[ISL] "Bounty Descendants Face Self-Rule End on Bankrupt Pacific Island"

[rfmcdonald]

My reaction to Edward Johnson's Bloomberg article is "good." Sometimes, self-rule is a privilege. Some reform, something, is needed.

The descendants of Fletcher Christian and the Bounty mutineers face losing control of their South Pacific island home, as Australia considers stripping the bankrupt territory of self rule.

Norfolk Island, a tiny outcrop settled by ancestors of the mutineers in 1856, is increasingly reliant on handouts from the federal government, 1,700 kilometers (1,000 miles) away in Canberra, a parliamentary committee said in a report today.

“Norfolk Island is effectively bankrupt and self-governance does not best serve the residents of the island,” committee Chairman Luke Simpkins said in a statement. “The unfortunate economic reality is that Norfolk Island is now dependent on the Commonwealth for survival” and the model of self-government, established 35 years ago, has failed the population of about 1,800 people, the report said.

Norfolk, 8 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide, won’t give up without a fight. Chief Minister Lisle Snell, who heads its nine-person elected assembly, says the island faces a loss of democracy and accuses the federal government of trying to strip away responsibility for education, health and other services without proper consultation.

[. . .]

The local government has an annual budget of about A$30 million ($26.3 million), which it raises through a goods and services tax and from enterprises such as telecommunications, the airport and the postal service.

According to today’s report, the island faces a deficit of between A$7.4 million and A$7.8 million a year for the next three years.