NOT GOING ANYWHERE

"This claim has come out of nowhere" said David Bennett, the legal Counsel for the Commonwealth, defending the High Court Case in which the Norfolk Island Government and residents have questioned Australia's right to legislate for an island which regards itself as a distinct and separate settlement.
Tell that to all those Norfolk Islanders who have grown up believing that this island was given to them in 1856 to live in according to their own laws and customs. They believe this firmly, and their parents and grandparents believed it before them. It is not something they have just recently invented in order to hold Australia's laws and taxes at bay. It is something that has always gone to the very core of their being and identity as a people.
This case is not a frivolous one. The traditional belief of Norfolk's people is backed by considerable evidence that has been presented by some great legal and constitutional experts. In spite of the efforts of Australia over many decades to take away our rights and identity by stealth, and and to deflate the issue by a gradual and insidious process of "Australianisation", it just will not go away. Here on Norfolk Island there is a people, a community which is justly proud of what they has been achieved and developed through hard work and resourcefulness over more than 200 years from somewhat inauspicious beginnings and roots. They are proud of their British heritage, albeit through mutineers, and they are proud of their strong Polynesian heritage, which played a strong part in forging the community we know today.
The irony is that Norfolk Island has also been reasonably happy with its close association with Australia, firstly through the colonial authorities and later through coming under the protection of the Commonwealth. Yes, there was discontent about the breaking of promises and the reneging of commitments, and there was frustration and disappointment about the lack of consultation and the passing of legislation without the knowledge or consent of the island's people. From time to time, resentment would surface when Commonwealth authorities were out of touch with the island's real needs, or when their concerns and advice were ignored or overridden. But as long as the island was being governed for the benefit of its own people, and the advice of the Island's council was recognised and acted upon, Norfolkers were generally content, as long as they were able to continue to meet the needs of the community, and live according to their own customs and values.
But that was not good enough for Australia, who regarded Norfolk as an annoying anomaly. The Nimmo Report in the 70's recommended to absorb the island right into mainstream Australia or abandon it altogether. All or nothing!
Fortunately, there were those who had sufficient vision to see that a middle ground was still possible, and indeed this could be a better system than before. That was how we ended up with the Norfolk Island Act of 1979. This island courageously embraced this opportunity to manage its own affairs and finances, and most of us believe we have done a magnificent job, albeit without the genuine support and review processes that were initially promised by Australia.
It was Robert Ellicot who was the architect of this process of self-government, and it is this ame man who is now prepared to defend not only his vision, but the historic rights of the Norfolk Island people.
I am prepared to say that even if Norfolk Island were to lose this case on legal or technical or constitutional grounds, the moral issue will not go away. Promises were made to those early Pitcairners to persuade them to exchange their traditional homeland for a new one. And for 150 years, they have regarded this as their homeland, despite attempts to make it a part of middle mediocre Australia. I have said it before, but what Canberra wants to do does not mean taking us back to the days before self-government. Canberra once again wants all or nothing. No middle ground.
It will take us into a new era, where we will be governed solely for the benefit if a wider Australia and for any Australians who choose live here. And the gate will be firmly closed behind us. This is why we must have some legal recognition of what Norfolk Islanders have always known....NOW. And our traditional rights must be recognised and entrenched in such a way that they cannot be taken away on the whim of a government whose attitudes and policies seem to belong back in a past colonial era.