PLEASE _ JUST A BIT OF HELP TO HELP OURSELVES!

It has taken a while, but I think Norfolkers are really feeling irritated and frustrated about all the uncertainty that the Australian Government has heaped upon us. We have a new Administrator, whose term of office starts tomorrow, but he is another ex-politician, with party and political loyalties, and we do not yet know if he can rise above these. He has been working on Talkback Radio - but will he really listen openly and honestly to the Norfolk people, or better still, be able to discern those things they find hard to express.

Below is a submission/report from the Chamber of Commerce, which comes refreshingly closer to calling a spade a spade than most of what we have heard lately.
A pity it has not come from our elected government, but we recognise they have been truly muzzled over the past couple of years, and accused of endangering the roadmap and Australian assistance whenever they express any independent thoughts and views.

What this statement seems to affirm is that NOTHING proposed by Canberra to assist us will do much except bring us further to our knees, and destroy all those good things we still enjoy as a unique community with a special heritage.

Sadly, an appeal from an organisation which was seeking to ask for action from Australia instead of working through our elected government just a few years ago, this request from the Chamber of Commerce may be too little too late.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRESIDENT  CALLS ON GOVERNMENTS TO END STAND-OFF.

                                                                                                                                  

Norfolk Island Chamber of Commerce President, John Brown, has called on the Australian and Norfolk Island governments to end their stand-off, and focus on what is needed to get Norfolk Island back onto its feet, rather than continuing to allow Commonwealth bureaucrats to take advantage of Norfolk Island’s present problems to pursue their decades old goal of ending Norfolk Island’s self government. Mr Brown warns of the bureaucratic push  to impose an Indian Ocean Territories model. He said “That is costing the Australian Government more than $160,000,000 a year. The Joint Standing Committee has already made adverse findings about the system of government in the Indian Ocean Territories, such as finding that  the  current governance arrangements represent a source of irritation to the island communities and a brake on economic development”.

He said “Norfolk Island can be sorted out for much less than that.

Year after year the Annual Reports of the various Australian departments which have had responsibility for Norfolk Island, and submissions to committees of the Australian Parliament, have shown the refusal of  Commonwealth bureaucrats to accept that Norfolk Island, an external territory under the authority of the Commonwealth since 1914, has until the last few years been a sound   example of successful self government by a small remote community, and have shown  a deep bureaucratic commitment to bringing the Island to its knees.

It is time for the Australian Government to work with the Norfolk Island Government to help to restore the Island to viability.

That will not be achieved by denying the Island the benefits of the 200 mile surrounding zone, refusing to allow the Norfolk Island community to fish in its own waters while licensing foreign vessels to do so, insisting that the Norfolk Island Government introduce taxes which the community cannot afford to pay, and  insisting on a $13M upgrade of the Cascade Jetty despite Carnival Cruises saying that what is needed is actually three or four barges to disembark their passengers.

How can we think that the present Commonwealth underwritten Air New Zealand service, with its payload restrictions and yield management air fare policies, will deliver the necessary growth in visitor numbers? A likely maximum of perhaps 28,000 will be of little help, and current numbers continue to be lower than that. The sound operational quality of the Air New Zealand service is being outweighed  by their marketing and yield management policies. The Commonwealth can rightly have confidence in the operational standards of the service, but they have done little to improve visitor numbers to Norfolk Island,  nor has  the present airline providing Commonwealth contract air services to the Indian Ocean Territories made a significant impact on their visitor numbers, leaving aside those who visit the detention centre. Without growth in Norfolk Island visitor numbers, there is little prospect of the Norfolk Island community being able to fund additional taxes. Without a growth in numbers, and with exports being subject to Norfolk Island GST, how can a business grow?

Continued attempts to protect the Island’s public service from the Island’s  economic downturn, while admirable, are misguided. The pain has to be shared across the community, and there needs to be recognition that the Island’s existing taxes  are already strangling  its  private sector and the community generally. There is simply no ability to tax the Island back to sustainability, and as businesses close, so too will the future of the Island.

However well targeted assistance, not misguided handouts, is only part of the answer. The Norfolk Island Government needs to respond with action, not patriotic speeches and star gazing”.

Mr Brown called for the immediate updating and release of the Econtech reports and the Commonwealth’s CIE Report, and for both Governments to then meet urgently to arrive at an acceptable package of assistance to put Norfolk Island back on its feet, not to destroy it.