The Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly was the prime legislative body of Norfolk Island from 1979 to 2015. Formed after the

Norfolk Island Act 1979 The Norfolk Island Act 1979 was an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of Australia. It acknowledged the sovereign British Possession of Norfolk Islands' powers of self-government in conjunction to standing Australian policy. The Act formal ...

was passed in the Australian parliament, its first members were elected on 10 August 1979. The last assembly was the 14th, elected on 13 March 2013. On 17 June 2015, the Australian government abolished the assembly, ending self-government on the island.

Norfolk Island Regional Council The Norfolk Island Regional Council is the local government body of Norfolk Island, an island territory of Australia in the south Pacific Ocean. It is subject to the state-level legislation of New South Wales. History Prior to July 2015, Norf ...

, a local government body instituted under New South Wales law and with significantly-restricted powers, was established in July 2016 to perform local-level governance on the island.

Membership

The Assembly had 9 members, elected for a three-year term. The Assembly was elected by a popular vote for a term of not more than three years. Electors each had nine equal votes, which could be divided in any way between candidates, but no more than two votes could be given to any particular individual candidate. This variation of

cumulative voting Cumulative voting (also accumulation voting, weighted voting or multi-voting) is a multiple-winner method intended to promote more proportional representation than winner-take-all elections such as block voting or first past the post. Cumulative ...

is called the "weighted

first past the post system In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

". All nine seats were held by independents, as Norfolk Island did not have major political parties. However, a local branch of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms th ...

was active. On 20 March 2013, the first meeting of the 14th Legislative Assembly elected Chief Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker: * Lisle Snell – Chief Minister *Robin Eleanor Adams – Minister for Cultural Heritage and Community Services *Ronald John Ward –

Minister for Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of the environment) is a cabinet position charged with protecting the natural environment and promoting wildlife conservation. The areas associated with the duties of a ...

*Timothy John Sheridan –

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

*Melissa Ward *

David Buffett David Ernest Buffett AM (born 17 October 1942) is a political figure from the Australian territory of Norfolk Island. He served as Chief Minister of Norfolk Island from March 2010 to March 2013; he has also held the position three previous oc ...

AM –

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

*David Raymond Porter *Ronald Coane Nobbs – Deputy Speaker * Hadyn Paul Evans

Abolition

In March 2015, the Australian government announced that the Assembly would be replaced with a regional council, as part of a plan to bring the governance of Norfolk Island into line with the rest of Australia. A five-person Community Advisory Council would be set up to manage the transition, with Chief Minister Snell and Speaker Buffett being invited to be members. In 2014, Snell travelled to Canberra to argue against a complete change to the arrangements governing the island. He did not oppose the island joining Australia's tax and welfare system, but maintained that it should retain similar powers to a state or territory government. Snell's overtures and a non-binding referendum held on the island were unsuccessful, and the Assembly met for the last time on 17 June 2015. After a transition period of more than a year, local government power was officially returned to Norfolk Island with the establishment of the

on 1 July 2016, with the Commonwealth continuing to govern the island for all but local-level matters.

References

External links

Hansard archive
{{Authority control Norfolk Island Government of Norfolk Island Norfolk Island 1979 establishments in Australia 2015 disestablishments in Australia

Membership

Abolition

See also

References

External links