, and the northern midlands. So those connections with my ancestry are big and strong.

Of course, Tasmania governed Norfolk Island for some years along with New Zealand, and there was a very interesting situation regarding the power and politics, and in particular the location of the bishop’s see, of the Anglican Church that looked after Norfolk Island over the years. There was a mistake of latitude on one occasion and it ended up in New Zealand. The Bishop of New Zealand had half the island and I think someone else had the other half, which caused a few problems. But maybe they wanted to visit the island and enjoy the beauty of it.

The culture of the island is very nice, but it is not the stereotype of the South Seas, and I don’t think they should go there with that view. It has a different history. Its flora is not the palm tree; it is the beautiful Norfolk pine. That was the reason Captain Cook, when he landed there, wrote in his journal about the Norfolk pines being used for ships. He wrote too about being to use the flax that he saw growing there. Unfortunately, neither worked out very well for the British Navy or the future settlement. It has been a part of Australia since 13 weeks after the first settlement at Sydney Cove and it is a magnificent piece of Australia. I recommend that every Australian should visit it.

The governance of the island, as I have said, is by an assembly backed up by an administrator of the Australian government, with the current federal member of Canberra, Annette Ellis, being the member of that area. That is another matter to tidy up that is mentioned in the report. Anyone that lives there as an Australian citizen can name their electorate. That disperses the electoral opportunities for the island. One recommendation is that we bring everybody into the one federal electorate under this recommendation, and that is probably a good thing.

One of the issues the island has is waste management—dealing with its waste, and getting some waste off the island and transporting it somewhere. I first came across this when I was on the treaties committee. I thought that we as a nation would not have any problems the dumping at sea treaty, but someone said we did have because there was an issue in Norfolk with what was put into the sea. Eradicating Argentine ants has become a real issue for them. They are working hard, but it is a small island and it is difficult to deal with that sort of pest. Water quality and the findings that have just come forward is also a real issue. There are also issues around the absence of worker’s compensation protocols and applications of the Trade Practices Act and other Commonwealth legislation which would help give some people opportunities to state their case and deal with issues in which they have concerns. These, I think, will be picked up through the legislation which is before the parliament.

The committee noted in its report its deep concern about the findings of the water assessment report on Norfolk Island. The health of Norfolk Island’s natural waterways is poor and in places contaminated. There were other environmental issues raised. They were of considerable and sufficient seriousness for the committee to urge the government of Norfolk Island and the Commonwealth to take immediate action to resolve them as they certainly pose serious threats to the health and safety of residents and, of course, to visitors to the island. With only 2,000 residents, it is always difficult to deal with issues like water quality, and it can take a lot of intellectual rigour to find solutions. Water comes from aquifers and local bores, which are used throughout, but sanitary issues are not dealt with adequately. I think the Commonwealth government put the last scheme in, and the honourable member for Hinkler probably remembers and knows more about that than I do.

One of the submissions from the Norfolk Island government proposed the establishment of a working group of officials from Norfolk Island and the Commonwealth to determine suitable ways forward and asked that outcomes be modelled, like in the ombudsman process, that successfully incorporate requirements of the Commonwealth ombudsman to deal with some of the complaint issues that are continuing to come forward on the island.

Like the member for Hinkler, I believe that there are lots of opportunities for moving forward. I am very interested to see Norfolk Island look at solar opportunities into the future to bring down their diesel costs, which are pretty steep. The Commonwealth could certainly assist with wind and solar issues, which would be one way of bringing down the costs. Island economies are always looking for ways to do that. Being from an island, I have made a study over the years of transport issues. Dealing with those sorts of issues on an island is always difficult, but I am sure that we will get there. I would say to Norfolk Islanders, with my apologies to John Donne: ‘No community is an island entire of itself. Every group is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, the country is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee—Norfolk Island.’

I commend the bill to the House and commend the minister for his work in getting us to this stage after a long period of time and with lots of committee reports.

Debate (on motion by Mr Hayes) adjourned.

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