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

I rise to speak on the Torres Strait Regional Authority annual report for 2004-05. Last Tuesday night I made a speech in the chamber about climate change and how that will affect the Torres Strait. The reason for me doing that was that on Monday we had the report of a body talking about the impacts of climate change in the South Pacific. I commended that group for bringing those issues to the attention of the Australian public. But my intention last Tuesday night was to bring to the attention of the Australian public the fact that Australian citizens in the Torres Strait and northern peninsula area are at the same risk as the people in the South Pacific.

Following my speech on Tuesday night, the Courier-Mail ran a story quoting me. I thank the Courier-Mail for giving to the people in the Torres Strait the attention that they deserve. But they also quoted comments from the member for Leichhardt. Leichhardt also includes the people of the Torres Strait, as you would know. Mr Entsch said that I was scaremongering—he often says that about me; it is not true—but he then said that any talk of Islanders being forced to leave their homes was premature. The evidence does not support that.

I am not saying that people of the Torres Strait are going to have to leave next week or next year. But page 23 of the fourth draft report of the UN based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says:

Displacement of Torres Strait Islanders to mainland Australia is also likely to occur within this time frame.

The time frame is by 2050. That is in our lifetime. It is likely to happen, according to eminent scientists. They also say, on page 24 of that report, that king tides in 2004-05 and 2006 in the Torres Strait have highlighted the need to revisit short-term coastal protection and long-term relocation plans for up to 2,000 Australians living in the central coral cays and the north-west mud islands. I quoted that evidence on Tuesday night. So Mr Entsch saying that any talk of Islanders being forced to leave is premature is just not true. He is quoted as saying that the government has committed $300,000 ‘to address the problems caused by erosion’.

In the Torres News of 8-14 February, when he announced this $300,000 expenditure, he announced that the federal government would grant funding for an impact study researching the best solution to prevent coastal erosion. So it is not about addressing the problem; it is about a study to try to find out what we can do to address the problems of coastal erosion. I am led to believe and I understand that, as part of that study, scientists have had to bring tide gauges to three islands in the Torres Strait. But Mr Entsch is quoted in that same article saying, ‘This nonsense she is talking about, installing local tide gauges, is totally pointless.’ As part of the $300,000 that he announced earlier this year, scientists have had to bring in tide gauges.

That is the point I made on Tuesday night. We have no baseline data about the tide levels. We do not know what is happening in the Torres Strait. We do not know what the sea level currently is and we do not know, really, where the landmass is. That is why I am saying we need a full, intensive land and sea survey in the Torres Strait based on independent science. If we do not know what we have, we have no chance of working out how we are going to deal with it. I also urge this government to consult with the people of the Torres Strait. Torres Strait Islanders know their land and their sea better than anyone else, and they are the people who can tell us what we should be doing. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.