Influential Pacific island leaders have called for Australia to be ousted from the region’s main regional grouping, criticizing Canberra’s “neo-colonial” attitude and refusal to take urgent action on climate change.
It comes after Australia was accused of muzzling leaders who wanted to use last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu to issue a global call for action on climate change ahead of UN-sponsored talks in New York next month.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack then added further insult when he dismissed the islanders’ concerns and said they could “come here and pick our fruit” to survive.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga labeled McCormack’s comments “abusive and offensive,” challenging Australia’s right to a place in the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum.
“The spirit of the Pacific way is not understood by these guys; I don’t think they understand anything about [it],” he told Radio New Zealand (RNZ). “And if that’s the case, what is the point of these guys remaining in the Pacific Island Leaders’ Forum? I don’t see any merit in that.”
Sopoaga added that Tuvalu is considering pulling out of Australia’s seasonal worker program.
“I thought the Australian labor scheme was determined on mutual respect, that Australia was also benefiting,” he said.
“We are not crawling below that. If that’s the view of the government, then I would have no hesitation in pulling back the Tuvaluan people as from tomorrow,” he added.
The seasonal worker program employs people from a handful of Pacific countries, as well as Timor-Leste, in the agriculture and tourism sectors on visas of up to nine months at a time.
There have been more than 25,000 placements of seasonal workers since the program started in July 2012, with nearly 8,500 visas issued in 2017-2018.
While Tuvalu, which has a population of around 11,000, represents a very small share of the seasonal worker program, with only about 30 visas issued to Tuvaluans since the scheme began, Sopoaga told RNZ he would summon Australia’s high commissioner to Tuvalu to explain McCormack’s comments, and if he was not satisfied with her explanation of what McCormack said, he would cancel the program and encourage other Pacific countries to do the same.
Sopoaga added his voice to that of Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who told the Guardian on Friday night that he found McCormack’s comments “very insulting.”
“That was insulting when he said the people of the Pacific will never die because they come and pick fruit in Australia, that’s very insulting,” he said. “It’s very insulting, but I get the impression that that’s the sentiment brought across by the prime minister. I could feel it yesterday.”
Vanuatuan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ralph Regenvanu said he had “definitely no comment” on McCormack’s statement.
Vanuatu represents the second-largest bloc of people taking up visas through the seasonal worker program, with 2,150 visas issued to people from the country in 2016-2017.
The divisions over climate change exposed at the summit have proved deeper than expected, driving a wedge between Australia and the islands.
Pacific leaders view global warming as an existential threat to low-lying nations requiring immediate action, including a rapid transition away from coal, to save their homes.
Morrison concedes climate change is real, but says it can be managed in a way that does not hurt the economy, including the lucrative coal industry.
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