Transcript
ALBERT BUFFETT: Towards the end of the meeting they said well what do you want and we said "self-determination" you know, and they said what that is. They had no idea.
DON WISEMAN: Do you think that was a strategy.
AB: I think it was a strategy, yes. I think they were trying to get us to give them some ammunition in what they could use in propaganda against us.
DW: Alright so what do you think is going to happen next?
AB: I don't think we will get another invite to a meeting.
DW: When you say they were there to speak with all the stakeholders, so they have spoken to you guys, the Council of Elders, who else go an opportunity.
AB: They spoke to the Regional Council, they didn't talk to Norfolk Islands People for Democracy, which has over a 1,000 members. They didn't get invited to talk to them, so i don't know who they spoke to.
DW: It is a year on now since the change was made. I know that protests like the tent village are carrying on, and your organisation, eight or nine months ago, you went to London and you began this process of formally seeking international backing, and that process is continuing.
AB: That process is very much continuing and we are still pushing very hard on that.
DW: The hardest part of that of course, if you want to get to the UN and be listed as a non-self-governing territory you are going to need Australia to usher you in there, aren't you?
AB: No we don't need Australia. We have been trying to get Australia - I said to them when we were discussing that, when they asked us what did we want and I said self-determination. And they said all you need to do is inscribe us and we can all start talking together. But I think that Fiona Nash [Australia's Minister for Regional Development] has already said elsewhere to different people 'not on their agenda. Self-determination is not one of the things they are willing to consider. We are looking at some other people,, members of the General Assembly, just to put our name forward to the C24 [Committee of 24 non self-governing territories].
DW: And one year on, it is likely, I imagine, the ways things have gone, you could be in much the same boat in another 12 months’ time. Not a great deal of progress on this. Is that how you imagine it could be?
AB: That's right but I think 12 months’ time there will be progress. You have got to have faith.
