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Norfolk Island Government 2020

SOURCE: 2020 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES











Norfolk Island Government 2020
SOURCE: 2020 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES


Page last updated on January 27, 2020

Country name:
conventional long form: Territory of Norfolk Island
conventional short form: Norfolk Island
etymology: named by British explorer Captain James COOK after Mary HOWARD, Duchess of Norfolk, in 1774

Dependency status:
self-governing territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts, and Sport

Government type:
non-self-governing overseas territory of Australia; note - the Norfolk Island Regional Council, which began operations 1 July 2016, is responsible for planning and managing a variety of public services, including those funded by the Government of Australia

Capital:
name: Kingston
geographic coordinates: 29 03 S, 167 58 E
time difference: UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
etymology: the name is a blending of the words "king's" and "town"; the British king at the time of the town's settlement in the late 18th century was George III

Administrative divisions:
none (territory of Australia)

Independence:
none (territory of Australia)

National holiday:
Bounty Day (commemorates the arrival of Pitcairn Islanders), 8 June (1856)

Constitution:
history: previous 1913, 1957; latest effective 7 August 1979
amendments: amended many times, last in 2015 (2017)

Legal system:
English common law and the laws of Australia

Citizenship:
see Australia

Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
[see also: Suffrage country ranks ]

Executive branch:
chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia General Sir Peter COSGROVE (since 28 March 2014)
head of government: Administrator Eric HUTCHINSON (since 1 April 2017)
cabinet: Executive Council consists of 4 Legislative Assembly members
elections/appointments: the monarchy is hereditary; governor general appointed by the monarch; administrator appointed by the governor general of Australia for a 2-year term and represents the monarch and Australia

Legislative branch:
description: unicameral Norfolk Island Regional Council (5 seats; councillors directly elected by simple majority vote to serve 4-year terms); mayor elected annually by the councillors
elections: elections last held 28 May 2016 (next to be held in 2020)
election results: seats by party - independent 5; composition - men 4, women 1, percent of women 20%
note: following an administrative restructuring of local government, the Legislative Assembly was dissolved on 18 June 2015 and replaced by an interim Norfolk Island Advisory Council effective 1 July 2015; the Advisory Council consisted of 5 members appointed by the Norfolk Island administrator based on nominations from the community; following elections on 28 May 2016, the new Norfolk Island Regional Council commenced operations on 1 July 2016

Judicial branch:
highest courts: Supreme Court of Norfolk Island (consists of the chief justice and several justices); note - appeals beyond the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island are heard by the Federal Court and the High Court of Australia
judge selection and term of office: justices appointed by the governor general of Australia from among justices of the Federal Court of Australia; justices serve until mandatory retirement at age 70
subordinate courts: Petty Court of Sessions; specialized courts, including a Coroner's Court and the Employment Tribunal

Political parties and leaders:
Norfolk Island Labor Party [Mike KELLY]
Norfolk Liberals [John BROWN]

International organization participation:
UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
none (territory of Australia)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
none (territory of Australia)

Flag description:
three vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green with a large green Norfolk Island pine tree centered in the slightly wider white band; green stands for the rich vegetation on the island, and the pine tree - endemic to the island - is a symbol of Norfolk Island
note: somewhat reminiscent of the flag of Canada with its use of only two colors and depiction of a prominent local floral symbol in the central white band; also resembles the green and white triband of Nigeria

National symbol(s):
Norfolk Island pine

National anthem:
name: Come Ye Blessed
lyrics/music: New Testament/John Prindle SCOTT
note: the local anthem, whose lyrics consist of the words from Matthew 25:34-36, 40, is also known as "The Pitcairn Anthem;" the island does not recognize "Advance Australia Fair" (which other Australian territories use); instead "God Save the Queen" is official (see United Kingdom)


NOTE: 1) The information regarding Norfolk Island on this page is re-published from the 2020 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Norfolk Island Government 2020 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Norfolk Island Government 2020 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may have the following issues:
  a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
  b) The CIA sometimes assigns counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order.






This page was last modified 27-Jan-20
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