Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to speak on the Migration (Climate Refugees) Amendment Bill 2007 to raise concerns about the impact of climate change on the South Pacific islands. The purpose of this legislation is to create a new class of visa: a climate change refugee visa. The reasons motivating this bill are clear to us all—climate change is impacting now on the people of island nations in the Pacific. Labor recognise that our Pacific island neighbours face increasing environmental challenges arising from climate change. However, Labor note that there needs to be an international effort to deal with people displaced by the effects of climate change. Labor will establish an international coalition to resettle people displaced by the effects of climate change when a country becomes uninhabitable because of rising sea levels, damage to coastal infrastructure or reduced food security and water supplies as part of our Pacific climate change strategy. The bill before the Senate today prescribes a unilateral response to people displaced by climate change and undermines the principle of shared responsibility that Labor support. On this basis, Labor cannot support the bill in its current form.

Labor will show the leadership required in our region to assist our Pacific neighbours to prepare for and adapt to climate change. As I said, Labor have long recognised that climate change is real for the people of the island nations in the Pacific. In January 2006 Labor released a policy discussion paper on climate change in the Pacific entitled Our drowning neighbours. Its purpose was to promote discussion in the community about climate change science and the impact occurring now in the Pacific and to work with our own and the international community to find solutions. I take this opportunity to commend Mr Bob Sercombe, the member for Maribyrnong, and Mr Anthony Albanese for the work they did in putting this excellent document together. There are four key threats to our Pacific neighbours: rising sea levels, extreme weather events, collapse of ecosystems and the contamination of freshwater with salt water. The Pacific has some of the smallest and lowest-lying countries in the world. It has been predicted that climate change will lead to a rise in sea levels of between 14 centimetres and 32 centimetres by 2050. However, a small rise would have a devastating effect on many Pacific countries. Tuvalu faces the prospect of total inundation by rising sea levels—as do islands in Vanuatu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and parts of Papua New Guinea.

King tides are already flooding islands across the region. The SEAFRAME project attempts to secure data on sea level change that is absolute. This means it ignores the role of land movement as a part of sea level shifts. The early data sourced from this study shows a rise in sea levels of 5.9 millimetres per year at the Tuvalu measuring station, 8.1 millimetres per year at the Manus Island station in Papua New Guinea and 15.5 millimetres per year at the Tonga station. This compares with the global average of a rise of between one and two millimetres per year. This is an imminent catastrophe for atoll states such as Tuvalu. Some Pacific leaders are declaring that it is already too late for their countries to be saved.

As I said, extreme weather events are also a threat. The increasingly volatile weather patterns associated with climate change are an immediate and rising threat to our Pacific neighbours. Deaths from weather related disasters have already increased in Oceania by 21 per cent since the mid-1970s. Cyclone wind speeds are predicted to increase by 10 to 20 per cent over the next few years because of their complex relationship with sea temperature. The projected increase in the power of tropical storms is compounded by the increased volume of tropical storms over the last 30 years. As the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated, these extreme weather events pose a greater threat to atoll states as storm surges will cause greater structural damage and have ongoing adverse effects. Aside from the deaths, injuries and financial costs associated with storm surges, they cause widespread coastal erosion. Land space is already at a premium on the smaller Pacific islands, so they cannot sustain an ongoing loss of land.

Collapsing ecosystems are also of concern. Pacific societies are highly dependent on their ecosystems as their economies are often a mixture of formal exchange and subsistence practices. Unfortunately, Pacific island countries’ ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change. One effect of climate change is the bleaching of reefs. Reefs are the foundation of atoll states as they break the impact of violent weather on the land, protect against coastal erosion from severe weather and also generate the material that replenishes coastal areas. Reefs are a secure location for fish stocks to breed and feed. Tuvalu provides an example of this interdependence. Its inner reefs, along with the lagoon, provide most of Tuvalu’s food. Reefs are vital to many Pacific island ecosystems, so their bleaching is a threat to the sustainability of their entire social ecosystems.

