Far from being a drain on Australian taxpayers, Norfolk Island has long provided a net benefit to Australia's budget. The rise of China has also seen its strategic importance grow– an unsinkable aircraft carrier floating in the southern Pacific. Following the implementation of self-governance in 1979, our community took responsibility for almost all services usually provided by federal, state or local governments. The 1800 permanent residents funded their own health, education, customs, quarantine, telecommunications, electricity, roads, rubbish, and other services, all without the need for income tax, land tax or council rates. So successful was our model that for the three decades prior to the global financial crisis, our administration did not have a single budget deficit. It's an enviable financial record no other federal, state or territory government has come close to. When the GFC did hit, not only did the Commonwealth specifically exclude Norfolk Island from the stimulus funding provided to all other state's and territories, it insisted that any financial assistance be tied to reductions to self-governance. Throughout this time, our little island continued to pour money into Canberra's coffers. The 430,000-square-kilometre exclusive economic zone that surrounds us continued to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars to Treasury. This includes more than $60 million a year from commercial fishing licences alone while oil, gas and mineral exploration licences provide yet more.

And despite having no access to Commonwealth services, direct and indirect taxation paid to Australia took a further $5.8 million per year from the pockets of Norfolk Islanders. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth was using its veto powers to block a range of initiatives that would have provided a sustainable boost to the local economy, from the growing of medicinal marijuana, to island-based commercial fishing and the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Far from the myth of a people needing rescue from financial ruin, the true motivation for this takeover is gaining full control of a piece of the Pacific nearly twice the size of Victoria. The Commonwealth government also maintains the flimsy claim that Norfolk Island is, and always has been, part of Australia. In fact, the island was gifted in 1856 by Queen Victoria to the descendants of the Bounty mutineers. While the Commonwealth was asked to "administer" this territory, it was never ceded or annexed to Australia, nor was it incorporated into the Commonwealth.

Our situation is like asking your neighbour to check the mail and keep an eye on your house when going on holiday, but returning home to find they've decided to take it over because they didn't think you were doing a good enough job managing it. Sure, they'll still let you live there, but now you have to pay rent to them and will have no say over future changes. In fact, it is the loss of democracy, of control over our own destiny, that is most heartbreaking for Norfolk Islanders, and one of the main reasons 70 per cent voted against the takeover in a referendum last year. From July 1, our island will become part of the landlocked federal electorate of Canberra, some 2000 kilometres away. Meanwhile, our local laws will be replaced by those of NSW, a state where the people of Norfolk Island will not be allowed to vote. More than two centuries since the cry of no taxation without representation fuelled the American revolution, the people of Norfolk Island will be returned to a similar position as second-class citizens in their own land. The inhabitants of Norfolk Island, who have built a strong, sustainable community through 160 years of adversity, are told they simply aren't capable of making an informed decision about their own destiny. Apparently Canberra knows best.

Andre Nobbs is an elected member of the management committee of the Norfolk Island People for Democracy and a former chief minister of Norfolk Island.