Aust. must consider climate: refugees & Pacific

Considerable climate refugee quotas should be included in Pacific community plans

"WA rights lobby group Project SafeCom - which recently endorsed the Friends Of the Earth's Climate Refugee campaign - argued this morning that any plans for cooperation between Australia and Pacific nations as proposed by ALP leader Kim Beazley and Pacific island affairs spokesman Bob Sercombe should give due consideration to the increasing seriousness of rising sea levels and global warming issues affecting several Pacific Island nations."

"Project SafeCom also called upon the Australian government to open the doors of 'Fortress Australia' and its Treasury coffers, first to offer re-location to Pacific Islanders, and then to also compile detailed prognosis documents in consultation with Pacific Nations' leaders and environmental scientists and lobby groups."

"We can no longer live in partial denial that climate change is seriously affecting life on our planet, and living without plans for relocation of the millions in our neighbourhood, merely reacting to future disasters we can confidently expect, is leaving the population of an increasing number of Pacific Islanders in limbo."

"While Australia is the biggest polluter in the southern hemisphere, we cannot live in denial that as a result of what we do to the planet, entire nations, starting in the Pacific, will need our help. This is not excluded to, but should start with the nation of Tuvalu, that's already directly affected by rising sea levels."

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