Contamination of freshwater with saltwater is an extraordinary and real threat to the future of these countries. Citizens on the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea are currently being moved because their health has been steadily deteriorating because they are losing access to freshwater and their gardens are being destroyed by advancing saltwater. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes saltwater contamination is one of the most potentially devastating symptoms of climate change. The contamination of groundwater is a significant threat to our Pacific neighbours, reducing agricultural production and the basic availability of drinking water. It has been estimated that the freshwater supplies of some Pacific island countries could drop by up to 50 per cent.

The four key threats—rising sea levels, extreme weather events, collapsing ecosystems and the contamination of freshwater—are added to with a number of other threats. There is also the public health threat. Pacific island countries need to adapt to increasing vector borne and waterborne diseases—for example, malaria—caused by warmer temperatures. In Australia, for instance, the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Conservation Foundation have estimated that temperature related deaths could double in Australia to 2,500 deaths per year by 2020. These threats present a considerable challenge to individual countries, but they also present a challenge to regional stability and security. Climate change has the potential to destroy development gains in these countries and, according to a recent Pentagon report, climate change has the potential to destroy food systems and living conditions, leading to considerable instability, disruption and conflict. That is why climate change in the Pacific is an issue for Australia—for security reasons, not just for environmental or altruistic reasons. If Australia is committed to the stability and security of the Pacific, we have to deal with the impact of climate change in these countries.

Following the launch of our discussion paper, in July 2007 Labor launched a policy document entitled Assisting our South Pacific neighbours prepare for climate change. I commend the work of Mr Peter Garrett and Mr Bob McMullan, the shadow ministers respectively for climate change and environment and heritage, and international development assistance. The policy is comprehensive and has been well received. A Rudd Labor government will commit $150 million from Australia’s international aid budget to assist our neighbours to prepare for and adapt to the effects of climate change. Federal Labor is committed to working with our neighbours to develop and implement climate change adaptation plans to minimise the impacts on our region. The poorest countries that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are also those that have the least financial capacity to respond. Labor believes that, as a developed country in our region, we have an obligation to help our poorer neighbours prepare for and adapt to avoid the worse impacts of climate change. Unless we help our neighbours to adapt and act to avoid the worse impacts of climate change, the world will see millions of climate change refugees. As part of its international development assistance and climate change commitment, a Rudd Labor government will increase aid expenditure on climate change by $150 million over three years to fund initiatives on adaptation to climate change, with a priority on the Pacific islands and East Timor. We will assist countries to develop climate change adaptation plans, particularly low-lying countries and those susceptible to extreme weather events.

Labor will ensure that climate change is a key consideration in the design of Australia’s aid program. Labor will develop a Pacific climate change strategy and build capacity for avoiding deforestation and for better forest management in the Asia-Pacific region. Labor will share Australia’s scientific and technological expertise in climate change and ensure that the aid program also promotes the use of low carbon emitting technologies. Labor will increase support for non-government organisations that assist with the implementation of this new approach and we will participate in multilateral and bilateral programs of assistance. However, Australia’s continued refusal to ratify the Kyoto protocol means that Australia cannot play a direct role in ensuring the allocation of funding under the protocol’s adaptation fund to countries in our region. Labor will redress that by ratifying the Kyoto protocol.

Today I also want to take the opportunity in this debate to focus on another group of people who are concerned and fearful for their future because of the impact of climate change. These people are not our Pacific neighbours; they are Australians. They are the people of the Torres Strait. I have spoken before in this chamber about the impact of climate change on the Torres Strait, expressing the growing concern of Torres Strait Islanders about their future. I have been very fortunate in being able to go to the Torres Strait for nearly 20 years. Over that time, I have been able to meet with community leaders and members of the community. That has been extremely educational and a great opportunity for me. But, increasingly, when I have those meetings with community leaders, erosion and inundation from climate change is the No. 1 issue on their agenda.

