Ms Gai Brodtmann is currently the Labor member for the seat of Canberra.

This is the electorate in which eligible Norfolk Islanders will be obliged to vote in Federal elections on July 2nd. I say "eligible" because the day before, July 1st,  a significant percentage of the adult population of the Island will become disenfranchised, including a number of ethnic Norfolk Islanders who call this place home. Meanwhile a number of people who have never lived here will be allowed a local vote.

 

Now Ms Brodtmann, in the most fanciful and creative revision of history I have ever come across, says that Australia is the "Motherland" of the Norfolk Island people. She is reading from the same propaganda page as our Administrator, who referred to the Norfolk people as Australia's "lost tribe" waiting to be brought back into the fold. What they both fail to grasp is that the people of Norfolk Island came here from Pitcairn in 1856 when our island was a distinct and separate (British) settlement, and Australia did not even exist as an entity.

 

The Norfolk people are not part of the Commonwealth of Australia,  they never migrated to Australia, they were never consulted when responsibility for the island was handed over by Britain to Australia, as an external territory. And they did not have any say when their rights to British passports was withdrawn, and overnight they were made Australian citizens.

 

What Ms Brodtmann and all her government colleagues need to face up to is this:

Norfolk Island is NOT part of Australia historically, geographically,

ethnically, linguistically or legally. And culturally Norfolk Island is a world apart. I can tell you that is true because I am seeing the enormous grief and distress caused by forcing us to comply with the Australian way of doing things. I am seeing first hand how the changes imposed by the Federal Government have made so many feel like exiles in their own homeland. Systems and routines that have been developed over many decades to suit a small island community are being wiped away. Infrastructure and assets that we have provided through our own efforts and resources are being stolen from us.

 

That we have held it all together so well up until now is a tribute to the strong and peaceful values that have been handed down through our island families. We are trying to put community before our own self-interest. But beneath it all, hearts have been broken, and the fabric of our daily lives has been ripped apart. The Norfolk people have faced a great deal of change in their history, and they have faced it with dignity and resilience when it has been in the best interests of the community. But it is shameful the way the Australian Government has imposed its will on the people here, with barely a pretence of negotiation and consultation, and complete lack of respect for human rights.

                                    

 

The bullying and intimidation continues, and there seems to be a lack of honour and humanity in Australia's dealings with this island community. The conduct of the Australian Government's representatives and appointees is becoming increasingly irrational, even provocative. There is no risk assessment, no impact studies, no economic modelling, no change management strategies.  It is like a crazy and rushed experiment, and we are the guinea pigs who are being sacrificed in the process. I do not exaggerate, because each day I am coming face to face with the damage and distress in our own lives and those of people around me.

 

For the last eleven months, Norfolk Islanders have had no representative voice at any level of government. There has been no transparency and no accountability. Even in the future, most of the issues that affect our daily lives will be dealt with at arm's length, with little input from us.  The result is that all trust has gone.

 

You would think that Australia would want their island neighbour to be a good friend and ally. Instead, they are intent on sabotaging all hope of ever returning to a point where Norfolk Island and Australia might enjoy a relationship that brings mutual benefits

SORRY FOR NORFOLK ISLAND

Come July 1, the electorate of Canberra will get a whole lot bigger. No longer confined to the nation's capital, it will stretch almost 2000 kilometres end to end, encompassing an area more than twice the size of Victoria.

Gai Brodtmann, if re-elected the following day, will need to trade the Comcar for a frequent flyer card to travel the 1906 kilometres  from her Tuggeranong office to her newest constituents on Norfolk Island.

If that sounds like a strange fit for Canberra, spare a thought for the Norfolk Islanders who are being shoehorned into the seat. For a subtropical island in the southern Pacific Ocean, completely dependent on seaborne transport for our existence, being part of an electorate where the previous largest body of water was Lake Burley Griffin, is alarming.

This is just one of many bizarre features of the Commonwealth takeover of Norfolk Island that will see decades of self-governance formally end on July 1. Our democratically elected Legislative Assembly has already been abolished. Community facilities and services we built, funded and ran as a community – including our school and hospital  – will become the property of the federal government.

Local legislation will be torn up, replaced by a mix of Commonwealth and NSW laws. The only remaining political representation will be a local council  – formed under the NSW Local Government Act. NSW will also run our health and education services.

Despite the role of NSW in governance and service delivery, the people of Norfolk Island will not be allowed to vote in state elections. We will have no representation in the parliament that will govern much of our lives, effectively leaving us second-class citizens.

This disenfranchisement is a cruel irony for a community at the forefront of democratic advancement. From our founding in 1856, Norfolk Island had universal suffrage, a principle brought with us from Pitcairn Island. Not only did women have the vote on Norfolk before anywhere else in Australia, they were elected to the legislature and held judicial positions, all before the Commonwealth of Australia came into existence.

In a rare moment of bipartisanship, the Labor Member for Canberra is in lock-step with the man Tony Abbott imposed as Norfolk Island Administrator, the former Howard government minister and radio shock-jock who was expelled from the Liberal National Party in 2012, Gary Hardgrave.

Brodtmann and Hardgrave speak in the language of colonisation. The people of Norfolk Island are treated as primitives, unable to govern themselves. The benevolent Commonwealth government knows best. The loss of local democracy is a small price to pay for improved services. The local population has no say, because  – like children  –  they simply don't know what is best for them. This is why a referendum last year that recorded 70 per cent opposition to the takeover can simply be ignored.

The reality is far different. While our island home is a mere speck in the ocean  – less than 10 kilometres end to end –  our exclusive economic zone, a colossal area 430,000 square kilometres in size, delivers hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Canberra.

While we previously had no access to Commonwealth services, Norfolk Islanders were already paying almost $6 million a year in tax to Australia, a figure that is set to jump.

For all the talk of bringing improved services, it is clear the Commonwealth will be gaining far more out of the colonisation of Norfolk Island than the local residents ever will.

Likewise, claims that Norfolk Island has always been a part of Australia, that our decades of successful self-government were nothing more than an "experiment", and that it is impossible for a remote community like ours to be economically sustainable, fail to stack up.

That rewritten history is news to the 47 per cent of Norfolk Islanders who are descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian wives, the three-quarters who still speak their own indigenous language, and the countless long-term residents who are not Australian citizens. It also ignores the fact that our local parliament paid its own way for three decades straight until the global financial crisis hit.

                           

As the countdown to July 1 approaches, we only hope our new neighbours in Canberra are as passionate about the restoration of local democracy as we are.

Chris Magri is president of Norfolk Island People for Democracy and a former member of the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly