WISH LISTS

Life is not perfect...we should get used to it. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be putting our best efforts into making it as good as we can.
We have some wonderful people living and working here, especially in our community services.This is a place where people still matter. The staff of our hospital have always shown great commitment to providing the very best standard of care to their patients, and the Hospital auxiliary, the Service clubs and the community will always give great support to any efforts to improve facilities.
The same goes for our school. As well as giving their best to the nurture and education of the island children, there is naturally a desire on the part of teachers and parents to have the best of equipment, teaching aids, work environments and opportunities for the students to extend themselves and further their education.
When we have visits from bodies like the Senate Joint Standing Committee, they are naturally interested in the provision of health and education, and their line of questioning would no doubt follow the line of what could be done to improve things. And I am sure the staff of our school and hospital can think of many things.
It is what these committees do with this information that leads to unbalanced reporting and misinformation. Because we do not have a particular facility or item, or because something needs upgrading, or something else has broken down, does not mean that our hospital is third world, and needs bulldozing and being replaced immediately with a state-of-the-art facility. Because we do not have access to every scholarship or area of funding for education does not mean that our school is unable to do a good job.The Australian Government would love to portray itself as Santa Claus, just waiting to tick off everything on our wish lists.
But it does not work that way. There would not be a hospital in the whole of Australia which does not want to add to or upgrade its facilities. And many of them have whole wards and other facilities that are unused because they cannot staff them! Other hospitals have equipment that breaks down - yes, even during operations - the JSC got great mileage out of that one!
Schools on the mainland, too, never reach the point of having everything they want or even need. They have to sort out priorities, and often rely on the parent bodies and community to provide extras, just as we do here on the island.
If we really think that coming under Australia is going to create a community where we want for nothing, then we are living in the Land of Make Believe. Just ask the residents of comparable communities in Australia...remote rural areas with fewer than 2000 people. They would just love to have access to even half the facilities and services that we enjoy now, just as they would love to have our high employment rate and low crime rate.
I have lived here for 40 years, and have seen such enormous improvements in the staffing, the infrastructure, the equipment, the service and the facilities in the Norfolk Island School and the hospital. This has been a result of a responsible attitude on the part of our own government, who have themselves recognised that our isolation requires us to have something better than a small country town. Their efforts have been wonderfully supplemented by those of local organisations and community groups, service clubs, businesses and private benefactors. This community has a wonderful sense of ownership of our school and hospital. Moreover, they are tailored to our special Norfolk Island needs.
Yes, we must continue to raise the standards of our education and medical services, and our government must make them a priority. But we should also be realistic, and not sit waiting for Santa to come in from Canberra loaded with gifts. It simply will not happen. They have made it clear they are not interested in what we say we need. They reserve the right to draw up the wish-lists, and that is what you will get, like it or not.