The Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities (the Department) is pleased to confirm that it has asked the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) staff to undertake a costing of Norfolk Island services and its capacity to raise state and local government revenue.
This project will update the previous CGC staff inquiries conducted in 2006 and 2011 on Norfolk Island. The Reports from these inquiries and the 2019 Terms of Reference for this project can be found here: www.cgc.gov.au/inquiries/norfolk-island.
To complete the 2019 inquiry, CGC staff are required to review raw financial and economic data and use this to calculate the amount of annual expenditure, including infrastructure costs, required to provide state-type government services, local government services and support for state-type government business enterprises on Norfolk Island.
CGC staff are working closely with the Department and the Norfolk Island Regional Council on this project, as holders of the relevant financial and economic data. In line with the Department's draft Community Engagement Framework, this piece of work is an ‘inform’ activity and there is no community consultation or participation required as it is based on objective data analysis. Any future projects arising from the outcomes of this inquiry may be subject to a different degree of community consultation.
The Department anticipates that CGC staff will complete their final report in September 2019 and the findings will be made available on the CGC's website.