Governance arrangements for the Indian Ocean territories Discussion

Senator JOYCE—We have been hearing the self-determination argument during our visit in differing forms and degrees in different areas. Many of the arguments tend to contradict one another; different submissions will contradict one and another in forms and degrees. If you were sent to Canberra and you had complete run of the place for three days, or however long it took you to reform the place, what would you do differently? If you had everything at your disposal and you could take any course of action, what would it be?

Mr Clunies-Ross—I would first kick a few heads in DOTARS, tell them they are big dozy bastards and it was about time they took their responsibilities on board. I would then write to the UN and say: ‘We have been unable to integrate this territory. We are in negotiation with the territory now to freely associate. We would never be able to stand independent so we would have to be freely associated with Australia.’ Once you have decided to freely associate, a lot of these problems that you are coming up against now disappear. They are not your problem any more; they are the territory’s problem. This macro and micro management of the territories will have nothing to do with Australia any more. The territory will come cap in hand at budget time and say, ‘We need this,’ and you guys will say, ‘Well, we need a detention centre.’ You say, ‘Well, this goes with that,’ the same as you do with a state negotiation. Then the macro and micro economic and political management has got very little to do with you. You could provide a guideline. It obviously has to be democratic, but we would see a lot less of you and we would get fewer phone calls.

Senator JOYCE—Without the size and the extent of the bureaucracy, in the end you would have a quasi-form of state but without any direct connection with the mainland.

Mr Clunies-Ross—You would have pretty much what you have now. You would not have to have any more bureaucracy because basically all the bureaucratic functions are covered locally here and on Christmas Island. I am upset that DOTARS do not have a representative here. Imagine if the ministry for any state said, ‘We are all going to live in Canberra now, see you later, bye.’ Having bums on seats in houses here affects our economic outlook; another five or eight people living on the island actually administering the function of DOTARS in the territories would make a big difference to our economics.

Senator JOYCE—Who would perform this form of governance? What would be the structure? If it is a quasi-state it has to have some sort of governance. How do you perceive that to be?

Mr Clunies-Ross—The Northern Territory evolved through a process of an appointed and voted-in body. I would suggest that would be a starting point. These people already know the game. There are four people on there. They can outvote the local people four to three, and then in seven years or five years the whole body will be a locally appointed body. Maybe you can even keep one because you cannot get rid of the administrator’s position; it is too integrated into the legislation.

Senator JOYCE—Would it be one vote one value between Christmas Island and Cocos Island? There are more people there than here.

Mr Clunies-Ross—I think the only requirement would be to agree on a budget between the two islands prior to the budget being approved; otherwise one vote one person. I am being realistic here. The Christmas Islanders would have all the budget otherwise; they would suck it up. If agreement for the budget were required prior to budget approval then you would have to do your political infighting prior to going to the Commonwealth for your budget allocation.

Senator JOYCE—Would you have it on seats? How would you elect people? What would be the process of selection?

Mr Clunies-Ross—I am not an expert on that. Cocos Islanders are much happier appointing people themselves. They just walk around and say, ‘This person will do it,’ and if he says, ‘Yes’ he will go and do it. If he says ‘No’ they try to find someone else. All agreements made with people on Cocos Islands are personal agreements. They look you in the eye. We talked to Wahin in the court and he said, ‘Yeah, I shook Bob Hawke’s hand and he said, ‘She’s apples, mate.’ If he is the most powerful man in Australia, the head of government, he expects him then to do the right thing. He went to the Magistrates Court and said: ‘What’s the problem? Bob Hawke said its cool.’ Things change and no-one bothers to inform the community that things have changed. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. There is a cultural issue on Cocos, but having said that, the democratic process will work in its multifarious matters. At least we can go thump someone or abuse them down at the pub.

CHAIRMAN—Mr Clunies-Ross, thank you for your attendance before the committee.

Senator CARR—I greatly appreciate the answers you have given. If the Commonwealth has direct responsibility, the question of its accountability is something with which this committee has to be vitally concerned. If the Commonwealth is trying to avoid its responsibility by moving matters off to another state, it is something that we have to explore very carefully. Our main concern is the capacity to actually improve the services for Australian citizens and residents given the Commonwealth’s legal obligations. That is the reason we are asking these questions.

Senator JOYCE—You had a problem with water on this island, did you not?

Mr Price—Until today.

Senator JOYCE—We are happy to have fixed that up today. At this point in time do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable with the arrangement? You are politically governed from the Northern Territory, you are administered by Western Australia and you are funded by the Commonwealth. In your statement you say that you are aware that that probably engenders a little bit more financing, more money flows this way, maybe you receive a little bit more attention than possibly a regional town. Would that be a fair statement?

Mr Price—Yes.

Senator JOYCE—With the service delivery arrangements, how are you going with training local people, getting local people from especially Home Island here to become trainee technicians and in jobs like that? How is that progressing?

Mr Price—I will use the Water Corporation who undertake the utility provision as an example. Half the employees for the Water Corporation would be from Home Island so there is expertise, they have had the traineeships with an electrical or plumbing trade. That was heavily watered back last year. The Water Corporation also used to carry out a lot of asset services responsibilities, building maintenance, private contract work. DOTARS reviewed that, and found that they should only be providing services of the three utilities and not that other type of work. Last year Water Corporation actually let quite a few staff go because of that. There was a bit of a local impact. We were hoping that the people who were let go could go in as private contractors, but we are in that transient period—whether they have licences or authority to do that. They are qualified tradesmen but it is uncertain whether they have the contractor certificate as well. There i