14th Sep 2006, 9:53 AM – Senate Motions - Climate Change in the Pacific Region - Climate change refugees

The majority voted against the motion, which means that it was unsuccessful. It had been introduced by Australian Democrats Senator Lyn Allison (Vic).

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the formation of a group, the Pacific Calling Partnership, made up of organisations and individuals who recognise Australia’s ecological debt to its low-lying Pacific neighbours,

(ii) that droughts, storm surges and associated salination of soil and water are already causing people in low-lying Pacific countries to move their homes and to seek higher ground for growing food,

(iii) that the tiny coral atolls of Kiribati are more susceptible to damage because they are less than 3 metres high,

(iv) one of the messages brought to the Australian Parliament from the people of Kiribati by the Partnership is ‘We ask if you can provide a place for us if we are in big trouble. Thank you’, and

(v) that the Kiribati Government currently estimates that there will be a need to resettle 10 000 I-Kiribati in the next 20 years;

(b) recognises Australia’s ecological debt to low-lying Pacific nations, as a major per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, and the economic benefits enjoyed by Australia as a result of using the energy that generated these emissions; and

(c) urges the Government to support the people of the Pacific through:

(i) committing to the Kyoto Protocol as an act of international goodwill and cooperation,

(ii) committing to reducing Australia’s greenhouse emissions,

(iii) supporting adaptation and mitigation works in low-lying Pacific nations, and

(iv) leading an international coalition to accept climate change refugees when a Pacific country becomes uninhabitable because of rising sea levels.