Governance arrangements for the Indian Ocean territories Discussion

Senator CROSSIN—Your submission also is pretty critical about the administration—I think you were talking about actually the DOTARS people being relocated to Perth. You have given us examples. Does this relocation just compound that frustration?

Mr Payne—Yes it does. It actually stopped. They have already done it on Cocos and it was going to happen here, but they have turned around that policy and stopped it. All of the reports, I have the three of them here—the two Commonwealth Grants Commission hearings of 1999 and 1995 and the Islands in the Sun, all recommended that if you are going to make laws then you need to be pretty close to the place that they are going to affect. That is what I said in my submission. If DOTARS staff left, we would then end up in a situation where decisions would be totally arbitrary and the effects would not matter. They would not care about them. It would be more down the line.

Senator JOYCE—In summary, you raised the similar position of what the council said. You think there should be a greater engagement by the people of Christmas Island and how their laws are based, and also by SDAs. That is basically the underlying theme. Would you agree with that?

Mr Payne—Yes, I would.

Senator JOYCE—In your opening statement regarding your referrals to the United Nations charters for self-determination—I am going to be quite blunt—do you want to be part of Australia?

Mr Payne—If you read the submissions it says—I will just quickly read this out to you. This is actually plagiarised somewhat from the preamble to the Norfolk Island Act. This is it succinctly.

It is the wish of the peoples of Cocos (Keeling) Island and Christmas Island that Cocos (Keeling) Island and Christmas Island achieve, over a period of time, internal self government as a single Territory under the authority of the Commonwealth and, to that end, to provide, among other things, for the establishment of a representative Legislative Assembly and other separate political and administrative institutions.

Senator Joyce, all we need in the scheme of things, to bring us up to speed with Australia, is to have control over state level governance, and that is what we are talking about with self-determination.

CHAIRMAN—When you say Australia, do you mean the mainland?

Mr Payne—Yes. State laws are imposed on us under a colonial style administration, and that is the way it is. There is no practical way of actually doing it. In fact, the SDAs and adopting legal regimes from another state is actually a decolonisation process. It is a recognised one. That is what we are actually undergoing right now.

Senator JOYCE—You gave some examples of the stamp duty, and I imagine there would be people in the Kimberleys, even though they are part of Western Australia, who would raise exactly the same contention—why would they be paying a stamp duty for something that they are never going to enjoy. Can you give me an example of some taxes that would be paid by someone on the mainland that you would not pay here?

Mr Payne—Yes. Tobacco and alcohol to help our tourist industry would be really good, but that does not change legislation. That is in a regulation. You can vary the rates of liquor taxes and tobacco excises and things like that.

Senator JOYCE—There are no other excises you pay? Do you pay the GST on this island?

Mr Payne—No, we do not.

Senator JOYCE—You do not pay the GST. So, there are a couple of other advantages.

Mr Payne—GST is an interesting thing. The history of that goes back to the fact we never paid sales tax, and the reason we did not pay sales tax when the legal regime changed was because of the freight, the cost of getting things here. That was to the balance. We are also a duty-free port, which is another commercial advantage that we should be able to enjoy. If we paid the full gamut of taxes, if we paid GST and had to pay duty on all our imports, this place would not be here. It simply would not have anything here. If the government is committed to the long-term future of a populated Christmas Island—some say it is not—those sorts of things have to be there. Otherwise you would have to do a similar thing as the Tasmanian shipping with direct subsidies, which is a dirty word these days. We would want to stay away from subsidies.

Senator JOYCE—There was a long dissertation about the casino, and obviously there is a strong interest. We acknowledge the interest that has been shown by both yourselves and the council about the casino. Did you do any comparative analysis to casinos in any other countries similar to yours, islands similar to Christmas Island, and what the effects have been there, both beneficial and consequential of that?

Mr Assims—Senator, the casino was open for a total of five years. During that time 99.9 per cent of its revenue, and 100 per cent of its profit came from overseas visitors. Most of the money in this casino was made in the VIP room, which is the smallest room in the casino. It has six tables.

CHAIRMAN—When you say overseas, does that include the mainland or is that excluding all Australia?

Mr Assims—Yes sir. It includes Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. The locals did have access to the casino, but only to lower level gaming—$5, $10, $20 bets. The bets in the VIP room were anything up to $100,000 bets. The locals could visit the VIP room but did not have access to the gaming facilities of the VIP room.

Senator JOYCE—Are there studies of any other industries? What I am getting is this continual referral to the casino, and that is probably just. I am at an inquiry, so I am inquiring. Are there any other possible avenues? There is the IRPC, the phosphate mine, eco tourism. Apart from the casino, have any other ventures been contemplated or considered by the Chamber of Commerce as a step forward that would take the people of the island with them?

Mr Assims—I actually work for the owning company as well. We spoke to a number of potential investors. They did visit the island and they did conduct feasibility studies to open the casino as a resort facility, rather than a gaming facility. On all occasions, those people decided that this property could not survive simply with tourism. It is also very interesting to note that the highest occupancy this resort ever enjoyed, even at its peak, was 28 per cent overall, but it did not matter. It could have stayed at five per cent, because it made all its money from a very, very small percentage of its visitors, and that was the gaming visitors. It did support airlines. It did support a number of things on the island, but without the revenue stream of the gaming operation, it could not do so, and it can never do so in the future. Yes it was looked at for a resort, but it was never, ever going to be a resort.

Mr Payne—Senator Joyce, also prior to the federal government issuing the first licence or the go-ahead to do it, there was a whole lot of research done into the effects of the casino, both economically and socially. There were some social effects after the casino opened, but on the whole, and I was here th