I know I have made very few posts in recent times. That is partly because nothing changes. I will only need to repeat everything that has been said before. In fact, the Norfolk Island people have been saying it ever since 1856, when they arrived on Norfolk Island and had their first experience of being doublecrossed by colonial powers!

This morning someone asked if I could make a few points for a lady in Australia who needed some material on which to base a letter to the press, complaining about what has been happening to Norfolk Island. It is hard to know where to start - or end - but here is my attempt at a brief summary of our situation.

1.Perhaps you could remind her that the people of Norfolk are not Australians – although they had Australian citizenship forced on them without their agreement back in the 1940s. They have a separate history to that of Australia. They believe (and always have) the island was granted to them by Queen Victoria. This island is NOT part of Australia – only a territory they were asked to look after.

2.We had no say or consultation about the changes, and have convincingly asked to have a say in our future in a referendum (which the Commonwealth ignored)

3.The changes will have many negative impacts on us. Especially our identity and our land. Land will not only be subject to taxes, but family land will count against us when applying for pensions etc.

4.The changes will probably turn us into a welfare state, as so many have lost, or will lose their jobs, and businesses will have enormous difficulty in meeting the demands of the new taxation regime.

5.The Commonwealth has put someone in charge of the “transition” a man (Gary Hardgrave) who has absolutely no respect for the people of Norfolk Island (it is alleged he even said he wanted to use them as landfill), and who has, we believe,  repeatedly misrepresented us and our views and the degree of consultation that has been undertaken , and has tried to re-write the history of the island to support what he is doing

6.Australia could have given us a modest amount of help after the G.F.C. but instead chose to abolish our government, remove democracy, install an unelected Advisory Council, and place us under NSW laws when we have no representation there.

7. This community has been lied to, double crossed and manipulated ever since its arrival in 1856, and we want to take a stand to make sure it never happens again!

BY the way, those beautiful pines in the picture, lining the frontage of our Fletcher Christian Apartments, were felled in the early hours of yesterday morning. The earthworks to make way for a Commonwealth funded footpath, which I call Briggs Highway, caused serious and dangerous damage to their root systems. The highly paid (and I mean hundreds of dollars an hour) engineer.designer of the footpath had not even taken this into account.