Offcial Visit to Solomon Islands

“Your Parliament – Your Voice”

From the Office of the Speaker

Report from Speaker Adams on her recent official visit to the Solomon Islands 23 to 27 July 2012

Each year Presiding Officers and Clerks from all the Australian and Pacific parliaments, or their deputies, come together to discuss parliamentary issues and items of interest common to parliaments in both regions. The Solomon Islands parliament was this year’s host for the 43^rd Presiding Officers and Clerks Conference at which all the Australian Parliaments were represented; as were the Pacific parliaments of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Samoa, Tuvalu and the Republic of Vanuatu.

Norfolk Island played a meaningful role at the Conference in a number of ways. 

A jurisdiction report was presented giving a snapshot overview of some topics of interest, including 1) the recent motion passed by the House in July on self governance and taxation and the circumstances leading up to the motion; 2) the amendments to the Road Traffic Act which required the compulsory wearing of seatbelts; 3) the cultural and historical agreement signed between the Isle of Man and Norfolk last year; 4) the attendance of three of Norfolk’s young people working in London at the London CPA Commonwealth Day activities; and 5) Norfolk’s celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee which included a ceremonial sitting of the House in June.

In my opening remarks I paid homage to the Solomon Islands for hosting the Conference and offered our congratulations on their successful hosting earlier in the month of the 11^th Festival of Pacific Arts in which Norfolk Island participated.  It was a great pleasure for me to reflect back on Norfolk Island’s historical link with the Solomon Islands through the Melanesian Mission College which operated on Norfolk between 1867 and 1919, leaving us a “bountiful” legacy including St. Barnabas Chapel and some wonderful Melanesian artefacts.

In presenting a paper titled “Creating Leaders of the Future – Youth in the Commonwealth” a visual presentation was made on the internet of the social media networking site titled “Youth in the Commonwealth” that was launched in March this year at the Norfolk Island Central School; a site which offers a vehicle for linking our Youth Assembly with other Youth Assemblies, Youth Parliaments and Youth Organisations in the Commonwealth to learn from and about each other. The intention of the presentation was to encourage the Presiding Officers and Clerks at the Conference to bring the networking site to the attention of their respective youth assemblies and parliaments as well as to build on Norfolk Island as a presence in the Commonwealth.

Norfolk Island was called upon to be the Chair for a number of meetings during the Conference.  The first being to chair two meetings of the Australian Region Management Committee which spanned some three hours in order to achieve outcomes that met the Regions expectations.

The third was for Norfolk, by invitation of the Pacific Region, to chair what was thought to be the first joint meeting of the CPA Australian and Pacific Region Branches.  This was a great honour and my opening remarks, which were carefully chosen, were, as best as I can recall, along these lines:

“Norfolk Island is honoured to be invited to chair this joint meeting of the Australian and Pacific Region CPA Branches; we sometimes feel Norfolk Island walks between the worlds; we walk in Polynesia and the Pacific with our culture, heritage and traditions; and we walk at the same time with Australia to whom we owe our loyalty”.

In choosing these words I looked to the publication “Our Near and Abroad – Australia and Pacific Islands regionalism” published last November by Professor Richard Herr and Anthony Bergin from which I quote –

“The Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands and Norfolk Islanders of Polynesian ancestry can serve as bridges from Australia into the region.”

Jurisdiction updates were also provided for each set of twinned parliaments on their twinning activities in the past 12 months.  Norfolk Island entered into a twinning partnership with Niue in May this year in tandem with the Northern Territory.

Thanks to the many valuable contacts made while at the Conference, I will be following up on some worthwhile initiatives including parliamentary education and member induction programmes, joint funding possibilities and working with Niue and the Northern Territory to build on our twinning partnership into the future to our mutual benefit.

August sitting of the Legislative Assembly

The next scheduled sitting of the Legislative Assembly is Wednesday 8 August 2012 at 10 am.

To read the Notice Paper, Programme, Minutes of Proceedings and legislation tabled in the House go to www.info.gov.nf. Issued from the Office of the Speaker on 3 August 2012 and posted on the blog site http://yourparliamentyourvoice.blogspot.com