Minister puts
p. 43 · Read in the full issue
the 'hard word' on Norfolk
From a Norfolk Island correspondent Norfolk islanders can govern themselves—but only up to a point, the Australian Minister for the Capi tal Territories, Mr Gordon Bryant, has told the Norfolk Island Council.
Expressing his pleasure at the council’s favourable reaction to the idea of assuming “more executive power”, the minister added a cau tious note in the shape of “guide lines which might be helpful in considering proposals for the future government of Norfolk Island”.
That executive power, he pointed out in a letter in December, should concentrate on functions assumed by municipal government as outlined in an Australian ordinance.
“At the same time”, he wrote, “the Administration undertakes State-type and national government responsi bilities. Those State-type and national government responsibilities ought to remain the responsibility of the Australian Government which would not, I think, entertain alternative arrangements at this stage”.
The real sting came towards the end. As an authority confined to local government functions, the minister pointed out, any increase in its functions “would require a com mensurate increase in financial res ponsibilities . . . Much of the revenue at present raised by the Administra tion might not be available to a local authority when we come to look at the functions against which it is spent”.
Which was a sugar coating for his next suggestion—“ Certainly the Council may need also to cast around for possible new sources of income: one such source would be from land rating, about which Council will need to give close thought, “As is normal practice, in any consideration of a subsidy or sub vention to a local government authority to meet a shortfall between income and expenditure, the Govern ment would need first to be satisfied that the Council was taking all poss ible steps to obtain a satisfactory level of income”.
These “guidelines”, think some students of government behaviour, are really the first moves to limit Norfolk to the role of a shire coun cil and settle once and for all the argument whether Norfolk is a “colonial” territory or just another part of Australia.