Press release - John Brown

The last few weeks have been interesting.

Barges.

A lot of money has been spent by the Norfolk Island Regional Council on a barge and a plastic punt. No-one seems to know when or how they will get here. The community has been advised that the purchases were made after extensive consultation with a number of experienced lighterage staff. Consultation might have a new meaning.

The Illusory Council.

Norfolk Island is being run from afar. The Council has numerous staff who are based in Brisbane. The General Manager spends very large amounts of time away from Norfolk Island. The Council Administrator lives in Australia, acts as Administrator of Balranald Shire Council (on the Murrumbidgee River, less than 300km from the South Australian border) and rarely visits Norfolk Island. Both the General Manager and the Council Administrator are becoming renowned for not responding to correspondence. It is time for Assistant Minister Marino to direct them to respond to correspondence, and it is time for the Norfolk Island community to experience transparency and accountability. And perhaps the Assistant Minister should suggest that a highly paid general manager of a little place should live here.

Central Coast Council.

Norfolk Island’s elected councillors are not the only ones to have been sacked in recent time. Not many weeks ago the Central Coast Council in NSW was sacked. They had total debts of more than half a billion dollars. Their annual deficit had been in excess of 80 million dollars. In the case of Norfolk Island, the Legislative Assembly made one significant mistake, which was to think that they were the equal of Sir Freddy Laker, and to embark on what turned out to be a financial disaster, Norfolk Air, which lost over $20M in trac=ding, and was faced with a loss of a further $11M in withdrawing from their aircraft supply contract. Without that debacle, the Legislative Assembly would probably still exist today The Council made only one significant mistake, which was related to the Airport resealing project. Notwithstanding the advice of a former Bundaberg Council member, and the advice of staff who may have let them down, the Council lost millions of dollars on the resealing contract, and millions more through mistakenly deciding that the Commonwealth would pay for almost $5M of roadworks. Without those fundamental errors, history would have been very different. Back to Central Coast Council. They are expected to have new elections this year. In Norfolk Island, the Council Administrator has just resolved to reappoint the current General Manager for another five years. That surely suggests that no election for the Norfolk Island Regional Council is on the horizon in the next five years.

Representation of Norfolk Island in the Australian Parliament.

The Australian Constitution allows the Parliament to make provision for representation of the External Territories in the Australian Parliament. Nothing has been done by Labor or the Coalition in that regard. It is time for action. The seat of Bean has about 104,000 elector, of which Norfolk Island represents less than 1 percent. That is not a large say, yet the Australian government says that it provides Norfolk Island with representation. Clearly there needs to be a separate seat for Norfolk Island.

Cruise ships.

It is far from clear that crise ships provide any real benefit to Norfolk Island. They should be paused until that benefit has been demonstrated. Not only did the Ruby Princess bring Covid 19 to NSW and numerous other places, but there are reports that it has recently featured in another problem overseas. If Norfolk Island is not benefitting from cruise ships, they should be required to look (if they wish) but not land. How much has the Council earned from cruise ships since July 2016? We might be surprised at how little (if anything) that figure is.

Election.

The Australian election is likely to be called at any time. The Australian Electoral Commission has assured me that they will advertise extensively I n Norfolk Island to ensure that the Norfolk Island community knows how to enrol to vote, how to vote on polling day, how to arrange a postal vote, and how to pre-poll. In addition to that I will open a campaign office in the coming week. My office will be available to assist with enrolment, pre-polling and postal votes, or with just a yarn.

Authorised by John Brown Phone Norfolk Island 22123 PO Box 93, Norfolk Island Candidate for election to the Seat of Bean. 1 April 2022.