Political Reviews Micronesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 michael lujan bevacqua, landisang l kotaro, monica c labriola, clement yow mulalap Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 peter clegg, lorenz gonschor, margaret mutu, christina newport, steven ratuva, forrest wade young The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 29, Number 1, 93–188 © 2017 by University of Hawai‘i Press 93 154 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) waateanews?story_id=MTI3NDY= decolonization by granting it a large [accessed 24 Aug 2016] degree of self-government in 1979, ———. 2016b. Rena Fight Not Over an arrangement similar to other for Motiti Hapu. 5 April. http://www autonomous dependent territories .waateanews.com/waateanews/x_story in the region. _id/MTMyNjQ= [accessed 30 Aug 2016] However, the 2008–2009 global Walsh, Kristine. 2016. Gisborne Land Use financial crisis hit the island’s mainly Case Taken to UN for Opinion. Gisborne tourism-based economy particu- Herald, 29 March. http://gisborneherald larly hard (after earlier disruptions .co.nz/localnews/2235419-135/gisborne including miscalculated investments -land-use-case-taken-to [accessed 30 Aug in a locally owned airline in 2006), 2016] and from 2010 onward, the local government’s budget operated at a deficit. This necessitated annual subsidies from the Australian fed- Norfolk Island eral government ranging from a$3.2 The year under review was a fateful million in 2011 (us$2.4 million) up one for Norfolk Island, and indeed to a$7.5 million (us$5.6 million) in for the entire Pacific Islands region, the 2014–2015 financial year. Under as it marked the unprecedented the 1979 statutes, Norfolk Island recolonization of an island territory was not allowed to borrow money by its administrative power without in order to cover deficits without the territory’s consent, an anachro- Canberra’s permission, which was nistic act going against the current of not forthcoming. In 2010, Australia decolonization of the past six decades first refused to provide the requested and comparable in modern history budgetary subsidy but then agreed to only to the reactionary French policies it on condition that Norfolk Island toward its Pacific possessions from the paid Australian federal taxes and late 1950s to the mid-1980s. Austra- accepted financial oversight by federal lia’s recolonizing policies sparked an officials, which the local government outburst of Norfolk Island national- agreed to under protest (C Nobbs ism and a well-organized resistance 2016b). movement struggling both locally The 2007–2013 Australian Labor and globally for the restoration of Party government under Prime Minis- democracy to the island community. ters Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd had A British colony settled in 1856 agreed to further negotiations with from Pitcairn Island by the descen- the Norfolk Island territorial gov- dants of the Bounty mutineers and ernment over the issue, and the two their Tahitian partners (some of whom governments had signed a “Norfolk later returned to Pitcairn to become Island Road Map” for that purpose the ancestors of that island’s current in 2011. But the Liberal Party govern- inhabitants), Norfolk Island became ment under Tony Abbott that came a dependent territory of Australia in to power in Australia in 2013 repu- 1914, and six decades later Australia diated this compromise and instead initiated steps toward the island’s advocated a hard-line, reactionary political reviews • polynesia 155 approach. A report commissioned by to the bill’s passage, no parliamen- the federal government in 2014—orig- tarian acknowledged this obvious inally intended to look into economic denial of democracy, and some even issues, not political institutions—rec- mocked the more than two-thirds ommended shutting down the Nor- majority vote in the referendum as folk Island government altogether merely representing “some” people and replacing it with direct rule by on the island being “unhappy” or Canberra, and the Abbot govern- having “concerns” (Government of ment followed the report, introducing Australia 2015b). Further protests and corresponding legislation in Austra- complaints by Norfolk Island Legisla- lia’s Parliament. The Norfolk Island tive Assembly Speaker David Buffett Legislation Amendment Act 2015 was and Chief Minister Lisle Snell used all first tabled in the Australian House of available avenues, such as an article Representatives on 26 March and in in the Commonwealth Parliamentary the Senate on 13 May. Association’s magazine (Buffett and The Norfolk Island government Snell 2015) and a letter to Queen reacted immediately to the impending Elizabeth II (A Nobbs 2016, 26), but threat to its existence. On 27 March to no avail. 