A remote Pacific island whose residents are descendants of the swashbuckling British sailors and Tahitian women immortalized in the Mutiny on the Bounty movies is set to lose its right to self-rule.
Norfolk Island, 1,500km east of the Australian coast and settled by the ancestors of Fletcher Christian and the other Bounty mutineers in 1856, has governed itself since 1979, but it is effectively bankrupt and Canberra yesterday said it would introduce legislation next week to scrap the Australian territory’s parliament.
If it passes, the island’s legislative assembly would be temporarily replaced by an advisory council, before local government elections next year.
Personal and business tax would be introduced from July next year and residents would in return be able to access social security, healthcare benefits and other services enjoyed by Australians.
Assistant Australian Regional Development Minister Jamie Briggs said the changes were long overdue and it was not sustainable to ask a community of just 1,800 to deliver local, state and federal services.
REFORM
He said the infrastructure on Norfolk Island was run down, the health system not up to standard and laws out of date.
“The community overwhelmingly supports reform and is of the view that the current governance arrangements are not suitable,” Briggs said, adding that Norfolk Island was effectively in administration and reliant on Australian bailouts. “It is diabolical — it is quite concerning that it’s been left for so long.”
Norfolk Island Chief Minister Lisle Snell said it was unfair to impose such a decision on the tiny outcrop, just 8km by 5km and perched on steep cliffs above crashing surf.
“Norfolk Islanders will lose their identity, they will lose their way of life,” Snell told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Most of the core population are descendants of the mutineers who set Captain William Bligh adrift from British warship the Bounty when they famously fell in love with the South Seas and its women in 1789.
HEARTTHROBS
The mutiny gained such a romantic gloss that chief mutineer Christian has been portrayed by a series of Hollywood heartthrobs over the years, including Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Mel Gibson.
Christian and eight other mutineers first made their home on Pitcairn Island with a group of Tahitian women, but their descendants moved nearly 6,000km to Norfolk Island in 1856 when Pitcairn became to small for them.
Queen Victoria granted them the right to settle on the abandoned former penal colony.
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