WELCOME TO NORFOLK ISLAND

I suppose that there are some who look at us here on Norfolk Island, and ask why we should be treated differently, why we insist we want to do things our way, why we think we are so special.
The simple fact of the matter is that we are different, separate, distinct, and this community has known that for over 200 years, and we are not about to give up our identity.
But that does not mean we want to be a closed or exclusive community. We never have. It is true that our story began in isolated and remote circumstances, and that equipped the Pitcairn/Norfolk people to be very self-reliant, innovative and hard-working. It also helped us to develop a strong sense of community, which persists to this day.
It is a mistake to think that the people of Norfolk Island want a closed community. It was a mistake that was made by Governor Dennison back in 1856, when he acknowledged the desire of the people to live without interference. What the Pitcairners meant was that they wanted to get on with managing their island and their affairs in their own way. Dennison thought it meant that they would be adversely affected by having others join their community, and he proceeded to give the people strict instructions that they were not to invite others to join them or sell their land to them.
Well, the Pitcairners ignored these paternalistic instructions - as was their right - and over the years land was bought and sold, and a number of people were welcomed into the community, including some of the Melanesian mission staff who married into island families.
But it was the island community that decided who should join them, with the decisions being made in a meeting of "The House", which was the informal parliament in which decisions were made by a majority vote. The community wanted control over immigration, just as they do today.
Over the years a large number of non-Pitcairners have joined this community. Some have come to work, found they could relate to the values of the community and stayed. Some have married islanders - that includes me!! Others have come and settled and raised families who have also put down roots here. Norfolkers have always welcomed into the community people who will enhance their way of life, bring skills that can help their self-reliance, and are generally prepared to go along with the "island way", and not want to change the island into a place like the one they left behind. We are quite a multicultural community, and sometimes almost cosmopolitan in character! Everyone who has made a long-term commitment to this community is valued!
Islanders of Pitcairn descent do not enjoy any exclusive rights, except insofar as their "special relationship with the island" may assist their immigration status. That is fair enough. It has been made quite clear to us by Australia that U.N. Conventions will not allow any discrimination on the basis of race. Yet discrimination is precisely what many people of Pitcairn descent are experiencing when they return to the island after a period away, and find they are ineligible to be placed on the electoral roll. While others, purely by virtue of having Australian citizenship, are judged fit to vote on local matters after just six months.
Sadly, we are also now seeing people coming, for the long or short term, and because they have been told this is a part of Australia, they expect conditions to be the same as they are in Australia. They expect the same Australian "rights" (although I suspect a few are quite glad to be free of the obligations in the form of taxes etc.) All this is a result of official Australian Government policies. And it will get worse.
Visitors from other Pacific islands tell us time and time again "Keep control of your Immigration."
Look at Australia - their immigration criteria are stringent, and for good reason. Yet they would deny this community those same rights that they insist on for themselves.