2015, while the bill was moving As a consequence of the Nor- through the federal parliament, the folk Island Legislation Amendment island’s Legislative Assembly called Act, the Norfolk Island Legislative for a referendum to be held on 8 May Assembly as well as the executive among the local voters on the ques- branch were dissolved on 17 June tion of whether the people of Norfolk 2015 and the administration of the Island should have the right of self- island was placed under the authority determination and should be consulted of Canberra-appointed administra- before any changes to their political tor Gary Hardgrave. All assets and institutions were made by the Austra- public accounts held by the Norfolk lian Parliament (Norfolk Island Gov- Island government were seized by the ernment Gazette, 27 March 2015). Australian federal government. Shortly The result could not have been clearer, thereafter, Federal Minister Jamie with an overwhelming majority of 624 Briggs designated a handpicked five- out of 912 participants (68% out of member “advisory council,” ostensibly a 92% turnout of registered voters) to allow some kind of community voting “Yes” to the question (rnz, consultation process, but for the next 9 May 2015). twelve months the island was ruled However, the Australian Parlia- by a regime with no accountabil- ment ignored the referendum, and ity to the population. Perhaps most with strong bipartisan support from important on a symbolical level, the the ranks of both the Liberal govern- Norfolk Island Legislation Amend- ment and the Labor opposition, the ment Act 2015 deleted the preamble bill passed both houses on 14 May of the Norfolk Island Act 1979, which and was assented to by Australia’s recognized the Pitcairn descendants governor-general, Peter Cosgrove, on as a culturally distinct people and 26 May 2015. In the debate leading acknowledged their special relation- 156 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) ship to the island (Government of legislative furnishings without con- Australia 2015a, 2001). sulting unesco and the local board As is common in cases where that administered kavha at that time, democracy is abolished and replaced Australia violated its international with an authoritarian regime, what obligations (C Nobbs 2016a). followed were very worrisome prac- All of these arbitrary and antidemo- tices of limiting freedom of speech cratic measures led to strong reactions and of arbitrary, extrajudicial punish- and resistance on the part of the island ment of political opponents. The local community. As soon as the Australian radio station was placed under heavy government announced its intent to censorship, the broadcast of opinions unilaterally change Norfolk Island’s critical of the Australian govern- system of government in October ment was prohibited, and dissenting 2014—long before the actual bill journalists, including the hosts of a was introduced in the federal parlia- popular satirical show, were fired ment—two petitions were presented (Newshub, 4 July 2016). In the same to the Australian Senate and House of vein, a local government employee Representatives, containing 830 and who criticized Hardgrave using insult- 834 signatures, respectively, asking for ing language in a private Facebook the island community to be consulted post had her salary reduced and was by means of a referendum before any told that she would be laid off as soon legislative process would start in that as the new administrative system was matter (A Nobbs 2016, 6). implemented (SMH, 25 May 2015). On 18 May 2015, immediately Another common policy for after Canberra had ignored the postcoup authoritarian regimes is to island’s 8 May referendum and passed rewrite history and seek to erase the the unwanted legislation, a represen- memory of the previous democratic tative group of local political leaders system of government. Hardgrave’s founded the Norfolk Island People neocolonial administration followed for Democracy (nipd) association as this model well, and in October a local, national, and international 2015 it permitted the removal of the pressure group for the maintenance furniture and all other items from the of the island’s self-government. The legislative chamber, which became a founding board members included completely empty room, annihilating the then Chief Minister Lisle Snell; all physical evidence that a legislature four of his predecessors, including of Norfolk Island had ever existed. current Assembly Speaker and long- The legislative chamber was located serving Chief Minister David Buffett, in the Old Military Barracks, one of who had repeatedly held either office the historic buildings dating from the since 1979 and might be considered early nineteenth century British penal Norfolk Island’s “elder statesman”; settlement that is