Forty years ago, a remote island community in the Indian Ocean voted to become a fully-fledged part of Australia. Malay workers on the Cocos Keeling Islands were promised equal rights to mainland Australians but they're still waiting.
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00:00This unique island community, 2,700 kilometers northwest of the mainland is proud to be Australian.
00:10But behind the smiles, there's discontent.
00:23Ramni Mokhtar's ancestors were brought to the islands as labour in the 1820s
00:28to work in the copra industry under control of the Clooneys Ross family.
00:32The Cocos Malay's rights were limited.
00:35Many were paid in a makeshift currency.
00:39Forty years ago, they voted to integrate with Australia in a United Nations act of self-determination,
00:46marking the end to the Clooneys Ross rule.
00:49Cocos Malay leaders met then Prime Minister Bob Hawke and were promised equal rights.
00:55But some of those promises remain unfulfilled.
00:58The way the Commonwealth dealt with it,
01:01it's left the community here in a very difficult predicament to be able to own houses or get land tenure.
01:10These people want to own their houses,
01:13but the land is held in trust for the community with the shire's name on the title.
01:19The shire has engaged a legal firm to investigate the land tenure.
01:23We're going to have to spend an inordinate amount of money
01:26trying to do something that the Commonwealth's responsible for.
01:30And that's just a smack in the face for the people of Cocos Keeling Islands.
01:34And that's, you know, it's not acceptable in this day and age.
01:37While a government spokesperson says housing is the responsibility of the shire.
01:41The significance of the anniversary is acknowledged
01:44and it's providing $170 million for services and infrastructure on the islands this financial year.
01:51The island's elders hope the anniversary will reinvigorate political will
01:55to give them the equal rights they seek.