The Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly was the prime

legislative body A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers o ...

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

from 1979 to 2015. Formed after the Norfolk Island Act 1979 was passed in the

Australian Parliament The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...

, 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 The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

abolished the assembly, ending self-government on the island. Norfolk Island Regional Council, a local government body instituted under

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

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 (sometimes called the single divisible vote) is an election system where a voter casts multiple votes but can lump votes on a specific candidate or can split their votes across multiple candidates. The candidates elected are tho ...

is called the "weighted

first past the post system First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

". 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 known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

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 A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

* Robin Adams – Minister for Cultural Heritage and Community Services *Ronald John Ward – Minister for Environment *Timothy John Sheridan – Minister for Finance *Melissa Ward * David Buffett AM – Speaker *David Raymond Porter *Ronald Coane Nobbs –

Deputy Speaker Deputy or depute may refer to: * Steward (office) * Khalifa, an Arabic title that can signify "deputy" * Deputy (legislator), a legislator in many countries and regions, including: ** A member of a Chamber of Deputies, for example in Italy, Spain ...

* 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 Norfolk Island Regional Council 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

Government of Norfolk Island

1979 establishments in Australia 2015 disestablishments in Australia Parliaments of the Australian states and territories

Membership

Abolition

See also

References

External links