HMS Bounty mutineers’ descendants fighting Federal Government for self-rule on Norfolk Island

Angry descendants of the infamous HMS Bounty mutineers fighting to regain self-rule on Norfolk Island are ramping up their campaign opening their own bank and holding their own elections for officials to run the picturesque South Pacific enclave.

Tensions on the tiny island have reached boiling point with islanders also setting up their own legal system and refusing to live any longer under what they describe as “unworkable rules” and impossible-to-pay taxes imposed on them by the Federal Government.

Leah Honeywood, a seventh-generation islander who was re-elected Chief Magistrate of what locals call Norf’k Ailen on New Years’ Day, said they have had enough of being dictated to by Canberra bureaucrats who have never stepped foot on the island.

“How do we go from an indigenous race with our own constitution in 1838, making it one of the top 10 oldest in the world, where we were the first to give woman the vote, and one of the first few to have compulsory education, to not being able to have a say in our own future?” Ms Honeywood said.

Senator David Pocock told Federal Parliament Norfolk Islanders are frustrated with the way they have been treated.

“Time and time again they have trusted in the Australian Government and have been disappointed,” Senator Pocock told an Estimates hearing.

“This is a culturally and linguistically distinct group of people who have a strong sense of identity and some of them disagree with even being part of Australia,” he said.

Trouble has been brewing on the popular tourist spot 1600km north-east of Sydney since the Federal Government took over the island in 2016 as part of a financial bail-out.

Queen Victoria in 1856 granted ownership of Norfolk Island, a former British penal colony, to the descendants of the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty, after they had outgrown their original island home on Pitcairn.

And Australia had been managing the island until 1979 when the islanders won the right to limited self-rule.

But when the hard times hit after the global financial crisis, the Federal government provide a cash injection in a deal that took back control of the island.

Many islanders said it was an illegal takeover, and they never agreed or voted for the changes which saw them brought into the Australian tax and welfare system.

And it didn’t go well. A governing council was set up and then sacked in 2021. Islanders were given access to health and welfare services but were also hit with crippling land taxes.

A parliamentary inquiry led to moves to restore democracy with input from a specially convened Norfolk Island Governance Committee (NIGC) which included three island elected representatives.

Late last year the government announced a bespoke governance model would be introduced and in place by the end of this year.

Federal Minister for Territories, Kristy McBain said the Norfolk Island Assembly would restore local decision-making and play a key role in Norfolk’s financial sustainability.

The Assembly will have four-year terms with five elected members and it will have the power to make laws about local service delivery.

However, the judicial system, and Commonwealth laws including the wildly unpopular land taxes will remain and there will be no return to pre-2016 self-rule arrangements.

A report from NIGC island members raised concerns again that islanders still didn’t have a chance to give “informed consent” and the model “must” be put to a referendum to ensure community backing.

The report also said most stakeholders and decision makers do not have a clear idea of the legal relationship between Australia and Norfolk Island and independent legal experts need to define and clarify this “unique relationship”.

Ms Honeywood isn’t waiting anymore and is taking matters into her own hands. “The time for talking is over,” she said.

“Our elders are dying thinking they have lost all that was bestowed on them for future generations, and they are devastated we are losing our homeland and way of life,” Ms Honeywood said.

Her priority during her term of office is to provide citizenship to residents who are direct descendants from the Pitcairn setters and then open the process for non-descendants to apply.

She said it’s important islanders have the same international legal protections other citizens around the world enjoy including never being removed from their home country.

Ms Honeywood opened the island’s new bank, the Myse Bank as a way to create revenue said it has won “strong community support”.

But the move earned a rebuke in a press release from the Department of Infrastructure warning islanders to only use authorised banks to protect themselves and their assets.