TORRES Strait Islander advocates have called on the Australian government to use next week’s Pre-COP meeting in Fiji and Tuvalu to showcase their voices as the country’s most climate-vulnerable citizens, and also end its double standard on fossil fuels.
Last edition the Torres News reported the federal government had no official role planned for its Torres Strait citizens at the global climate talks, despite being Pre-COP co-hosts and the lead negotiators at November’s COP31 in Turkiye.
Pacific leaders and some counterparts from around the world will meet at the Pre-COP to co-ordinate their negotiating strategy for COP31, and travel to Tuvalu to see the climate impacts first hand.
The Our Islands, Our Home campaign told the Torres News it was time for Australia to act for its citizens’ and the region’s interests.
“It is deeply disappointing that there appears to be no clear role for Torres Strait Islanders in these important Pacific and global climate discussions,” Kulkalgal Traditional Owner Kabay Tamu said.
“Australia has a responsibility not only to support us on climate change, but also to support our right to self-determination and stronger regional representation.”
Torres Strait 8 litigant Yessie Mosby from Masig said he was planning to travel to Fiji for the Pre-COP to advocate for the region.
“For too long the Australian Government has held back action on climate change, putting our island homes at risk and ignoring our rights as both First Nations and Melanesian peoples,” Mr Mosby said.
“I will be advocating for Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) both at Pre-COP and COP31, our voices need to be part of the conversations that shape decisions affecting the future of our people and our homes.”
Their sentiments were echoed by Saibai Koedal woman Barbs Ibuai, from the Torres Strait-led Climate Collective Zenadth Kes (CCZK), who previously attend COP meetings in Brazil last year and Azerbaijan in 2024.
“We want Australia to show the Pacific what climate leadership looks like in practice,” she said.
“People are asking, ‘How can Canberra call itself a Pacific climate leader while continuing to expand fossil-fuel production?’
“Australia cannot present one climate story to the Pacific and pursue another at home.”
At the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM) in Palau earlier this month, Tuvalu and Vanuatu’s climate ministers Maina Vakafua Talia and Ralph Regenvanu challenged Australia’s position, as a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report warned the 1.5C warming target would be overshot in the next five years.
“The very least a country like Australia should be doing is stopping future (fossil fuel) expansion, and it’s not doing that,” Mr Regenvanu told journalists.
“You need to stop expansion, and you need to start transitioning away.”
While the PIFLM was underway, the federal government approved the extension of BHP Mitsubishi Alliance Saraji coal mine in Queensland – the 37th fossil fuel approval by Labor since it was elected in 2022 – and the first gas was pumped from the Beetaloo Basin fracking project in the Northern Territory.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at PIFLM that, “Pacific leaders have respect for the position that we’ve taken”.
“They also understand with the transition, because they’re dealing with it as well, that the transition can’t happen overnight, that it requires strategies and policies to be put in place,” he said.
The Greens said the federal government should platform Torres Strait Island lived experiences at Pre-COP and COP31 and stop fossil fuel extraction.
“Torres Strait Islanders are on the frontline of climate collapse,” Greens Foreign Affairs spokesperson Senator David Shoebridge told Torres News .
“That experience, that knowledge must be front and centre
at international conferences.
“Everyone across the Pacific has been clear that climate is the biggest threat to their future and Australia is supercharging the collapse.
“That is a story the Australian Government wants to censor, but there couldn’t be a more important time to listen to voices from the Torres
Strait.”
Leaders from Thailand, the Maldives, Timor-Leste, and Pacific leaders were expected to attend the Pre-COP from 6 to 8 October.
