Where to From Here ?

In his address to the community at Rawson Hall on Wednesday night Mr Robert Patch from the Dept. of Regional Development added, almost as an afterthought, “where to from here?”
A pretty standard wrap up for any forum where there is a requirement for subsequent action.
Mr Patch then gave an outline of the things that were expected to happen in order for Norfolk Island’s bids to find their way into his Department’s budget and ultimately into the Commonwealth budget cycle.
It is sobering to think that the Norfolk Island Government and the Administration have roughly 12 weeks to come up with the quantum of dollars that they are seeking from the Commonwealth for 2011/2012; their supporting arguments; and then for the Commonwealth to agree to this, or not; and for the basis on which there is to be agreement, or not, to be articulated.
The first part of this is probably the easiest. Truth be told, they’ve done it already.
You would expect that with financial collapse imminent any responsible government would know what it needed to survive and get ready for a bailout and include some contingencies to maximize the size of it depending on their appreciation of the disposition of the bailee.

Imagine you’re a sinking ship, your engines have failed, and half the crew has abandoned ship. The first thing needed is to prevent the ship from sinking e.g. plug the leaks. If that works then maybe you could ask a nearby ship’s captain for some engine parts so that your no longer leaking ship could get under way.
Then you might decide to stretch the friendship and broach the subject of some assistance with a crew because it’s not much good just fixing the leaks and getting underway only to have the ship sail around in circles with no understanding of “where to from here”.
To have some understanding of how the other ship’s captain might react is useful. If in the past you have been reluctant to accept assistance when it was offered, and if you have bad-mouthed other ships crews, then they might be inclined to leave you flopping around in the sea.

Taking the sinking ship analogy a little further, once the ship is out of danger and you have steerage and power, it might be a good time to talk to the passengers. Do they want to continue the cruise? Do they want to go forward, or backward? Standing still is not an option, so “where to from here?” This is where the important supporting arguments come from – all the passengers.
My point is, are we expected to leave our future in the hands of a few “faceless men” such as those of Mr Nobb’s as yet unnamed economic advisory committee, or to the fate of the Canberra lobbyists paid for by other “faceless men,” or do we get a real opportunity for input.
Should the future direction of the good ship Norfolk be dominated by the views of Norfolk Labor, the Chamber of Commerce, or the Pitcairn Society?

The answer, of course, is that the views of all should be factored in as openly as possible. This is a momentous time for Norfolk Island, it is crunch time, we all have a stake and we all need a hearing.

For this to occur the NIG, or the Commonwealth, needs to act fast and establish a process that we can have confidence in. For example:

1. Mail out to all residents on Tuesday December 7th 2010.
2. Call for submissions from organizations and/or individuals.
3. Closing date for input, Friday 22nd Jan 2011.
4. Review all submissions.
5. Tabulate all.
6. Cross reference all with NIG positions already determined.
7. Explain why a particular course of action will not be followed.
8. Provide all the above with final submissions as evidence of having considered the views of all stakeholders.

This is not rocket science, but it is good democratic process.

Fred Howe – Norfolk Island

(note: the writer is Vice-President of the Norfolk Island Chamber of Commerce)