Lisle Snell

Who is Lisle Snell?

Lisle Denis Snell is a Norfolk Island politician and Pitcairn descendant who served as the territory's final Chief Minister, holding office together with the portfolio of Minister for Tourism from 20 March 2013 until 17 June 2015. Before entering politics he worked on the island as a tour guide, giving him a close, ground-level familiarity with the community's history and identity as descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions who resettled from Pitcairn Island in 1856. As Chief Minister, Snell led Norfolk Island's government through its final and most turbulent period of self-rule, publicly arguing that the Norfolk-Pitcairn community held a distinct identity with rights to self-determination, even as fiscal pressure pushed the territory toward closer integration with mainland Australia. His term ended when the Australian Parliament passed legislation abolishing the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly and the offices of Chief Minister and Minister, transferring the island's governance to an Administrator and advisory council from 17 June 2015, despite a local referendum weeks earlier in which a majority of voters opposed the change. Snell's tenure closed more than three decades of Norfolk Island self-government.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Lisle Snell" · Wikipedia, "2015 Norfolk Island status referendum" · Radio Australia interview (2013)