Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

As a Queensland senator it gives me pleasure to speak to this document to highlight the role of this regional authority and the good job that it is doing. I also point to some of the issues for the people of the Torres Strait. I am a senator for Queensland, as people would know. I live in Brisbane, as people will also know, right in the very south-east corner of it. It is a very long way from the bottom corner of Queensland to the top where the Torres Strait is, and it is an area that is often forgotten. Even within the area of Indigenous affairs, the specific and unique role of Torres Strait Islanders and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and heritage is often forgotten within some of the general debate around issues affecting Aboriginal communities elsewhere. There is a unique culture here and there are important issues that we in the wider community need to be aware of.

Given the amount of focus in political debate at the moment around climate change, it is appropriate to point to the fact that Torres Strait Islanders are amongst those Australians who are most likely to feel the immediate impacts of climate change. Any increase in sea levels, any change that means more severe weather events, more storm or tidal surges—those sorts of things—are all issues that are very relevant and immediate to the lives of people living on the islands in the Torres Strait. It is important for us to recognise that climate change is not an academic issue. It is not an issue for decades into the future. For some people, whether they are Pacific Islanders or Torres Strait Islanders, it is an issue of the here and now. Of course Torres Strait Islanders have been living with the sea and the vagaries of nature for some time, and undoubtedly the impacts of storm surges, tidal surges and the like have always been part of the challenges they have had to meet. But that should not in any way be used as a reason to ignore the potential for increased challenges and difficulties for them if severe climate change were to occur. It is an extra reason—though I am sure we do not need any extra reasons. But, if people need extra reasons, if they need to think about the impact on Australians and all the different issues we have got to balance up, there is a group of Australians who live in the Torres Strait who are very immediately and directly affected, and we should not forget them.

There are also significant issues in that region with regard to housing. I have just spoken about housing affordability in the wider Australian community. Housing availability is a significant issue in the Torres Strait and, without in any way trying to suggest that there is some sort of competition or to pit one group against another, when we do talk about the crisis in housing in many Aboriginal communities we need to not forget that Torres Strait Islanders also have issues with regard to housing—the appropriateness, the adequacy and the amount of housing stock that is available.

I also want to comment on the health challenges facing people in the Torres Strait as well as the issue of adequate access to their own fishing resources. It is a continual challenge to balance the different competing demands for access to fishing resources in the traditional fishing grounds around the Torres Strait Islands and it is very important that the people who are literally indigenous to the area do not have their traditional fishing grounds impacted upon by other people encroaching on their grounds or overfishing in the general region. That also flows across into health because, as in many other remote communities, there are significant health issues. Diabetes is a particular problem, as it is in many other remote areas, and there are many other health related issues. Some of them, not all, come back to the availability of fresh and healthy foods, and fish is one such food for the people of the area. It is important that we do remember the unique issues for the people of the Torres Strait and the work that the Torres Strait Regional Authority does in trying to ensure that these issues are acted upon effectively.

Question agreed to.