{"id":"F2016L00721","name":"Norfolk Island Regional Council Declaration Ordinance 2016","slug":"norfolk-island-regional-council-declaration-ordinance-2016","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":438719,"registerId":"F2016L00721-fast-fetch-1775955029011","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Norfolk Island Regional Council Declaration Ordinance 2016","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![](image.001.jpeg)\n\n \n\nNorfolk Island Regional Council Declaration Ordinance 2016\n\n \n\nOrdinance No. 11, 2016\n\nI, General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Ret’d), Governor‑General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following Ordinance.\n\nDated 05 May 2016\n\nPeter Cosgrove\n\nGovernor‑General\n\nBy His Excellency’s Command\n\nPaul Fletcher\n\nMinister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n1 Name\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 Authority\n\n4 Definitions\n\n5 Interpretation Act\n\nPart 2—Council and councillors\n\n6 Norfolk Island Regional Council\n\n7 Councillors\n\n \n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n \n\n1  Name\n\n  This is the Norfolk Island Regional Council Declaration Ordinance 2016.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n (1) Each provision of this Ordinance specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n \n\n- Commencement information\n- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3\n- Provisions Commencement Date/Details\n- 1. The whole of this Ordinance 1 July 2016. 1 July 2016\n\n\nNote: This table relates only to the provisions of this Ordinance as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this Ordinance.\n\n (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this Ordinance. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this Ordinance.\n\n3  Authority\n\n  This Ordinance is made under section 19A of the Norfolk Island Act 1979.\n\n4  Definitions\n\n  In this Ordinance:\n\nLGA means the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) as in force in the Territory.\n\nNote: The Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) is in force in the Territory under section 18A of the Norfolk Island Act 1979 and is amended by the Norfolk Island Applied Laws Ordinance 2016.\n\n5  Interpretation Act\n\n  The Interpretation Act 1979 (Norfolk Island) does not apply to this Ordinance.\n\nNote: The Acts Interpretation Act 1901 applies instead because this Ordinance is a legislative instrument (see subsection 13(1) of the Legislation Act 2003).\n\nPart 2—Council and councillors\n\n \n\n6  Norfolk Island Regional Council\n\n  For the purposes of the definition of Norfolk Island Regional Council in subsection 4(1) of the Act, the council constituted by section 219 of the LGA for the area constituted by section 204A of the LGA is declared to be the Norfolk Island Regional Council.\n\n7  Councillors\n\n (1) At the final transition time, the persons elected in the election provided for by the Norfolk Island Regional Council Preparatory Election Ordinance 2016 become councillors of the Norfolk Island Regional Council.\n\n (2) After the final transition time, the LGA applies in relation to the persons mentioned in subsection (1) as if they had been elected to civic office in relation to the Norfolk Island Regional Council under the LGA at the final transition time.\n\nNote: For example, a civic office becomes vacant in circumstances set out in section 234 of the LGA.\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original purpose: declaring the establishment of the Norfolk Island Regional Council and providing for the installation of its first councillors. It does not expand beyond this narrow transitional governance function."},"complexity_factors":["Very short legislation (only 7 sections across 2 Parts)","Minimal defined terms (only 'LGA' and 'the Act' are explicitly defined, with 'final transition time' implied from context)","Heavy reliance on external legislation (NSW Local Government Act 1993 and Norfolk Island Act 1979) without reproducing their content","Simple declaratory structure — mostly stating 'X is declared to be Y' rather than creating complex conditional rules","No nested exceptions or intricate procedural requirements","Single purpose legislation with straightforward mechanical operation"],"plain_english_summary":"The law creates the Norfolk Island Regional Council and provides that the people elected in a special preparatory election become its first councillors at the final transition time. Thereafter the council and its members are governed by New South Wales local government law. It replaced the island’s self‑government model with a council structure, affecting Norfolk Island residents and elected representatives."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Ordinance is declaratory and implements a transition to the NSW Local Government Act framework for Norfolk Island; it does not broaden powers or create new substantive obligations beyond applying the LGA and recognising elected councillors at the final transition time (ss 6–7)."},"complexity_factors":["Very short, focused instrument (7 sections) limiting internal complexity.","Heavy cross-referencing to external laws rather than creating new substantive law (Norfolk Island Act 1979, Local Government Act 1993, Legislation Act 2003) — see ss 3–6.","Temporal implementation point referred to as the \"final transition time\" adds some operational sequencing (s 7).","Declaratory effect that imports an external statutory regime (LGA) rather than detailed bespoke rules — legal effect depends on reading multiple statutes together (s 6).","Exclusion of local Interpretation Act and reliance on Commonwealth Acts Interpretation Act affects statutory interpretation rules (s 5)."],"plain_english_summary":"This Ordinance declares that the council created under the NSW Local Government Act 1993 for the Norfolk Island area is the Norfolk Island Regional Council and makes the people elected in the Preparatory Election become its councillors at the \"final transition time.\" It brings those councillors and the council under the NSW LGA framework so that the Act’s offices, vacancy rules and procedures apply. The measure affects Norfolk Island residents, councillors and administrators by shifting local governance mechanics onto the NSW LGA regime."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/norfolk-island-regional-council-declaration-ordinance-2016","history":"/api/acts/norfolk-island-regional-council-declaration-ordinance-2016/history","analysis":"/api/acts/norfolk-island-regional-council-declaration-ordinance-2016/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/norfolk-island-regional-council-declaration-ordinance-2016/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/norfolk-island-regional-council-declaration-ordinance-2016/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/norfolk-island-regional-council-declaration-ordinance-2016/documents"}}