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Abstract
Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands group are located in the Indian Ocean. They developed as small outposts of the British Empire from their first settlement in the early 19th century until they were caught up in the world decolonising movement of the mid-20th century. Their paths of development were very different, with one depending on the exploitation of rich phosphate deposits, and the other on the harvesting of the products of copra plantations. But both attracted immigrant workers from South East Asia, and as these workforces matured they generated demands for democratic participation in their own governance. This article notes this history, and then tracks developments over the past 50 years, including their conversion to the status of external territories of Australia; a gradual process of bringing them together as a single territory for purposes of governance; and rising tensions as their populations have sought to win democratic governance rights in the face of a seeming lack of sympathy by the Australian government which considers them too small to warrant such treatment. The impasse that has developed in shaping an appropriate governance structure for these islands is seen here, arguably, as a case of “democratic deficit”.
Notes
1. Information and arguments in this article are based on (a) relevant newspaper clippings and materials from journals, parliamentary reports, departmental reports and related material in files maintained at the University of Canberra by Roger Wettenhall over several decades and recently mined and supplemented by Thaneshwar Bhusal, and (b) the experiences and research of Jon Stanhope as Administrator of Cocos Islands and Christmas Island between 2012 and 2014, and previously as Deputy Administrator of Norfolk Island (1991–1993) and as principal author of the 1991 Islands in the Sun report. Jon Stanhope held the elected office of Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 2001 to 2011.
2. There is a small literature on the governance of small and island territories, and another article would be required to develop comparisons between the Australian treatment of its small island dependencies and those emerging, for example, from the decolonising British and French empires: see, eg., Baker (Citation1992); Aldrich & Connell (Citation1992); Wettenhall (Citation1992, Citation1993); Thynne & Wettenhall (Citation1994).
3. The Straits Settlements crown colony embraced Singapore (as its capital), Malacca, Penang and Province Wellesley on the Malaysian coast, Labuan off the north coast of Borneo, and Christmas and Cocos Islands. The initial unit of that name was created as part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 and administered by the East India Company, and then reorganised as a crown colony in 1869.
4. For a detailed account of the UN-supervised proceedings and of the subsequent removal of the Clunies-Ross family, see Tashmindjis (Citation1985, pp. 177–198). International covenants and conventions concerning human rights and labour law were also shown around this time to be inadequately applied to Cocos (HRSCLCA, Citation1991, pp. 78–81). See Stanhope (2014) on “the act of self-determination”, and Clunies-Ross (Citation2009) on the Clunies-Ross dynasty.
5. From HRSCLCA (Citation1991, pp. 72, 87). On the legal position, see Australian Law Reform Commission (Citation1996, ch. 10).
6. For a journalistic account of a period spent on Christmas that highlights the cultural diversity, see Jameson (2003). Also see Dennis (Citation2008) and Hunt (Citation2011).
7. Many in Singapore thought it was a bad deal. Presenting this view, Lee Kwan Yew said: “To give away all the appurtenances of Singapore before we take over is a downright swindle. A few years ago they gave away the Cocos Islands, now it’s Christmas Island” (Straits Times, 8 June 1957), as noted in Kerr (Citation2009, p. 325). He was right: profits from the phosphate production over subsequent years have far exceeded this purchase price.
8. On this complex history, see, for example: Sweetland (Citation1982); Williams & Macdonald (Citation1985). Around 63% of the island is a national park and has not been mined at all. There is immense value locked up in it, underling the force of Lee Kwan Yew’s complaint quoted in Note 7.
9. Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955; Christmas Island Act 1958; Territories Law Reform Act [now] 2010; Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
10. A book produced for the Australian Institute of Public Administration in 1987, entitled From Colony to Coloniser, nicely symbolised this spirit: though containing material on Papua New Guinea, however, this book was intended as a much more general commentary on the neglected field of administrative history: Eddy & Nethercote (Citation1987).
11. From various documents relating to the Indian Ocean Island Territories, notably SOCI (Citation2012); DRALGAS (Citation2012, section on “Services to territories”). The title of another important historical record that deals with all Australian external territories, but with separate chapters on Cocos and Christmas, suggests a broader grouping: A Federation in These Seas (Kerr, Citation2009).
12. The latter document, with author simply shown as Australian Government, illustrates a developing machinery-of-government problem making it harder for all concerned – those dealing with departments and those working in departments – to understand lines of responsibility and to respond to them accordingly. The names of government departments have been subject in recent years to ever-more-frequent change, as have the range of topics included within them: what used to be a single Department of Territories now has to be traced through several multi-title departments, and in this case under attention the name of the originating department no longer appears at all on the document in question. This can be frustrating for parties wanting action from relevant sections of departments; but it can also be frustrating for public servants within departments trying to get themselves sorted out after another such change, and for scholars needing to record authorship. For general discussion, see Wettenhall (Citation2014, pp. 83–84).
13. Also in (undated) letters to the Auditor-General and the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development written while he was still in office as Administrator of the Territories of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.