Transcript
MIKE KING: I would say I am disappointed in their lack of understanding that there is no going back to the old days - that is the reality - we cannot go back to the old days. We weren't self-sufficient at all, despite what others might have told various media outlets. We didn't balance our budgets, we weren't paying our bills.
DON WISEMAN: I am not certain that the People for Democracy group is wanting to move things back to where they were. I think they want some restoration of some degree of autonomy, that's all.
MK: I am not sure what their position is. You know they put a lot of accent on democracy. What sort of democracy are they looking for. Parliamentary democracy, representative democracy, the kind of democracy they have got in parts of Europe where the go back to the people and make all sorts of decisions. Yeah they may not be satisfied with what they got but the old system simply was not working.
DW: They situation, as you saw it had become untenable, Australia needed to do something, it has done it but it has seems to have upset a very large number of people on the island.
MK: Look I concede that but I do emphasize that the grievances are many and varied. So if you lined all the opposition up and asked them what their particular grievance was you would get a varied box of answers.
DW: But there is this significant campaign, before the UN and so on, so things for a lot of people are not going to stay the way they are, or do you think that all of that will just blow over.
MK: Well I don't know. I am not an expert on that. I can't say it is going to blow over, but I can say they have been there before, in an endeavour to have Norfolk listed as a non-self governing territory. The reality is that anyone who is in a position to make a decision regarding this - and I don't think the UK is, and quite frankly I don't think the UN is, but if they were in a position to make a decision in relation to this they would have to look for some proof that the government would be able to perform adequately on a self governing basis, and that wasn't evident under the other arrangements.
DW: Do a lot of people on Norfolk hold your views or are you out on your own.
MK: No I am not out on my own, or at least I hope not. Look I am not entirely happy, let me say that I don't want to pay income tax. If I have a particular grievance about it, sure, I don't want to pay income tax, but the reality is that we cannot not pay income tax. That is our entree to the more equitable taxing system. Now I am not on my own, many share my views, I simply say that I can't quantify them. But I wouldn't suggest that we are in the minority.
DW: Do you think the island is going to flourish - overcome this and flourish under this tighter Australian control.
MK: Absolutely I do, Absolutely I do. I see evidence of it now. There is a whiff, a genuine whiff of improvement in the economy just now, and I know that that may just be a bubble created by an influx of federal money towards roads and other capital works, but if we can tag along to those same federal programmes of funding, equitable taxation, more acceptable questions relating to the governance and expenditure of public monies, yeah, I see great prospects for the island. Tourism is on the improve now. There are people, despite what others may say, there are people who are returning to the island now, to open up businesses. And that is a great sign. That is exactly what the island people would like I imagine, to retain their own people here - and a stable economy would do just that.