The outer islands of the Torres Strait are a very beautiful part of the world. The scenery is almost like a picture postcard. The connection of Torres Strait Islanders with their land and sea country is strong and part of their everyday life. I remind the Senate that native title was found on Mer Island in the Torres Strait, underlying that absolute connection between land and sea. Climate change is affecting Australians living in the Torres Strait, like Papua New Guinean residents on Carteret and the people of Tuvalu and Kiribati. It is an indictment on our national government that very little is being done to assist them.

In April this year, I undertook further consultations with people living in the Torres Strait. I met with the Torres Strait Climate Action Network. I congratulate this group of extremely energetic and mainly young people who are committed to educating and working with their community to militate against climate change in the Torres Strait. I thank Mayor Pedro Stephen of the Torres Shire Council for the use of the council chambers for that meeting. The Torres Strait Climate Action Network raised a number of issues with me at the meetings that I held. They expressed concern that there was limited information on which to make assessments and judgements about what the impact had already been in the Torres Strait in terms of sea level rise and urged us to undertake a proper analysis of sea level movement in the Torres Strait. They are interested in funding possibilities for research, planning and implementation and for public education and information programs in the region.

In their minds there is also a need for bodies such as councils, the Torres Strait Regional Authority, non-government organisations and others to have funding to be able to provide local input into research. They said that there was a desperate need for specific research and data on the region. They said that it should include potential population and economic, social and political impacts. TSCAN suggests that it would be useful for the Torres Strait to become an integrated climate change research centre, especially given the amount of science that is already done in the region and the number of eminent scientists who have on-the-ground knowledge. They talked about their actions in their own community to encourage fewer emissions. They are exploring the opportunity to establish a community garden to mitigate the greenhouse gases emitted when food is transported all the way up from the south. They suggested that sustainable tropical housing should be trialled in the Torres Strait so that the use of air conditioners in particular might be lessened. They also suggested that climate change content needs to be specifically inserted into state and national school curricula. I commend the network for the work that they are undertaking with and for their community. They expressed the frustration that they are doing what they can up there in the Torres Strait but that it will all be for nothing without support from the federal government. They urged the government to start by, firstly, signing the Kyoto protocol.

I was fortunate to be able to visit four of the outer islands: Badu Island, Saibai Island, Yorke Island and Yam Island. The stories that I heard in those four meetings were very similar. The message from Badu Island was that all of the island councils are very aware and very concerned but that they need more information on the causes and impact of and the possible solutions to climate change. There is a widespread view that the weather and the seasons are becoming less predictable, and that message was given to me on each of those four islands. It was said that traditional methods of predicting the weather and the seasons do not work now. The council on Badu Island was worried about the impact of climate change on future marine resources, specifically crayfish and fish stocks, and their migration patterns. There was also a concern about an increase that they have observed in silt and mud in the water; although, there is a view in the central islands that increased trawling may be part of the reason for that.

At Saibai Island, which is a mud island very close to the Papua New Guinea border, the immediate concern was the repair and extension of the seawall. I have spoken in this place before about the inundation that has occurred, particularly in February 2005, when we had king tides. They are using CDEP for some of the work, but they recognise that the funding is inadequate and described it as a ‘bandaid on a seawall’. The highest point on Saibai Island is only 2.7 metres above sea level, so they are very concerned.

I had a breakfast meeting with the Yorke Island Council, and I thank the council for their hospitality. They have done some significant work with James Cook University and the Queensland government through the Environmental Protection Authority to look at erosion issues there, as had the people of Yam Island. But all agree that more needs to be done to assist these communities.

I want to place on record again my thanks to the people of the Torres Strait for their hospitality during this recent visit. I will continue to work with the people of the Torres Strait to ameliorate the effects of climate change, particularly to actively investigate every option to avoid the need for relocation of the people of the Torres Strait onto the mainland.