Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to be able to address this chamber on the inquiry into the governance of the Indian Ocean territories and on the final report, Economic development and governance from this committee. I note that my colleague across the chamber is part of that committee and was involved in some of the deliberations.

I want to thank all the committee members for their work, and the chair for his oversight of the committee's operations. I also thank the committee secretariat for the good work they have done and continue to do on an ongoing basis.

Clearly, I want to thank members of the Indian Ocean Territories community, and those with an interest in that community, for their submissions and their continuing interest in those territories, which are a very important part of Australia yet little known by many. The territories, of course, form part of my electorate of Lingiari. I was first elected as their federal member in 1987 and was subsequently Parliamentary Secretary (Territories) during the Keating government, so I had additional responsibilities as well as being their local member. I have a very deep understanding of those communities, how they operate and their frustrations.

I think what this report demonstrates is the need for government to appreciate the importance of its recommendations and to understand that there is an element of frustration among the citizens who live on Christmas and the Cocos over the failure of governments—successive governments, not a government of any particular persuasion—to act upon recommendations that have been made by this committee in previous reports. Indeed, one observation that has been made by citizens is, 'It would be good if they actually looked at the recommendations of the previous report, some of which are mirrored in the current report.' So it is important that government take these recommendations seriously and appreciate that they do not come from a partisan perspective but reflect the bipartisan view of the committee members and their belief that the report they have tabled and its recommendations require the full attention of government and response in a timely manner. Sadly, this has not always been the case.

There are major recommendations in this report over a number of areas: land management and development; service delivery arrangements; and governance, including the role of the administrator. For those who do not know, these territories are rather unique. They do not form part of any state; they are Commonwealth territories. In the case of the Indian Ocean Territories, quite differently from Norfolk Island, since the early 1990s there has been an arrangement whereby Western Australian law as it is developed from time to time operates as state law—but under the aegis of the federal minister—in the communities of Christmas and the Cocos Islands. That places a particular imperative upon this parliament to understand that the minister responsible for external territories is in fact the minister for all things state-like that are passed through the Western Australian parliament. They can all be altered, effectively by regulation, by the federal minister. So, while the citizens of Christmas and the Cocos do not have representation in the Western Australian parliament, their representative in this parliament—in this case me—has a right and a responsibility to represent their interests around state-type issues with the federal government, because the federal government is ultimately responsible.

Some argue that Christmas and the Cocos should be part of a state jurisdiction, which may well be where we arrive at some future point. Currently that is not the case. What operates is a set of service delivery arrangements with the Western Australian government. When this arrangement was first entered into in the early 1990s, when I did have responsibility, there was an extensive process of negotiation and, most importantly, consultation with the communities of Christmas and the Cocos around legislation that would apply from time to time as a result of the Western Australian government passing legislation. More importantly, the communities were involved in determining what these service delivery arrangements might look like. That is simply not the case at the moment. Again, that is not a reflection on this particular government; it is a reflection on successive governments who have dropped the ball since the Howard government was elected in 1996. The delegations which then operated through the Administrator on Christmas and Cocos changed. There were two administrators previously and then there was a single administrator for both islands. The delegations which operated through the Administrator, which meant there was ongoing discussion and consultation within the community and reporting directly back to the minister, changed. And so the delegations then rested within the department. That has been a significant issue and a great source of frustration, which is reflected in the recommendations of this report.

Throughout the inquiry the committee heard from many witnesses that the consultation conducted by the department was inadequate. As I said, of particular interest are the service delivery arrangements for the provision of state type services on the territories. It is important that they are engaged in discussions around these state type matters which are reflected in the service delivery arrangements around transport, health, education, business and corporations, tourism and justice. Without dialogue, consultation and engagement it is very difficult for islanders to pin down which legislation and administrative arrangements deal with their issues, what level of service delivery is provided to the islands and who is responsible for oversighting that service delivery. This is not a difficult thing to overcome but it does require the government to, if you like, release the tension by changing the way in which the delegations operate.

This committee has made a series of recommendations on delegations and service delivery arrangements. In particular, it has made recommendations about the role of the Administrator. It is my very strong view that the role of the Administrator is crucially important to the government but also to the citizens of Christmas and Cocos. The fact that that person is largely now just a figurehead is a problem. I believe very strongly that the Administrator should be seen—as he properly should be determined—as the government representative. The Administrator should be seen as having the responsibility of representing the government in all its forms on Christmas and Cocos islands and be the point of contact for all matters to do with government. It should not be done through some arrangement with Western Australia; it should happen through the Administrator, who then does the work on behalf of the community. This will require a change in the administrative structure and arrangements that currently exist—in particular, where departmental personnel are occupied in their roles whether in Canberra, in Perth or on the islands.

My view is not necessarily shared by everyone but, while I do not think we will ever see self-government in the broadest possible sense on Christmas and Cocos islands, we need to give people on those islands the capacity to have their views properly heard and properly represented every day of the week, every week of the year. We need to make sure that happens, and it can happen—by changing the arrangements to deal with the Administrator and the delegation of powers from the government to the Administrator and to the department. It also means we need to take people into our confidence. There are real prospects for economic development for these island communities but it will not happen without their engagement and their responses to questions that arise from time to time. Most importantly we need to appreciate that, good citizens though they are, they have a right—and we have a responsibility to recognise that right—to be engaged in every way in decisions that affect their daily lives. Often, they have not been. That is an issue we all share. Again, this is not an issue that relates to the current government in particular; it is an issue that has been around for some years, and it is time it was addressed.

I commend this report to the government and I hope they respond in a timely fashion to all of the recommendations within it.

Debate adjourned.