MAKING SENSE

In his interview with George Smith on our local radio, Minister Debus said Norfolk Islanders were missing out on Commonwealth funding in various areas. For instance, the $1000 pensioner bonus could not be paid to our pensioners, and we do not receive health funding like NSW, because of legislative restrictions. He said it did not "make sense" for us to miss out.

But really it is quite simple.

On Norfolk Island, we do not pay tax to Australia and we do not receive - or expect - welfare benefits or other government services from Australia. It has been that way for a long time, and we are used to it....and even proud of it.

Back in the days before self-government, Australia ran this place a bit like a colonial outpost, and put a little funding into it, although a quite minimal amount, to supplement locally raised revenues. They did not really care that our pensioners were getting a meagre pension compared to Australian pensions, or that our hospital was pretty basic, or that much of our legislation was out dated.

What they handed over to us with self-government in 1979 was, we now realise, a bit of a mess, with obsolete infrastructure, outdated systems and methods of accounting, and a public service even then in need of reform.

We were to run the show ourselves and pay for it all ourselves. Perhaps they expected us to fail.

But we took it on bravely, if perhaps a little naively, and guess what? We made a go of it. There were initial difficulties, but we went from strength to strength as we "grew up" and learned to deal with our own island needs. And to pay for them. And now we have an economy and quality of life that is the envy of the Pacific, and we are now making enormous strides to improving our infrastructure and investing in our future.

The Minister was glad to point out to the Australian Parliament that our pension has a tougher income means test than in Australia, but omitted to tell you that it is paid at a higher rate than in Australia!

The Treasure Wayne Swan said the other day that in this current global financial crisis, he would rather be in Australia than anywhere else in the world.

Well, we can go one better. We would rather be here on Norfolk Island than anywhere else in the world. That is because, however tough times get, through no fault of our own, we already know how to work hard and use our initiative to look after ourselves and also look out for one another.

We may be broke for a while, but we will never be poor.

In the first of the 2008 ABC Boyer lectures, Sir Rupert Murdoch warned that Australia was unprepared for a golden age ahead, because it was in danger of institutionalising idleness and encouraging welfare dependency. He said "The larger the government, the less room for Australians to exercise their talents and initiative....it means smaller government and an end to the paternalism that nourishes political correctness, promotes government interference and undermines freedom and personal responsibility."
Australia should be very careful before tinkering round with an ethos and a mini-economy that have evolved separately from Australia to suit our unique social, economic and cultural needs on Norfolk Island.

It may not "make sense" to an outsider, but it works amazingly well.

We do not want to see the "institutionalised idleness" that Murdoch speaks of to take root on this island. We do not want to have our immigration controls weakened so that, in the name of equity, any Australian can come here and still receive unemployment benefits in this very pleasant environment. Most of all, we do not want to see the things that underpin our economy whipped away from us so that those of us who call this place home are actually forced to accept hand-outs.

We are not afraid of taxes. We have embraced a G.S.T in the past 18 months, and accepted the increase in paperwork and regulation that have accompanied it. We really want to pay our way, and many would be willing to pay even more than we do now, but we want it to stay right here, so that our "small government" can target our real local needs, and not those things that "big government" says we ought to have!